9 posts from June 2007

The implications of the Paris Hilton interview left me astounded. In the 30-second soundbite I heard she used about half the known cliches in the English language. I can fully well understand someone going to sleep on her despite paying a cool million for the "privilege" of the interview. My first thought was, "what an air-head," but then realized that would be an insult to all the legitimate airheads of the world.  Rich? you bet! Good looking? Likewise. But is anyone home?

This is not a matter of "if," only of "when" this will happen. Economic data coming from McKinsey (via Research Briefs) predicts a growing and vibrant economy with increasing wealth for Chinese citizens. One they reach a critical point, their mass-driven economy will race right past the US like we are standing still.

So, what is our government doing about this? Certainly not talking about it. Certainly not making plans to do something meaningful. All the Washington yokels want to do is divert attention with such bogus things as illegal immigration - something very easy to sell to the masses who are used to being led around by their collective noses. By the time they wake up and smell the coffee, they will be working for CHinese firms.

So, start learning Chinese and make sure your kids and grandkids start speaking Chinese at a very young age.

My best friend in Ensenada was supposed to get married yesterday (Saturday), but his father who had had a quad bypass took a turn for the worse - lung problems, so the wedding that I would have missed due to other circumstances was reset to late September. It will conflict with another event I usually attend, but I think I can get back for the Sunday afternoon events. If not? The wedding will be more important. My buddy, however, will get two bachelor's parties out of this - the one this past week and the next one. Guess the beer will be on me (Stone Brewing's Smoked Porter and Arrogant Bastard beers), plus a couple of bottles of champaign (Cameron Hughes).

I've been missing in action for awhile (couple of weeks) but will be back posting on both my blogs starting this week.

Happy to have some time to do that - been too pingpong balled to have time to da anything else. The net? The Mexican border. 'Nuff said.

When I started this blog, I was doing all reportage and no origination of material. But over the months, it occurs to me that I have a lot of stories built upon some 30+ years in marketing and allied fields. I've been letting a few of these seep out from time to time.

Monitoring some 250 RSS blog feeds, I have been astounded about how many pros do not understand the basic history of the field we are in, how many think that because they didn't know something that the revelation they have had is something new to the world. They do not understand the foundation of their industry and in ignoring it are building their professional lives on shifting sands. I'll not mince words (see the post following this one) where some idiots finally got a clue that the access to the boss is controlled by an assistant of some type. Well, at least they got it. Anyone want to make a bet that another firm won't post the same "look what we discovered" drivel again in five or ten years?

Here's a short bit, another blogger posted that because of all the ear buds running at high volume, being in the hearing industry would be a good thing. HELLO! Anyone home? If that same thought did not occur to her the first time she could hear some car's amped up stereo system from a hundred years away, then she is late to the party. Finally here, but later than hell. Costco went into the hearing centers for that reason. For more than eight years I've been telling people that were I 30 years younger, I would head that way because of the loudness these kids were subjecting themselves to.

Well, rant off for right now. I guess this is a bit of Marketing Canapes served with attitude.

the entire world would grind to a halt.

This saying of mine, that formulated itself sometime back in the 70's, applies today to what everyone is calling relationship building with the gatekeepers. The Note to CMO blog posted an article on one of their promotional efforts that came unglued and in reformulating the campaign, they decided to focus on the jefe's gatekeeper - the office manager.

Here's part of the post: "Our aim was no longer at Mr. Big. Our target was refocused towards Mr. Big’s administrative assistant. The gatekeeper, the trusted confidant, and the person who would most likely be treated without the kind of respect we were about to give them. Our strategy now was geared towards getting the assistant on our side. “Hello, Administrative Assistant Who We Know By Name, this is Acme Corporation calling… I’d really like to get your advice on something – is now a good time to talk?"

Well, folks, hate to tell you this but Secretary's Day is far, far older than your late-to-the-party revelation. That day was created to get people, not just bosses, by the way, to pay attention to those gatekeepers. Got news for you bubbas - people have been treating those assistants with respect for a long time. It just passed under your radar screens, had you one that worked.

Anyway, back to those 70s, I used to do PR photography in San Diego and one boss asked me how come it was that when he went out of town or out of the office, when he got back, if there was a message from me it was always on top of his stack.

SIMPLE.

I paid attention to his secretary, took her to lunch once in awhile when he was out of town (and did not talk business with her). When I called, I would tell her I didn't really want to bother the boss, but what could we do about something or another. She was a goldmine of information and insight.

So, you johnny come latelies, it is not some new thing. A lot of us have been doing it since you were probably in diapers. Just because you didn't know about it does not mean it did not exist.

Fedex4-4_25

AdPunch has more of this campaign about FedEx's lightning speed.

Nationwide-paint-billboard-ad

Found at Neatorama

Yet another country abandons its reliance on the US dollar in setting its currency value in the currency markets. Kuwait is the latest to do so, according to Jim Jubak's Kuwait kicks sand on the dollar at MSN. I've wondered before how long this slide in worldwide prestige will go on before the international community decides to drop the US$ as the sole reference currency in international deals.

The new store above lies kitty corner to Lestat's Coffee House. I was a regular patron there until their booking manager screwed over a friend's band and the owner blew me off about it. Anyway, this isn't about that, but about the trash they have for a crowd these days. Today, a couple of them came across to the new Starbuck''s, drew up chairs outside (they did not order anything, just parked their goth asses down), and bad mouthed Starbuck's to all those passing by. In the middle of this, the barristas were handing out samples of a sandwich and the guy ate his, sealed up the stuff in the container and batted it back and forth. The girl missed him and it landed on the patio where it lay until they left and the girl deliberately stepped on it and kicked the trash across the patio and left. He went left and she went into Lestat's. Nice crowd of customers you got, Johnnie, about twenty rungs lower on the human scale than where you started out. Pity. I should  have ridden across the street and told John about it, but his answer would be, "I am not responsible for what my customers do." While that is true, but they reflect on your house, Johnnie, and on you.