Category Archives: Product Management

Don’t Forget the Change

People are rarely, if ever, satisfied. We’re not satisfied with fast food customer service, politicians, football officials, nor the price of gas. Most of all, we’re not satisfied with ourselves. Not with our weight, our salaries, our homes and cars. We’re not satisfied with the time we have for exercise, for fun, for friendships and …

October 13, 2006 – 9:17 am | By DUST!N | Posted in Product Management, Society | Comments (0)

Why make a Purple Cow…

… when you can simply advertise with Blue Sheep? I think Blue Sheep is a great example of the mindset of most advertisers and marketers today. The effort to be different is focused almost exclusively on the promotion. Meanwhile, their positioning (brand), product, pricing, placement (distribution), and people are unremarkable. This is Flash-in-the-pan thinking. It’s …

April 28, 2006 – 9:03 am | By DUST!N | Posted in Advertising, Branding, Marketing, Product Management, Seth Godin | Comments (3)

Not an Odd Statement

What’s more valuable than a product to sell? How about a person who’ll buy? While explaining the blockbuster success of Broadway’s upcoming Odd Couple, Seth Godin makes a not so odd statement. The lesson is that the new marketing makes it a lot easier to make products for your customers (instead of having to run …

October 28, 2005 – 5:24 pm | By DUST!N | Posted in Advertising, Business Management, Marketing, Product Management, Seth Godin | Comments (1)

A Thoroughly Enjoyable Autopsy

johnmoore of Brand Autopsy was gracious enough to pay a visit to us business marketers in Tulsa at this month’s Business Marketing Association meeting. Speaking on Starbucks Tribal Knowledge (Business and Marketing Lessons Learned from Working Inside Starbucks), johnmoore gave a great presentation and left everybody wanting more. One of my favorite nuggets within the …

October 28, 2005 – 10:17 am | By DUST!N | Posted in Branding, Business Management, Marketing, Product Management | Comments (2)

Jones Soda

Thanks to Erica, who pointed out Jones Soda. I knew they accepted submitted photos to use on their product packaging. I didn’t think of them as one that might receive submissions via their website. Unlike Taco Bell (see Talking Sauce) and Dentyne, Jones Soda has set up galleries of their many labels. What I also …

October 21, 2005 – 1:24 pm | By DUST!N | Posted in Advertising, Branding, Product Management, Unconventional Marketing | Comments (1)

Integrated Marketing or an Integrated Company?

Ernie Mosteller talks about the silver bullet of advertising. Integrated agencies have sort of the right idea. Problem is, what they’re integrating is the web and traditional media. By my count, now that’s five ways to deliver an advertising message: TV, print, radio, outdoor, web. I’ve come to the same conclusion, and Ernie does a …

October 14, 2005 – 11:23 am | By DUST!N | Posted in Branding, Business Management, Marketing, Product Management, Unconventional Marketing | Comments (1)

The 3 Rs of Business

The 3 Rs of business. R&D, HR, and PR
These should be the fundamentals of any business.

October 14, 2005 – 9:00 am | By DUST!N | Posted in Business Management, Product Management | Comments (1)

Gilette Ups the Ante, and I Fold

Per Bruce and (of course) Seth, Gilette has announced they will unveil a 5-blade razor in early 2006. Somebody please remind me, what is the benefit of multiple blades? Multiple opportunities to cut myself? Originally, I believe they touted that you could get a smooth shave with one stroke of the razor. So, instead of …

September 16, 2005 – 1:56 pm | By DUST!N | Posted in Advertising, Branding, Marketing, Product Management, Seth Godin | Comments (3)

Uncommoditize

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

September 9, 2005 – 1:29 pm | By DUST!N | Posted in Branding, Business Management, Marketing, Product Management | Comments (1)

Reaping Apple’s Seeds

OK, I’ll admit that I’m an Apple fan. Having a background in graphics, I have been hooked on Apple products since I was introduced to them in college. I’m used to hearing how the sky is falling and Apple is hanging on by a thread. That’s why I’m so happy to see this news, this …

July 22, 2005 – 9:30 am | By DUST!N | Posted in Branding, Business Management, Marketing, Product Management, Technology | Comments (2)

5 Names for the 4 Curves

Seth Godin has displayed four curves depicting typical product life cycles. He’s asked for names for each. Below, I’ve given my titles, descriptions, and names for each curve: The Phenom Unusually talented and charismatic with incredible exposure. But it’s not just hype. There’s substance that allows it to endure. Names: Michael Jordan/Elvis Presley (I couldn’t …

June 25, 2005 – 12:39 pm | By DUST!N | Posted in Business Management, Marketing, Product Management | Comments (1)

Software Capes and Kryptonite

I was talking with my brother-in-law a while back and we were talking shop. He is a manager within a large software corporation. Somehow the conversation lead him to discuss how their consumer software has changed over the last few years. Over the course of time we just kept adding more and more features to …

June 17, 2005 – 7:35 am | By DUST!N | Posted in Branding, Business Management, Design, Product Management | Comments (0)

Product Death Cycle

In our last article, we discussed the longevity of a product affecting how that product is promoted and sold. Art Kleiner wrote an interesting article for Strategy&Business concerning a product’s death cycle. Kleiner laments the decline of product quality since the 1980s. As quality declined, so did durability, and so did expectations. Kleiner cites lower …

May 6, 2005 – 7:29 am | By DUST!N | Posted in Branding, Business Management, Marketing, Product Management | Comments (1)

Subscription Illumination

We don’t mind subscribing to services (phone services, Internet access, cable TV) or publications. These have become traditional subscription items. So, an even greater obstacle than the aversion to subscriptions is the established traditions. And as Seth Godin states, traditions rarely change quickly just because the alternatives are better. This is the hurdle that Napster-like services have to overcome.

May 6, 2005 – 6:59 am | By DUST!N | Posted in Branding, Business Management, Marketing, Product Management | Comments (1)