The Beginning of the End

You may be fairly tall
with a crazy eye expression

How you could feel so lonely
Seems beyond my comprehension

Just reach inside your pocket
and blow yourself a kiss

And know that you have fans
that like to reminisce

‘Cause time is all we’ve got
And time’s just not enough

For the sweet and happy days
And sad ones disarrayed

Penny for your thoughts
Saucers for those tears

Let’s forget the bad malaise
And seek fortune in arrears.

And dancing be our folly
Toasting everyone

Because life’s just like a journey
And ours has just begun.

- By Vivian

Dogfest

Chilling with my furry friends and sister as she works on her grad school application.

Home for the holidays

I’m at my parents’ home in Illinois, enjoying a few lazy days and leftover meals. Just finished watching Guillermo del Toro’s Orphanage, which has a similar setting to his Devil’s Backbone. Both great films – filled with fantastifcal images, haunting plots, and bittersweet outcomes. Always using young children as main characters, his stories are brimful of innocence, longing, and tragedy.

If you haven’t seen Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, you must see it! After Trainspotting, I was concerned that I wouldn’t quite see another film by him, which would render the same combination of joie de vivre and rebellion. Slumdog is a passionate ode to life, and uncomprised by the weaving of Western and Eastern culture in a narrative that’s both exotic and familiar. I love the main character, Jamal Malik, and his quest to reclaim his lost love and a hope for a better future. We all need to be reminded once in a while that life is a gift and something worth fighting for – in both a literal and metaphorical sense.

Organic Junk Food

At the moment, I’m eating an organic frosted blueberry poptart. Yesterday, I finished off a box of organic mini-cheese crackers. Do I feel healthier? No – absolutely not.

But, it’s not a bad marketing tactic. Those mini-cheese crackers from Trader Joe’s are VERY tasty.

Outblush – Just for Women

A terrific shopping blog for women….visit www.outblush.com

I do like the cowl-neck sweater.

Marketing: Battling Fuzzy Logic

When selling widgets, you think of ways in which you can successfully market the product – positioning, building buzz, creating consumer awareness, and ultimately driving trial and purchase. But, what if the marketing doesn’t achieve the pie in the sky sales results. Who is to blame? Unreasonable expectations? A faulty business model? As a marketer, your job doesn’t start after the product is ready to ship — it ideally begins at the product conception phase. It seems like a no brainer, but just look around and you’ll find that a number of young companies pursue marketing and sales as an afterthought. Marketing isn’t just about selling widgets – the discipline itself encompasses the entire life cycle of product development, product launch, and post-launch.

So what should a marketer address with the executive and product teams? The 4 P’s are self-evident in order to successfully ‘market’ a product. Product, placement (distribution), price, and promotion are each obvious elements of the marketing mix. Simply running a series of promotions will not necessarily achieve desired results – not without a sound business strategy and marketing mix.

But hold on, let’s address the product. Are you solving a specific need with your intended product or service (or are your underlying assumptions off base)? If so, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and ask yourself if the business model is sustainable and defensible. What’s your competitive advantage? Do you have industry expertise and insight? What’s your revenue model? Conduct market research, run focus groups, and take a hard look at the competitive landscape. Before expanding like mad, think about keeping your business strategy focused. Many of us have Napoleonic leanings, but hey, Napoleon lost the Battle of Waterloo.

Be prepared for battle.

Reception in NYC

Viv and Jeff

Originally uploaded by aimhighone

My BF and I recently attended my cousin’s wedding in NYC. It was a lovely, fun time, and we twirled around a bit.

Mobile Content = Impulse Shopping

Whenever I set out to shop at Target, I always have a mental checklist of items I need to purchase…24 rolls of toilet paper, foaming facial cleanser, household cleaning products, and pet supplies. Once I get to the register and the cashier rings up the total, I’m always surprised about the number of purchases I inevitably make as I wander down the aisles of colorful displays and slick new product offerings. I am a sucker for Target’s international flights of fashion. What an amazing marketing job on Target’s part to recruit hip, young designers to draw in fashion-conscious women like bees to honey, and at a price that we aspiring fashionistas on a budget can afford. Granted, my $50 visit quickly becomes a $250 purchase as I pile on the clothes and other unnecessary sundries that makes me feel like I’ve gotten a square deal.

Something similar can be said about mobile content purchases. Whether you’re buying Tetris the mobile game or a hip hop ringtone for your new cell phone, mobile content purchases are often impulse buys. Something unintended. Why? Unless you have something specific in mind, mobile content equates to snack-sized boredom killers that break up the monotony of daily life. The thing is…who needs 10 different mobile games or 15 different mobile applications? You don’t. The truth? The average consumer isn’t even compelled to purchase one piece of mobile content beyond a $2.99 price point because the mobile phone is still light years behind other forms of digital entertainment platforms. Play Guitar Hero on your DS, watch hours of DVR recordings of your favorite programming, and get social networked on Facebook. There are so many other forms of entertainment competing for your attention. Whatever happened to fireside chats and shooting the breeze on someone’s porch while sipping a cool glass of lemonade? Maybe I’ve watched too many episodes of The Waltons or read too my Victorian novels, but we’ve passed a golden era of live interpersonal communication. But, I digress….

The 3G iPhone is a game changer. Everyone says so, and the truth is iPhone users represent a segment of consumers who enjoy perusing the digital aisles of goodies and downloading ‘on impulse’ free and paid-for games and applications. The iTunes App Store has introduced a level of merchandising that is missing in today’s carrier on-deck environment. Shopping in the iTunes App Store is like shopping at Target to a degree. You can download utility applications and branded games like Spore and not hem and haw on whether or not you’re making the right purchasing decision. Come on – you can afford to download Spore for $9.99. Why else buy a slick device that you can whip out in Business Class on your next flight out to JFK? With the iTunes App Store, iPhone users have a reason to peruse and make both thoughtful purchases and impulse selections. There are a plethora of little known, original games and applications that the average consumer has never heard of…unless he or she is an avid reader of Tech Crunch, Mashable, or iPhone blogs.

What about non-iPhone devices? Well, mobile content publishers struggle to become profitable as they support the mass handset market – porting to hundreds of devices, securing direct deals with wireless operators, and negotiating premium deck placement to drive visibility of their products. But often times, that isn’t enough. It’s a complex landscape that requires some thought as to what the future of mobile content should be, and what consumers are willing to buy on impulse.