Archive for July, 2007
Let go of your unprofitable customers
Wednesday, July 25th, 2007I meant to pipe up on this story a while ago when I first read about Sprint’s decision to drop customers who called their customer service lines too much. Now I’m seeing it reported again by another source, and with greater depth and perspective. So maybe it’s time to talk about this.
I completely support Sprint’s [...]
Spotting the story, and using it
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007The lead headline (in a FierceWireless email referring to a Washington Post story) announced: “Kids’ summer day calling increases by an hour.”
That’s the kind of “duh” headline that can give market research a questionable reputation (that, and the dinner hour phone calls, not to mention the sales-disguised-as-research common to political party mailings). The “well I [...]
Market research and beverly sills
Saturday, July 7th, 2007Is your research interesting to your prospects? Or does every other question elicit a yawn? Because if it’s the latter, please don’t blame the participants for a low response rate. Or for results that lack enthusiasm.
On occasion, I try to answer a survey here and there; whether it’s a show of support or professional curiosity. [...]
Meaningful banner ads
Friday, July 6th, 2007Dear Stratford Festival of Canada:
At The New York Times website, above and beside an article on Philip Johnson’s glass house, your big red ads featured prominently. I tried clicking on both. This was the first time in perhaps a year that I have actually clicked on a banner ad. (On purpose anyway, but that’s another [...]
Magic in marketing
Thursday, July 5th, 2007If The New York Times finds it newsworthy to report the tremendous buzz around a show called Pushing Daisies (coming this fall), and John From Cincinnati features some of the same magical themes, do we see a trend in progress?
I believe so, and yet I haven’t compiled all the data yet to prove it. Sometimes [...]
Yahoo smart ads: it’s about time
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007If I get an email from LL Bean and it features jackets, and I click on that and go to their website and look at more jackets, shouldn’t they be sending me more emails about jackets? I’ve wondered about this.
But instead, every time I get an email from them, or from the Gap, or from [...]
ipod + iphone = mission impossible
Monday, July 2nd, 2007How best to sum up products that go way beyond the competition? First, it’s not a competition. What Apple has been doing, under the direction of Steve Jobs, is to put aside the so-called competition, not worry about anyone else, and create something that simply hasn’t been done before.
Friday’s Charlie Rose show got to the [...]