Lands’ End’s Big Warm Up: The best viral video I’ve ever missed I saw a video the other day that was so good it brought tears to my eyes, which was, after all, its intention. It was so good that it powered Lands’ End customers to bring 33,267 “gently used coats” to Lands’ End shops [...]
Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category
I see dead people…
Posted: November 16, 2009 in Branding, Business, Marketing, MisleadershipTags: Albert Einstein, Baby Einstein, Brooke Shields, Buick, Calvin Klein jeans, Carl's Jr., Cash4Gold, celebrity endorsement, Chris Farley, David Spade, dead celebrity advertising, Direct TV, Dirt Devil, Dom Perignon, Ed McMahon, Forbes 2009 Top Earning Dead Celebrities List, Ford Mustang, Fred Astaire, Jonathan Faber, Marilyn Monroe, Orson Welles, Paris Hilton, Paul Masson, Steve McQueen, Tiger Woods
I see them everywhere… on my computer, on billboards, in the pages of magazines and on my TV screen… dead celebrities drinking champagne and dancing with vacuum cleaners and driving cars that came out decades after they were rotting in their graves. It’s easy to see why advertisers want dead people to endorse them. Dead [...]
Are you a victim of Commercialus Interruptus?
Posted: October 28, 2009 in Business, Marketing, Media, MisleadershipTags: cable tv ads, commercialus interruptus, Heeltastic, Romanos Macaroni Grill Dinner Kits, truncated commercials, tv commercials that get cut off
Has this ever happened to you? Your commercial for Romano’s Macaroni Grill Dinner Kits is running on a cable tv network like Food Network. Everything is going well, happy people cooking food at home that’s every bit as good as it would be at the restaurant. “Just add your chicken and cook for 20 minutes. [...]
What color is Havana? Or Gypsy?
Posted: June 23, 2009 in Branding, Business, Directed Advertising, Marketing, MisleadershipTags: Banana Republic, Beluga, Brindle, Campmor, catalog copy, Columbia, direct response, Don Staley, Gypsy, Havana, J. Peterman, Jupiter, Merrell, Model Expo, North Face, The Lion's Share, Tom Daniel, Vasque
Good catalog copy needs to immerse its reader in an experience of a product they can’t touch. It’s a lonely voice in the wilderness, tasked with selling a product in a few words, at a distance, sometimes with the help of a picture. Sure, if you’re selling copier paper or a toner cartridge in an [...]
Dr. Bronner’s and Thorlo: A tale of two brands
Posted: June 18, 2009 in Branding, Business, Marketing, Value for ValueTags: Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap, THOR-LO, Thorlos
Try this experiment. Go hiking on some back country trail one day and ask every backpacker you meet what soap they have in their backpack and what socks they have on their feet. You might be surprised how many of them say Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap and Thorlo socks. It wouldn’t surprise me, though. That’s [...]
How to save the NY Times?
Posted: June 9, 2009 in Branding, Business, CRM, Integrated Marketing, Marketing, Marketing Partnerships, Media, PR and News, Relationship Marketing, Value for ValueTags: Amazon.com, Business, dead trees, Kindle, Marketing, micro-payments, newspapers, NY Times, Old Gray Lady, save the NY Times, technology, value
News outlets make news. But to make money, they wrap that news in advertising. Anybody else see a disconnect? As we all know, advertising revenues are down as advertisers shift their dollars to more attractive media channels. And not every newspaper, least of all the NY Times, will be saved by the influx in erotic [...]
What can iPhone apps teach us about price, perceived value and customer satisfaction?
Posted: June 1, 2009 in Branding, Business, CRM, Marketing, Value for ValueTags: Business, customer satisfaction, Gamasutra, iphone, iPhone app economics, iphone apps, perceived value, value
Hi there, everybody. My name is Jeffrey Lee Simons, and I don’t have an iPhone. You see, my fingers are the wrong temperature or something and touch screens only work for me about 20% of the time. You’ve probably seen me at an ATM, stabbing my useless digits at the screen and cursing a blue [...]
What does global warming have in common with junk mail?
Posted: May 19, 2009 in Business, Directed Advertising, Marketing, Media, Misleadership, PR and NewsTags: Anthony Watts, Business, climate change, direct marketing, Evan Jones, Global Warming, surface stations, testing, US Historical Climate Network, USHCN, Watts Up With That
To a direct marketer, testing is vital. But it’s important to know exactly what you’re testing. If you’re not careful, what you think your test is telling you may not be what it’s saying at all. It’s not just in direct marketing and business that testing matters, as you’ll see in a minute. Evan Jones, [...]
