Posts Tagged business
Sloppy retailers won’t survive 2009. Respect for customers and business efficiency are of paramount importance.
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
We all should be recovered from anesthesia by about now. There are companies that I think are really going to be in trouble this year. Did anyone really need to decorate their home solely with Pottery Barn and Williams and Sonoma furnishings? How many businesses started, and grew, because of the real estate and credit bubbles? Of course they had to grow to serve a hungry public but did they have an exit plan? Were they working hard to build and maintain quality relationships with their current customers? Did senior management understand that there really would be a day when the easy money would stop flowing? Did management invest in preparations for the economic dénouement?
More often than not, in my experience, the answer is, “no”.
Here is what we suggest to help put your business in a position to succeed in 2009:
Posted by Tom Polanski in Marketing on January 19th, 2009
Smart companies with sound strategies will use this recession to grow their brand
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
As a friend of mine said recently, when someone is going down, someone else is coming up. We’re seeing that today. In 2008 we saw a number of companies go under. It seems to me that most of them found their niche, fame and fortune in the rising tide of the internet and debt driven consumerism fueled by rising home prices and easy access to credit. Those companies were myopic in that they didn’t take the time to look down the road. If they did so they would have seen that their business model would only remain viable as long as credit and real estate conditions stayed the same.
Starting in late 2004 and regularly through 2005, alarm bells were being rung by the UCLA Anderson Forecast, and other leading think tanks. The information was there. We were living an illusion of wealth. Unfortunately, that means many of the businesses we’ll see go bankrupt in 2009, probably weren’t real businesses. I read an article about a poor lady who is being forced to close her hand picked pear business. After years of taking home a six figure salary, she’s living off of credit cards now. My heart goes out to her, but on the other hand, would anybody who was based in reality think that they had a sustainable business selling pears?
Granted, I’m using an extreme example but my point is valid; her business, as is the case with many existing businesses today, was rooted in the illusion that we would always have an endless supply of luxury dollars to throw around.
Starting a business? Don’t be seduced by easy access to low hanging fruit, if there is any left. If another great opportunity to monetize appears like the Wall Street, Internet and Real Estate bubbles, know the economic reality for what it is so that you can formulate a cogent, coherent plan for the future. Use your successes as a springboard for sustainability.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Growing a Business on January 2nd, 2009
Dennis Consorte and David’s Cookies are class acts. They ROCK!
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
I’ve been in business a long time but it still thrills me when I run into a company that treats customers, employees and vendors with class. To be sure there are a number of definitions of class, but for me, class is when somebody, or a company, does everything the right way effortlessly. When that person or company extends itself, with graciousness, for the sake of others, even when it doesn’t have to, it’s classy.
Dennis and David’s Cookies, which includes Ari Margulies, and others, are by application of my definition, class acts. I include Ari in this because it all starts with ownership and management. The people they hire are a reflection of their beliefs and core values. I’ve never spoken or met Ari but think highly of him based on my interactions with Dennis.
I’m extremely confident that David’s Cookies treats it employees well because I am of the belief that a man of Dennis’s merit would’ve left long ago if he didn’t find his work environment engaging and fulfilling. I suspect that he feels that he is part of a team where his opinion is valued and his efforts appreciated.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Growing a Business on December 9th, 2008
As a consumer and an average American I am saddened and outraged
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
We’ve been very busy here at the agency and we haven’t had much time to put towards the blog. For that I apologize. I was thinking (when not thing about marketing) that we’re lucky to be in this industry. Granted we’re in the business of making others rich while keeping only a sliver for ourselves. However that sliver is more than many Americans have. And in the aftermath of the current financial crisis, after it rolls over us like Hurricane Ike..I’m betting it won’t take too much to have more than many Americans.
I knew it was coming. Anybody could see, if they wanted to see, that this was the inevitable ending to living large. Certainly there are plenty of Wall Street people who saw it coming. They took their money and ran. Now it looks like most of us will have to do some soul searching and many will realize, to quote a character from “Way of the Peaceful Warrior” that, “A man is rich when his wants are few.”
I’ve decided to reprint an article written by Bob Sullivan that perfectly articulates my outrage, as a consumer, at recent events. Here it is:
Posted by Tom Polanski in Advertising, Boomer Marketing on September 19th, 2008
An effective e-mail creative is like a good movie trailer
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
I’ve been a movie trailer buff for a long time. Without really being aware of it, I’ve always directed my team to use the elements of a good, effective movie trailer to build an e-mail creative around a clients offer. The e-mail is the “teaser”. It should be visually engaging and impart just enough information to motivate the recipient to take the call to action.
In reading the article below I think you’ll see what I mean. A movie trailer is a metaphor for an e-mail. Which movie trailer from those used as examples below best describes the type of e-mail creative your team is building?
The article below was contributed by MSNBC.
When “Burn After Reading” opens on Sept. 12, it will benefit from the reputation of the Coen brothers, who have followers who love everything from “Raising Arizona” and “The Big Lebowski” to “Blood Simple” and “No Country For Old Men.” It will benefit from a lineup of actors including Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton and John Malkovich.
But it will also benefit from one of the best-made trailers in recent years.
The “Burn After Reading” trailer is funny and full of energy, and while the early reviews of the movie are decidedly mixed, it’s hard to argue with the two minutes they’re using to promote it. So why does it work so well?
First, it follows one of the most important and most difficult rules that many know but few can navigate: explain the premise; don’t give everything away. For an example of an unsuccessful trailer that hands over entirely too much plot, consider the trailer for the recent Luke Wilson film, “Henry Poole Is Here.”
Posted by Tom Polanski in Advertising, Marketing on September 16th, 2008