Monthly Archives: May 2011

Stinky Cologne

Perfume bottle and stopper. Europe, 18th century.

Image via Wikipedia

We were having dinner, my friends and I, when one of them came out with a rather profound statement I’d like to share with you.  Now, you don’t know my friend Spooge but trust me: he’s not given to profound statements, even after some very good wine.  However, the situation damn near forced him to dig deeply, and, as you’ll see, he did.

We were chatting about a fellow he knew who had behaved badly.  This guy had used some long-term personal relationships to act on behalf of people who were not really on the up and up.  His acquaintance had done so because he was doing what he could to ingratiate himself with these low-lifes with an eye toward employment.  In the process of doing so, he alienated a couple of guys – my friends – who saw right through him.  Intrigued? Continue reading

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Filed under Helpful Hints, Reality checks

Whose Brand Is It Anyway

Her’s a question to start the day:  Does a brand belong to the company or to the customer?  Before you give me a knee-jerk reaction, think about it for a second.  Does “New Coke” ring a bell?  The company put out what it believed to be a better product and customers demanded that they restore the product to its former state.  That’s the best example in my mind but I’m sure you can think of others.

The reason I bring it up this morning is a video I watched from Shore Communications in which John Blossom and Peter Propp discuss the Microsoft acquisition of Skype and how it might affect both brands.  I’ve embedded the video below and you might want to spend 10 minutes to watch.  In the interim, here’s my take. Continue reading

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Filed under What's Going On

Monday Wondering

I’m not sure how you’re starting your week, but I’m beginning by checking out the latest from Adobe’s survey of  Digital Marketing Trends.  I know – what a fabulous way to start the week!  What’s interesting to me is not just what companies are planning to do in their digital marketing efforts but also what they have yet to do since those might be things with which they need a smart consultant’s help…

Thinking back a few years, studies such as these would often look at who was going to be making initial investments in digital.  There were always a lot of companies who were interested in it; a smaller number who were actively thinking about it; a subset of them were planning to do it, and finally, there was a small base of active users.  Not any more! Continue reading

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Filed under digital media, Thinking Aloud