This year the cost of a 30-second Super Bowl ad was $3.5 million – up from $3 million the year before. Since 2001, the price of a Super Bowl ad has gone up by 59% (from $2.2 million per 30-second spot). The ever-rising price of a Super Bowl ad is another sign of why it’s wrong…

Can anyone compete with the iPad? The new Kindle Fire, from Amazon, is going to try. Amazon has had success with its eReader, the Kindle, and its Kindle Fire is in full color and priced at only $199, well below the iPad sale price of $499. The Kindle Fire is getting good reviews and analysts are…

Over the past several years, BlackBerry (and its parent company, Research in Motion) seem to have lost their way. It seems that they got carried away with innovation at the expense of what really matters most to the customer’s buying decision. Too often with tech companies, they keep trying to add more technical “bells and…

Recently Yahoo fired its CEO, Carol Bartz. Although the company’s stock price jumped 6% immediately following the announcement, the problems plaguing Yahoo go beyond the choice of chief executive. The biggest challenge facing Yahoo goes to the core of what the company is and what it wants to be: Yahoo has become irrelevant to their…

Amazon is growing its network of distribution centers to match the growing customer demand for faster shipping and a wider array of products. According to a recent article from All Things D (“Amazon Seeks Greater Fulfillment by Adding Distribution Centers”), Amazon is planning to add 9 distribution centers during 2011, with the possibility of building…

According to a recent article in the Economist (“The winning streak: HBO and the future of pay TV”), HBO (Home Box Office) is facing a complex, ever-changing climate, with more innovative competitors than ever before. Even though HBO is critically acclaimed, wildly popular and highly profitable (104 Emmy nominations in 2011, 28 million subscribers, $4…

I recently saw a TV ad for Quik Trip called “This is How We Roll” that really resonated with me. This is unusual, as I don’t usually eat at convenience stores, and I’m probably not the target market for the ad, but I think this TV spot illustrates some important points about relevant selling that…

According to a recent article in the New York Times (“RIM Suffers as Profit Falls 58.7%,”Sept. 15, 2011), Research in Motion (RIM), maker of the BlackBerry smart phone, recently announced disappointing earnings results. The company’s shares lost 19% of their value, and many Wall Street analysts are saying that the future viability of the company…

According to a recent article in the New York Times (“Walmart to bring back layaway for the holidays,”), Walmart is bringing back their “layaway” payment program, where customers can set aside big purchases at the back of the store and pay for them in advance, over a period of several months. This is a pretty…

I travel a lot. In any given month, I’m on the road for 2 or 3 weeks. As a confirmed road warrior, I’m a longtime Marriott customer, and they’ve always taken good care of me. The other day I was getting ready to go give a talk at a conference in Des Moines, Iowa, and…