Marketing – Business – Life :: Allen Mowery

Walmart: Capitalizing on the LazyIf Walmart were any slower they’d be the Federal government, or so I have come to surmise. I was reminded of this the other evening as I stood in the express checkout lane at our local supercenter, completely frustrated that even after the holiday rush they were still unable to open more than a half dozen registers.

Do I like standing in an express line for twenty minutes? Do I like never being able to find an associate when I need one? No. So why do I keep going back? Because Walmart knows its customers. They understand the inbred laziness of their primary (i.e. American) consumer, and they capitalize on it. Sure, we might complain to friends or rant in blog posts about our discontent. Yes, you can find a number of products elsewhere for cheaper. But in the end we endure what we believe to be necessary evils for the convenience of the one-stop-shopping experience, and Walmart’s knowledge of this has put them on top of world. Even standing in line for twenty minutes is more convenient than the time it would take to go elsewhere.

Top Ten Marketing Blunders of 2009Originally posted on Collateral Damage.

1) NBC GOES ALL LENO ALL THE TIME
Edsel … New Coke … Lenovision.

NBC has joined the immortals of marketing stupidity. This year the molting peacock network and president Jeff “Have They Fired Me Yet?” Zucker decided to turn five of the primest pieces of prime-time real estate — the hour between 10 and 11 PM from Monday through Friday — into the Jay Leno hour.

The result? A 28% drop in viewership (through mid-November). This has not only killed network revenues but done in affiliates who have no lead-in for their late news casts.
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Top Five Marketing BlogsAs we are getting ready to head into 2010, here is my “Top Five” list of marketing blogs to frequent in the coming year.

1) Seth’s Blog
website: sethgodin.typepad.com
rss feed: Click Here
Seth Godin is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and avid agent of change. Godin is the author of ten books that have been bestsellers around the world. This is his personal blog, where he riffs on marketing, respect, and the ways ideas spread.
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Try Gaining TrustAs I scrolled through my morning dose of RSS feeds, humor, and motivating articles I came across a post by Seth Godin in which he talks about the blatant mistrust that is “inherent in the system” (hat tip to “Dennis“). He describes his experience while setting up a friend’s PC recently and the barrage of trial software, default opt-in tricks, and roundabout ways of navigating software. (Simple solution: Go with Apple… “it just works.”) So often customers are conned into disclosing personal information, getting locked into an agreement, or paying more for additional (and often needless) products and services. In today’s consumer world, and society in general, nothing is valid at face value and [almost] always comes burdened with fine print. We have gone from being a people that can accept a man at his word to being constantly paranoid of everyone, continuously wary of a hidden loophole.
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Creative Marketing or Tasteless PloyCapturing consumers’ attention is a large, and quite obvious, facet of marketing. Some marketers rely on traditional methods while others take it to the extreme (see here). While I am a huge fan and large supporter of the creative and unconventional, I sometimes am forced to ask myself, “How far is too far?” Today was one such occasion.
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