June 2009
36 posts
1 tag
The Concept of the Four Seasons
The luxury concept didn’t occur to Mr. Sharp for years, after he had built a couple of successful hotels and was asked by an English developer to construct a property in London; it ultimately opened in 1970. Mr. Sharp argued that the place should compete with Claridge’s and the Connaught and other elite, old-world hotels. That part of the market seemed crowded to Mr. Sharp’s overlords, but he had...
2 tags
3 tags
‘Simpsons’ Draws Higher Rates on Web as Ads Target... →
Marketers typically pay $20 to $40 per thousand viewers for a prime-time ad. On Hulu, which began offering shows to the public in March 2008, an ad on the animated series “The Simpsons” costs $60 per thousand viewers, Michael Nathanson, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. wrote in a June 18 report.
This is pretty much where things are going. TV is one part of mass audience, the web...
2 tags
Consumers Say They Want Healthy, but Aren't Buying... →
Consumers lie with their wallets.
2 tags
“Students reserve seats in the library, check their grades and even pay for the...”
– In South Korea, All of Life Is Mobile - NYTimes.com
Part of the ubiquitous Korean mobile craze.
3 tags
1 tag
Netflix Boss Plots Life After the DVD - WSJ.com →
Someone has a plan, this can’t be easy.
2 tags
Ice-Breaker at Starbucks - NYTimes.com →
I forgot about this wonderful tie in.
3 tags
Facebook Taps Privacy Hawk as Lobbyist -... →
I’m a bit surprised this wasn’t done before but it’s a smart move for Facebook to tap such a prominent member of the privacy advocacy community. This can also be seen as an indication of the growing maturity of social networking and the need for growing lobbiyst bodies to push Facebook’s agenda appropriately in DC and avoid Microsoftonian disasters.
2 tags
2 tags
At Starbucks, It's Back to the Grind →
The WSJ has an interesting look at the interal documents brewing at Starbucks on improving the instore experience. Much thinking on operation efficiency, brand experience and customer perception is coalescening within Starbucks. It’s on Starbucks-McDonalds-Dunkin’ Donuts and such!
2 tags
“Facebook has evolved into more of a utility, while MySpace has made better...”
– MySpace: After the Layoffs, Here’s What’s What and What’s Next | Kara Swisher
This is a correct assessment of the Facebook vs. MySpace war but it will take a lot more work to make a more clear distinction.
3 tags
2 tags
1 tag
2 tags
3 tags
More Ways to Sell Out of Your Startup Stock -... →
2 tags
Data-Driven Schools See Rising Scores - WSJ.com →
Data does some very positive things.
3 tags
1 tag
“So this is the price we pay for indulging in social media, I guess.”
– — Danielle Smith
When the Smiths of Missouri – an all-American family with the regulation two blond children – posed for their Christmas photo, little did they know they would end up on a billboard thousands of miles away in the Czech Republic.
American family’s web photo ends up as Czech...
2 tags
Priligy →
A new anti-premature ejaculation pill, if the FDA ever approves it, is a Johnson & Johnson drug with a marketing plan:
The key words were the last two, “self esteem.” Could this pill really be positioned as a cure for low self esteem? Yup. That’s because Priligy (or dapoxetine) was originally developed as an antidepressant. The sex-extending properties of the drug initially manifested...
2 tags
“consumer hyperconnectivity”
– — Cisco’s definition of people “running one or serveral Internet-connected devices at once.
I’m going to call this “what the young people” do. Everyone is doing it.
Online Multitasking Increases Bandwidth Demand - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
2 tags
Most-Popular Lists Breed More Popularity - WSJ.com →
An interesting look at how top ten lists impact groups and their behavior.
2 tags
“Googlenomics actually comes in two flavors: macro and micro. The macroeconomic...”
– Secret of Googlenomics: Data-Fueled Recipe Brews Profitability
1 tag
What Drives Consumer Adoption Of New Technologies? →
How about, it’s dead-simple. Drop dead simple.
1 tag
“237 pages have surpassed the 1 million mark, in contrast to Twitter where only...”
– —Exploring The Long Tail Of Facebook Pages
A rather flawed analysis by AllFacebook but the counting they can’t really screw up.
1 tag
Keep Raising the Bar in Your Career - WSJ.com →
1 tag
“Safari’s Flash plugin is sandboxed on Snow Leopard. Bertrand says Flash is...”
– —Daring Fireball @ WWDC (via adobegripes)
Pretty much says it all.
1 tag
“I’ve worked hard at making my kids good at arguing.”
– —Figures of Speech - Teach a Kid to Argue
Despite the article’s focus on child rearing the lesson still holds true, we’re not persuasive enough nor do we argue well enough to avoid most passive-aggressive behavior.
3 tags
Wii.com - Iwata Asks: Wii MotionPlus →
Nintendo has taken a wonderful PR appraoch in promoting how and why new products are created. Satoru Iwata is the president of Nintendo and he interviews Nintendo team members about their latest projects. It doubly informs an involved customer about why Nintendo makes the decisions it does and provides transparency about the Nintendo thought process. In the end, the interview comes about as a...
3 tags
“I’ll scale it a little bit. Hmmm, maybe just a little more. More. More. I have...”
– —Under Consideration’s Brand New
Best critique of the Bing logo.
4 tags
2 tags
3 tags
2010 Lexus IS Convertible →
Like a made-over girl, the Lexus IS is back in a daring attempt to be pretty convertible except it’s still ugly and only fools will be vying for it. The rear-quarter is appalling, hard top convertible force a long, flat trunk which makes the car profile into a shifty mess. Overhangs in the front and the back are scary long and seldom does a c-pillar swoop so ungracefully into a flat line....
3 tags
“the sound of found”
– —Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of Microsoft’s online audience business group
Microsoft Unveils Bing, Its New Search Service - NYTimes.com