Archive for June, 2007
Take Me Out to the (Erp!) Ballgame
A few weeks back, The Wall Street Journal* reported on a marketing program that the Los Angeles Dodgers have put into play. Although the Dodgers are one major league baseball’s attendance leaders (trailing only the Yankees), they do have some not-very-good bleacher seats that they don’t always sell out.
What to do, what to do…
Well, the plan that [...]
Unclear on the Concept
From Ars Technica comes news of a strange request from CBS: a plea that customer not use DVRs to watch Jericho. The show was rescued from cancellation by fans, but CBS is sternly telling that that it’s all Tivo’s fault that it was going to be cut in the first place:
“The biggest problem with our [...]
10 Things I Know About B2B Product Pricing
Everybody knows 10 things about something, right?
After all these years in B2B Technology marketing, one of the things I know 10 things about is product pricing. I will, of course, have to qualify this a bit, as most of my career has been not just in B2B technology, but in enterprise/expensive B2B technology. None of [...]
Twitter: A Solution Seeking Problems
The buzz around Twitter is hot. No surprise: it’s an interesting new thing that appeals to a key group of hyper-connected people, and they’re using it and talking about it.
But, as is often the case when people love something because it’s fun and interesting, everyone starts feeling compelled to explain why it’s important and useful [...]
Wonder how Holsten’s is making out (now that The Sopranos have made them famous)
If you are one of few people who has no interest in the Sopranos, or who hasn’t seen the final episode, here’s a little background. (Warning: semi-spoiler ahead.)
The final scene of the final episode of The Sopranos takes place in a real, actual diner-y type of local restaurant in New Jersey. The restaurant is called Holsten’s, and [...]
Ghost in the Blog Machine
A week or so ago a discussion broke out in marketing blogland about the practice of ghostwriting blogs. Among those weighing in were Sallie Goetsch, Shel Holtz, and Josh Hallett, all with some interesting thoughts on the subject worth your time.
There’s a lot of sentiment that “ghost-blogging” is never acceptable, but I think it’s off [...]
Trademarked in America
Like most other shoe-string marketers at small companies, I’ve thrown plenty of ®, TM, and SM marks up in collateral and after any usage of a product name. Half the time, I’ve done this without actually going to the hassle and expense of registering, trademarking, or servicemarking whatever it was that I was mentioning.
(I also [...]
Second Life (Again)
Joel Cere at MarketingProfs recently took a “second look at Second Life,” and commented on the buzz about the virtual world and the ongoing question: is there really anything there for marketers?
But how long will the Second-Life media frenzy last? And if not for PR, what is the value of investing time and money with [...]
Just Pondering….
Informing Microsoft:
I must get a couple of those grave Microsoft error messages each week. You know, the ones that suggest that you send an error report off to Microsoft post haste. I never send them, but I was just wondering…does anybody send them? And what exactly does Microsoft do with them once they get them? [...]
Bank of America: Don’t Make Us Hurt You!
Bank of America is launching a customer education program to inform account holders about its fees, and how to avoid them:
Bank of America Corp., which collected more than $22.4 billion from customers last year for everything from using a competitor’s ATM to paying a credit card bill late, is launching a new effort Wednesday ostensibly [...]
