Almost every company is doing something they shouldn’t be. Nothing akin to the deceptive practices of Enron, but something that in someway hurts or dilutes the value of the brand. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple he encountered more products than Shiva could juggle. In Inside...
Ah, laughter, the timeless elixir for the soul. Passengers, taking a Southwest Airlines flight for the first time, are graciously taken aback by the flight crew’s lighthearted sense of humor. Compared to other commercial airlines whose stewards and stewardesses are dressed to the nines, with perfectly...
When the iPhone first released on June 29, 2007 there were lines of people in Mac stores across America waiting to be the first to pay $599—to touch its magical screen and make a phone call to a friend and scream “I got an iPhone!” And...
Ads proclaim, “The iPhone killer is here!” People are lining up,, eagerly waiting to be the first with the coolest new phone in the world. It sounds like déjà vu. This time, however, it’s not just happening in the US; it’s happening all around the...
I first started using eBay when I was in graduate school. Being a hopelessly price-conscious student, I was always looking for the best deal. Alas, I found my way to eBay. After winning my first auction, I was hooked. The thrill of winning an auction is...
Leander Kahney’s latest book Inside Steve’s Brain, a look at what makes Steve Jobs tick, made me stop, jump out of my seat, and shout, “Are you serious?” It wasn’t caused by a sudden revelation or a scandal; it came from a passage clipped from...
Beware of Word-of-Mouth Marketing ORLANDO, Fla. – From water-cooler conversations about American Idol to once-popular-but-quickly-forgotten products like Beanie Babies, what makes consumers talk about some brands and not others? One study by the Keller Fay Group, a word-of-mouth market research company, revealed that over 32 million...
Understanding how branding influences decisions (ORLANDO, Fla.) What attracts people to a particular brand? What motivates their loyalty to a product, or to the brands their parents bought? Why do Oprah, Apple, Jimmy Buffet, WWE, and Star Trek have such a huge following? Marketing consultant and...