My goal as a marketing researcher and strategist is always to tell my clients something they don’t already know. The insight, for example, that a key benefit of business software is reduced workload as a result of automation isn’t exactly groundbreaking. But now I am purposefully...
Who or what are you loyal to? Family? Friends? Your employer? Your favorite brands? We live in a transactional, zero-sum time. A time when many of our leaders are more than happy to throw their principles and the best interests of the country they profess to...
There seems to be a broad consensus that for retail to flourish in the future, it will have to embrace technology that offers the customization and convenience of online shopping. Reporting on the industry's annual Shoptalk meeting in Las Vegas recently, the New York Times...
Bloomberg reported this week that “Weight Watchers… stock took a beating Wednesday (February 27), dropping as much as 36 percent on a dismal profit forecast after it struggled to sign up customers during the key post-holiday dieting season.” Oprah Winfrey, who owns 8% of the company, lost $58...
I always watch the Super Bowl but never watch the Oscars. Seems that I have gotten this dead wrong all these years. My first issue with the Academy Awards is my personal struggle to ever deem anything “best.” Favorite song? Favorite movie? There’s no way I...
Toward the end of a recent Love It Or Leave It podcast, host Jon Lovett (@jonlovett) was ranting about how ABC did not want to air the awards for cinematography and editing on this year’s Oscar broadcast. There are other ways to shorten the broadcast, he...
The worlds of fashion and culture lost a giant with the passing of Karl Lagerfeld this week. I was struck by this passage in his New York Times Obituary: His contribution to fashion was not in creating a new silhouette, as designers like Cristobal Balenciaga, Christian...
As Adweek reports this week, “Little about The Wonderful Company’s new wine brand is practical.” I’d take it a step further. Little of it makes any marketing sense. In the dead of winter, and a nasty one across most of the U.S. at that, the only...
Men are from Mars and women are from Venus. And some men are from up Uranus. One Super Bowl spot we won’t be seeing is Gillette’s controversial “Best a Man Can Get.” P&G says the cost of a two-minute ad buy is the reason why the spot...
The sidewalks were littered with scooters. Not the Razor scooters my kids played with, but scooters with motors. “What are these things?” I asked the friend I had met up with close to where he lives in Venice (California.) “They’re amazing,” he replied. We ride them...