Wyatt Waters will be at The Cupboard signing his newly released book, The Watercolor Road, Painting and Writing through the American South.
The Watercolor Road book showcases an impressive collection of 133 paintings, 21 essays, and an array of adages that depict both the South and Wyatt’s relentless trek to be a better painter as a mindset rather than a destination.“I have wanted to do this for as long as I can remember, to paint the South, the place we call home” ...
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The award-winning chef Thomas Keller is well-known for the exquisitely presented dishes in his restaurants. But an artful simplicity suffices when he is serving up food at home.
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"You eat with your eyesβyou use your eyes first," says Mr. Keller, whose
The following article from Advertising Age says that consumers wish to do more business online, but that companies may not be adequately meeting him/her there. Ad Age included a survey that companies can take to measure their communication preparedness. I'm including it with this post.
MARKETERS FAILING INTERACTIVE PART OF INTERACTIVE MARKETING Forrester Study: Consumers Want Cross-Channel Engagement, but Companies Are Falling Behind
Creativity and Technology (CAT) conference excerpts from Ad Age magazine
I agree with these excerpts from the Advertising Age's article on CAT:
Don't separate interactive "The best way to make un-ambitious work is to set up a separate group called 'interactive,'" said Matt Howell, chief interactive officer, Modernista. But bringing interactive into the fold goes somewhat against established agency culture. "Collaboration and sharing are not core competencies at agencies," said Ivan Askwith, ...
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March 2, 2010
March 2, 2010
How to improve your e-mail marketing
Advertising Age's Steve Cone recently wrote about successfully using e-mail to connect with customers.
I found these two excerpts below interesting A link to the full article is below the excerpts.
What's the biggest mistake marketers continue to make with e-mail marketing?
It's still too much of a one-way street. Marketers send offers, ask for opinions or do customer surveys and provide no means for the recipient to directly communicate back to them. All types ...
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October 24, 2009
October 24, 2009
Advertising Age article about how e-mail is a cheap way to make good money
How E-mail Became a Direct-Marketing Rock Star in Recession
As Search Gets Cut, Retention-Focused Retailers Find Value in Channel's Cost-Effectiveness and Trackability
By Natalie Zmuda Published: May 11, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- It's likely the least sexy tool in your marketing arsenal, but it could be the one that delivers real results.
E-mail has emerged as a recession darling, as retailers look to proven programs that ...
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June 8, 2009
June 8, 2009
Giving tableware and home good products green ratings and labels
The Ad Age article below describes how the European Commission may propose a system to put color-coded labels on cars designating how 'green' they are. What if this was done for home goods brands? For individual products?
Europe May Put Green Grades on Car Ads Proposed Rating System Would Color-Code Brands by Their Carbon Footprints
By Emma Hall Published: June 23, 2008
LONDON (AdAge.com) -- In a move that could have ...
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May 11, 2009
May 11, 2009
Offer your customers perks for visiting your website often
This article below from Ad Age tells about a mall that gives points to people for visiting it. Accrue enough points, and the person get perks, such as valet parking. We heave heard about giving points after making a purchase. The idea of offering them just for visiting seems novel, and worthy of considering for websites. I'd like to see some home goods companies offer a similar arrangement to the general public and retailers. For example,...
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April 7, 2009
April 7, 2009
Brides increasingly use the web to learn and shop
The attached image shows what mediums are growing in terms of influence among brides and which are shrinking. The full article can be found online at AdAge.com. http://adage.com/article?article_id=135372
Taking this information one step further, if brides are one of the legs of the tableware industry, then maybe the tableware industry should start its own bridal siteβas Orbitz.com was started by the airlines to counter all the independent travel ...
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December 21, 2008
December 21, 2008
Pizza Hut sells more than $1 billion in pizzas online
The Ad Age excerpt below states that Pizza Hut has sold more $1 billion in pizzas online. All those college kids that buy pizza online will soon move on to to buying other items online, such as home goods. What can we learn from Pizza Hut's tactics?
"Pizza Hut, which recently crossed the $1 billion benchmark in online sales, is launching a Facebook application that allows fans to place orders without leaving their profiles. Although online ...
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November 30, 2008
November 30, 2008
2008 Online Sales to Grow 12% Over 2007
From Advertising Age magazine regarding online sales:
Overall retail sales are projected to grow only 2.2% by the National Retail Federation, making online growth projections of 12% downright cheery.
Deloitte's annual holiday survey also presents several compelling reasons to maintain spending online. The category is ranked by consumers as the No. 2 shopping destination this year behind discount department stores. A full 21% of consumers plan to shop ...
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November 30, 2008
November 30, 2008
Online Shoe Seller Can Help Luxury Home Goods Get Leg Up
The article below about Zappos.com offers ideas to help online stores increase their sales. These strategies include: - free shipping - free returns - a more generous return policy - free upgrades on shipping
Do these services above cost $ to offer? Yes, however, for a $1 spent, they may give back $5 in sales. That is how Zappos.com sees it. And they do almost $1 billion in sales. Also, check out their website: http://www.zappos.com/ The design is...
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October 5, 2008
October 5, 2008
Free Shipping Offers From Online Merchants Will Increase
A recent article in Advertising Age questions whether free shipping from websites may be less common due to rising fuel costs. I believe free shipping with and without conditions will increase. Free shipping has more to do with getting around MSRP than actual shipping costs. For a retailer to cut out free shipping, theoretically the free shipping would have to account for 50% of an item's price thereby canceling out any profit for the ...
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September 14, 2008
September 14, 2008
ROI on Digital Trounces Magazines by 'Factor of 2', also?
This article from Ad Age below says that online advertising delivers twice the return on investment as television. Few tableware companies advertise on television, but many do advertise in magazines and trade publications. My question: does online advertising also beat out magazines? I would imagine so. I can't imagine that a tableware ad in Tableware Today for $500, $1,000, or $1,200 can deliver as much as that amount spent online. So, ...
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September 14, 2008
September 14, 2008
The U.S. Army Defeats Tabletop
The Ad Age article below talks about Sears and the U.S. Army's partnership to sell Army approved clothing. Read: "U.S. Army 1st Infantry Division" on t-shirts, etc. Regardless of your personal view about war and/or the U.S. Army, this initiative says that the Army is being creative in marketing. How does the army relate to the tableware or home goods industry? I'm not referring to camouflage plates. What the Army sees and fine tableware doesn't is the need to: 1) ...
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January 13, 2008
January 13, 2008
Search Engine Importance
The following insights are from Nilofer Merchant in an article from AdAge:
- Google effectively becomes the user interface that creates a customer's experience of your site and content.
Observation: design around Google. Don't plan on people entering your site through your home page.
- The Internet now represents nearly 20% of media consumption, a significant measure compared to newspapers (about 5%), and magazines (about 3%), according to ACNielsen.
This was originally published in Advertising Age.
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October 19, 2007
October 19, 2007
Did you get the e-mail about how successful e-mail marketing is?
This article from Advertising Age offers us a sigh to relief: we don't have to build AJAX-infused websites, we just have to send out e-mails. We can all do that. Article - click here
Excerpt:
A Single-Platform Player Surviving in a Multiplatform World Pilot Group Is Eschewing Web 2.0 Trends and Focusing on Its Stable of E-mail Newsletters -- Can That Model Last? By Abbey Klaassen Published: September 03, 2007