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DIGOWorkSection | 06/01/2012 | in
If you want to look at the downsides and limits of “market category thinking,” the slide rule category provides some excellent examples. Keuffel & Esser Corporation, a company founded in 1867 in Manhattan is a good place to start. In 1962, the company introduced it’s DECILON slide rule into the booming market for slide rules, and on the strength of this line was able to go public on NASDAQ in 1965. But by 1982, the firm was forced to declare chapter 11 bankruptcy. This same year, AZON corp buys ownership of K&E Trademarks and K&E is no more. [1]
ARISTO had over a century of slide rule production, but was forced to close in 1978. [2] (more…)
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DIGOWorkSection | 06/01/2012 | in
When I started my agency, I reached out to someone I had been working with to gage his interest in being my partner. At the time, he said he was intrigued, but was just not ready to make the leap.
I would have liked to start my business with a partner, to share the weight and to make the growing easier. But, I knew that partnership was like marriage, challenging even with the best match, so I decided to make a start as a sole proprietor (more…)
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DIGOWorkSection | 06/01/2012 | in
We can’t see the world as static. Conceptual boxes can be helpful as long as we realize we have invented them ourselves to help us understand things. The moment we forget that we can uninvent them, we’re stuck.
There is a tendency to view market categories as a given. We think we’re in the “server hardware” category. Or the fitness club category. Or the E-commerce category. Like Blackberry (Research In Motion) was in the smartphone category and Apple was in the personal computer category. Oops.
Or Starbucks was in the coffee shop category and McDonald’s was in the Fast Food category. If categories tell us which competitors to ignore and which competitors to track, than category thinking is dangerous. You won’t see them coming!
If category thinking limits your imagination about how to expand and grow your brand and business, then category thinking can be deadly (more…)
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DIGOWorkSection | 06/01/2012 | in
Intel founder, tech genius and billionaire Andy Grove titled his book, Only the Paranoid Survive.
Since we can’t see everything, the truth is that we make decisions based on our biases. Most of us don’t question our biases, they are just “the way we are.”
Grove developed a set of biases that propelled him to the top of the digital world. Where did he get them? Nazi Germany (more…)
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DIGOWorkSection | 06/01/2012 | in
If you understand the value of the content you create to your audience, then you’ll have a much better idea of what’s worth doing and how to do it.
Let’s start with the current norm. Those of us who are doing this because we think thought leadership or content management is a good thing to be doing. We think we’re helping people make a product decision. Or we think we’re simply building the reputation of our company. And perhaps we also think we’re creating inexpensive ways to expand the potential for prospective customers to engage with us, and then perhaps be converted to customers down the line. Maybe we also think we’re arming our brand advocates with information and data they can use to advocate for us with others (more…)
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DIGOWorkSection | 06/01/2012 | in
Upscale hotels leave a chocolate on your pillow. Tom Civitano was determined that The Plaza Hotel would never be a typical upscale hotel. His standard was “Legendary.”
The budget, however, would barely pay for chocolates. Tom’s idea: A Pearl!
He approached Mikimoto, the famous purveyor of the world’s finest pearls. He told the CEO of Mikimoto all about the Plaza Hotel’s clientele, including how much they were spending on jewelry (more…)
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DIGOWorkSection | 06/01/2012 | in
(NEW YORK – May 8, 2012) – Award-winning broker-dealer and futures commission merchant TradeStation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Monex Group, Inc. (TSE: 8698), today launched a new integrated marketing campaign, highlighting its award-winning platform. New York-based brand-building agency DiMassimo Goldstein (DIGO) created “The Proof is in the Platform” initiative, which will feature print, TV and digital advertising along with a strong social media component. (more…)
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DIGOWorkSection | 06/01/2012 | in
Marketing Daily’s Karlene Lukovitz writes,
When you have a name like Double Cross Vodka, April Fool’s Day is just too good an opportunity to pass up.
The ultra-premium vodka brand — distilled in Slovakia and launched (at least originally) specifically for the U.S. market in September 2008 — will kick off its first official consumer campaign on April 1, premised on helping people “double-cross the mundane and frustrating moments of life.” (more…)
