Brian Feener

Are these people in the new iPhone commercials telling true stories?

Is it really possible that airline pilots are navigating the skies using Weather.com?

If I was an air-traffic controller, I would be a little ticked off. Is it really true that simply checking on a website can change a three-hour delay to a half-hour delay?

Would I be even more angry if I was a news station meteorologist?  Has the internet made the job obsolete?

I’m terrified of flying. I don’t understand the science. This commercial doesn’t make me feel any better.

UPDATE: BuzzOutLoud from CNet (Episode 610) addresses the issue at about the 37-minute mark and I appreciate the fact that this world has once again righted itself.

How much revenue do I lose if my product doesn’t get launched for another week? Another month? Another six months?

How much revenue do I lose if my product is released on schedule, but not as good as it could have been with another week of development? Another month? Another six months?

If the product is like sewage water in the Sahara (desirable product, undesirable qualities), no matter how pretty you make it, you may have mis-identified an opportunity.

Make it right, or don’t waste your time/energy/money.

Cadillac is for baby boomers.

First, they told you that it was a long time since you had rock and rolled.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDe23UM6kjY]

Apparently, you disagreed and thought that you had been rock and rolling all long.

Cadillac agreed and got Lieutenant Dan for some new commercials that gave a primer on the Declaration of Independence.

(Side note - their target markets were: Loyalists, Boomers, Alphas, Hot Moms, and Move Ups.)

Then, you decided that you didn’t think of yourself as the young sprite and needed something more blowing in the wind.

Now, Cadillac has partnered with Bob Dylan to hawk each other’s products.

I’m sure that there are plenty of rea$on$ behind thi$ partner$hip.

I think that this is a good move for the overall Cadillac brand, but wonder how Dylan maintains his brand with this partnership. Is he such a free spirit that it doesn’t matter what he does? Has he solidified his place in American History where he would need a major, say, dog-fighting scandal in order to knock him down a notch?

I’m really like the Dylan catalog. Part of his appeal is that he embodies the spirit of his music. He is a physical manifestation of the sixties - a real life Dean Moriarty. Corporate partnership is out of character and strikes me as weird.

For small businesses - you ARE the business. You represent your company every time you wake up in the morning. Unless you have a brand as strong as “Bob Dylan,” don’t do anything out of character.

[FYI: Today's post is YouTube heavy - Ed.]

So as not to simply piggy back the Pruple Cow’s success, here’s a little story that must be told…

I have stopped listening to regular FM radio. I have had enough of Soulja Boy (hereforth known as the macarena), Timbaland, Timbaland, Timbaland, and Timbaland. The non-ranting reason is because I have heard these song enough times that I don’t want to hear them anymore. Because of this, I exclusively listen to my iPod or to NPR whilst in the car.

During the past week, they have been running a membership drive in order to fund the station. As one of their selling points, a reporter promised to bring us only the important news of the day, and maintain a “Lindsey-Lohan-free and Britney-Spears-free broadcast.” I had two immediate thoughts: 1) the sales pitch is that the listener-base will be kept ignorant of celebrity gossip; 2) is this what we’ve come to in journalism? - competition has to promise to NOT bring typical news?

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The mantra for any organization should be to serve the customer what he/she wants.  Am I wrong?

For the fourth year in a row, the WWE has opened up online voting for the matches they want for the pay-per-view Cyber Sunday.  A normally “free” (as much as cable can be free) service is now customized and ready and available for purchase just the way You chose it.

Not only that, but there’s a reason to go to the website, which provides the customer a reason to poke around and, perhaps, buy the new Triple H Grey Skulls T.

For the comments: What call to action do YOU have on your website?

Have you seen any of the recent ads for the new prescription drugs that are available for erectile dysfunction/ cholesterol/ depression/ hyperactivity/ (insert problem here)?

They all look like this…

And this…

Why are they so flashy and artistically shot, but so unspectacular? It’s not that the advertisements are bad, but if you keep giving people the same stuff over and over again, how can you stand out?

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ABC News reports that Ann Coulter may be a marketing genius.   That got me thinking…
Ann Coulter is the author of the following books:

• If Democrats Had Any Brains, They’d Be Republicans
• Godless: The Church of Liberalism
• How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter
• Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism
• Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right
• High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton

On CNBC’s “Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, ” Coulter and Deutsch had the following exchange: Continue Reading »