Good Long-weekend Reads

Posted on | January 20, 2008 |

To those of our readers who read my posts - I try to sneak some posts in between our fabulous writers - you know I am big on practical “how-to-lists”, “top-10 lists” and just interesting tid-bits of information - as I believe these sound-bites resonate with busy marketing professionals for their day-to-day work. In deciding which bits, of all that I read, I should pass along at eBrandMarketing, I just ask myself, “what news would I want to forward to my professional friends and colleagues in marketing and advertising?” and if it passes this test, then our readers should see it too. So from around the blogosphere and beyond, don’t miss these:

10 Things You Need to Know About Social Networking: Next year a whopping $1.38 billion is expected to be spent on ads in social media - here is a good guide to trends which will impact the effectiveness of where you put your money.

10 Things You Need to Know About Consumers: They are mouthy, mobile, like to “snack” on media, love video, love playing games and - still haven’t found what they’re lookin for…

Philips: Women, Consumer Electonics and.. Crystal?: Andrea Leaned spots more pink thinking with Philips’ unveiling of a more women-focused product line called The Design Collection. The icon product being Philips’ new Ultimate Dream TV (and this it is) accompanied by an “active crystal USB drive shaped like a heart”. Michael Kanellos writing on the CNET Blog asked his wife if she wanted one for Valentine’s Day.

“I’ll stab you,” she said.

Pity that the pendulum, as Andrea puts it, has swung so far again. Philips already has its answer to delighting the female audience with its “sense and simplicity” company philosophy and brand campaign which is all about recognizing the complexity of modern life and creating products which aid managing the complexity without adding to it. For more on this, read what the The CEO of Philips ELectronics N.A. writes about simplicity - starting with a strange rhetorical question. Do people need the gizmos we’re selling?

Note to CMO: Authority, Consensus, and Green Envy: a post in Stephen Denny’s blog about the possible misuses of green marketing. Examples are given from Nike to Fujitsu and more typically “non-green” companies trying to get on the green bandwagon. Interesting is the commentary that says in essence “if a company has to be perfect to be green, will anyone bother?”, the author writes back that companies at least have to be prepared to walk-the-talk. Good advice for marketers trying to green (or was it blue?) their positioning. And just this weekend we have the mother of all “non-green” companies, CLOROX, launching its first new brand in twenty years! Green Works. Joel Makower asks at FutureLab: Can a major consumer packaged goods company with a name indelibly associated with household bleach become a leading light in the green marketplace?

A Wakeup Call for Marketers: I love this little piece, another story of companies clobbering a golden marketing opportunity.

It seems that Mattel and Hasbro have issued a take down order on the popular Facebook application Scrabulous due to trademark infringement. As of this post there are 600,563 active users of the application.

And finally, for those of you who either personally or professionally are still holding on to the ideal of your New Years’ resolutions, I have found a site with blue-prints to change just about anything!
Enjoy! and stay tuned - we have great posts and new writers lining up for this week.

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