J.C. Penney’s retail makeover spearheaded by CEO Ron Johnson is remarkably similar to another dramatic -- and highly successful -- initiative taken in another era. Consider the 1957 challenge and change.
Read more...Theodore Levitt in his monumental “Globalization of Markets” treatise predicted the future of international marketing will be the truly “global product.” He envisioned products that everybody in the world could use and not worry about such products being customized to any nationality or culture. Everybody would understand how to work the product and not even have to worry about language and directions. Well, the future is now!
Read more...Will Groupon Rewards result in a competitive advantage? Mathew Malone doesn’t think so. Read why.
Read more...With more wireless connections than people in the US and an insatiable appetite for data-enabled applications and devices, Carriers have a huge incentive to roll out higher bandwidth 4G LTE networks – but only if they can profit simultaneously.
Read more...Harvard Business School Prof. Clay Christensen notes the extreme difficulty in creating successful new products. Each year approximately 30,000 new consumer products enter the marketplace and 95 percent of them fail. How then can product developers find that needle in the haystack?
Read more...In the past six months, both AT&T (NYSE:T) and Verizon (NYSE:VZ) have altered their mobile data service price structures. First, they added a metered fee based on the megabytes of traffic. Now, Verizon is considering a price structure based on the speed of traffic provided. With all these new forms of charges, some have feared customer backlash: defection, brand betrayal, and a public relations nightmare. Yet they needn’t worry much. Both these titans are in well traversed territory.
Read more...In my research, what I learned was that despite the fact that most companies are committed to the concept of differentiation, at any given moment they are also intensely aware of what their competitors are doing, and it is this competitive vigilance that ultimately pushed them down a path of conformity.” Youngme Moon, HBS Professor and author of “Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd”
Read more...Are you ready for the new paradigms? Do you have a Kindle or iPad for reading books? Do you read your daily newspaper on-line? What kind of home entertainment system do you have connected to your High Definition TV that will allow you to see movies, previously available only at the video store or from a vending machine? What must a successful company do to survive and thrive in this environment?.
Read more...Recent issues of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal have been particularly rich in their commentaries of heretofore magnificent corporations who have fallen on hard times. In particular: Toyota, Palm and Blockbuster. ?
Read more...Fresh from its fabulous success with the iPod and iPhone, Steve Jobs has unveiled the latest in Apple’s “iPortfolio,” the iPad. Amid all the hoopla of a major media unveiling, there are some obvious elements of a classic marketing mistake.
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