Relationship Marketing - Luxury Brands Get It Right

BFFs Kate, Rihanna, and Stella. Photo via twitter.

According to the Wall Street Journal, “many consumer goods segments are suffering” but, the luxury market “is rich with promise.” This news is not surprising, even the casual observer can see differences between the distinctive clothing and accessories sold at luxury department store Neiman Marcus and the more pedestrian offerings sold at JC Penney.

Steve Jobs’ Biography Teaches Product Managers to Lead like a CEO

“If it could save a person’s life could you find a way to shave 10 seconds off the boot time?” Steve Jobs dramatically asked an engineer in Walter Isaacson’s much talked about biography, “Steve Jobs.” Jobs reasoned “if there were five million people using the Mac, and it took ten seconds extra to turn it on every day…(that is) the equivalent of at least one hundred lifetimes saved.” This life or death intensity over product detail combined with an understanding of its’ real-world application is key to knowing Steve Jobs was a great product manager.

The Salient Feature About Me, About Two-Way Listen, About Social Media

Image from smashingapps.com

It is difficult to objectively report on my single-most prominent attribute but if pressed on the matter, I would reluctantly offer up thriftiness. I know the word doesn’t brim with positivity; I probably should have reached for one that does. The latest research from geneticists, neuroscientists, psychologists, sociologists, economists, and other influential “ists” that hold sway over marketers recommend I tout my kinder, smarter, and more creative qualities. The book Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior sums up recent social-anthropological theory by stating I need to display “good genes, good health, and good social intelligence” to wow my fellow humans. I, however, believe my fellow humans would recognize a trumped up resume if I did that.

Two-Way Listen is my first blog. It is concerned with Product Management, Product Marketing, and the conversations companies and consumers have amongst themselves and with each other about products. I aim to present what one person listening to public discourse in the modern, multi-media connected market place can observe. The ease of connectedness makes this dialogue relatively new and raises the stakes of business marketing by making successes or missteps more public than ever before. For a marketer, talk can be both cheap and expensive. Listening is a thriftier proposition and luckily I have the gift of thrift.                 

Marketing to "The Rest of Us" on Super Bowl Sunday

Photo by: hecknokitty via instagram

In his article for the Wall Street Journal, Matthew Futterman attempts to slot an estimated 111 million Super Bowl XLVI viewers into three, easy to understand categories: Novice, Casual, and Expert Fans. If you watched the game, you already know where you fall on this continuum. It may be more interesting to segment Americans actively avoiding the game, in other words, the rest of us.