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    Shhh. Nike earnings are in.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    In the New York Times today was a one-column by three inch story about Nike earnings. They are up 51% for the quarter. To be exact, Nike reported “a 51% increase in fiscal first-quarter net income on Thursday, helped by higher revenue and future orders as sell as favorable currency exchange rates.” Did I mention the item was buried at the bottom of the page? FedEx’s revenue for the quarter was up 8% and their story was an 1/8th of a page — with a picture.
     
    If my company revenue was up 51%, I would be shouting it from the tops of buildings, yet Nike seems almost apologetic. Is it possible that they let the news release out at the 11th hours after the paper forms closed down?
     
    I’m thinking Nike is amazingly embarrassed that they are raking in the cash on the backs of foreign labor which pays a dollar a day. Shhh. Quiet.

     

    Gossip Girl

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Gossip Girl premiered last night on the CW network and it was a pisser. It’s Law and Order for teens, without the Law. Part cartoon, part social commentary, part drama, it provides lots of vicarious living for viewers.
     
    Josh Schwartz, the creator, may still be feeling his way around but I think he’s going to settle in after a while. The actors are fresh with a few exceptions, and the script though a little weak now, shows signs of promise.
     
    You know how you look back on old TV shows and see how the culture has changed? Well put this on in a time capsule and wait a few years. When we look back we’re not going to believe NYC kids circa 2007.
     
    Oh, and through all of the pot smoking, martini drinking, various flavors of “the nasty,” you won’t see any cigarette smoking. The show has a social conscience? Hee hee.
     

    Marketing Gluttony.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Google, in its never-ending desire to be the next technology monopoly, has hired a co-president of Ogilvy & Mather-NY to become its creative liaison with ad agencies. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, he will manage the newly formed Creative Labs unit, “to work with ad agencies on new ways Google products can be used in advertising” and marketing.

     
    The head of this new unit, Andy Berndt, is a seasoned agency guy who knows the agency business and how to sell to marketers. Liaison my butt. If you think for one minute Google isn’t looking for a way to create a creative portfolio and set of case studies it can sell directly to marketers you are mistaken. 
     
    It’s another way to cut ad agencies and online agencies out of the business.  
     
    Google can’t stop. They won’t be happy until they explode like that character in the Monty Python movie that eats until he bursts. Google was everyone’s favorite because it was a helper. It helped people find things — it re-inventing search. Now I don’t know what Google stands for. New widget ads? Desktop office applications? Video? Or just plain old “money.”
     
    Google needs to focus before they become despised — before they grow into a tech bully. 

    Chalk another one up for freedom.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    News should be free. Opinion should be free. The Web should be free. This is America. (“Feel free” is our marketing mantra at Zude.)   Here’s some good news. At midnight tonight The New York Times is going to make free a good deal of the content it once charged for under its Times Select program.

     
    Once again Nicholas Kristof’s Op-Ed pieces will be free. As will those of Thomas Friedman and David Brooks.  
     
    The advertising vs. subscription model continues to favor advertising. The Times earned $10 million last year in online subscriptions, yet still realizes the potential of the online advertising model. Search engines help drive 13 million unique visitors to NY Times.com and all but 750,000 may be turned away if they want to dig deeper into the site.  
     
    Are you listening Wall Street Journal. I expect you will roll-over within 2 months. And I can’t wait.
     

    Inspiration

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Coming out of the advertising world I always subscribed to the axiom “It’s better to show than to tell.”  If you are selling the fun quotient at an amusement park, show the ride and the kid glee rather than read copy like “It’s the most fun you can have with your clothes on.”
     
    Well, now that I’m on the marketing side, I realize the axiom must be expanded — showing is not enough. “Inspiring” is the key. If your marketing doesn’t inspire action or behavior change, you haven’t done your job.  Inspiration makes consumers think it’s their idea to purchase your product. As a communication form, it focuses on the customer needs and desires, not the marketer’s.   
     
    When a consumer wants to buy your product (read they are inspired to), they are already predisposed towards it. They want it to taste good, work better, or make their life better. 
     
    Marketer’s need to learn how to inspire customers and prospects, not just break through. If I read “break through the clutter” one more time in Ad Age, I’m going to “gurge” (short for regurgitate.)
     

    Tell me…

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    I used to have an interview questionnaire I used with candidates while interviewing account managers at McCann-Erickson. It was my way of systematizing the process so after 10+ candidates, I could be rational and mindful in comparing answers.

     
    One of the questions I really liked, but stopped using, made one of my female interviewees uncomfortable. The question was “Tell me about me.” Until this one candidate, most candidates would either stumble or blow a little smoke at me saying things like “you’re funny” or “you’re successful” (I had a nice office at the time,) but the astute few would have quickly taken in my office and comment about my pictures, books or knick-knacks.  These were the quick studies in people…the observant ones. 
     
    I stopped asking that question when a young lady made me feel like a megalomaniac, maybe even a little dirty. I think she had issues (I sure must have.)  I should never have stopped using that question. It worked. While at McCann I hired some really smart people. Twenty-Somethings who went on to become agency presidents and holding company presidents. My hiring record topped out when I lost the “tell me about me” question.
     
     
      

    The evolved newspaper.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    The New York Times is doing a great job of integrating other media forms into its offering. As a geeze, I still prefer my New York Times in paper form, but must admit I keep my compute close at hand to watch and listen to things such as Nicholas Kristof’s wonderful slideshows with voiceover from Africa, or colorful travelogues with high-quality pictures from Central American hot pepper markets.
     
    Today, I read about a new TV show called “Gossip Girls,” a Josh Schwartz (O.C.) production. The paper promoted a podcast interview of Josh, in which he spoke about how he uses music in his shows. He’s a fan of the Brooklyn’s “The National,” you know.
     
    The Times is doing a great job of bringing the news to life. Through excellent reporting, colorful Time Magazine-type pictures, video clips, slide shows and MP3s. They are getting the news right. Content is still king in the news world and the NY Times franchise will continue to grow as a news organization. With most newspapers shrinking and losing money, this organization is evolving nicely.
     

    Wild Ride

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    My day job is director of marketing at Zude, a social computing company that has developed a drag-and-drop interface which makes it easy for beginners, intermediates and experts to build websites.  Just as the iPhone is much, much more than a phone, Zude allows users to build much, much more than websites — but for the purpose of context, let’s just say that’s our business.
     
    What is exciting about Zude is that it will open up social computing (social networking grown up) to a whole new class of user. Similar to the video gaming industry which is reporting that its market is moving beyond hardcore users — thanks to the Wii and Nintendo DS — we at Zude feel teens and adults who have not been bitten by the MySpace and Facebook bug will jump on board when they see how easy it is to have their own online presence.
     
    People still ask me about my Prius “How do you like it?” My smiley response is always “It’s a car and it gets 50 miles to the gallon. What’s not to like?” Now that everyone can build a website simply by typing and dragging and dropping objects, I once again ask “What’s not to like?”
     
    Everyone will have their own website. You know it. I know it. It’s a matter of time.
     
    And as the intermediates and experts also embrace this drag-and-drop technology and see how its impact will change the market, we will really be in for a wild ride. (Independent Facebook developers, are you listening?)
     

    Apple’s Laborious Day.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    I have long been a supporter of Steve Jobs and Apple. With their market-changing introduction of the iPod, I really jumped on board, but this whole pricing debacle with the iPhone was foreseeable…and avoidable.

     
    Everybody knew the price was going to drop, but to do it so soon after launch sent a couple of really stupid messages to the market. The first messages, reported by the business press, was “Apple earnings must be off for such a reactive price drop.”  The second message, this one to Apple’s most passionate and loyal fans was “If you stood on line for days, were among the first to buy an iPhones and then ran around doing free demos for all your friends, you were a sap.”
     
    This was a no-brainer. Everyone in the world expected the price cut to happen prior to the Christmas/Chanukah holidays, but Labor Day? Someone was out to lunch on that decision.
     

    How low can you go?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Pepsi and Coke are fierce competitors in the next wave of non-carbonated drinks. The full product lines are rich and complex starting with soda at one end, moving down through the diet sodas and enriched waters ending at plain water. In between are various shades and flavors. The problem here is that people are going to realize at some point that water is free and as we move down the food chain from soda to water — with less everything – it’s getting a little silly. It just doesn’t make sense to pay for water.

    That said, could there be a water product in our future where the bottle is half full? Half water, half air? Mountain air! I think I’m on to something here.
     
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