This is Google Video week on my blog...here’s another one. This is Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, at Garage’s “Bootcamp for Startups” in London on September 5, 2000. It‘s fair to consider Nolan the father of arcade video games; more info about Nolan is here at Wikipedia and via the [...]
Here’s more information along the theme of understanding the “young-people” market. On May 24, 2006, I moderated a panel for the Western Association of Venture Capitalists. The panel consisted of six students whose ages varied from fourteen to seventeen. It’s one thing to read about how they use technology, and it’s another to hear them [...]
Kathleen Gasperini is the co-founder and senior vice president of Label Networks. We met in May, 2006 at the Surfing Industry Manufacturers Association conference in Cabo San Lucas. Her company helps leading brands such as Apple Computer, Verizon Wireless, Pepsi, Vans, Levi Straus, and Burton Snowboards understand the global youth culture. She is also the [...]
I asked Dr. Chamie three additional questions based on the comments to his first interview. Here are his follow-on answers. Question: What will the demographics of the US look like in 2050? Answer: Later this year, sometime in mid-October, the US population is expected to hit the 300 million mark. The growth of the America’s [...]
A few years ago I met Dr. Joseph Chamie at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. (This was back when I was “hot” and invited to the World Economic Forum.) He was terrific there—stealing the show in his panel session. He has spoken at Garage events twice—stealing the show on both occasions too. He [...]
"I already have a meeting at lunch." This isn't a lie if you consider talking to people on the bench between shifts a "meeting." What can I say? One of my great joys in life is playing hockey, and some of the best games are at lunch time during the week. So if I tell [...]
Oy vey, Uri calls out marketing gurus with this top twelve list. By my count, I’ve committed at least five of these sins, but I won’t reveal which five. :-)
A few weeks ago I provided a site where you can see my Art of Innovation speech. My buddy, Mike Johnston, just showed me that my Art of the Start speech is online here. The Art of Innovation is a speech for any stage of company that is trying to create and marketing innovative products [...]
Two blog postings opened my eyes about marketing. The first deals with the new 4Ps by John Sviokla and Antony Paoni called "Marketing Remix." The second is a very useful approach to marketing planning (what a great oxymoron) by Kelly Odell called "The World's Shortest Marketing Plan." With both party's permission, I was "inspired" by [...]
By popular demand, here are the top ten lies of marketers. Actually, it was too hard to stop at ten, so this list is a dirty dozen. As my mother used to say, "How can you tell if a marketer is lying? His lips are moving." 1. "Our PR firm says it can get Walt [...]
I know a fair amount about evangelism and a little bit about blogging, so I've combined the two in order to provide some insights into the evangelism of a blog. Granted, I've only been at blogging for 120 days or so, but marketing is marketing, right?1. Think “book” not “diary.” First, a bit of philosophy: [...]
My buddy Bill Meade pointed out this article in the Economist to me: http://snipurl.com/womenworkforce Very interesting and eye-opening about the economic power of women. The Economist provides a day pass for people who aren't subscribers. The first paragraph of the story is: EVEN today in the modern, developed world, surveys show that parents still prefer [...]
There are some books that are “must reads” for entrepreneurs; some for marketers; some for salespeople; and some for programmers. And then there are a handful that everyone should read. IMHO, one such book is Influence--Science and Practice by Dr. Robert Cialdini, a psychology professor at Arizona State University. This book provides insights that you [...]
Several people have asked me for a blog entry about executive summaries. My colleague at Garage, Bill Reichert, wrote this explanation, and it's as good as it gets. Writing a Compelling Executive Summary By now, you’ve probably already read several articles, web pages—even books—about writing the perfect executive summary. Most of them offer a wealth [...]
I found a very interesting blog about naming: http://www.namedevelopment.com/blog/ This led me to the most interesting article I've read about finding domain names called The Search for a Domain Name: http://www.yafla.com/dforbes/2006/03/29.html#a302 I strongly suggest you check these two blogs out if you're interested in the topic of naming. Technorati Tags: branding, marketing, positioning
A friend who worked at O'Hare International Airport told me this story. He once watched a passenger absolutely scream at an airline ticket agent. The ticket agent, however, remained completely calm. After the tirade was over, my friend asked her how she could remain so calm, and she said, “That's easy. He's going to Paris, [...]
Adam Lashinsky is a reporter for Fortune magazine. He has the high-tech beat in Silicon Valley. As such, he works with some of the best known (as well as the most full-of-shitake) companies and PR firms in the world. His perspective on working with the press is valuable for every marketing person. You can read [...]
There's a great article called “How they named companies” at the Day2Day Activities blog. How do you like this for irony? Volvo- From the Latin word “volvo,” which means “I roll.” It was originally a name for a ball bearing being developed by SKF. I'll never look at a Volvo without thinking about this irony [...]
You may find this hard to believe, but I recommend that you read this post, “Spread Firefox but don't be a fanatic,” from the Firefox marketing community web site: http://www.spreadfirefox.com/node/19663 It begins with this: In my opinion it's ridiculous to have “loyalty” to a company. I base my evaluation of products only on their own [...]
Blogging has flipped traditional PR on its head. It used to be that ink begat buzz. Life was simple then: you sucked up to the Wall Street Journal, one of its reporters wrote about your product, and the buzz began. (Here’s a collection of great speeches about the state of the art of blogging, courtesy [...]