I bought a house recently and from time to time the neighborhood cat was loitering in the yard. I talked to the neighbor whose yard I often saw her in as well. The previous tenants had abandoned her and he and his wife had taken her in.
That said, this cat very nearly got herself “hired” [...]
I’ve spent a fair amount of time this past year talking about “focus of effort;” putting the bulk of your resources behind your main bid for success. While it isn’t a done deal yet, it looks like my focus of effort will move from marketing back to IT project management. Time will tell how “On [...]
We know the philosophical question of a tree, falling in the forest. If no one hears it, does it make a noise? Of late I’ve been pondering the same thing regarding ads on social networking sites. The trade press makes great arguments that the ability to precisely target your customers make them invaluable, but I [...]
Last month American Rifleman ran an article about the return of Redfield riflescopes. They’re being made locally by the good folks at Leupold, and I’ve got to say it looks like some really clever tiered branding.
Tiered branding, of course, is when you offer essentially the same product to different customer demographics with different market positioning [...]
A couple weeks back, I talked a bit about the difference between strategy and tactics. I got going because of an article in Marketing News by Don Schultz about the tendency in marketers to confuse tactics with strategy. This week they have an article where former CMO for McDonalds Larry Light bemoans the observation that [...]
I think most of us remember Herbert the elf from the holiday classic “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Herbie wasn’t happy making toys and he wanted to instead become a dentist. While the end of March may not be the time people are thinking of Christmas cartoons, I’ll admit to feeling a little bit of Herbert [...]
Today I was catching up on some old articles and read a blog by Jason Bakker about geotagging and social networks.
The gist of it was, as smart phones get smarter, GPSs get more ubiquitous and businesses engage more in social networking, we’ll enter a networked age where you’ll be approached with coupons, offers, and incentives [...]
When I started this blog, I decided to call it “On Strategy,” stealing the title of an excellent book by Colonel Harry Summers Jr., analyzing America’s failings in Vietnam. I’m doing some studies right now on the Operational level of warfare and I thought I’d talk a bit about the different terms.
Another reason I felt [...]
I thought this commentary, from Marketing Daily was pretty interesting: “Social Media Mapping: Some Discipline, Please”.
It covers a lot of ground, but for me the big takeaway is the importance of having some sort of plan for how your firm uses social networking. The inclination is to sigh heavily and say “Everyone else is doing [...]
Introduction
Sometimes you’re exposed to information before you are ready to effectively use it. This was the way I was when I first read Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits For Highly Effective People. I was in my twenties and while the material was OK, it didn’t really resonate for me. When I found myself rereading the [...]
Don’t Forget About Competitive Advantage
