Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 101

Why Tackling Obesity NOW Is A Smart Strategy For Coke

Consumers want what they want. How often have we heard this used as a defense for selling just about anything, whether it is good for people or not? The fact is, people like unhealthy products – and they get angry when anyone tries to deny them the chance to buy them. This is particularly true in America, where New York Mayor Bloomberg’s call for a ban on sales of super-sized portions of soda last year was met with all sorts of criticism and negativity before being ultimately approved. This “...

Best of CES 2013: 10 Brilliant Marketing Lessons

Yesterday I walked past a booth at the Consumer Electronics Show where a company was promoting their $59 tablet. The product was good, the price point was better than most other competitors, yet hardly anyone stopped at their booth. Just a few steps down was a beautifully designed booth promising “the world’s first real smart watch.” That booth was packed. Over and over as I walked the halls of the world’s largest technology trade show this week, filled with media, buyers and analysts who are...

5 Things For Marketers To Love About The New Myspace

Myspace is back, and you’re probably already thinking about the best jokes you can share about its return. It’s hard to remember a brand launched with such dramatically low expectations as MySpace – but if my first experience using the new site is any indication, the new Myspace may be more important for brand marketers in 2013 than you think. While it is tempting to just dismiss any new social network as unworthy of attention, the “Borg-like hive-queen” vision of Google Plus and its slow ris...

The 2012 Influential Marketing Book Award Winners

The books on your shelf say something about you. That’s why most of us have books that we put on our shelves over the past year which we haven’t quite had a chance to read yet – but still display as a declaration of what we believe. As an author, I usually make it fully through at least 30 books a year (2-3 a month) and skim another 25-30 that are sent to me for review or that I purchase myself. Some are great – and some aren’t. But time is too short to devote attention to anything but the be...

You’re Fired, But Have A Happy New Year Anyway

It is the day after the final day of the NFL football regular season and all morning the sports news is filled with announcements of coaches and general managers of teams who are getting fired one by one. It’s hard to remember a time when a single day news cycle focuses so much on high profile people losing their job … and today has the added drama of being the last day of 2012.

Tomorrow will be 2013, and every coach (and player) who delivered their final contribution to their teams will start...

An Ingenious New Nonprofit Proves That Maybe You CAN Buy Forgiveness

It’s the holiday season and we’re in that delightfully slow week between Christmas Day and New Years where many of us have a chance to step out of the craziness of daily life, forget about work and just take a lazy little break. For many people in the world, however, this week won’t offer much relief because they have something ugly hanging over their heads. For some, it comes from unexpected medical bills. For others it comes from doing what was necessary to finish their education and pay fo...

How The NRA Just Used The 3 Biggest PR Crisis Response Tricks In The Book

When the tragedy struck in Newtown, the National Rifle Association (NRA) decided to take down their Facebook page and go dark. In the press conference they just completed, they refused to take questions. In a world filled with conversation, the NRA chose to skip transparency and authenticity … and instead used three time honored strategies of crisis response to help their organization weather the media storm around gun ownership. It would be easier if they stood up and said everyone should ha...

5 Smart Ways For Using Video To Sell Products

About a year ago, I hacked my wallet. Actually, I bought a new wallet, and as an added feature it included a pocket with a removable smaller wallet. The smaller wallet was described as a “weekend wallet” where you could just grab the cards you most often used and carry those instead of the full wallet. The smaller wallet was perfect for daily use, and pretty soon I started only using that. It was only in the past few weeks that I realized an Australian company called Bellroy has been creating...

The Ultimate Holiday Promotion Idea

How much time do you spend trying to convince your target audience that you have the best product or service for them? Probably a lot. After all, that’s what most of marketing is supposed to do, right? So now imagine everything you’ve done is working. Your customer believes that you offer the best experience. They want to give you their money. They are ready to buy. But then they don’t. It happens all the time, and it’s the hardest thing to explain. What kept them from buying?

Finding a good a...

2013 Trend – Heroic Design

What’s the Trend?

Design takes a leading role in the introduction of new products, ideas and campaigns to change the world.

For several years, leading companies have started to see design as a competitive advantage, but in the coming year design may hold the solution to the world’s biggest challenges. Partially because the solutions themselves may come through better design, but more likely because design can be the ultimate weapon to convince governments, bureaucracies, industries and conserva...