Planning retail promotions has taught me that the number one reason promotions fail isn't because the campaign doesn't resonate with customers or even because of poor planning. The best way to ruin a promotion is to fail to execute it at the point-of-sale. Last weekend I took Yakko and Wakko to the 3-D showing of... Continue Reading →
Governing Through Soundbites
This time of year is very frustrating for me. I'm discouraged by all of the political campaigns that only seem interested in informing people of what's wrong with the country and who's to blame for it. It really doesn't matter which political party is in control, both Democrats and Republicans are guilty of using the... Continue Reading →
The Evolution of Location-Based Services
For the past several months I've been experimenting with various location-based services (LBS). Foursquare, Gowalla, and Yelp have been the main ones I've been using. I realize there are others such as Facebook Places, Loopt, Brightkite, etc., but I had to start somewhere to see what all the fuss was about. I have a couple... Continue Reading →
A 3-Step Plan for AMC Theatres
I'm a member of AMC Insiders which means I occasionally complete surveys about ideas they're bouncing around in the corporate offices of AMC Theatres. One of the recent surveys I completed included questions to gauge my interest in several potential services they could offer while you watched movies. Some of the ideas they asked about... Continue Reading →
I’m Afraid of Hallmark Stores
"Birthday's were invented by Hallmark to sell cards." - Ron Swanson, NBC's Parks & Recreation Hallmark has received a bad rap as the "inventor" of several holidays with the intention of selling more greeting cards. Although I'm not a fan of the phrase "they're a victim of their own success" for Hallmark it may be true.... Continue Reading →
Who built this toll booth on my information superhighway?
For years, the cable companies and telecoms have been promoting faster and faster speeds on the information superhighway. Each company said their service was the fastest, most reliable way to download movies, music, and play online games. Speed is sexy. Speed is cool. Do you want to be seen driving a Ferrari or an AMC... Continue Reading →
Customer Loyalty – a look at AMC Theatres
AMC Theatres has eliminated their free MovieWatcher rewards program and replaced it with a fee-based program they are calling AMC Stubs. I could make an argument both for and against loyalty programs. At their core, loyalty programs try to motivate more frequent customer traffic and increase spending during each visit. A loyal customer is more... Continue Reading →
The Future of Online Advertising and Product Placement
In my previous post, I talked about how my family has ended our relationship with cable and gone strictly to watching our television programs online. One of the benefits I listed was the limited number of commercials my kids now view. People are starting to realize that a 60 minute show only has about 40... Continue Reading →
Thanks for your business
I am definitely not an expert on the dry cleaning business. What I do know is that there is a dry cleaner on just about every corner. Lately I've been shopping around trying to find a new cleaner to use. Our old dry cleaner was the cheapest (by far) but our clothes just weren't coming back... Continue Reading →