A couple months ago, I went to Phoenix on a business trip. While there, I went to several restaurants. At many of them, it seemed as if the pandemic didn’t exist. People were welcome without masks, often without the familiar request to wear a mask until you get to your table. Yet, in one restaurant we visited, guests were turned away if they couldn’t produce a vaccination card—even in a private area of the restaurant, as well as in outdoor seating.Read full post...

Maybe you’ve heard of Skin So Soft? Avon thought it was a skin moisturizer (and it is), but the public bought it for another reason. It turned out to be a bang-up insect repellant as well. So good, in fact, that today Avon makes a second product: Skin So Soft Bug Guard.

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Think of a food court on the ground floor of a commercial building. At lunchtime, all the people who work in the offices upstairs are going to want to have lunch somewhere. And if you’re one of the businesses in the food court, you probably spend your nights dreaming of ways to outdo your neighbors to win those customers.Read full post...

When you market attractions, it’s natural to want to show that attraction in advertising. The curator spent hours getting that exhibit together. Your boss spent millions on that new ride. Everyone loves that vista. It feels almost unfair not to show these things.

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Most of the marketing world is based on precedents. We base our metrics and budgets on prior years’ results. We schedule the same way — peak season and off-season, planning time, production time, media buying — it’s mostly based on what we did last year.
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