This is an interesting article on status seekers. They will pay more to get luxury goods that set them apart but in the end they might not achieve the status they are seeking. It is something that merchants and marketers have known intuitively. The studies reinforce their insights. From PR perspective, status is something we […]
Posted on November 30th, 2011 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 204 Comments »
When you stake your future on a product and suddenly the product appears unsafe, one is left more than red-faced. That is the position General Motors finds itself in with its Chevrolet Volt. The auto’s lithium batteries are undergoing a Federal investigation because they have either caught fire or begun to smoke in two […]
Posted on November 29th, 2011 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 51 Comments »
I’ve been reading a variety of stories (links below) recently about Marketing, PR and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the one thing that became very apparent is that there’s a lot of disagreement and perhaps no little confusion about the intersection of Marketing/PR and CSR. In fact I found myself agreeing and disagreeing in equal […]
Posted on November 26th, 2011 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 187 Comments »
The mass hysteria of Black Friday is instructive for PR practitioners. There is little reason for it especially since studies have shown that lower prices on goods such as toys and electronics come later in December. Yet, millions line up to crowd stores and fight one another for “bargains” on racks and shelves. Merchants are […]
Posted on November 25th, 2011 by admin
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What would you call a service that fewer use every year but raises prices to compensate for lost revenue? The US Postal Service. There is nothing the USPO can say to lure users back to “snail mail.” The service is locked into a cycle of erosion with no recovery expected. Congress has finally taken notice […]
Posted on November 24th, 2011 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 184 Comments »
It is an interesting PR strategy to ask the media to take it easy on you and to appeal for patience. That apparently is what the new Hewlett Packard CEO, Meg Whitman, is doing. Her appeal is understandable. HP has had too much drama associated with it for the last six years — and too […]
Posted on November 23rd, 2011 by admin
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Product placement is a marketing topic that vascilates between invisible and shameful. For my favorite shameful example, we have “How I Met Your Mother” retroactively rebranding a book to promote a movie…as if they could travel in time. But there’s a lot more to product placement. And someone pitched me on this fancy infographic that […]
Posted on November 22nd, 2011 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 174 Comments »
This is great PR. Google proves time and again that it is not what one says about oneself so much as what one does. The company makes mistakes but on balance it has led the way in providing needed but unfunded service to internet users. It must be wonderful to work in the corporate communications […]
Posted on November 22nd, 2011 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 220 Comments »
The U.S. debt panel will conclude today in failure, an end observers have seen coming for a couple of weeks. It is a lesson in clashing assumptions. Neither side could see the other’s point of view. In other words, the debt panel was a futile exercise from the beginning. It is also one more example […]
Posted on November 21st, 2011 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 52 Comments »
It is hard to watch Eastman Kodak liquidate itself in a losing fight to stay out of bankruptcy. What must employees of the company feel? Maintaining morale has to be a losing effort, and gallows humor the order of the day. The irony, of course, is that Kodak invented the technology that is killing […]
Posted on November 18th, 2011 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 192 Comments »
