Author Archives | Don Ball
Don Ball - who has written 91 posts on Polymer Studios :: Web Consulting.
The shopper marketing revolution
70% of all purchase decisions are made in store. 68% of in-store purchases are impulse buys 68% of consumers are brand-switchers. Only 5% are loyal to one brand. These numbers, which come out of a GMA/Deloitte research paper called “The Call for Shopper Marketing,” really bring into question how we’ve allocating our time and money in reaching out to [...]
Continue reading...Are we born storytellers?
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
You can find wisdom in the most unlikely places. I found this gem in a research paper about Warren Buffett by Michael Mauboussin of Legg Mason Capital Management (in which he references Nassim Taleb’s book the The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable). Humans have a near insatiable desire to link cause and effect. [...]
Continue reading...Optimists among us
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Talk of the recession is, well, everywhere. And it can get depressing. So, where are the contrarians? Who’s looking for (and telling others about) the silver lining in this grey economy? Who’s trying to describe an alternate reality? Well, here are a handful for you to consider. Graeme Thickins, in The Clear and Simple Solution to the Current [...]
Continue reading...A letter from the corazon
Friday, January 2, 2009
Regular visitors (read: my mom) might remember that I took my son to Peru last summer. What follows is a vignette from our visit to some impoverished villages in the high Andes. I wrote it as part of a donation drive for Comunidad, a non-profit whose board I sit on. At first glance, you could be [...]
Continue reading...Why should big retailers blog?
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Jason Billingsley of the Get Elastic blog recorded this interview with Darren Tomey, VP of Sales from Compendium Blogware, at the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition 2008 in Chicago. I find it interesting that Darren uses organic SEO as the rationale for why big retailers should be blogging. I don’t disagree, but my first reaction would [...]
Continue reading...Take the AR online. Your shareholders will thank you.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Consider the costs that go into producing a typical corporate annual report. Photo shoots, creative creative concept development, copywriting, design, layout of the financial section — we haven’t even gotten to the killer cost — printing and mailing hundreds of thousands of copies across the globe. It all adds up quickly. So, with stock prices in the [...]
Continue reading...Call off the lawyers
Monday, December 15, 2008
We’ve all seen (or at least heard of) Web sites that were created by disgruntled consumers to complain about crappy service or unserviceable products. Perhaps even more common nowadays are blog or Twitter posts that disparage the name of some corporation. So, what’s a vigilant corporate lawyer to do? Nothing, according to Bruce Johnson, partner [...]
Continue reading...The next UnSummit
Thursday, December 11, 2008
We’re starting to organize the next UnSummit. Here’s what’s known: Date: A Saturday in Februrary or March. We’ll announce the date as soon as things are finalized. Location: TBD Food, drink: Yes. We’re looking to get some kind souls to underwrite food and drinks. Topics: I may need some help honing this down to a couple of snappy sound bites. In the meantime, [...]
Continue reading...How to get your head around social media
Monday, December 8, 2008
What follows is a slightly edited transcript of a recent email to a friend who is a marketing manager for a large healthcare organization in Chicago. Like many of us, she is wondering how to begin talking about the potential of social media for her organization. +++ First of all, it’s important to be clear with your [...]
Continue reading...My wish list for 2009
Sunday, December 7, 2008
My kids are bombarding me with their wish lists. I’ve got a wish list, too. But instead of iPods and Wii games, my list consists of three things I’d like to make happen in 2009: Make UnSummit a quarterly event - People have been asking me when the next unSummit will be. Frankly, I hadn’t thought [...]
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Wednesday, January 7, 2009
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