Archive for January, 2008
More on Starbucks’ New Strategy
Yesterday there was an article in the NY Times about a local cafe, the Broadway Cafe, in Kansas City, MO that beat a neighboring Starbucks after a 10 year long battle. One of the owners claims the Broadway Cafe beat Starbucks because the cafe focused on the coffee; I think [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Twenty Three Wal-Mart Clinics Close
The Times as an article about clinics at Wal-Mart Closing. It seems the clinics could not get enough patients. That number 23 is out of 80 pilot clinics. That’s a pretty big chunk. The article does not come right out and say why the clinics are [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Starbucks; A Brand Under Pressure
There is a battle brewing in the coffee world (bad pun intended). All of us interested in marketing and innovation should watch closely because it is going to get interesting.
Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts and McDonald’s are all top players in the coffee market. Each has a niche, but McDonald’s [...]
Innovation; Get Everyone Involved
A quick look at the 50 most innovative companies should be enough proof (if you don’t know already) that innovation is a key to success.
I think it’s funny that the New York Times has a piece on innovation today. If I were to name one of the most prominent [...]
Getting More Green Bang for Your Green Back
The Wall Street Journal reports that wind grew 45% last year (to over 15,000 megawatts) and reports an estimated 20,000 jobs now in the sector. Solar Grew by 300 Megawatts.
If the resources are placed in good technologies growth in alternative energy will be exponential. Energy Technologies are still [...]
Batteries 10x Better in Next Few Years and They Still Explode
The Wall Street Journal has two articles about batteries today, one on their blog and one in print. The a blog article is about improvements made to the lithium-ion battery at Stanford that could improve battery performance 10 fold. There is no mention about about safety in the article, and [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Ticketmaster Spreads Ineptitude
Ticketmaster bought TicketsNow Inc to get into the hot secondary ticket market. Ticketmaster has gotten away with providing consistently horrid consumer service for years. It’s too bad and I do not understand how a company can be so bad for so long and still survive. Maybethere is not enough competition in the [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Internet, Focus Groups, and Product Development
The Wall Street Journal has a great article about using online groups to help speed marketing research. The example given in the article is Del Monte using an online social group called “I Love My Dog” to research and then test a new dog treat. The project seems [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Charge!
The Wall Street Journal reports that batteries are holding back the 60-80mpg hybrid. The best battery Technology, lithium-Ion, is unstable and may burst into flames. I would argue that safety is not an attribute that a consumer makes battery purchasing decisions on. Personally I’d [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Energy Saving and Technology
The New York Times has a great article on how using web based tools consumers can monitor and save energy. Users in the study saved up to 20% just by becoming aware of their own usage.
My team and I created a business plan for utility companies to start using energy [...]
