Every once in a while, I wonder if people who are building product actually use their own products. How could someone have approved the 2 screen takeovers, one from the top and one from the bottom at the same time? Granted, the metrics must be amazing because it is so hard to read the […]
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There’s a restaurant in New York, one of many, that serves average to poor quality Indian food. By all rational and reasonable accounts, it should go out of business. But there’s this one thing different about this restaurant… it looks great on camera. This is a restaurant not optimized for taste, but for […]
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When I was about 17 years old I had saved money working as a DJ. I wanted to reward myself with a nice guitar. My first Martin guitar, my first nice guitar at all, a d15 mahogany guitar, if memory serves, it was about $550 in 1998. I must have gone to Sam Ash and Guitar […]
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I recently had a Birthday. Along with that comes birthday cards from loved ones, a stream of facebook well wishes, cards, texts and even a few phone calls. One of the emails I found especially creepy was from Quicken. When we were looking to move maybe 4 years ago, we spoke to Quicken Loans. […]
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I was speaking to someone yesterday who was lamenting that they had read about XYZ person who had everything figured out. The view that is presented in magazine, is great… for the people in the magazines. People can win popularity contests by cheating easily. All it often ends with is that person becoming more […]
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Package delivery startup Doorman just announced that they’re shutting down. The company’s feature service was allowing customers to have packages shipped to Doorman, who would then deliver the package at a time you chose. (No more long delivery windows or stolen packages). It’s not a bad idea, but the company had a major pricing problem. […]
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Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods makes a ton of sense to me. On one hand you have Whole Foods, a supermarket retailer with large spaces in high end areas capturing a fair amount of wallet share from consumers who have higher education, technology adoption and education. Further, many of their items are private label […]
Keep readingThe key to excelling in the business world is having good business game. But some of us are not born with the same talents for commerce as others. This is where the business coach comes in. Their job is to work with you to create the best strategy for improving your game, while also helping […]
Keep readingDigital marketing is very much a mix of art and science. The recent lawsuit concerning the Papa John’s texting scandal has not only brought to light some of the flawed digital marketing tactics that many organizations are using to get ahead of their competitors, but has set a prime example for exactly what businesses using […]
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Small businesses often find themselves caught in a loop of negative feedback. Something happens, which negatively impacts their sales. In order to save money, they cut back on costs. One of the first areas of the budget to be targeted in many instances is the marketing strategy. So, the business attracts even less customers in […]
Keep readingAs marketing and advertising have become more sophisticated, they have also become more specialized. These days, the most experienced gurus have watched firsthand as the art of influencing potential customers has evolved from simple graphic design and desktop publishing to the focus group intensive environment based on psychology that we see today. As a result, […]
Keep readingOver the past year and a half I have shifted my focus to a lot more SEO and online strategy. I know this may seem like it is late to the party, but this is the first time my digital strategy had to rely solely on online traffic to convert leads. My businesses in the […]
Keep readingIf there is one thing that every business should build it is a clear customer acquisition system. The system itself can vary greatly, but knowing where in the real life or digital marketing conversion funnel a customer is determines the life and death of your business. Once a company understands the triggers that would cause someone to […]
Keep readingNetflix has a well publicized contest where the winner gets $1 Million to improve the recommendation engine for movies by 10% or more. Taking advantage of the wisdom of the crowds is excellent and something that should be supported by more companies… but I don’t want something that is 10% better. Each time I log in […]
Keep readingAll marketing that you invest money or time in should have measurable expected outcomes. That makes sense but the next question is, what are you measuring (in business school parlance, what is the metric)? On a recent call with a (now former) PR firm, the comment was made: ‘Why don’t you care about sentiment? If […]
Keep readingHint, you pay them every few weeks. About 3 blocks from my apartment a grocery delivery company, Fresh Direct, parks 7 days a week from about 8a – 9p. Despite this being a violation of parking rules this is excellent from a logistical perspective. Being able to preplan deliveries and have a central point of […]
Keep readingI find it hilarious when I come across a job description for an iPhone app developer or some other mobile app development position looking for someone with 15 years of experience. Now, I know it’s hard to imagine life without your smartphone, but 15 years ago a phone was just a phone and almost always […]
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