Author Archive
Taking What the Law Gives You….
California’s new law requiring the use of hands free devices while driving has been a boon to the entire hands free device industry. One company in particular, Jawbone, has hatched a unique plan to take advantage.
Variety is the Spice of Life… and Printed Advertising
One of the things you should do from time to time as a business who engages in ongoing printed advertising campaigns is to look into the possibility of switching things up on occasion. Many of us get attached certain forms of advertising which have been successful for us in the past and ignore the vast universe of printed advertising available to us.
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Can You Have Too Much Exclusivity?
Regular readers of this blog are aware that I am a big proponent of the use of exclusivity as a marketing tool. We’ve discussed the concept of creating a feeling that your product is so unique that the ownership or use of the product creates a feeling of membership in an exclusive group in your customers.
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Making Your Message Stick with Labels
We’ve talked previously about under the radar printed marketing materials. Another class of printed marketing materials which people tend to forget when planning a new campaign are labels and stickers. However, these items are extremely versatile and are a great way to establish a permanent connection with your customers.
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Can a Company be Everything to Everyone?
That’s the question that Starbucks is asking itself right now, as they are experiencing both success and problems with their heavily advertised new Pike’s Place Coffee product. According to this article, Starbucks is garnering increased sales from the new, milder coffee. However, they are facing a backlash from their strongest customers and evangelists who do not like the deviation from Starbucks’ signature strong coffees. With Starbucks facing the need to close stores for declining customer visits and “under performance’, the issue of customer loyalty is an issue to which Starbucks should be paying very close attention.
Is Walmart better than Wal-Mart?
After nearly 20 years, Wal-Mart is getting a new logo. The logo, which was leaked earlier last weekend by the Wall Street Journal. The Journal discovered a version of the logo on a planning drawing and published it. This forced Wal-Mart to officially reveal the new look without the fanfare they had planned. The logo itself looks like this:
There are some changes to the insignia. First of all, the name is now one word, not two. The blue lettering is much brighter than the dark blue normally associated with the store. They’ve also added a sun shaped design (the Journal notes that it resembles the Target insignia) to add more color to the insignia. The whole logo seems designed to be brighter and less drab than the previous blue lettered logo.
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