Tomorrow is July 4th, 2020 the American Independence day. July 4th is the American Independence Day and a day of hope and freedom for people.Due to the recent spike in American coronavirus cases, traditional firework displays have been cancelled in regions where there is an upsurge of cases. However, there are some options to watch fireworks and here is a nice list of virtual fire work displays. Here is our July 4th post from 2008, in the midst of the great recession. It's really important to start thinking about life after the global coronavirus (COVID) pandemic.... because like the great recession, we will overcome this. Here is why we should all be hopeful this 4th of July: Continue reading

Today all US states have reopened partially after two months of lockdown. This has left many of our readers worldwide wondering why America is reopening when Coronavirus infections and deaths keep increasing ? Here are some thoughts on this question: Continue reading

With the experience of coronavirus COVID 19 lockdowns work-life will change forever. . With 91% US kids at home parents are spending more time than ever with children. Some parents have jobs that allow digital work and these folks are so lucky. Then there are the struggling 25 million unemployed in the travel, tourism, retail and any type of jobs that require a physical presence. At the other end of essential workers are the beleaguered medical worker, true heros, who show up every day to work. No less valiant are factory workers, grocery retail workers, law enforcement folks who are keeping essential services working. For everyone in each of these situations the pandemic has been trying as the USA tries to reopen. Going forward here is how work life will change: Continue reading

It's hard to remain calm when one was expecting the Dow index to cross 30k and it's in the 26K range. - in a matter of days despite interest rate reduction.. If the Louvre museum is closed and Mona Lisa has a mask things are getting serious. Coronavirus is dangerous but the panic is even more dangerous. Continue reading

Go to any event and observe dressed up folks taking selfies. Or folks asking someone else to take a picture for them. Also observe how younger people are examining the background- i.e. the photo frame. The purpose of those photos... Continue reading

Why is it so hard to change your web content? Here are some top reasons that we have observed: -There are many people involved- on the technical back end side. These could be an in-house tech team or a vendor agency. -Technical folks don't seem to have clear instructions from their bosses. If you are the person doing the changes, your boss seems to give more priority to some managers than others. -Organizational politics play a big role. A less powerful department manager asks for a "contact us" form on a particular page. "The contact form is already there on another page", the tech person reasons. He/she now needs to discuss with the technical boss. And this could take weeks unless the requesting manager keeps reminding. In case the requesting manager forgets and the tech folks forget- it never gets done. Meanwhile, the advertising agency keeps spending money driving traffic to the department page. The results are lackluster. Continue reading

Today is Giving Tuesday, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. It's timely think about the impact that a non-profit is able create and communicate . With 1.5 Million non-profits in the US, it's hard for both beneficiaries and donors to find the non-profit that will actually make a difference. Most beneficiaries are incapable (eg too sick or too poor) or unaware (eg US opiate epidemic) that there are helping hands around. Continue reading

The backstory starts in the pre-internet age when sales folks were very reluctant to adopt technology because they wanted to keep their leads to themselves. After all, commissions were earned depending on who "closed" the sale. Similarly in direct mail and catalogs, the coupon code and a mailed in order identified which mailing worked. As digital and internet marketing developed, the legacy metrics were adopted and "last click attribution" became important. If you think about it "last click" or the ad that you clicked mirrored the "sales closing" and fitted neatly with the old direct mail coupon code model. All you had to do was to put a code on the ad, email and upon checkout just match the ad to the transaction and "Eureka" you had attributed the ad spend, specific email or ad to the purchase. Continue reading

It is sad to see that Forever 21 filed for bankruptcy. Their backstory is fascinating and the 5 minute video backstory of Korean immigrants achieving the "American Dream" by Business Insider is worth watching. Unlike the typical sad "decline of US malls" story and rise of "online retail" the Forever 21 story has important lessons for all businesses. It is also an eerie reminder of the the New Coke fiasco, To recap, Coca Cola did not realize in the eighties that customers did not drink Coke for taste but it was all about being American - a much deeper meaning. Continue reading

The most exciting thing for business over the 2019 summer was when the Business Roundtable put out a Statement on the "Purpose of the Corporation." Signed by 181 American CEO's all of whose brands are well known to consumers or businesses, the statement reflects the changing times. Download the Roundtable Statement here and check out the 181 signatures from many CEO's of companies you are already familiar with.American politicians have been telling us what we know to be true - the "American Dream" eludes most folks today due to rapid changes in globalization and technology. Thankfully, leaders of American businesses have taken notice and have decided to move their focus from the "next quarter" to "long term shareholder value" on the shareholder element and have included all stakeholders in the "Purpose of the Corporation". The times have truly changed in the last decade with all stakeholders having a voice on social media and the old dictum of "just focus on shareholder (short-term) value" can no longer work. See Eric Posner's article "Milton Friedman was wrong" in the Atlantic. Continue reading

Monday was Earth Day and it's a good time to think about the recycling crisis facing the US. Last year China that took in most of the developed world's recyclable trash decided to up it's quality standards. Do recyclables going into the recycle bin have quality standards ?- the surprised reader might wonder. Yes they do as this article in Mercury News explains. It is timely for all to understand what you should NOT be putting in the recycle bin. Continue reading

The TJX group (including brands like TJMax, Marshalls, HomeGoods etc.) and Costco seem to be always crowded. And when you look at long checkout lines you know they must be doing something right in the digital age. Continue reading

Next time you pass a Dollar Store in the US (including Dollar Tree and Dollar General) observe the parking lot. In towns rich and not so rich you'll find that the parking lot is full most of the time.If you have not gone into a Dollar Store recently - do so and then compare the merchandise to Walmart. For a dollar the quality is not bad. Dollar Stores took off after the 2008 recession and there are more Dollar Stores than McDonald's in the USA. Between Dollar Tree and Dollar General there are 30,000 stores and these are very densely seen in the mid-west and the farmlands of middle America. A recent article "Sign of hope or worry- when the dollar store comes to town" describes the mixed bag that these stores are for local communities. Continue reading

The two biggest attractions for marketers with 5G will be:1) Mobility: With mobile use already at 3 hers 35 minutes a day in the US expectations are that mobile will surpass TV in terms of time spent in 2019. And that's before 5G really kicks in. 2)Fast=Decrease in latency: Latency or the delay between asking and getting replies due to network speeds will vastly improve. Google will get even faster replies but also even your messaging can get faster. The day is not far away when at a restaurant you see the dessert ads on your phone even before the waiter asks at the end of your meal! Continue reading

Enter big, bad, old world, clunky Microsoft who acquires Github last year and the Internet exploded with jokes. Both Bill Gates and Steve Balmer were tough industrial age managers and Satya Nadella realized that the world had changed- see "How Microsoft got its groove back."Command and Control" and top down strategy days are over in the knowledge age. Continue reading

The tectonic shift in marketing occurred in the late 1980's and 1990's particularly with the publication of Dwyer, Schurr and Oh (1987) that spelt out the parallel between the long term human marriage and business relationships. It was earlier in Europe that scholars of the European Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group figured out that B2B relationships are long term that B2B marketers who really sold anything already used.Similarly in B2C marketers had been using customer relationships data for a hundred years in direct ma Continue reading

2019 has rolled in and understanding the digital assault on Brands is timely.Brand owners don't seem to Google their own brands. How could many brands with 1.5 star reviews still be in the market? Our guess is that managements don't seem to checking. If they checked, they'd find solutions to this brand fiasco. Continue reading

Google on the other hand depends on searcher feedback to make the search engine better and better. If people think that an answer is good that answer is pushed up in SEO and Google becomes better next time that query pops up.In the process, when more customers view a page or video it signals that it is answering the query the customer had typed. The customer really does not have to share a page on Facebook for the page to become better ranked. Views of a page against a search query is good enough to rank the page higher. This is the reason that we watch YouTube videos that have higher page views and traditional media talks about how many views a video or TED talk has.It 's hard to build a product like Google that automatically becomes better every time someone uses it. If you think about it, legendary brands like Coca Cola do not have an automatic machine based system of becoming better. However digital businesses like Amazon and Netflix rapidly use big data to improve their recommendation engines.Sometimes you do feel that the suggestions are right and not simply up-sell tactics. Continue reading

Social Media has galvanized us to share our best face with the world. Go to any event (e.g. weddings) and you will find everyone taking pictures on their cell phones. This despite the professional photographers trying to do their best... Continue reading

Market segmentation and targeting is probably the hardest concept in marketing. Strangely once understood even the savviest marketers seem to flip-flop in their marketing execution. For those dear readers who followed the 2016 US Presidential election the map below (Source... Continue reading

The recent US Tax changes, increasing the standard deduction has caused alarm in the non-profit community. Some experts believe that donations will decline from $ 309 Billion in 2016 by upto $20 Billion. This as people will stop donating since... Continue reading

Blockchain technology will start shaking up supply chains and brands. But first, what is blockchain? Here's our take: Blockchain is a distributed accounting ledger . A mechanism to share how much was paid and received by whom, where each transaction... Continue reading

At a recent seminar for our local Chamber of Commerce we presented a "lunch and learn" session. The purpose was to help the audience (thanks attendees!) understand the "secret" of being "found on Google." A great starting point is to understand how Google "thinks." Continue reading

The days of information asymmetry are over. Information is no longer power. And Google and other search engines are just getting started. The notion of the used car salesman trying to sell a "lemon" is a relic of the pre-internet... Continue reading

Big Consulting firms are competing with Big Advertising agencies according to E.J. Schultz in the current issue of AdAge. Big consulting firms like IBM, Accenture , PwC and Deloitte are growing their digital marketing practices and competing with big ad... Continue reading