2008 July

One of my many idiosyncrasies is a collection of shot glasses that are displayed behind the bar in our downstairs living area.  Despite the words "shot glasses" and "bar" and the surprising quantity (uh, there are presently 99), I wouldn't call myself a big drinker.  An occasional cold beer (typically at a casual dining restaurant when all 3 kids are in tow.  Hmm) or a nice Tennessee tea, and that's about it.  Being southern, I enjoy Jim and Jack, but there's more effort involved with an evening...

If you’ve ever read the great book Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott, you know that she asserts people are smart. No, really, they are. Or maybe just intuitive. They know by the second time the office manager compliments them on their outfit that it’s really an opener to that tedious print/collate/bind/ship project, 50 sets please. They also know that “opportunity area” is a high-falutin euphemism for what amounts to a C- on your annual report card. So by now, after a few decades...

Master of trivia, I’m not. Nor am I one of those who remembers movie lines – however classic – beyond the epymonyous “Luke, I am your father.” and the less-remembered but fun “Cyrus, this here is your barbecue, and it tastes good.” espoused by honor-bound Nicholas Cage in ConAir. But I digress, for I do have an interesting bit of trivia that’s niggling at the corners of my mind. According to emarketer.com, a full 61% of survey respondents say that they checked online reviews,...

Sometimes we women talk about the darndest things. I’m allowed to say that, I’m a woman. This statement is particularly striking coming from me because I wouldn’t consider myself a "woman's woman." I don’t care to swap recipes for the best crock pot meal, I don’t have time for superfluous “where do you get your nails done?” conversations, and I’m not on board with coordinated play dates at KinderMusic (you want music? go find your iPod). I’m not casting aspersions, I’m...

We all know about audience segmentation, profiling, personas. There’s a myriad of methods to categorize targets utilizing metrics that can be captured, assessed, and generalized based on statistical data and probability. Ad nauseam. One advantage of a deep understanding of your audience, of empathizing with their experiences both joyful and sorrowful, anticipating their needs and their receptor points, being sympatico with your customers – is critical insights that state of “oneness”...

I've been giving a lot of thought to branding lately.  More specifically, consumer affinity with brands and the impact the current economic climate might (does) have on their emotional connection, and ultimately, loyalty with brands.  Let's choose the service industry for this academic discussion - banking in particular.I, for one, have had my share of negative experiences with banks.  I've historically chosen big regional banks for their supposed security and progressive attitude toward...

I’m old enough to have spent more years without the Internet than with (don’t ask; I’m not telling). So in the early years of my career (when did I start sounding like my mother?) we held meetings armed with sketch tablets, tracing paper, bits o’ eraser and that steady teeth-marred implement, the pencil. Furiously sketching storyboard scenarios, we’d try out various approaches and treatments before warming up the gray-skinned Mac. We’d go get coffee (not me, I was too young to drink...

Greetings.  This is my first post under the Insightsand Ingenuity blog.  I'm pretty excited, I have to admit.  I'm a voracious reader - I love to read most anything, save for current event material (I know!  I'm such a philistine.)  And while reading can, and has, done great things for my vocabulary and helps me set at least one good example for my three children, it presents one drawback. The drawback, surprisingly, is information.  In this sense, I mean a surplus of information. ...