Category: Marketing

Marketing

A brief branding rant: Quicken to Quicken Classic

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About a week ago, Quicken (formerly Intuit until the company split years ago) announced that it was going to “rebrand” its desktop financial software (for Windows & Mac) from Quicken to Quicken Classic. Supposedly this is to “differentiate” the product from Quicken’s web-based (online) product called Quicken “Simplifi”. Just so …

Marketing

Energizer batteries and deliberately bad customer service

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How to avoid standing behind your product Since I had nothing better to do on a rainy day, I sat down to replace the battery on my wife’s smart car key. I keep a few spare coin batteries for just such occasions but when I tested the first battery (new, …

Marketing

Marketing and COVID-19

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COVID-19 has presented unique (disatrous) challenges for companies of all sizes. From not being able to fully operate to losing customers, it has not been a happy time for anyone (except maybe Amazon). We’re not going to debate closures or mask requirements or government policy here. Instead, let’s focus on …

Marketing

5G, brain tumors and the town of Moraga, CA

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I came across a news story about residents of Moraga, California fighting against the installation of 5G (fifth generation) cell towers in their community. You can read the whole article here: https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/04/10/plan-5g-cell-phone-towers-health-concern-moraga/ Regardless of which side you are on, this is an interesting and important discussion to have. So far, …

Marketing

Stupid? Quicken moves to subscription model for software – UPDATE

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I have long been a user of Quicken products ever since the very first DOS-based versions came out. Most of the time I’ve upgraded either when significant new features were added or when it was required due to a new OS. The most significant and important update to Quicken came …

Marketing

Look-alike Logos

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The featured image is pretty cool and widely used – it’s the Bacardi logo aside one of the Swiss Air Force’s (many) patch logos. Anyway, I went to a fundraising event and, on arrival at the hotel, immediately noticed that the hotel’s logo was similar to a logo project I’d …

Marketing

What consumers want

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Joseph Pine offers an interesting viewpoint on what’s driving (or should be driving) future markets in the scramble for consumer dollars. It’s a video from a 2004 presentation at TED. While that’s an eternity in terms of “Internet Years”, many of the things he talked about then, like Starbucks ability to sell 15¢ worth of coffee for $2.50, have come to fruition today. Agree or disagree, it’s food for thought.