Is “Tell Us Your Story” The Magic Marketing Answer?

Is it just me, or have the rest of you noticed the storytelling-as-marketing trend perhaps running amok? Though it is certainly a key to the latest in consumer inspired marketing strategies and ad campaigns - and all the more effective in marketing to women, perhaps - it should be no surprise that the broadest/blandest definition [...]

Crumbs on the Keyboard - Do you Shop at Lunch?

As we noted Cyber Monday hit record highs in online sales this year.  People  went back to the office and shopped. Now, as an online shopping expert I’ve been getting media inquiries on the question of if it’s ethical to shop on company time. Burst came out with a survey  that found only 28 percent of [...]

On Brand Bigotry

Just Say No, in this month’s Fast Company by consumer culture arbiter and New York Times Magazine columnist - Rob Walker - aka Murketing offers an interesting twist of though on brand association and imagery. Rob talks about brand bigotry - meaning that as consumers we have very strong associations with some brands, but equally [...]

Branding Power to the People

Marketers are all familiar with the underlying model of branding in the mass media. Depending on the author it looks something like Awareness>Familiarity>Positive Imagery>Transaction. We also recognized that it wasn’t entirely valid even in the mass media era. Behavior sometimes came before attitude. We had the high-involvement model (attitude precedes behavior) and the low-involvement model [...]

The LongTail of Retail, and 2008 the Year of Mobile Marketing?

In The LongTail v. the Re-tail, - written for AdvertisingAge (reg required), Al Reis tells of a recent shopping expedition where he drove to three separate retailers looking for 3 separate items (one per retailer) and came home empty handed. In all three cases the items were out of stock. Al, this has [...]

Real E-Shoppers Don’t Wear Bunny Slippers: More eCommerce Happens at Work

In most of our heads online shoppers are wearing bunny slippers.We imagine the typical online shopper visits etail sites from a home computer, TV on in the background and coffee mug in hand. However the reality is e-shoppers wear suits – or maybe office casual – because they’re shopping while at work.A shop.org study found [...]

On Making “Marketing to Women” Obsolete

At the end of a recent interview with me (reg. required), an AdWeek editor pointed out the obvious: that my goal as a marketing to women writer/expert seemed to be to make the topic obsolete. And, I admit – she was right. That perfectly describes my work of seven plus years, despite how [...]

The Agency of the Future

It’s December 2027 and the annual bonuses are being dished out.
This year, the best agency executives are getting more than the bankers at Goldman Sachs.
An unlikely scenario? Yes, probably…but if the advertising business is to thrive for the next 20 years, something the industry can do more than just dream about.

WHAT [...]

Encourage Customers to Rate Products

Do you rely on product reviews when you research or purchase on the web? When I ask that question, I usually get a large proportion of positive responses. I was pleased to see a study that confirmed my anecdotal evidence.

 
PowerReviews and the etailing group recently conducted a study that was reported on Marketing Charts. Customers [...]