Skip to main content

Posts

Is this not a bit too intrusive?!

I know that good marketing is supposed to catch you a bit off guard and make you think about the message but this is just too much... Why? Because, 1) although it in fact was unexpected, it crossed the privacy line (which by today's standards is pretty low). 2) it's not creative, and 3) lacks authenticity... Which is the last thing you want if you deal with money. Thought?!
Recent posts

How Old is YOUR Imagination??

I always wonder why people insist on wanting for others to think as they do. I remember growing up and thinking that the world was huge and that anything and everything can happen in it. As I get older, I continue to realize that less of this is expected of me... in other words, people like to subscribe to the status quo ... the less creative you are, the better you will fit in today's world. After spending some time with my nephews, I realize that to some extent my imagination has been trained to think as an adult... WHY?! I went to a business school the other day, and I felt that as I walked inside the building my imagination was vacuumed or made to be parked outside the building. I say this because in today's "sales" world, whether you admit it or not, everything is about sales, numbers drive everything. I would like to propose that we need to go back to basics... we need to be creative, think and try to reach for the impossible. The world (business or not) is abou...

We Are Nomads Connected to the World via the Net

I was just thinking of the power of the internet and social networking. Just thinking about your life and where you currently are, is this where you are from? Is this where you were born? It seems as if we are constantly moving in order to conquer different things, in order to achieve what we see as our goals. So back to the purpose of this post, social networking. How has the internet changed the way we you life and friends? I mean you can practically move to wherever in the world you want and still have "friends"... or cant you? Has your human contact declined, have you even noticed if it had?

Unknown Caller... I mean, annoyed caller.

Picture this. Monday 11:10am, you are in the middle of an important document, you have been sneezing all night, your nose is stuffed, your eyes all watery, your throat hurts... in other words, your allergies are killing you (though it actually seems like you are getting sick). Before you read the actual incident, please picture the commercial from Chase I believe, where a guy calls customer service and a guy in the middle of Antarctica by the name of Lucy takes the phone call and hangs up after he is not able to understand what the cardholder wants. Any how, so the phone rings, and the call goes something like this: Caller: "Hello, is Mr. Iñiez (enneaus) there?" Me: Annoyed by the fact that he is not able to pronounce my last name correctly and with a strong tone reply: "I'm sorry... who? Mr Iñiez?" Caller: "Mmmmhhhh.... Hello, is Mr. Iñiez (enneaus) there?" Me: Even more annoyed now, as he seems to not be paying attention. Do you mean Mr. Muñoz?...

Necessary Brand Extension?

As the yogurt wars continue to strengthen, brands are needing to find a stronger point of differentiation and go after stronger niches. While reading something online a couple of days ago, the above ad came up and left me thinking; is this right? Let me begin by saying that I love yogurt and in fact have it for breakfast most often than not. To be quite frank, I have never being a big fan of Yoplait - it's too sweet for my taste. This could very well be the fact that I grew up in Mexico, where yogurt is sour, so in my mind, the more sour it is the more natural. So you might be wondering what brand of yogurt I buy - well it is actually Greek, Fage, and I have to say that I love it. With that said, and given my inquisitive nature, I began asking people if they would buy the Yoplait Greek. Interestingly enough, of those who are currently buying some sort of Greek yogurt, not necessarily Fage said that they wouldn't buy it. Those who consumer Yoplait said that they would definitely...

KFC's Interesting Ad Buy... Is this right?

A huge part of advertising strategy is placement - because depending on where you buy is he awareness that you will get. But before I go into my observation as to the picture you see on the blog, let me begin by sayint that not too long I was reading a very interesting article on the "Disneyzation of Society," which can be boiled down to 4 key objectives: 1) Theming, 2) De-differentiation of Consumption, 3) Merchandising, and 4) Emotional Labor. Though my attempt on today's post is not to talk about the paper it is important to say why it is that I am bringing up. About a decade ago or so, a book that tackled the idea of globalization through the usage of a major corporation, McDonald's, revolutionized the way we look at business - the author called this McDonalization. McDonalization is the idea that global corporations seek to maximize 1) efficiency, 2) calculability, 3) predicatability, and 4) control. Well, in order to be able to accomplish the 4 things, companies...

Consultants: Saving a business but killing your own

As I was waiting on gate D3 in the New York LaGuardia airport, and while waiting for a colleague to get her boarding pass out, I couldn’t help but seeing the guy that you see in the picture. Ok, so far, well you’re probably thinking, well, he looks pretty normal, well dressed, sorry, let me rephrase that, is wearing a suit and tie. Now what caught my attention was when he moved to adjust his place on the 50” seat, you could see his gut just coming out… badly! Please understand that it is not that I am super fit, I mean I like to exercise, and I would do it more if I could. Going back to my observation, immediately after thinking “oh man, that guys is pretty chubby, I thought, well, it must be from all of the crap there has to eat at the airports. I decided to observe a couple more people and see if I saw the following trend: 1. Does he look like a business man? a. Based on the attire. I know that many people whom are business man don’t travel with a suit and tie, bu...