Small Business Saturday is held annually on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Looking at that another way, it’s sandwiched between Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday.
Small Business Saturday Rocks
I heard people talking about Small Business Saturday days before Black Friday kicked-off. That’s pretty impressive, considering that it was launched less than a decade ago.
Small businesses like it. Folks who support small businesses like it, and who doesn’t like small? Local businesses have a reputation for the kind of personal service that you might not receive from a bureaucracy or impersonal multinational corporation.
Continue reading The Genius Behind Small Business Saturday →
I’ve been simplifying my life, which included a cancellation binge. I cancelled my Consumer Reports subscription, and allowed my Costco membership to lapse.
Deafening Silence
I was puzzled that Costco never made any effort to find out why I was no longer a member, and never even acknowledged my departure as a customer. Their emails kept coming, and when I unsubscribed from those there was again a deafening silence.
My experience with Consumer Reports was completely the opposite. I unsubscribed online and was immediately surveyed as to why I was leaving, how they could do better, and whether I’d consider coming back. They even asked if I’d be interested in joining a focus group with fellow ex-subscribers.
Continue reading What You Can Learn from how Costco and Consumer Reports Deal With Quitters →
When is the last time you watched a TV commercial more than once. On purpose.
While I was skipping past commercials during a program I’d recorded, one ad caught my eye. I actually skipped back to watch this “Holiday Surprise” commercial from Kohl’s. I was touched, and checked-out the #ShowKindness hashtag shown at the end of the video.
It hit a chord with me and I checked if the video was on YouTube. Clearly it resonated with many other people, since it had been watched hundreds of thousands of times. After watching it a couple more times, I shared it across several social media sites, like this post on Twitter:
Why Such a Big Impact?
Continue reading When Marketing Doesn’t Feel Like Advertising →
Always asking "What are you trying to accomplish?"