Mattel is bringing out Barbie-like characters based on the Mad Men crew — yes, there’s a Joni, too.
Author Archive for Lee Eisenberg
Americus Reed, a Wharton School prof who was interviewed in Shoptimism, has fresh insights into how marketers can either catch fish in the ethnic bucket or repel customers by making wrong assumptions, or by merely patronizing. Remember Taco Bell’s Chihuahua? Conclusion: ethnic identity comes in subtle shades.
The Times reports on a new study that confirms what we already know: a lot of supermarket purchases are unplanned, and that we don’t remember where the money went.
The Economist has a nifty cover package on the profusion of electronic data, including two pieces that help illuminate how the Sell Side uses huge reservoirs of info to track customer history and behavior and sharpen its online marketing.
Thanks to loyal reader Yale Hollander for calling my attention to the sweet and bouncy Ripple commercial below. Contrary to the mood expressed in this spot, Ripple belonged to a category of beverage known as “street wine”, also referred to as “slum wine,” “ghetto wine,” or just plain “hooch.” Other examples included Thunderbird and Night Train Express. Unknown to me was the fact that the marketers of Ripple, made by E & J Gallo, had ever schemed to position the wine as remotely acceptable to, say, a bountiful Thanksgiving dinner, as shown here. Ripple’s alcohol content was considerably higher than that of respectable wine — notwithstanding the fact that the label read “light wine” and the commercial winks that the brew packs “twice the pleasure.” Needless to say, efforts to position Ripple as a suburban-friendly vintage proved unavailing.
The three chains with the most stores in Manhattan: Starbucks, Subway, and Duane Reade (soon to swallowed by Walgreen’s, maybe).
Quick, name the three chains with the most Manhattan stores. (Answer, tomorrow.)
Nobody has a clue, least of all esteemed professors at the Harvard Business School, who utter all the right platitudes, signifying little or nothing. It would seem that Tiger Woods has a far better shot at brand reclamation (mea culpa press conference upcoming on Friday).
Have you noticed that candy is getting smaller and smaller?
An interesting “neuromarketing” piece in today’s Wall Street Journal details packaging changes Campbell’s is making to try to heat up sales — the category is currently tepid, at best.
