Tuesday March 19, 2024

Problem

 A Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that Amazon.com prevents certain rivals from buying advertisements on its site.  Normally this would not be a marketing problem since as Amazon’s spokesperson pointed out, major retailers, such as Walmart, follow the same practice.  But there is a challenge for the company.  It is already in regulators’ sights and […]

Was Cash The Problem?

Senator Kamala Harris has dropped out of the Democratic race for the presidential nomination.  Was cash the primary problem as she alleged?  Only partially.  She didn’t have a message that gained voters’ attention.  It is the same problem most of the contestants have.  They are me-too or worse.  They don’t have effective ground games.  They […]

What’s The Problem?

Amazon is accused of featuring its private label products above those of branded goods.  People are upset.  What’s the problem?  Retailers do this all of the time, particularly in grocery stores.  It’s a margin play, and it is perfectly acceptable.  However, maybe it isn’t online. The rules might be different with a mammoth business that […]

An Interesting PR Problem

What do you do when your founder considers a run for President over loud opposition?  This is the position Starbucks finds itself in.  Howard Schultz is publicly noodling whether to run as an independent for the White House, and Democrats are terrified he will split the ranks and give another four years to Trump.  They […]

Image Problem

Vancouver, Seattle and Portland have an image problem.  The three cities are overrun with homeless men and women who reside on the streets because the weather tends to be mild.  The three towns want to project a forward-moving economy, but it is hard when people congregate on sidewalks,in alleyways, under bridges and in parks.  Portland […]

PR/Marketing Problem

Kentucky Fried Chicken has run out of chicken in the UK.  It has had to close 2/3 of its 900 restaurants in the country because of the shortage.  The chain is making light of it but the situation is serious.  There is no faster way to lose customers for the long-term.  Once they get out […]

Negative PR Not A Problem

In a usual election year, this kind of negative PR would be enough to sink a candidate.  Not this year.  Hillary Clinton should thank the Republican party for putting up a candidate with more negatives than she has.  Although it is early, it is looking now like Clinton will sweep most of the states in […]

Not Our Problem

The tally is out and the most deadly terror group in the world is not ISIS but West Africa’s Boko Haram.  Why then has the group not received the same news coverage and headlines as ISIS?  The answer appears to be that they are exploiting their own in Africa and not working outside of the continent to spread […]

Long-term PR Problem

Just as the Exxon Valdez caused multi-decade problems for Alaska, BP’s Deepwater Horizon well in the Caribbean has left a wide bed of gunk on the ocean floor.  The damage might not be visible but it is there on the seabed where marine creatures can ingest it to what effect is unknown.  This means that […]

A Global Problem

Around the world, bacteria are becoming immune to antibiotics.  This has happened for a two reasons — people misusing them and doctors over-prescribing them.  Bacteria are evolving naturally and building resistance rather than dying and disappearing.  The problem is not new.  Early developers of antibiotics foresaw a day when new strains of hardier “bugs” would appear. […]