Author Archive
Email etiquette
Ike is approaching, I’m doing laundry (in case the power goes out) and packing a few things to go hunker down at my partner’s house… so what better time to come post here and take my mind off of things?
As some of you know, I have gone back to the corporate marketing life, which has [...]
Blog break
Thanks to general blog exhaustion and some new professional changes (all good!) I’m taking a break from my regular opining here. I am leaving you in the capable hands of Maureen, who will continue to dish out opinions and great marketing advice on a regular basis.
Enjoy! Just ignore the “S” at the end of the [...]
When you talk to customers, good things happen
I’ve talked about the appalling practice of ignoring customers - for example, T-Mobile, which sets a new low this regard by responding to support requests with “We’ve got too many emails to answer, so we’re throwing yours out. Try again.”
And I’ve talked about the wonderful service provided by one local Houston grocery store’s delivery service. [...]
So you say it’s your birthday
Well go and get marketed to!
I’ve just had a birthday. Along with various notes and greetings from friends and family, I’ve gotten heartwarming messages from companies I do business with.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, as long as it’s not overdone - you are not my friends, marketers! In my email I found one good [...]
$#@%*&)@#($*!!!
Over at Ragan.com there’s a debate going on about cussing. The site implemented a “no potty mouth” policy after some of the bloggers there used more profanity than some were comfortable with; they recently published a comment on the subject of bad language from years ago by Ragan’s late founder, Larry Ragan.
Those who use these [...]
AT&T’s wifi ping pong
Quite a while ago, AT&T announced that it was going to offer free wifi for iPhone customers at its hotspots (which include Starbucks). That’s a nice perk for customers, and pretty easy to do; iPhones are all on AT&T’s mobile network, so these are existing customers.
It in fact worked briefly, and then AT&T announced that [...]
The empire strikes back?
D’OH! I had written the post below, queued it up for today, and published it - and then Dwight Silverman of the Houston Chronicle pointed out that these are not the new ads from Microsoft. Thank goodness.
I still think that they’re a terrible message, even just appearing on their site; I’d kill them if I [...]
Google’s backwards ad thinking
I love Google ads.
In a world where advertisers consistently demonstrate the definition of insanity: doing more of the same thing because it’s not working - Google turns things on their head. And in doing so, they turn advertising into what marketers always claim it is (despite knowing better): useful information for buyers.
Gerry McGovern at Giraffe [...]
Virtual worlds aren’t the real world
Michael Sebastian at PR Junkie writes that virtual worlds like Second Life will never, ever catch on:
Blame a perfect storm* of publicity. This summer and fall you will notice—if you haven’t already—a renewed interest in virtual worlds.
Despite what you hear, remember: The idea that real companies will conduct business in virtual worlds like Second Life is utterly ridiculous.
My [...]
iPhone status
Say what you want about the iPhone… but ask yourself, how many phones are the subject of a whole page on the Forbes site?
iPhone detractors who point out that another phone has a better keyboard, or can be had with more carriers, or has great music capabilities, or a better camera, or can shoot videos [...]
