Lee Shupp — 11 January 2012

The rise of collaborative consumption

I’ve been very interested in the emerging trend of collaborative consumption, where people share goods and services collectively rather than buying them individually. This has huge implications for standard business models, which assume that you can sell more stuff because everyone wants one (or even multiple versions) of their own. What if our economic preferences are shifting from ownership to access? How does that change that way that we think about business models, innovation, and customers? > Read more …

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Lee Shupp — 3 January 2012

Beware unexpected goodness

I’ve been reading all of the predictions and prognostications for 2012 with interest. Futures folks like me love this time of year, scanning the range of predictions from the inane to the insightful. For futurists, most of the “10 things to watch for” lists have already happened. But this year is especially interesting as there is so much uncertainty in the world economy, leading to a very broad range of potential scenarios that might play out. > Read more …

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Leigh Marriner — 15 October 2011

Microsoft works to win desktop users over to the Start screen

It’s always nice to see our recommendations being used by our clients.  One of the problems with being a consultant is that there is often a long and twisting road between insight and recommendations and action.  But here is an example from Microsoft. > Read more …

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Miguel Gomez Winebrenner — 10 October 2011

Shootout at the Ad Week Corral: CMO Summary

There were lots of examples at Advertising Week demonstrating how to shoot from the hip. On the one hand by advertising agencies, many of whom are executing based on insights that are derived from a sample of “n=1-3 creatives.” Furthermore, by companies such as Chartbeat.com (who’s CEO was literally wearing cowboy boots) and Tickr that aggregate lots of information, but don’t analyze it. Overall, my impression from the panels I’ve attended is that strategic planning, analysis, and a deep understanding of the marketplace are being- intentionally or unintentionally- overlooked.

> Read more …

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Stephen Palacios — 16 September 2011

Multicultural Is the Wave of the Future

At the fictional Sterling Cooper ad agency in “Mad Men,” Pete Campbell urges a client to “take a look at the Negro market.” In the TV show the year is 1961. It’s a reminder that the push to understand and target consumers on the basis of their ethnic identity goes back decades.

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Stephen Palacios — 7 September 2011

Let’s Revisit Good Intentions

Let’s consider unintended consequences and the growing Hispanic market: Laws and regulations that start out with the very best intentions for Hispanics may now actually be impeded their progress. Take for example, a recent meeting I was in with a major financial services company. I was with a group of execs going through a presentation of market data, competitor reviews and overall Hispanic consumer category attitudes and usage behavior. At the end of the meeting, one exec came up to me and said “we have the same problem as I had in my last company, it’s hard to make the business case with CRA regulations limiting our ability to measure the market”. What did he mean?

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Stephen Palacios — 22 August 2011

Hispanics and Illegal Immigration – Where the Conversation Stops

Hispanics and immigration reached its apex of visibility during the 2006 street protests, where a coordinated, national series of street marches occurred with Hispanic participants estimated in the millions. These events were facilitated and amplified by Spanish-language media outlets, in particular Univision, Telemundo, Azteca America and various Spanish-language radio stations across the country and demonstrated to the American populace for the first time that Hispanic voices could coalesce in a powerful chorus.

> Read more …

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Stephen Palacios — 22 August 2011

How Hispanics Are Messing Everything Up

The rapid growth of the U.S. Hispanic market these past couple of decades is messing up just about everything regarding dominant norms on race and ethnicity in the United States. It was once so easy. The post-war era ushered in an ethnic/race system of classification of what Berkeley historian David Hollinger has called the identity pentagon of Black, White, Brown, Red or Yellow. All Americans could be placed into their respective color bucket and that was that. Hispanics were Brown, and could clearly be associated as foreign and maybe not quite “American”.

> Read more …

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Miguel Gomez Winebrenner — 15 August 2011

“DreamWaters” Case Study: 7 Strategic Choices for Entering the Hispanic Market

In the past decade or so I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of several Hispanic market opportunity assessments. The purpose of these studies has mainly been to determine how pre-existing (general market inspired) brands can enter the Hispanic market. Every case has been different, and all have been highly complex. However, I believe the strategic decisions for entering the market can be simplified and categorized. To explain this I created a fictitious case study called “DreamWaters” which I shared at last week’s Hispanic Retail 360 Conference.

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Leigh Marriner — 11 August 2011

Glance knows how to overcome Geoffrey Moore’s Chasm

I just signed up for a 7 day free trial of Glance, a desktop-sharing service like WebEx, but much simpler. Within 15 minutes I got a call from a real person offering to answer any questions and give me a quick walk-through of Glance.  The rep sent me her email address in case I had any more questions.

> Read more …

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