http://www.cheskin.com/blog/perspectives/ en-us http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000823.html “I wish you the decency and nobility of which you are capable.” Jonathan Daniels said this years ago in his college graduation speech. Jonathan, sometime later, gave his life stepping in front of a shotgun blast directed at an African-American woman in Alabama. He had gone to Selma at the... Etcetera Davis Masten 2006-04-20T19:56:36-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000774.html I was staggered the other day when I heard Intel's Chairman Craig Barret say that 90% of the products his company delivers on December 31st did not even exist on January 1st of the same year. Wow! A company that huge moving that fast. I would hate to compete with... Etcetera Davis Masten 2005-12-19T17:44:39-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000770.html I heard the Presidents of the National Academies talk about their most challenging issues recently. While all of questions and concerns were provocative and, in most cases things I had not considered much or even at all, one thought has come back to me again and again. This was raised... Consumer Goods Trends Davis Masten 2005-12-16T16:28:43-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000751.html The New Yorker has influenced me all my life. My Mom used to read it. So I was particularly proud to see my friend and colleague, Steve Gundrum, profiled in it last month in a story by Malcolm Gladwell. The article, “The Great Bake-Off,” describes a real project that Steve... Innovation & Design Davis Masten 2005-10-25T11:03:55-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000739.html It's odd what makes an innovation suddenly move from niche to mass. So often it is unplanned and unexpected events. Cheskin has been actively involved for years in helping consumers use digital tools to tell their side of an experience. Even before they hit the market, we believed tools like... Innovation & Design Davis Masten 2005-09-09T08:59:15-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000730.html On the radio yesterday I heard a Target ad for Boots. Not the kind of boots you wear, but rather the Boots that is a major retailer of drugs, health and beauty in the UK. Target presented Boots as "the largest health and beauty brand in the UK," now available... Positioning & Branding Davis Masten 2005-08-30T08:24:42-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000717.html I was riding in a car today in Battle Creek Michigan. One of my hosts told the story of how he left his keys in his car. He had his cell phone though. So he called his wife, who hit it open the car door button on her set of... Innovation & Design Davis Masten 2005-07-22T09:21:16-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000694.html Leah's blog make a good case for why Black & Decker's decision to extend into kitchen mixers was probably a mistep. But if HP decided to spend some time in the kitchen, they may find a more hearty welcome. According to 12,000+ consumers in over a dozen different countries, the... Innovation & Design Davis Masten 2005-06-10T15:39:52-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000689.html Yesterday we released our latest Global Market Bias study. It has been great collaborating with Paul Strasser at MSI-ITM and Clement Mok of CMCD. I would not have guessed that LG is one of the world’s most extendible brands. I like to think I don’t have a US point of... Positioning & Branding Davis Masten 2005-06-08T20:42:09-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000658.html I am Thomas Friedman fan. His new premise that the world is flat both excites me and frightens me. The premise is simple. In the flat world, competition is abundant and those countries like China and India want to move from products that say Made in China to Designed in... Etcetera Davis Masten 2005-04-10T18:31:04-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000656.html I just finished a customer satisfaction call from SBC about a service we activated recently at home. Five minutes into the call about how our home was wired/wireless (much of which was with SBC already and they could have just looked), I asked what the benefit was to me that... Etcetera Davis Masten 2005-04-06T09:13:35-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000640.html My wife, Christopher and I have been going to TED since TED 3. When we were TED Virgins, our world was rocked! New worlds were revealed. More recently, we have been energized into taking action. For instance, Christopher came back from TED a couple of years ago and started blogging.... Etcetera Davis Masten 2005-03-09T17:35:01-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000639.html In the March/April issue of Foreign Affairs, Niall Ferguson lays out a thought provoking case in his article “Is Globalization Doomed?”. He draws parallels between the conditions now and 1914. He claims that although the writing was on the wall, few were able to recognize it, much less take action.... Etcetera Davis Masten 2005-03-09T16:28:10-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000630.html “I don’t understand why a Sunday newspaper is worth $5. What’s in it that makes it worth so much money?” I have heard this paraphrased at least a half dozen times from the Starbucks cashier ringing up my coffee and Sunday New York Times. I first heard it in New... Meaningful Experience Davis Masten 2005-02-15T18:00:42-08:00 http://www.cheskin.com/blog/blog/archives/000574.html Words can not describe the depth of the tragedy of the Tsunami. Over time, it will rebuild… As the long process of reconstruction happens my hunch is that new technology will be commonplace. It is not hard to imagine a rebuilt world where the hotels all have communication devices. These... Etcetera Davis Masten 2005-01-13T09:44:38-08:00