The global candy market is a fascinating world, with large candy corporations often competing with regional candy favorites. Because of its low-cost and “comfort food” status, candy sales remain a powerful industry in an otherwise shaky economic climate. Candy is popular worldwide. According to a new January 2012 report by Global Industry Analysis, the top…
Details“I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn’t it.” – Groucho Marx No, this is not a blog about ancient dinosaur species or prokaryotic cells. It is about, however, the wonderful world of paraprosdokians. A paraprosdokian is a figure of speech where a sentence or phrase ends unexpectedly, often for comedic or ironic effect.…
DetailsWe are exposed to brand narratives every day. From L’Oreal cosmetics and shampoo commercials that tell us “we’re worth it,” to TOMS Shoes which donates a pair of shoes to someone in need for each pair you buy – we are bombarded by brand narratives. A successful brand narrative tells a story about a product…
DetailsEven if you don’t spend inordinate amounts of time on the internet or watching television (and there are plenty who do), you have undoubtedly seen thousands and thousands of beautiful faces used to advertise products and services. From perfume, tennis shoes, and power tools, to airline tickets, car washes, and online classes, the image of…
Details“Quick response” codes or “QR codes” as they are more commonly known, are little bar-codes which can be read and scanned by your smartphone. The codes can be stored with no typing required. URLs are the most commonly scanned QR codes and the typical message is to visit a website or to see something. The…
DetailsConsumers are flooded with advertising messages. It is estimated that the average American sees over 3,000 advertising messages a day. These messages come in all forms: e-mail, newspaper, direct mail, web advertising, radio, TV, and others. Increasingly these traditional advertising methods are loosing effectiveness. Yet, direct-to-door advertising seems to be increasing in effectiveness when marketing…
DetailsFacebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have replaced the water cooler as the customer hangout. Business owners need to understand that social networks have quickly become the preferred way to communicate for many people. This means that many of the conventional ways to promote and sell products and serices don’t work so well anymore.
DetailsAmerican use of land line phones and television is significantly down from previous years. According to Pew Research Center, only 74% of U.S. households have a land line phone in 2009, down from over 97% in 2001. This contrasts to 82% of Americans who now carry cell phones, which is up over 53% since 2000.…
DetailsResearch indicates that mobile devices are being adopted at a rate of 3-4 times that of PCs globally. What’s the big deal you ask? In a nutshell, we are witnessing a disruptive technology on a global scale. An edge that developed countries have held for the past decade (or longer) has been the ownership and…
DetailsPaul Gillin, author of The New Influencers, wrote about the impact of social media. One of his key points was that 78% of consumers trust each other more than they trust advertising – which is why they hang out at Facebook, read blogs, and seek out recommendation sites. For all intents and purposes, traditional advertising…
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