retail
Choice Crickets
B2B technology marketers spend their time in a fairly rarified world: complex products, sophisticated buyers, intertwined programs.
We’re schooled in thinking strategically, acting tactically - and making sure that when we’re acting tactically, we’re thinking strategically.
We work hard at getting the message, the mix, the metrics right. We debate whether the “4 P’s” are changing - [...]
For the beach bum who has everything…
The other day, my sister Kathleen forwarded an e-mail she’d gotten from Zappo’s and suggested I take a look.
I combed through it, and what to my wondering eye did appear but a blurb for some high-end flip-flops with a built in church key.
First off, I want to say how gratifying it is to know that [...]
Marketing genius from Long Island City, NY
I love this sign. Read the whole thing.
In praise of customer service at Dunkin’ Donuts
I don’t "do" Starbucks.
Yes, I like and admire the fact that they give people a coffee-house-ish place to hang out.
I like that they offer Wi-Fi.
I like that they have a certain canned hip to them, and that they offer their workers benefits.
But I don’t "do" Starbucks.
I do Dunkin’ Donuts.
This is partially in support of [...]
If the Online Shoe Shopping Fits…
Because I have a somewhat odd shoe size - 10 AAA (recently widened from AAAA, but fortunately not lengthened) I order most of my shoes on line. This is a bit chancy, of course, but mostly I know what’s going to work and what’s not. And you can always send them back.
Last weekend, I spent [...]
Skanking up a staid old image
In the last few weeks, I’ve done two Burberry-related things.
One, I watched that most excellent of actresses, Helen Mirren, in a most excellent of movies, The Queen, and got to see a depiction of royals traipsing about their country "place" in Balmoral, Scotland, in gear that looked like it came straight out of Burberry: never [...]
Jordan’s Furniture Does it Again
While I seldom succumb to it, I’m a big admirer of sports-related marketing, which does an amazing job of branding, merchandising, and tie-ins - at least in this neck of the woods. (Most days I get a cup of tea at Dunkin Donuts, where I ALWAYS resist buying the official red and blue sprinkled donut [...]
Peeps: The Harley Davidson of the Candy World
Well, it’s almost-sorta-kinda Spring, and a marketing person’s fancy turns, quite naturally, to Peeps, the delightful marshmallow chick whose arrival heralds the end of snow season. (Or should.)
I was thinking about Peeps because it’s one of those product brands that has taken on a life of its own, making the Peep a cultural icon. People [...]
What? No St. Patrick’s Day Marketing?
Not that I’ve exactly been on the look out for it, but I’ve seen unusually scant evidence - in this most Irish of American cities - that St. Patrick’s Day is upon us.
Yes, I have seen a bit more greenish stuff in some store windows. London Harness - a pricey gift and stuff store - [...]
Starbucks-for-a-Buck. What’s that all about?
For openers, I have to admit that I rarely drink anyone’s coffee, let alone Starbucks’ coffee, which I really don’t like the taste of. (Some people I know claim that one of the reasons that Starbucks junks up its coffees with the latte-sugar-whatever stuff is to disguise that taste.)
As for coffee, sometimes I have a [...]
