H-P Plans to Fuse Printer, PC Units†

Move Would Mark Reversal of Fortune as Once-Laggard PC Division Now Is the Company's Rising Star

Wall Street Journal, September 30, 2009 — Hewlett-Packard Co. Chief Executive Mark Hurd, in what would be one of his biggest moves yet to overhaul H-P's inner workings, is finalizing a plan to combine H-P's printer and personal-computer businesses into one unit under current PC chief Todd Bradley, said people familiar with the situation.

Can Amazon Be Wal-Mart of the Web?

Amazon is expected to soon sell more general merchandise than media products like books and DVDs.

New York Times, September 20, 2009 — THE hum of 102 rooftop air conditioners and a chorus of beeping electric carts provide the acoustic backdrop in Amazon.com’s 605,000-square-foot distribution facility on this city’s west side. But the center’s employees can almost always hear Terry Jones.

On a recent summer afternoon, Mr. Jones, an “inbound support associate” making $12 an hour, steered a hand-pushed cart through the packed aisles and shouted his location to everyone in earshot: “Cart coming through. Yup! Watch yourself, please!” Mr. Jones explained that he was just making his time at Amazon “joyful and fun” while complying with the company’s rigorous safety rules.

But his cries might double as a warning to the retail world: Amazon, the Web’s largest retailer,... continue reading

True Marketing Doesn't Just Sell the Story†

To Achieve Top-Line Growth, CMOs Must Design New Businesses

Advertising Age, September 2, 2009 — As the global economy emerges from recession, regardless of when or how quickly, the focus in the executive suite is already shifting from cost cutting to recovering top-line growth. What role can the CMO play? If CMOs are truly to be growth champions for their corporations, they can't simply rely on traditional marketing and brand-building techniques.

In nearly a decade of research, my colleagues and I have found that established companies increasingly are successfully building new businesses on a repeated basis, a process we call corporate entrepreneurship. Marketing — true marketing, not just selling the story but helping create it — must play a central role. True marketing is about understanding current and potential customers better than anyone... continue reading

Smart Balance Keeps Tight Focus on Creativity†

Heart-Healthy Food Developer Outsources Manufacturing, Distribution to Target In-House Strength on New Products

Wall Street Journal, June 9, 2009 — The product-development laboratory at Smart Balance Inc., a food marketer keen to grow through innovation, contains chemical analyzers, lab benches and refrigerated cases. But there are rarely people.

"We don't have legions of white coats," explains Robert S. Gluck, Smart Balance's chief operating officer. Six of its staffers are charged with developing products, but they often work in suppliers' facilities nowhere near its headquarters here.

Smart Balance helps people stay lean with "heart healthy" merchandise, including low-cholesterol spreads, peanut butter, popcorn, cooking oil and milk. The company itself is lean as well, with just 67 employees and scant fixed assets. Its "virtual" business model outsources almost everything else, including... continue reading

Beware Social Media Marketing Myths

MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook are all the rage, but for most business owners there are better ways to stay close to customers

BusinessWeek, May 26, 2009 — Comedian Jim Gaffigan has a suggestion for preparing a Hot Pockets frozen entrée: "Take out of package. Place directly in toilet." Gaffigan is not a big fan of Hot Pockets. He doesn't like exercise, either. But he loves bacon. "Without bacon, no one would even know what a water chestnut is," he says. Gaffigan's also a fan of social networking sites.

You'll see him on Facebook, Twitter, and News Corp.'s (NWS) MySpace. He keeps fans up to date on his concerts, albums, TV appearances—and naps. In short, he's a social networking success story. For a one-man band like Gaffigan, who probably has a decent amount of free time between eating bacon and being on stage, social networks and blogs have proved effective vehicles for marketing his business and... continue reading

Newspaper Publishers Really Need Some Kind of Innovation†

At NAA: Wish They Could Party Like It's 1999, but It's 2009

Advertising Age, April 6, 2009 — Top newspaper publishers gathered here yesterday for the industry's big annual convention, a potentially grim affair set near the water in San Diego. If the setting seemed a bit sunny for the times, attendees pointed out at cocktails, remember that the convention booked the serviceable Manchester Grand Hyatt this year; the last time the Newspaper Association of America met in San Diego, it used the Hotel Del Coronado, a fancier nearby resort.

Share My Ride

New York Times, March 8, 2009 — MY NEIGHBOR JOE EMBRACED THE ZEITGEIST, or was embraced by it, shortly before Thanksgiving a couple of years ago when he decided to bid adieu to his S.U.V., a two-and-a-half ton specimen that was a pain to park, got only slightly better mileage than a cement mixer and bore a brand name that meant to evoke, through misspelling, a famously resilient tribe of Berber-speaking desert nomads. Joe replaced the car, more or less, with nothing, or rather, with an Idea, which he carried around in his wallet on a plastic card, lawn-green, embedded with a computer chip and prominently imprinted with a playfully mellow looking “Z,” for Zipcar — an upstart company bent on altering the primal bond between Americans and their vehicles.

Mr. Clean Takes Car-Wash Gig†

Procter & Gamble Expands Into Franchising in Its Pursuit of New Areas for Growth

Wall Street Journal, February 5, 2009 — The giant manufacturer of household staples including Pampers diapers, Crest toothpaste and Gillette razors is forging a new business model: franchising car washes.

To jump-start plans for a nationwide chain of Mr. Clean Car Wash franchises, P&G in December acquired the franchise assets of Atlanta-based Carnett's Car Wash, which has 14 locations.

"We need to look for new opportunities to allow us to grow," says Bruce Brown, P&G's chief technology officer. "That isn't limited to things within our current business model."

Next Big Thing

Hub, January 12, 2009 — Will the Great Recession bring out the best and brightest? A roundtable discussion featuring Michael Mendenhall of Hewlett-Packard, Patia McGrath of General Electric, John Fish of AstraZeneca and Patrick Meyer of Now Inc.

Producing Accountability in Hard Times†

CMOs' Perennial Charge Is Even Tougher Now -- but Not Impossible

Advertising Age, January 12, 2009 — Accountability is clearly keeping marketers up at night as the economic crisis continues to thread its way across industries around the globe and 2009 budgets come under greater scrutiny. So with economies performing badly in ways not seen in decades, all marketers should have a method-based and actionable answer to why marketing dollars are not a dispensable spending item but instead an investment with measurable ROI.