My Seneca Entrepreneurship students have given some feedback on the Auto Show, Cottage Show, and various Food & Wine shows they have attended as consumers. A long list of lessons learned. First, the Bad News: too many trade show exhibitors erred in these ways: Show reps who are pushy and in-your-face, or who don’t take [...]

Not so long ago we had never heard of Marketing’s ’5th P’, Public Input, but we occasionally felt its wrath. Public Input ‘happened to’ Marketers and they adjusted. Smart marketers now turn it into an advantage, actively seeking ‘Public Input’,  just as they solicit/ manage Consumer Research & Product Development Design. In the ‘public’ sector, [...]

I finished my Marketing Channel lectures this week; lots of big changes & challenges in the ‘Place’ part of Marketing’s 5 P’s. A good time to sum up; first -the Classics. I urge clients & students alike to take into account 3 Classic Considerations: Structure! What is the ideal structure of the channel(s) for my [...]

I’ve posted previously on the power of the ‘5th P‘ of Marketing, Public Input. I’m genuinely surprised at the rate at which that power is growing. Recently, Rush Limbaugh advertisers dropped faster than RIM share’s price, after his Sandra Fluke ‘slut’ insult generated immediate, furious consumer reaction. Backlash over ‘Pink Slime’ caused Safeway & Fred [...]

Had a discussion with a friend recently about the Millennials, a generation who get a bad PR rap for being ‘withdrawn into themselves & their devices’. My experience is that they are indeed connection-focused. They believe Virtual is Virtuous, and we’re just going to have to adjust. A fellow prof won’t allow any cellphone surfing [...]

My eldest just turned 22; for birthday gift ideas, she suggested specialty camera gear. A  fine source for such items is Photojojo.com so I had a chance to try their service. The experience was amazing. When I shopped there, I found site graphics that are cute yet informative. When the order shipped, they sent a [...]

On a global basis, Amazon is just a medium-sized retailer. With sales of $48 B, it’s comparable in size to Safeway, but much smaller than Kroger, Target or several European retailers. It’s a minnow compared to Wal-Mart, with barely a tenth of the Bentonville behemoth’s annual revenue. But amazon is the world’s largest e-commerce retailer [...]

I asked a class to come up with ways e-stores can learn from bricks & mortar merchandisers, and how bricks & mortar stores can better leverage the web. There was silence in the room. Evidently, too many media outlets & teachers have told students that these are 2 distinct worlds that should be treated separately. [...]

One more shot at driving this home: Branding is tough. Coming up with a decent brand name is demanding & takes much more work than one assumes. And coming up with a great brand name takes even more time, talent …and, perhaps, luck. A recap of my Strategy Steve’s completely subjective list of criteria for [...]

Long ago I predicted that there would be a counter-trend to importing all goods from halfway round the world. A month of shipping time is just too long to let you react to last minute customers, cyclical/ seasonal industries, or an industry using Just-In-Time. Other reasons I expect to see growing cost penalty for long [...]