Back Seat Marketers

Even the top tier brands are beginning to feel the US consumer pinch.
To appreciate our situation, consumer sentiment is reaching long time lows (source: St. Louis Fed):

Value marketing isn’t about going for cheap, it is about getting more for less = benefits / price. Wal-Mart forged value merchandising into almost every consumer category they served [...]

An old adage about how you create perceptions. When you’re a market leader, you typically don’t want to detract your message by mentioning other players. Conversely, followers play on how they meet needs as compared to others.
Ohhh, Mr. Stewart, on Obama and Clinton: well displayed…

At work, we talk about determining user problems, finding innovative solutions that hit top concerns, and finally creating delight in the experience. Enter: Zappos.com, an online retailer for clothes, shoes and other gear.
Today, I got this note from the customer service team after buying some shoes:
Dear Cory,
Good news!
Although you originally ordered Standard (4 to 5 [...]

FYI, Google is not in the internet business, it is primarily in the advertising and media delivery business.
Google’s PPC traffic report from comScore today reflects the nature of the emerging recession that is gripping most of Corporate America. While technology VCs would like to think that PPC will be the last element of marketing to [...]

Can’t help but think that the possible combination of Best Buy and Circuit City is an old school move to get quick hit, bolt-on growth instead of a way to create value for consumers. Honestly, how does a DVD rental chain integrate with an electronics retailer other than products from one are played by products [...]

Google’s growth in PPC ads is still gaining share v. the competition. Yahoo! appears to be testing the idea of partially throwing in the towel, but wants to keep options open.

More surprising, the growth rate of PPC ad is expected to be 23% in 2008. I’ve bought into the idea that online ad share v. [...]

Umair is “communitied out”, no small task for a guy that lives and breathes this stuff.
I’ve been stewing for a bit on recent deficiencies in the current web information fire hose which just slams down so much information so fast that my trip to a meeting today meant I missed out on “the dialog”. Not [...]