Archive for February, 2009
Hate that gray? Wash it away!
A famous Clairol ad of my childhood asked, “Hate that gray?” And answered, that you could simply “wash it away” with Lady Clairol hair coloring. In a weird and discursive way, this came to mind as I thought of the likelihood that the Social Security retirement age will no doubt be extended. Which got me [...]
World Wide Rave: David Meerman Scott’s latest rant (and it’s a good one!)
The first example in David Meerman’s Scott new book on effectively using the Web for marketing was about Universal’s Studio creating a World Wide Rave (his coinage, I believe) about a new Harry Potter-themed attraction. My first response was, well, duh, Harry Potter has a kabillion fans in place, who couldn’t start a world wide [...]
Swag-bag marketing at the Oscars
I don’t usually watch much/any of the Academy Awards. As someone who finds Jerry Lewis horrifically fascinating, I may watch a few minutes this year to see what will no doubt be an over the top spectacle when he gets an honorary Oscar. (Hey, laaadddy!)
Even in my prime movie-going days, it never much interested me [...]
It’s so much more fun this way
I’ve had a long career in B2B technology marketing, and I must admit it’s often been a struggle to explain the value of the products I’ve marketed. Especially when that value was - at least to most of our customers and prospects - in stark contrast to the prices we were charging. That, or the [...]
Microsoft’s new retail strategy: anyone want to argue that this is a good idea?
I must admit that my jaw flapped completely open when I saw in the Wall Street Journal last week that Microsoft is planning on opening its own retail outlets. (Note: access to this story may require a subscription.) They’ve even hired a former Walmart exec to oversee the process.It might have been better if they’d [...]
Presidents’ Day
Opinionated Marketers is on holiday.
Now is the time for all good Americans to come to the age of their country by going shopping for something practical and necessary, yet something that could definitely have been postponed. I don’t know exactly what it is, but I’m going to buy me something today. Maybe I’ll go to [...]
Rebranding for your demographic: the rare old MTN DEW
I can’t say that I’ve ever actually had a Mountain Dew. Most of my association with the term comes from an old Clancy Brothers song about poteen - the Irish moonshine. But I was nonetheless interested to note, over on the C-Suite Executive Assistant, that it’s now called Mtn Dew.
Unbeknownst to me, the rebranding happened [...]
Shot in the dark marketing: don’t waste your ammo here
A couple of years ago, over on Pink Slip, I wrote a post about one Matt White, a would-be major league ball player, who discovered that some property he owned in Western Massachusetts was sitting on $2B worth of goshen stone. Trouble was, it would have taken about $2B to extract that goshen stone. My [...]
No more snap, crackle, and pop for Michael Phelps
All over the blogosphere, folks are weighing in on Kellogg’s decision to dump uber-swimmer Michael Phelps as their spokesperson, not to mention weighing in on Michael Phelps’ decision to let his still very short hair down, and start inhaling. From a big old bong, no less. Some people are even threatening to boycott Kellogg’s over [...]
Born knowing
Mary Schmidt has an excellent post warning us about assuming that when we throw terms like “SWOT” and “SEO” out there, or make knowing references to Robert Scobie and Seth Godin, that everybody in our audience is going to know what and who we’re talking about.
This is a good reminder to us all, especially in [...]
