Wooden Nickels: We Do All Types of Market Research - Trust Me!

chawkes — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 03:48:51 -0500

Beware the market research company that does all types of market research. Most companies don't actually do all types of Market Research at all, least not well. And t

Bionic Chickens Lays Superior Eggs! Just Believe It!

chawkes — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 02:49:46 -0500

Credibility is an issue for all businesses, but it's especially critical for a small business (or relatively unknown company - especially in what most consumers believe to be a mature product marke

Japan's Magic Toilet Seat

chawkes — Mon, 19 May 2008 04:40:48 -0500

I'd thought that toilets were pretty much a commodity product and that most were purchased primarily on price. But on a recent trip to Tokyo, Japan I experienced something that completely cha

Small Businesses May Be Able to Capitalize on Radio Advertising.

chawkes — Thu, 15 May 2008 01:14:10 -0500

A number of factors have combined to cause radio advertising sales to decline for the last several years in the United States. But

Advertising a $10,000 Handmade Cell Phone with Leather and Jewels?

chawkes — Wed, 14 May 2008 03:04:49 -0500

In order to advertise effectively, a company must know how many of their customers, or potential customers fall within a standard population of 1000 people (or some measure of likelihood of bumping

Small Businesses Need to Project a Consistent Brand Image Too

chawkes — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:25:19 -0500

Why An Understanding of Demography Could Greatly Benefit Your Marketing Efforts

chawkes — Sat, 10 May 2008 02:31:25 -0500

Portions of this blog entry are taken out of a recent WSJ article by David Brooks article called “Demography is King”. His art

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Do Your Product Marketers Suffer from the ‘Curse of Knowledge'?

chawkes — Thu, 08 May 2008 04:15:39 -0500

Once a person knows something, it's hard to remember what it was like to not have that knowledge (or know-how). In the book Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath, they describe the way that m

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Can Doing Good Be Good for the Bottom Line?

chawkes — Wed, 07 May 2008 01:35:30 -0500

There is a fast growing movement to improve the reputations of many types of companies to have customers perceive them as doing more than just selling products and making a profit. A growing

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Growing the Market or Cannibalizing Sales?

chawkes — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:56:16 -0500

There are a lot of new product development research projects that I do, where one of the most important questions is “do we think that this new product will cannibalize existing sales of

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“Shaken Not Stirred”, In a Stick of Gum?

chawkes — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 03:16:08 -0500

Wrigley’s gum – what can anyone find to argue about it?

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Even Small Companies Should Have a Business Dashboard!

chawkes — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:22:10 -0500

A “business dashboard” is really not much more than a list of business metrics, generally with a simple indication, such as color coding, that indicates whether the particular met

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Looking for Something to Sell? Sell Your Customers Some Time.

chawkes — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 22:38:09 -0500

Everyone wants more time and you don’t have to be wealthy to be willing to pay a premium to save some time.

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Starbuck Hits a Soft Spot

chawkes — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 01:06:42 -0500

In case you didn’t already know it, Startbuck’s Coffee has hit a rough patch lately.

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Book Review - "The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World”

chawkes — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 07:17:43 -0500

"The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World” by Tim Harford.

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Cost As An Indicator Of Quality

chawkes — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:29:00 -0500

I heard an interesting story on NPR a couple of days ago.

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Product Development – Travel Light and Go Farther

chawkes — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 21:43:45 -0600

Including more heads in product development meetings always create a better product.

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Radically Changing a Mature Product Category

chawkes — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 02:39:39 -0600

Consider the flashlights of a two decades ago. They were sold primarily in outdoors stores – the kind of place where you bought camping gear.

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“MultiTouch Interface” is Changing Computing Devices

chawkes — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 23:57:39 -0600

The ability to control documents and images with simple intuitive hand gestures is changing the use of computing devices to be more similar to that of actual physical acts of moving papers from place

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Could the Luster on Walmart-Cheap be Fading?

chawkes — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 18:22:35 -0600
For the last decade Walmart has been on a tear, and has been crushing everything in it’s path.
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