Richard Band added a comment to my summary of opinions about Starbucks asking for my opinion on its recent series of initiatives. So, here goes:
I receive quite a lot of cartoons, videos etc through email. Not many of them make me laugh out loud like this one did.
This is the fifth in a series of posts about the dangers of blind allegiance to tools and metrics. Today's subject: Treating the numbers.Two examples of this. The first comes from an article published in Knowledge@Wharton about the work of Gavin Cassar, an accounting professor. He's shown that using accounting tools designed to help bring some discipline to the management process actually can make things worse.
A nice example of the relative position of Coke and Sprite on the brand pecking order, as demonstrated in flight:Passenger: "Can I have a Coke, please?"Flight Attendant: "I'm sorry. I only have Pepsi. Will that be OK?"Passenger: "Can I have a Sprite, please?"Flight Attendant: "I have Sierra Mist. It's just the same."
The third Post2Post Virtual Book tour, where an author moves with their book from site to site over the period of a week, is now underway. This month's book is The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam.Dan's book explores the use of visual thinking to work through complex business ideas, not just on the back of the napkin although that, for him, is where it all started. In addition to his book, Dan has a blog, The Digital Roam, aka The Back of the Napkin.The tour stops are:
On the lookout for green stories this St. Patrick's Day. So far (as of me arriving at SFO for a flight to the city perhaps least associated with green, Detroit):1) (NPR) The opening of the Green Exchange, a carbon trading exchange in NY. The U.S. is miles behind Europe and trying to catch up.2) (NPR) The city has banned garbage disposers which has many residents (and Incinerator, the lading manufacturer) up in arms.3) (WSJ) Lighting is the new, hot green business attracting Private Equity funding.
My weekly summary of interesting and entertaining posts. More at the bottom of the page in "Martin's Shared Items":1) Do the test: London Transport (via John Winsor)An awareness test. I got it right, yet oh so wrong. Brilliant.2) Playboy Energy, Baby... : Dim Bulb
Just came across this commercial that fits with my last post about Sears and illustrates the dangers of shooting off in all directions:
Edward Lampert, Chairman of Sears Holdings, is thinking about whether to start selling Sears' proprietary brands such as Diehard, Craftsman and Kenmore through other retail outlets. In his annual letter to shareholders he floated this idea, something that's been discussed for years but always rejected because of the anticipated impact on sales at Sears stores.
For the last couple of days, I've been attending the Economist Marketing Forum here in San Francisco (Landor is the Founding Sponsor). This year's theme: "Mastering Brand and Marketing Strategies in the Digital Era," approached from the different perspectives of speakers from a wide range of backgrounds and industries. And the ten takeaways are:1) "You can't fake the guts of a company"
