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Advertising Age, October 31, 2006 — It's time to lead consumers by the nose. So goes the thinking at major package-goods marketers including Mars, PepsiCo, Kraft and Procter & Gamble, who hope scents will help them get attention among fragmented audiences.
Wall Street Journal, October 30, 2006 — Holiday Inn president Mark Snyder has figured out what he needs to do for his customers, and what he doesn't.
Advertising Age, October 29, 2006 — Think dove's "campaign for Real Beauty" generated a ton of buzz for relatively little expense? You haven't seen anything yet.
Advertising Age, October 26, 2006 — While some of the most talked-about online campaigns of the past several years have been created by Hollywood's movie marketers — think "Blair Witch Project" and "Snakes on a Plane" — studios are lagging behind other companies in their overall web spending.
Boston Globe, October 26, 2006 — Did somebody say McSwanky? The next generation of McDonald's are making their way into New England, and they're equipped with leather chairs, plasma televisions, and wireless Internet access
Wall Street Journal, October 26, 2006 — Social-networking Web sites like MySpace.com and Facebook.com have helped link millions of friends. But now they have a new enemy: 20-year-old Jenny Thompson.
Associated Press, October 26, 2006 — The people who work in Seattle's tallest building face a tough decision: Should they get their caffeinated indulgence at the old Starbucks on the building's first floor or the new Starbucks, 40 floors up? And, if the lines at those two stores are too long, is it too far to walk across the street, where a third Starbucks awaits?
New York Times, October 25, 2006 — How does the nation’s largest home improvement retailer weather the worst housing market in a decade?
DMNews, October 25, 2006 — Television today accounts for only 70 percent of McDonald’s Corp.’s advertising budget - down from 85 percent only five years ago.
DMNews, October 25, 2006 — The theory of the Long Tail argues that when constraints of shelf space are eliminated, the opportunities for selling niche market merchandise are unlimited
Advertising Age, October 23, 2006 — No topic is more top of mind for marketers than just what they are getting for their ad dollars. Does the money they spend with TV, internet and magazines actually result in brand awareness and sales?
BusinessWeek, October 23, 2006 — The average chief marketing officer has a notoriously short tenure, so the lofty reputation of Wachovia CMO Jim Garrity is perhaps best evidenced by how neatly the word "longstanding" fits in front of his title
BusinessWeek, October 23, 2006 — Life is good for 27-year-old Seth J. Sternberg. A year ago, he dropped out of Stanford Business School to work full-time on Meebo Inc., an easy-to-use service that has solved one of instant messaging's nagging problems: the inability to communicate with people who use an IM service other than yours.
Adweek, October 23, 2006 — Jamie Barrett, creative director at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, has worked on many high-profile campaigns over the course of his 20-year career, but has never had one of his spots air on the Super Bowl. Next year, one of his clients, Doritos, will debut a commercial on the big game, but Barrett and his creative team aren't creating it.
New York Times, October 22, 2006 — WHEN Bette Gottfried, a 48-year-old regular at a Starbucks in Ardsley, N.Y., saw that her favorite coffeehouse was promoting a film, she wasn’t immediately interested. “At first I was leery,” said Ms. Gottfried, dressed in workout clothes, wearing her hair in a ponytail and sitting near the window with her daily decaf mocha (“low-fat milk, no foam, no whipped”). “I thought, ‘Who are they to get involved in the movies?’ ”
Advertising Age, October 20, 2006 — Matt Eck recently constructed a 4-foot football-shaped burrito out of electrical tubing, chicken wire and aluminum foil. Why? He's hoping to become one of those consumers who generate content for a marketer
Wall Street Journal, October 19, 2006 — When executives at Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. failed in their bid to buy the celebrated Rover brand name for a line of cars they are rolling out this month, they quickly switched to Plan B: Call the new autos Roewe, instead.
Forbes, October 17, 2006 — As the U.S. population crossed the 300 million mark sometime around 7:46 a.m. Tuesday (according to the U.S. Census Bureau), the typical family is doing a whole lot better than their grandparents were in 1967, the year the population first surpassed 200 million.
Brandweek, October 16, 2006 — Belly Up: 'Malternative' Drinks Coming Back Strong
Advertising Age, October 16, 2006 — Disney Co. today said it would limit licensing for most of its characters to food products low in fat and sugar — a significant move as lawmakers increasingly blame marketers for the childhood-obesity epidemic.
New York Times, October 16, 2006 — To big-name marketers, the teeming mosh pits of social networking sites look like dangerous places for their precious brands. MySpace: Isn’t that full of dirty old men picking up teenage girls? Facebook: That’s where college students post pictures of bawdy frat parties.
Washington Post, October 16, 2006 — Reuters is opening a news bureau in the simulation game Second Life this week, joining a race by corporate name brands to take part in the hottest virtual world on the Internet.
Forbes, October 16, 2006 — As the U.S. population crossed the 300 million mark sometime around 7:46 a.m. Tuesday (according to the U.S. Census Bureau), the typical family is doing a whole lot better than their grandparents were in 1967, the year the population first surpassed 200 million.
Advertising Age, October 12, 2006 — NBC Universal digital czar Beth Comstock on surviving and thriving in the new media revolution: "Content is still king, but the monarchy has been overthrown. YouTube, MySpace, iTunes — it's the invasion of the pronouns in a world all about me." But big media has a new place in the universe.
Seattle Times, October 12, 2006 — While McDonald's was lovin' it, Coca-Cola was the real thing and Nike wanted us to just do it, Starbucks was throwing parties instead. The coffee retailer, based in Seattle, takes an unconventional approach to marketing, choosing parties and other in-person encounters over big national advertising campaigns.
Advertising Age, October 11, 2006 — After years of being blamed for consumers' expanding waistlines, Coca-Cola and Nestle are preparing to launch a carbonated beverage that burns calories.
New York Times, October 9, 2006 — REMEMBER the old advertising slogan, “Let Hertz put you in the driver’s seat”? Marketers of all sorts are now being urged to give up the steering wheel to a new breed of consumers who want more control over the ways products are peddled to them.
BusinessWeek, October 8, 2006 — On Sept. 27, 2006, a folksy blog called Wal-Marting Across America was born. It features the journey of Laura and Jim, a couple on their maiden trip in an RV (recreational vehicle), capturing lives and stories as they journey from Las Vegas to Georgia, and park for free at Wal-Mart Stores parking lots.
ANA Marketing Maestros, October 6, 2006 — James L. McDowell told us the story of the MINI – one of the most important products for BMW. He starts out by asking how many in the audience have a friend with a MINI, where about 1/3 of the crowd raises their hands. He tells us that the MINI has actually been around since the 50’s – starting with the Austin 850
Advertising Age, October 6, 2006 — Procter & Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley urged marketers to "let go" of their brands and bow to consumer wants and needs in his kickoff to the Association of National Advertisers conference here today.
ANA Marketing Maestros, October 6, 2006 — As a former P&Ger, it was a great pleasure to write a blog reflecting on AG Lafley’s opening address to the 2006 ANA conference. It was a brilliant tutorial on the fundamentals of marketing and how they are evolving and becoming even more relevant in today’s world.
Lodging Magazine, October 6, 2006 — When Jean Thomas switched industries in 2002, leaving Kraft Foods for the Cendant Hotel Group, her first impression of lodging was the depth and breadth of customer information—most of it freely given up at check-in and check-out. Her second impression was how little of that information explained why customers did what they did.
Advertising Age, October 5, 2006 — The Dow is at a record, attendance at the ANA's annual conference will break a record, the economy is growing and consumers still are spending. Time to kick back? Not exactly. Starting today the ANA will spend the next four days pressing the conference theme of "reinvention and innovation."
Advertising Age, October 5, 2006 — Stephen Quinn, now in his second year as senior VP-marketing at Wal-Mart Stores, is a classically trained marketer credited with helping build three new divisions in the retailer's increasingly powerful marketing department: brand management, category marketing, and insight and customer strategy. The former Frito-Lay exec also is captaining the company's $580 million agency review
McKinsey Quarterly, October 4, 2006 — Faced with stiffening competition, increasingly demanding customers, high labor costs and--in some markets--slowing growth, service businesses around the world are trying to boost their productivity. But whereas manufacturing businesses can raise it by monitoring and reducing waste and variance in their relatively homogeneous production and distribution processes, service businesses find that improving performance is trickier: Their customers, activities and deals vary too widely.
Advertising Age, October 3, 2006 — Historically, the most popular web-marketing metric has been traffic. How many visitors come to your website each month? How many unique, how many repeat? The web grew up with "hits" as a common denominator: The more you have, the better you are.
Advertising Age, October 2, 2006 — Market researchers want Rob Pairan, but he doesn't want them. The Cincinnati administrative assistant gets two to three market-research calls weekly at home, and he's fed up. Usually he ends the call quickly. "Sometimes, when I'm in the mood, I toy with them a little," he said.
Brandweek, October 2, 2006 — Ever wonder what goes on inside the heads of the most successful marketers? What makes these people tick? What it takes to be really good? Brandweekthought it's a question worth asking. And you might be surprised at some of what we found
Advertising Age, October 2, 2006 — Outdoor is getting more inventive every day, thanks to technologies that allow the once static billboards to be truly interactive. With more cellphones now equipped with Bluetooth, consumers can request more information or download music, while "digital ink" lets marketers change their messages and video screens respond to a touch.
FORTUNE, October 2, 2006 — Hit videos reach millions, but can this ever be a real business?
Forbes, October 2, 2006 — David Van Epps opens his aluminum briefcase and gently touches several of the 72 slender glass vials inside. "Here's one you'll like," he says, twisting the top off one. He dips a paper strip inside and waves it under his nose, inhaling deeply.
Stanford Graduate School of Business, October 1, 2006 — Loyalty or reward programs like frequent flyer plans or buy-ten-get-one-free cards have been touted as powerful tools for increasing company profits. But recent research at Stanford Graduate School of Business suggests that in fact such programs have limited effectiveness—and sometimes end up just costing organizations money
