Give thanks for shopaholics
Black Friday. It’s funny that such a dismal name has always been used to identify the action-packed kick-start to the holiday shopping season.
These days the name is more fitting. In 2008, after-Thanksgiving shopping was at its lowest in forty years. And it’s not looking up. But luckily for retailers, there are plenty of crazy people [...]
The Power of Humanity
Fourth in a series analyzing seven new economy trends
One of the most thrilling aspects of my work is the opportunity to speak daily with leaders I respect in fields that cross the business spectrum. I never pass on the chance to ask how the economic recession is affecting their business and what they see happening [...]
This Little Piggie Went to Market … Online
Let’s face it – the economy today has forced many businesses to change the way they think about advertising. Many companies are forced to cut budgets any way they can. But you can’t stop advertising, or you certainly won’t survive. In fact most marketers would agree that in a shrinking economy marketing and advertising become [...]
Make “Private Label” Work for Your Brand
My shoulders tighten. My hands clinch. And I hear myself thinking “this is a crappy time to be in the business of marketing.” Jobs, AND THEREFORE THE ENTIRE U.S. ECONOMY, depend on our ability to get customers to spend money. And yet the resources we have to accomplish that Herculean task get thinner every day. [...]
The Bling Thing is Over
Those of us engaged in marketing in the United States suddenly find ourselves in a precarious situation. We have helped create a false economy based on a belief perpetuated by our industry: the more you buy, the happier you are.
In fact, our work has been so effective that consumer appetite has become insatiable. Americans buy [...]
Investing vs. Spending: Moving Forward in the New Economy
Pretty, shiny, sparkly. It’s all too easy to get caught in the game of keeping up with the Joneses in today’s society. Everywhere you look, the media is constantly promoting aspirational lifestyles that are unrealistic for the average person to maintain. But, we still watch, we still want. We still buy.
Over the last decade, society [...]
