You see them everywhere you go as you drive through your local suburbs, cruising by the strip mall shopping center:
The sign twirler, sign spinner, human directional sign, sign waver, sign flipper, living sign, or a casual sign holder on a stick . And you always do the same thing as you drive by: “hey, look at that idiot with the sign!”
Continue reading HOW MUCH MONEY DO SIGN TWIRLERS MAKE?
If you’re a brand manager, one goal of your job is to ensure that you have an active Social Media presence.
Some companies do it well. Some companies do it poorly. Some companies are non-existent in the social space. Those that do it well don’t necessarily need any more advice other than to keep doing what’s working. Those that do it poorly need all the help that they can get. And those that aren’t participating at all – well, maybe that’s okay for them. It depends on the industry and their products, we suppose. Continue reading TOP 9 BRANDS WITH THE LARGEST SOCIAL MEDIA MARKET SHARE
Hattie Garlick has a plan.
For 2013, she decided on a unique New Year’s resolution, to try to raise her son Johnny as cost-free as possible for a year.
That’s right — she’s not going to spend any money for anything that’s specifically geared towards her 2-year-old son.
Continue reading TAKE THE LIVE FREE CHALLENGE FOR A YEAR: DON’T BUY YOUR KIDS ANYTHING
How many people listen to the radio?
If you were to pay attention to technology pundits and the general news media, you would come away with the conclusion of, “well, practically nobody”. According to them, all those people who used to be radio listeners are bypassing that “old” technology for new offerings that the Internet has brought to bear, such as Pandora and Spotify. Cellphone playlists. Satellite radio, even, still makes a claim for being a popular alternative to traditional radio listening.
Continue reading RADIO DOMINATES IN ADVERTISING IMPACT SURVEY
Look, we all know that kids today are a little on the plump side.
They don’t like to exercise, they don’t like to eat anything but fast food.
Blame it on MTV, video games, and Ronald McDonald.
But there’s a reason for it – and it may have something to do with the same reason that Sugar Smacks had to be changed to just Smacks on the cereal aisle.
Continue reading WANT KIDS TO EAT MORE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES? IT’S ALL ABOUT CARTOON MARKETING
Even if you’re one of those Occupy Wall Streeters, complaining about everything that Big Business is doing to Keep You Down, chances are you’re also a little bit brand conscious.
Aside from the fact that the OWS movement went to all the trouble of ensuring that they have a trademark on “OCCUPY WALL STREET”, those 99% really aren’t any different from the rest of us.
They’re wearing name-brand clothing, purchased at a name-brand retailer.
They’re marketing their protest with Apple and Google phones, using Facebook and Twitter over cellular networks or purloined free WiFi connections that are setup/maintained/paid for by other corporations.
A protest is fine, and bringing attention to companies’ misdeeds is powerful — but don’t complain about how all businesses are bad if you have to rely on them in order to handle your protest in the first place.
See, it really IS all about branding and marketing, isn’t it?
Continue reading CAN YOU NAME THE TOP 100 GLOBAL BRANDS FOR 2012?
What brands do you love?
What products do you especially seek out simply because you love the company, regardless of whether they’re considered the Best of Class in their product line?
Would you believe that men and women differ on which brands they admire most?
We know, it’s shocking that there could be gender differences based solely on brand affection – but it’s true.
Continue reading NEWS FLASH: MEN AND WOMEN LOVE DIFFERENT BRANDS
This is an open letter to the marketing staff at MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment, Sands, and other casino corporations. And if you’re part of the marketing staff at a different type of company, you may want to pay attention to this as well – since the core takeaway here applies to you as well. Continue reading AN OPEN LETTER TO MGM, CAESARS, SANDS, AND OTHER CASINO COMPANIES REGARDING SOCIAL MEDIA
It’s hard to differentiate your brand in a small market.
Imagine how difficult it can be to establish your brand in today’s world-wide environment.
Now imagine how more complicated that has become with the Internet diluting everybody’s attention span to that of a walnut. Now you have an idea of how hard it can be to get a new brand noticed in the competitive world-wide field.
Especially when other companies have had decades-upon-decade head start on you.
Here is a list of the TOP 50 BEST GLOBAL PUBLICALLY-TRADED BRANDS FOR 2009, as ranked by their overall brand value in the marketplace.
The first ten are fairly easy to pinpoint by anybody who’s been paying attention to anything around them:
More interesting than how many of these global brands could you name – how many of these brands do you touch or interact with on a daily basis as part of your everyday life?
It really shouldn’t bother Web Watch as much as it does.
After all, eating too many cookies of any type isn’t good for you. Heck, even Cookie Monster says that “Cookies are a Sometimes Food”
But as the Chicago Sun-Times and others pointed out last year, Girl Scout cookies were getting a bit smaller, perhaps due to the recession. There’s even a FACEBOOK page devoted to fans who want to get their 8 cookies back in the box.
But now an entire whole year has passed since, and Web Watch dutifully went to the local grocery store to buy our annual allottment of Thin Mints, Tagalongs, and Samoas from the Girl Scouts (and their parents) trying to sell off their excess inventory*.
And Web Watch can confirm that this year’s Thin Mints Economic Indicator shows that the economy is still in the gutter as the 2010 box looks to be the same as the 2009 box. That is, in 2010 we’re still looking at a smaller box and fewer cookies. Continue reading FOOD ALERT! GIRL SCOUT COOKIE THIN MINTS ARE STILL SMALLER, SO TRY THIS RECIPE
William Poundstone is one of Web Watch’s favorite writers, having written many books around the same theme of exposing various ways that professionals (magicians, street crooks, carnies, casinos, etc) lie, cheat, and steal their way into your wallet.
Some of Mr Poundstone’s books that you may already be aware of include:
All are great reads and lots of fun.
And now Mr Poundstone adds to his roster with PRICELESS – THE MYTH OF FAIR VALUE AND HOW TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT. Continue reading READ THIS BOOK: WILLIAM POUNDSTONE’S PRICELESS — THE MYTH OF FAIR VALUE
HAVE A SLOGAN is one of those funny widget-driven sites that follow in the footsteps of many a ”why didn’t we think of this sooner” item.
You know that game you play in the bar where you take any common marketing phrase or famous quote and see how much funnier it can be if you were substitute one key word with “fart” or “underpants”? Let’s try it, shall we?
(Why underpants? Because a clown once told me – seriously – that there is nothing funnier to a 5-year-old child than the word “underpants”. There’s a reason why Captain Underpants is so popular with the kiddies. But we digress…) Continue reading SLOGAN MASHUP OF THE DAY: EXCESSIVE GAS? CAPTAIN SAYS “MAKE IT HAPPEN”
National Feel Your Boobies Week continues…
If there’s one thing that a successful patient has in battling their own disease, it’s assertiveness.
No good ever comes from being passive and letting the disease – any disease – control you.
THE ASSERTIVE CANCER PATIENT is Jeanne Sather’s blog devoted to how she is beating her own cancer.
Continue reading HURRAY FOR JEANNE SATHER: THE ASSERTIVE CANCER PATIENT
National Feel Your Boobies Week continues…
If you haven’t noticed, October brings with it not just the black-and-orange fun of Halloween, but also the ubiquitious pink ribbon-emblazoned products that companies issue to show their support for breast cancer research.
Web Watch 100% supports donating to research and the good that comes from that – whether it be for breast cancer or any other charitable cause of your choice.
However, where the pink ribbon on products was once seen as solely as a philanthopic device has turned into something much more: Just Another Marketing Ploy.
Why buy these regular spatulas when you can buy a pink spatula?
Why buy just any room circulation fan when you can buy a room circulator fan that has a pink ribbon on it?
Just browse Amazon or your favorite local store this month, and you’ll see any number of pink and ribbonized items that serve no real purpose when compared to their normal-colored counterparts sold throughout the rest of the year.
Continue reading COMPANIES THAT PROFIT BY USING PINK RIBBONS FOR BREAST CANCER
Billy Mays (the bearded one) and Anthony Sullivan (the other guy) are two of those “As Seen on TV” pitchmen, shilling products ranging from stick-up lightbulbs to cleaning supplies to other handy household products.
Since these infomercials have become so ingrained in the public consciousness (“I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”), The Discovery Channel has decided to make Pitchmen, a reality-TV show about what it takes to get a new product from the pitch to TV.
Similar in concept to the ABC program AMERICAN INVENTOR from a few years ago, people from around the country bring their inventions to a pitch meeting with Billy, Anthony, and the president of Tele-Brands in the hopes that they too have the Next Greatest Must-Have item.
Along the way, we learn a little bit about what it takes to be a successful telemarketed product, such as: Continue reading TIVO ALERT: PITCHMEN ON DISCOVERY
