Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 85

Is Your Consumer Experience Is Full Of Jitneys?

Imagine you are on your way to JFK airport inNew Yorkto take a short flight fromNY to Chicago.

Once you make it through security, you walk to the end and encounter a sign inviting you to take something called a “JFK Jitney” to your gate. At the bottom of the escalator, you discover that this “jitney” is actually a shuttle bus designed to take passengers from one terminal to the next.

It is safe to say I travel often enough to describe myself as a professional traveler, so confusing signs like...

Why “Strategic Pillars” Don’t Work For AT&T (Or Your Brand Either)

Last week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, AT&T announced anew partnershipwith Microsoft to produce a suite of mobile Office products and wireless plans geared for small and medium-sized businesses.It is an understandably hot (and profitable) market for any technology services provider – with one recent survey noting that “new technology” was the number one investment priority for small business owners heading into 2015.

So when you have a hot area and a business necessity to offer s...

What Coke Can Teach McDonald’s About Love

I should have loved McDonald’s ambitious Super Bowl ad promoting the idea that customers could pay with “lovin’” instead of cash. Any marketer should. It’s bold, innovative, and takes a stand. McDonald’s believes we should be nicer to each other and have a little more fun. What could be a better brand message than that?

Unfortunately, customers are most definitely NOT lovin’ it … particularly the public humiliation that accompanies “winning” the chance to do a dance or hug a stranger as paymen...

Batkid, Bollywood and the Rise Of Everyday Stardom

On the morning of November 15, 2013, most of San Francisco woke up with no idea that their city was about to be saved by a superhero. The fact that this particular superhero happened to be less than four feet tall and was only five years old were details most of the city would only learn after his heroics would go viral for millions of people to watch unfold online in real time.

Months earlier as a kid being treated for leukemia, Miles Scott told the Bay Area chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundat...

How To Predict The Non-Obvious Future

I have spent a lot of time over the past few months thinking about the future.

I passed the two year mark of starting my own business. I just turned forty years old. Those alone are plenty of cause to get you thinking about things on a different time scale. When you add to that my annual tradition of looking backward over the past year in order to produce my “Non-Obvious Trend Report” … you can see how I end up spending a lot of time focused on the future.

The annual result of this obsession ha...

Best and Worst Of Superbowl 2015 Marketing Strategy

There are a surprising number of people who believe that I don’t like puppies.

Every year the day after the Super Bowl when the votes are tallied rating all the ads, the ads with puppies always mainstream favorites. Meanwhile, for the past four years I have published my own list of winners and losers based on marketing strategy versus entertainment value and one thing has become sadly clear:

Puppies in ads are rarely the sign of a great marketing strategy.

This year’s game was no different, with...

The One CES 2015 Trend Marketers Should Care About

If there is one thing that is dramatically clear from this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, it is that the future is definitely not about mobile. Or smart televisions. Or super slim digital cameras.

Instead of these mainstream consumer gadgets, the products getting attention this week are wildly diverse … from wifi enabled “smart kettles” to “selfie hair brushes” to mood tracking wrist straps. Amidst the silliness of sometimes overly quirky products, though, is a quantifiable con...

The 2014 Influential Business Book Shortlist

It is the end of the year and a time to look back upon a full year of ideas and try to take stock of what the biggest ideas and insights were. For the past several months, I have been curating my annual Non-Obvious Trend Report and spending time amidst speaking and traveling to put together my latest thoughts on the trends that will matter in 2015.

As I start to put the finishing touches on the book, one of the nicest side benefits is I get a chance to go back through all the books I encounter...

Black Friday And The Rise Of Retail Prostitution

Imagine we lived in a world where love didn’t exist.

Every day would be filled with people moving from interaction to interaction – only investing in each one out of convenience or necessity. In this lonely existence, any relationship would be a short term diversion. People would detach themselves and their emotions from one another. Without love, loyalty wouldn’t be possible.

Thankfully, none of us live in that world. We have love and relationships and family and humanity. Except on Black Frid...

Why Facebook’s War On Marketing Is A Good Thing

Facebook has brands worried … again.

A recent article headline from Ad Age magazine summed up this concern perfectly, announcing that “Facebook Cuts Brands’ Reach Once Again.”

Of course they did.

One of the biggest issues facing the largest social media platforms today is how to monetize their offerings. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter are all working on a solution to this same challenge, and it has marketers justifiably worried. What will they start charging for? And how will they ransom the data...