Making Something Different

I’m watching a repeat of the season premiere of Project Runway (yes, I am a fan). The challenge for the first week was to take grocery items and repurpose them into something fashionable. Many succeeded, while a few fell flat on their faces.

The most common error was taking an existing fabric—like a tablecloth [...]

Leave Me Alone

Since purchasing our new house, we have received an obscene number of mailings, all looking alike but from different vendors (I think) telling us that we have to enroll in bi-weekly mortgage payments. Others inform us that we must take out mortgage insurance.

None of these notices are from our mortgage company, mind you.

The notifications [...]

Ads 2.0

I set up some Google Alerts for certain keywords I want to track. One of the neat things about the alerts is that they can include blog posts and new web pages. Some of what I am finding is a bit perverse. Fortunately, the limited execution should mean a short life.

It happens [...]

Understanding What You Really Sell

I am working on a new project that started with one purpose but morphed into another because of one “little” question: What is it we are really selling? At first glance, the answer may be obvious, but as you dig deeper and talk with your customers, you’re likely to find there’s more to it [...]

High Switching Costs

I’ve never really gotten into, nor understood for that matter, the ongoing fight between PC and Mac users. Each has its own features, benefits and drawbacks and caters to two distinct audiences. Neither one is truly better than the other. As things progress, each one is nudging closer to the other, blurring [...]

Maintaining Your Identity in a Partnership

One of the main changes we face when we marry is a change in our identity. That same identity changes even more when kids enter the picture. Notice I said change and not loss. It’s an important distinction, because you still are who you are, just in a different context that includes [...]

Or Current Resident Too Generic

The real beauty of database marketing is that you can tailor your content to your customer. The effectiveness comes in having good data about those customers. Which is why addressing a promotional piece to “Joe Smith or Current Resident” doesn’t cut it.

For the company, finding that customer should be an act of desperation, [...]

Getting Personal

The Macy’s at Biltmore Fashion Park is huge. The selection is immense. So much so, that it can be overwhelming at times. But they have an answer for that.

This past weekend I shopped by appointment. Marilyn was my guide. She walked me around the men’s department, showing me what was [...]

Categorically Speaking

Marketers love to speak in terms of categories related to their particular brand—premium, super-premium, ultra-premium, giga-premium, you get the picture. From the consumer’s viewpoint, however, brands get considered a bit differently.

Think about the various things you buy (where there is some choice involved). What you actually purchase is based on how it fits [...]

It Just Matters Where You Use Them

I’m learning my way around my new hometown—Phoenix. This past weekend my sister-in-law went with me to some stores so I would know where they were. At one of the stores we needed a few bags for our purchases. She had brought her own, and as she started loading our loot, I [...]