Overview

It’s one of the most iconic scenes in the history of movies. In the 1967 movie, “The Graduate,” a very young Dustin Hoffman is taken aside at a cocktail party by a middle-aged, successful looking businessman. The elderly gentleman takes it upon himself to give the very young central character career advice. The tip for the young graduate to lead to a successful career, riches, and yes, a good life is simple: “one word…plastics.”

We are a society that loves the prospect of the can’t miss, one word “winner” — especially when that word can unlock a great riches and a great future. And many of us spend our entire lives looking for that one magic word, and most of us sadly never find it. We may think that the latest technology is indeed “the greatest thing since sliced bread,” and yet, while it may prove to be important, it may not prove to be transformative for our careers, for our finances, or in the bigger picture, in our lives. …

The PC is Back!

One of the truly amazing things to come out of the whole COVID-19 experience that we have been living through over the past many months has been the unexpected implications that the pandemic has had in terms of marketing. There have been a wide variety of consumer products (take sanitizing wipes, Vitamin D, and oh yes, of course, toilet paper) that saw unprecedented spikes in demand as consumers sought to both cope with and protect themselves from the coronavirus. In the same way, food delivery services such as Grubhub, DoorDash and Uber Eats suddenly became lifelines for both restaurants and their customers. …

Overview

2020 was a tough year for marketers everywhere. In the “Attention Economy,” our collective attention — both domestically and even globally — was severely distracted from companies and their messaging by more pressing concerns, namely the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic, political and social turmoil brought on by the novel coronavirus. And though many cheered “good riddance” to the past year and hoped for a “clean break” with the annus horribilis that was 2020, the start of 2021 shows that rather than abating, the crises of last year will continue and perhaps even accelerate for some time to come.

Still, attention is the name of the marketing game today, and branding is key. That is why my attention, as a strategic management consultant and professor, was drawn to a recent report from the research firm Interbrand. They have just released their annual ranking of the world’s most valuable brands. And what it shows is a very dynamic and fast-changing marketing environment, one that is challenging for even the largest global companies. Their findings certainly point to an increasing “brand concentration” that is dominated by top tech companies, along with an increasingly volatile consumer marketplace where even top, long-standing brands can fall out of favor with consumers quickly today. …

Overview

All too often, we Americans tend to think in terms of the here and now — or at least the relatively recent. This is especially true in business, as we tend to think — in true American fashion — that we invented everything and that nothing really existed before someone in the U.S. came up with the idea.

Whatever the marketing concept or the management practice or technological innovation, it had to be an American who was behind it. I mean we’ve had the greatest entrepreneurs in the world, men like Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk (yes, he’s an immigrant, but we’ll count him as “one of us”) of recent vintage, and even Sam Walton, Henry Ford, and Thomas Watson before them. …

Overview

One thing is for certain: 2020 changed all of our lives. It changed the way we work, the way we socialize, and yes, the way we shop. And as I have argued for some time as a strategic management consultant and professor, the fact that these changes in our behavior patterns were not for days or even weeks, but for months and months in duration, will mean one thing: The ways that we came to adapt to living during the COVID-19 pandemic will become much of the way we live going forward. And this development will have huge implications across the economy, disrupting many sectors, and yes, this will mean many losses of not just small businesses, but large ones as well — and the jobs that go with them. At the same time however, the “great disruption” that has been the pandemic of 2020 will also create great opportunities throughout the economy — opportunities that will be important for your career, for your investments, and yes, for your way of life. …

As we ring in 2021, we can all look back on the year that was. And in the case of 2020, 99.5% of us apparently want to say “good riddance” to what has been a “no good very bad” year and have the hope, as always, that the new year will bring a fresh start and a better tomorrow.

But as we close the door on 2020, you should pause and take a look at what is nothing less than sheer, advertising genius! …

Overview

It is one of those classic management mistakes that people, even at the best of companies, continue to make. While the specific circumstances may change, the problem is that folks can sit around a conference room and come up with what they think is a great idea. The idea may be very well-intentioned and even very well supported by research and data. However, once that idea is actually launched, the reaction to it is nearly universally negative. And each and every time this happens, no matter if it is a botched marketing campaign, a change in a key production process, or an HR policy directive, the people behind it will be blindsided by the poor reaction to the idea. …

Overview

Who doesn’t love a good buzzword? 2020 has certainly provided its share of them and more. After all, who would have thought just a short year ago that major consumer trends — and the strategies of companies both large and small alike — would be defined by two-word buzzwords like:

• social distancing.
• curbside pickup.
• contactless delivery, and
• ghost kitchens.

As a strategic management professor and consultant, all of these buzzwords have helped define how consumer-facing businesses have changed, survived, and yes, in some cases thrived during a year defined by the impact of the coronavirus.

However, I recently read an article from Vogue Business that I believe might have just captured the essence of consumer sentiment during a time of fear, isolation, home-focus, and yes, less spending opportunities, due to the COVID-19 pandemic with a new, two-word buzzword. …