Uncategorized

I used to dream of a good marketing TV show. Not one that makes the world of marketing into a scripted drama, like Mad Men. Or one that pretends to be about business but actually ends up being about relationships and emotional conflict like The Apprentice quickly became. The Shark Tank on ABC comes close, … Read more

Every morning I do something which you will probably find surprising for a marketer: I unsubscribe to emails. More than that, I actively block senders of unwanted emails and routinely delete undesired emails before I even start reading those that I do. You might wonder why it is that I get so much email I … Read more

Last week I had the opportunity to travel to Bangalore for a Brand Summit event that featured many marketers, communicators and even a Bollywood star talking about the future of marketing in India as country goes through what the conference termed as the "era of discontinuity." With a ballooning population, growing Internet penetration, arguably the … Read more

Social media is not a robot. In fact, there could hardly be a more opposing idea to social media than that of robotic automation. I start this post by sharing that because the idea that any job could be "replaced" by social media is contentious idea. There are plenty of market forces displacing people from … Read more

If you are not Indian, chances are when I say Chacha you will think of a type of latin dance. Although it is technically called the "cha-cha-cha" it's the more widespread meaning. If you WERE Indian, however, you would know that Chacha means Uncle. Actually, it means a lot more than Uncle. When I call … Read more

For several years now, I've taken the slightly different approach to doing a recap post of Super Bowl ads and instead of focusing on which ones I thought were the best or most entertaining, I try to break them down from a marketing point of view to share some lessons for anyone in marketing who … Read more

In a place best known for accidental weddings, expensive hangovers and overly plasticized lounge singers it may seem that there isn't much to learn when it comes to marketing. In fact, to amend a Vegas cliche, it may seem that what works in Vegas (for marketing), only works in Vegas. That's not entirely true, though. … Read more

So today is the last Friday before many people in the US head out for a holiday (including myself) and over that time I am planning to make some changes to the content of this blog – followed by a long overdue design overhaul early next year. As part of that, my aim is to … Read more

For years in the automotive industry, marketers have known that getting someone to actually purchase a car depends on much more than the features and latest gadgetry. No one buys a car solely for the face detection alert software – though certainly something like that can influence the decision. What really sells those cars, though, … Read more

There was an interesting story recently in the Wall Street Journal talking about how computer manufacturers are heavily pushing into rural parts of China to convince more customers outside of major metropolitan areas to buy and start using computers. One particular campaign from Lenovo* uses a slogan featured in the WSJ piece of "Buy A … Read more