Casual Fridays

Where are you, your company, your product, your brand, your industry?

In my absence next week, I’d like to refer people to John Moore’s Brand Autopsy blog. John has his own entertaining and insightful way of approaching brands and marketing.
One of his favorite “patients” (aka targets) lately has been GM and their employee discount for everyone. While I agree with him on the dangerous […]

OK, by now this AP story is old news.
Here’s the gist:
RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) — A rush to purchase $50 used laptops turned into a violent stampede Tuesday, with people getting thrown to the pavement, beaten with a folding chair and nearly driven over. One woman went so far to wet herself rather than surrender her […]

Seth Godin says oh yes you can!
Amazing what can happen when the rules of your company don’t supercede the heart of your company. Customers actually like you. Sometimes enough to tell others about it.
Novel idea.

Do you want to inspire people to be kind, thoughtful, and generous to one another? Apparently the NCAA doesn’t.
Josiah Q. Roe’s article at Irresponsible Journalism points to a story of the NCAA’s inability to recognize what is actually right in college athletics today.
UGA is playing Boise State opening day. Some UGA fans hear about […]

Thanks to Andrea Learned’s posts on Artistic Tile’s ads this week, was one of those weeks where I wish I didn’t restrict myself to only updating this blog on Fridays.
Concerning Artistic Tile’s provocative ads, Carole Fuller (Director of Strategic Marketing for Smith College) decided to contact the tile company’s VP of Marketing. In her […]

Andrea Learned’s series of posts this week points to the dirty grout surrounding these tile ads.
The problem with ads like these is that they work… temporarily. They get attention and may even get a “decent” response (greater than 2% - wow). But, they’re short-sighted. They don’t create long-term conversations with the market […]

OK, so bloggers like Andrea Learned and Jory Des Jardins have me thinking I’ve ignored women too much in my marketing. But that wasn’t enough, CNN had to tell me that I’ve ignored them in web design as well.
This cnn.com article reports that 94% of websites show a masculine orientation while only 2% show […]

People’s core beliefs form their religion of buying. Seth calls this a worldview, but that word has been difficult for me to sink my teeth into. This maybe a potayto/potahto exercise, but it helped me crystallize my thinking.

Continuing with “Celebrity Day” on Casual Fridays…
There’s a lot of criticism and curiosity swirling around Tom Cruise and his abrupt change in public image. I’m no armchair publicist, so I won’t try to give my advice on what Tom should/should not be doing. Who knows, maybe teenny-bopper love and couch jumping are celebrity […]