Marketing for the Third Millennium
Real Results, Real Value, Real Quick
I’ve talked a lot about the Golden Rule – ‘treat others as you wish to be treated’ (what my mum used to quote, from the Water Babies I seem to recall “Mrs. Do As You Would Be Done By’) – because it seems to me to be the fundamental ethical plank for all businesses. Or…
” I’m told there’s a Japanese proverb, “Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.” If I could code worth a damn, you’d never see me again as I’d never leave my basement. That is, I already have the ideas for what to do, but I need to collaborate with people…
Some weeks ago I received the attached message and new credit card form Citicards: 
I was not happy to hear that my personal data may have been compromised, but at least I live in a State that requires that a company tell me when such an event happens. In too many places that is still not the case and such an event can be quietly forgotten, more than six years after California became the first state to require such disclosure. … If one of my clients is ever in that situation my advice is to apologize, be contrite and ask what the company can do to make amends. … And to add insult to injury, I can no longer download transactions from my Citicard account into Quicken which I use for my business and personal finances. 12 weeks later, I still can’t.
Has to be the most truthful adverting I have seen for a while….. 
Now you start to understand my sense of humor …..
However, I do think that the poor product marketers responsible for Quaker Instant Oatmeal have had to carry this a little too far – something you never thought you would hear me say! … It struck me how different the two – at first glance – similar product packages were and I wondered if this was legal advice at work, or whether someone in the product department was being overzealous.
They are a nice device and work well on aeroplanes (I got them after leaving TWO pairs of in ear noise-reduction headsets on aircraft inadvertently – never to be seen again).
…And it is clear that if you can get customers to try – especially when corralled for a long time in a perfect trial environment – they will buy.
Since I set up in business on my own, I’ve had an office at my photographic studio. When I moved in, there was no phone or internet service, so I scouted around. In short, I went with Comcast, they had a deal on, $21 for six months and $45 thereafter (more on THAT later), which…
Peet’s has a great system for its coffee card; when you put at least $20 credit on it, you get a $1 discount. Not much, but a token that, at least for me, is a good way of saying ‘Thanks’. However, adding credit at the same time as buying coffee seems fraught! I’m not sure…
I have had this love hate relationship with Merrill for some years. I went to them after a long and arduous search to find an advisor and money manager who seemed capable, professional and we wanted to work with. We met, and liked Len in the San Francisco office and we gradually built a portfolio…
I hope he gets to the whole of the user experience (rather than just the – important – aspect of design), as tech is the area that needs it more than most. Design needs to be applied to the WHOLE user experience – from start to finish – in the same manner as the product and the packaging.