Strategy
By Carman Pirie: Nov 01, 2011
Filed Under: Carman, Strategy
Once a year, on October 31st, Canadians take a break from discussing the weather to ask each other how many trick-or-treaters each is expecting that evening. And a meeting I was in yesterday didn’t disappoint.
One person mentioned her house regularly “gets” 400+ trick-or-treaters while her neighbour only answers the door to 250 or so (a whopping 37.5% reduction, etc.). The meeting quickly concurred, with each attendee recounting their own similar experience of being on one side or the other of this neighbourly divide. The consensus explanation reached was simple: All other things being equal, the more stairs you have, the less trick-or-treaters you get.
Really? A set of stairs is going to keep a 10-yr old kid on a sugar high away from a fistfull of Wunderbars? While I’m not in a rush to testify to the statistical validity of this little non-experiment, I’ll admit I wouldn’t be surprised. Read More »
By Carman Pirie: Mar 14, 2011
Filed Under: Carman, Strategy
Much has been said about Chrysler’s firing of their social media agency this week after a road rage faux pas by a junior agency staffer. Beyond questions of whether the firing was justified, as organizations build out their social media marketing efforts this story points to a recurring challenge for marketers:
In a world that favors speed (which often comes with increased errors) and, supposedly, authenticity, what happens when someone authentically makes a mistake while being authentic? Read More »
By Jeff White: Nov 26, 2010
Filed Under: Jeff, Strategy
PR and marketing hacks spout those three words all the time. Live the brand. Makes good sense, when you think about it. Living the essence of how you want consumers to feel about your product is pretty important. Everyone knows that Apple espouses great design. Their brand is simplicity, elegance and desirability. Most every Apple user has at least some of these reasons for choosing to use those products.
The same holds true for beer. Read More »
By Carman Pirie: Oct 06, 2010
Filed Under: Carman, Content, Strategy
In a world with HD video as close as your nearest phone, there’s no question that there are fewer technological barriers than ever to producing great web content. Read More »
By Jeff White: Sep 21, 2010
Filed Under: Jeff, Strategy
The word kula is loaded with meaning. One of the coolest definitions though, comes from the Sanskrit language and it means ‘intentional community’. Along with the kula ring and kula partners, it’s a part of why we chose the name for our company. It’s got everything to do with our philosophy about connecting people to one another. Read More »
By Carman Pirie: Aug 03, 2010
Filed Under: Carman, Strategy
I really liked something Russell said a while back about revisiting old talks, seeing what he got wrong and where he disagrees with himself. There’s something quite lovely in being so dismissive about the need to be right. Picking up on that, I thought it would be fun to go back through the talk I gave at AIM this year and see where you and I disagree with what I had to say. It’ll likely take a few posts to go though it, so let’s get started. Read More »
By Jeff White: Jul 12, 2010
Filed Under: Jeff, Strategy
There’s a story in today’s Chronicle Herald about a small business that’s going under due to pressure from big box stores. It doesn’t matter who or what it is. It’s a fairly common refrain. As most people know, the vast majority of companies that are started don’t make it, but it is sad when a company with as much heritage as this one closes down. Read More »
By Jeff White: Jun 07, 2010
Filed Under: Design, Jeff, Strategy
A few weeks back, when I was researching my talk for the Aim Conference on giving designers appropriate feedback, I found a lot of examples of clients asking for simple things to be buried to make it more difficult for the user. I’ve heard this plenty from potential clients, though thankfully the examples have been few and far between this past decade. This is just about the most disrespectful thing you can do as the provider of a website, whether it be corporate or otherwise. Read More »
By Carman Pirie: May 31, 2010
Filed Under: Carman, Strategy
Regardless of how one might describe the disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico, I think we can all agree that the failure is, at its core, a human one. That human beings made decisions and chose to act in ways that eventually led to the disaster the world is now working to cope with and clean up. Read More »
By Carman Pirie: May 27, 2010
Filed Under: Carman, Strategy
My considerably better half and I had a great time this past May two-four long weekend touring southern New Brunswick by motorcycle. Along the way we stopped off at the Hopewell Rocks – one of New Brunswick’s signature tourist attractions along the famous Bay of Fundy. Read More »
