I've been thinking a lot about video games, partly because we have a lot of them in the house (yes, we purchased Call of Duty 2 the day it came out) and partly because I am intrigued by data indicating that sales of video games, an $11b industry, are down...

The Los Angeles Times ran an interesting story on November 21, 2009: airlines continue to get great marks for customer satisfaction and fewer people are complaining about bad experiences with airlines. Industry data doesn't help explain this phenomenon because, according to the article, airlines are only required to report mishandled...

I love lists and two have caught my attention this past week: The 50 Best Inventions of 2009, published by Time and a list of the Most Intriguing New Businesses, published by BusinessWeek (November 23, 2009). I always marvel at new ideas, wonder how people came up with them, try...

A recent article in BusinessWeek (September 14, 2009) identified the organizations headhunters look to when trying to identify management talent. General Electric, IBM and Hewlett-Packard were cited as organizations that develop executives who thrive elsewhere, The Coca-Cola Company does not.

The reason given is that "the very attributes that make...

Dear [insert the name of your favorite retailer here],

It is hard to believe that another year has passed and I will soon be visiting your store again to buy holiday gifts.

I am a bit concerned about something, however, and thought I'd drop you a note. It seems...

In the November 1, 2009 edition of the Los Angeles Times, I came across a small article suggesting that consumers are starting to switch from private labels back to big-brand names again -- you know, the brands supplied by companies such as Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive and Kellogg. In the...

I read today that McDonald's has pulled out of Iceland.

The decision to withdraw is a combination of rising costs due to the weak Kronar against the German Mark (all products for McDonad's in Iceland come from Germany) and the inability to hike prices a further 20% to recoup...

And so it's been 80 years since Black Tuesday -- the day on which stocks plunged by 12% (having fallen by 13% the day before) triggering the Great Depression.

If we were celebrating a marriage, we would be giving diamonds and pearls after 80 years. Hardly appropriate today when consumers...

Every now and then I come across an innovation that makes me stop and think "what a great idea" [or: "why didn't I think of that?"]. It happened again the other night when I was watching television and I saw an ad for PowerMat -- a wireless recharging device that...

I have always been intrigued by the idea of firing customers. During turbulent times, the pressure has been on managers to make decisions that allow the organization to build up substantial cash reserves. And so the challenge has been on understanding the profitability of customers and the cash flow implications...

Last week, the Dow broke through the psychological barrier of 10,000 and many breathed a sigh of relief. The call went out that the economy was about to emerge from what can be characterized as the darkest financial period in recent history.

There certainly are green shoots indicating that the...

A couple of articles have caught my attention lately. In the October 9 issue of the Los Angeles Times, Martin Zimmerman reported the results of a JD Powers study aimed at examining attitudes toward car ownership among those aged 12-18 and 22-29. Two things captured my imagination with this study....

In my last blog, I wrote about the contribution of marketing strategy, and more specifically marketing research, to develop new recipes and ideas that will ultimately contribute to post-recession economic growth. I suggested that marketing managers need to pay more attention to the methods and approaches that will allow organizations...

Paul Romer, a Professor of Economics at Stanford University, is best known for his work on economic growth theory. In his words, "Economic growth occurs whenever people take resources and rearrange them in ways that are more valuable." Using the metaphor of cooking, Romer adds, "Economic growth springs from better...

Alex Carey suggested that the 20th Century was "characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting the corporate power against democracy".

To me, the first decade of the 21st...

Two of the big questions facing marketing managers today are: (1) when will consumers open their wallets again; and (2) will consumers behave differently when they do?

We know that consumer spending accounts for 70% of all economic activity in the US and we know that consumers are being asked...

The Nielsen Company has just released data that shows advertising expenditure in the US fell 15.4% in the first half of 2009. A total of $56.9 billion was spent on advertising in the first six months of the year, $10.3 billion less than the same time period in 2008. All...