This year a significant proportion of the greeting cards we’ve received have been assembled from digital content created by our family members and friends. Most of these cards feature family photos and/or snapshots of peak moments throughout the year; a few are totally handmade, artsy, often collages with no digital elements.
What strikes me is the way the popularity of [Read more →]
My Seattle yoga studio is undergoing what its founder calls a “rebirth,” overhauling its web presence, expanding the class roster, and offering online class registration and payment options. Finally!
This is a smart decision, as they have limited space, a growing number of qualified teachers, and increasing demand for their classes and workshops. On one noteworthy Sunday, [Read more →]
As I write my Christmas and New Year cards, I’ve been thinking about the pros and cons of traditional cards versus Twitter for holiday greetings. Forgive the wry humor…
While updating my contacts database for Christmas card labels, I noted how many changes there have been in the past several years: so many older aunts and uncles who have died, so many marriages in disarray. It was a sobering thought.
And a reason to be grateful for the friends and family who still surround us – wherever they may be.
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The cycling sub-culture offers an interesting environment for observing the power of branding in action. Over the years I’ve learned that the “boys who bike” are very status conscious, and proudly display team affiliations and other brand badges all over their bodies, their bikes and their gear. I’ve also learned that if you ride the “wrong” bike, you’re invisible to your fellow cyclists. [Read more →]
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I love strolling and window shopping in Paris. There’s a special mystique that window dressers in Paris employ that brand teams and marketers everywhere would do well to emulate.
Shop windows in Paris do a wonderful job of conveying the idea of what’s being sold — of conveying the brand essence, helping you envision how you might benefit from the products or services on offer. For a moment or two, you’re experiencing the dream, fantasizing about how you might look better, happier, healthier or whatever, based on the nature of what’s being presented for your delectation…
The most powerful windows don’t crowd the display area with a representative sampling of everything inside the store (as you sometimes see in America). This is not a functional or utilitarian approach to marketing what the merchant has on offer.
The power of simplicity. I love the idea — but it’s so hard to put into practice, given all the factions and stakeholders that marketers must contend with.
After blogging about “the female economy” as the world’s biggest untapped market opportunity, I’ve been on the lookout for evidence that companies and brands are marketing specifically to women. I’ve seen a couple of examples recently, an encouraging sign.
Both offers focus on helping women overcome the gaps in our understanding of mechanics – things most fathers don’t teach their daughters. [Read more →]
Do they think we’re crazy enough to fall for an obvious scam like this?
The Project
Tseng Tzu-Jung
Chong Hing Bank Limited
347-349 Des Voeux Rd.
West, HK
www.chbank.comDear Friend,
I am a staff of Chong Hing Bank Limited,Hong Kong attached in Private Banking services; I am contacting you in reference to an investment opportunity which I believe would be of significant reward to the parties involved. [Read more →]
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For years I’ve loved QuickBooks – a tool that made managing my company’s money remarkably pleasant. I used to rave about it to colleagues. But over the past several product releases I’ve become disenchanted; I think Intuit has lost its way, and has lost sight of whose interest it was pursuing.
With its most recent release, QuickBooks Pro 2010, Intuit has convinced me they’ve decided to walk away from their origins as a customer-focused software provider. [Read more →]
The hype around social media as conversation has become deafening.
Much of the hyperbole comes from agencies and consultants who have seized upon social media as the next wave; their motivation is self-serving, of course. Promoting their credentials as social media experts enables them [Read more →]
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