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Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category
Village Antiques at Biltmore is a unique client in that they carry a more diverse inventory of any company I have ever worked with. Finite market, but spread out all over the globe. What better way to get company and product information in the hands of those who most seek it…then the web!
Look for product listing with e-commerce functionality sooner than later.
Most companies, especially small firms with less than 20 employees, can’t afford to hire a full time marketing director. Often times they are relegated to using agencies, independents, or they simply manage their own marketing.
I can’t tell you how many businesses I have worked with in the past with a president or CEO who knows his customer, knows what he or she is thinking, and how to sell them products and services without question. “So why do we need a marketing director?”
Thus, I always find it interesting when I come in for market research or other consulting purposes and find that the core customer or target market hasn’t changed.
These businesses already find themselves in a slump and immediately want to believe that this is as a result of the economic conditions, changing markets, or new competition…
What shall we do…?
It seems hard for we technologists to come to grips with the fact that more than half of the new gadgets, ideas, and cellular phone incarnations will quickly pass through the market, never to be heard from again.
Many ideas have a lot of entrepreneurial spirit behind them, and the voice of a 20-something techno-geek that simply “knows” that his product will change everything.
Tell that to the folks who brought you “Cocaine” energy drink. Cocaine is a high-energy drink, containing three and a half times the amount of caffeine as Red Bull. It was pulled from U.S. shelves in 2007, after the FDA declared that its producers, Redux Beverages, were “illegally marketing their drink as an alternative to street drugs.” The drink is still available, however, online, in Europe and even in select stores in the U.S. Despite the controversy.
Can you say Crystal Pepsi, New Coke, Lifesaver’s Soda, Coors Bottled Water, and on and on…
So when I read about things like Sotokolan, I can only pause and say, why? (More on Marketing Profs here: http://bit.ly/9DZZFT)
If the adage is true that life imitates art, then what exactly is 3-D. I realize that we live in 3-D…so to speak, but 3-D films gave me a headache when I was a kid, and unfortunately they still do.
ESPN intends to launch a 3-D channel for the newly touted 3-D televisions that are on the market. Sales of these devices is mighty slim so far. 3-D films have taken off again. Popularized in the 1950′s and making various resurgences through the last five decades, 3-D has been a technology on the periphery of the film industry due to the expensive nature of production.
Three advertisers have been convinced to produce 3-D commercials for the new ESPN channel, but how far will all of this go?
Personally I think there are only so many gimmicks you can put into any one production, whether 30 seconds or 3 hours, that will make 3-D palatable.
Some may call me a technology naysayer, but let’s look at other similar technologies, such as virtual reality. By 1999 we were all supposed to be hooked up to our devices 12 hours out of a 24 hour day, living out our fantasies in virtual worlds of crime fighting, swashbuckling, and sex. What happened to that? I ‘m still game for it, especially on Mondays, but where did it go?
The government uses the heck out of it for flight simulation, combat training, and drone flights. That’s cool, but I don’t have an extra $15 million to pick up my gear to get started.
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