Sears has jumped on the purchase assurance band-wagon! In response to hard economic times, and resistance from customers to make big purchases on its money-making appliances, Sears has introduced a buyer protection program much like the Hyundai program. If you lose your job, you can keep your partially paid for appliances. For the first 12 months of unemployment, the program will credit your Sears card on a monthly basis for the cost of the monthly payment. After 12 months, if you are still unemployed, Sears will erase the balance for the sale, and the appliance is yours to keep.

Sears is the…

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So, not five minutes after I finished my post yesterday asking if Billy Mays — and all of us — are destined for hell, whose booming voice do I hear coming from the television downstairs but Billy himself, hawking a mini-hamburger maker.

I have to admit it was a little eerie, like being pitched from the great beyond. But we’re all going to have to get used to it because, while Billy is no longer with us, many, many hours of cheap, previously purchased media time survive him.

All kidding aside, you know those spots are going to be running for a…

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Is now a good time to start transforming businesses to support the needs of the environment? Just ask CNN, Businessweek, Small Business Trends, or any other news sites. Businesses everywhere are taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint.

The question is always whether the change is out of moral duty or because organizations are trying to pander to the emerging environmentally-minded consumer group. Odds are good it’s the latter.

Not only can green business capitalize on this growing trend, but making the transition early may serve to avoid losses in the long term.

With cap and trade restrictions on the horizon, having a…

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OMG! NW! Are you telling me that the generation that is considered to be the most educated about the “green” movement and the currently demanding environmental issues isn’t doing anything about it?? And like, they wouldn’t beg their parents for more money to buy an eco-friendly brand? Shocking!

I, for one, am as shocked as you. Having come from the first generation to actually be labeled the “I don’t care” generation, I am not just shocked, I’m appalled. How dare they? I mean, I understand that psychological development states that the teen years are spent trying to “fit in” and that despite…

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It first started when one of my employees tweeted Creativity, an article written by Teressa Iezzi’s in the hate/love/hate/love again column of Advertising Age about the creative shift from film towards digital and interactive entitled Lack of Film Standout at Cannes. Later, I received RT’s and emails of Jeff Goodby, with all of his Cannes Lions, weighing in with his AdAge.com article about the industry “… becoming irrelevant award-chasers.”

I wanted leave a comment as I’ve been doing for the last six months but felt that my articles-worth of opinion should merit its own space, BTB style.

While I can talk about all of the points…

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In a recent turn of events, major metropolitan cities such as New York and Los Angeles have joined the Multi-National United (MNU) in its efforts to isolate South Africa’s new class of citizens in an area known as “District 9.”

The term “citizen” may be inaccurate.  These beings have caused a state of fear in South Africa that has brewed into discrimination and in many cases, hatred.  World leaders are taking actions to designate restricted areas and broadcast public-service announcements including bus shelters and wall postings in order to monitor their activities.  Here’s a closer look into District 9:

The puzzling announcements…

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When is an album not an album? When it’s a t-shirt.

Rapper Mos Def is putting out his latest album, The Ecstatic, as a t-shirt. The shirt has the cover art on the front, the track list on the back and a code to download the songs on the shirt’s hang tag.

Whoa! I love this idea. First off, it’s different so it’s going to get noticed. Secondly it’s social: fans are going to wear the t-shirt and talk about it to anyone who asks, which means they will be self-marketing the record and the t-shirt. And thirdly, it gives instant bragging rights…

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You haven’t lived until you have had to simultaneously prepare for a flight to New York and for a $500k client pitch in the morning crowds of an airport.

Last week, I was waiting for a flight to JFK while participating in a conference call spanning multiple cities. With my laptop open and following my team over the wireless, the pitch presentation involved ideas to produce several broadcast spots through traditional and digital media channels that had the metric statistical rationale of a Harvard thesis paper.

While my colleagues were speaking, I sat near a restaurant watching employees demonstrate how good customer…

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Here’s a weird statement that I would assume constitutes as being ironic. And no, that doesn’t mean ‘completely made of iron’ (thank you Jerry Stiller, King of Queens). I own an advertising agency in NC and my job is to buy and place media for my clients.

The irony of it all is that I pretty much hate commercials. I have satellite radio and love the ‘no commercials’ stations. I have DirecTV with DVR, which allows me to fast-forward through commercials. So much for practice what you preach, right?

But in the midst of the worst economy since the Great Depression, one…

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According to an article at Wired.com, computer manufacturer Dell has done the impossible—they have made money on Twitter. For all of you Doubting Thomas’s and Negative Nancy’s, I will repeat what I just said: Dell has made money on Twitter.

Here’s what the article said:

“It wasn’t an overnight thing; Dell’s been on Twitter for two years. But Dell blogger Stephanie Nelson says they’ve managed to steadily grow followers for their outlet store via @DellOutlet, earning $2 million via Twitter referrals for their “certified refurbs, scratch and dent and previously ordered new Dell products.” They took in another $1 million from people who went…

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There are few things quite as euphoric as a sense of the gratification of reward: being told you’ve done a great job by your friends; seeing your name in the newspaper for some noteworthy deed; or, according to scientists, seeing a brand name.

Scientists at the Radiological Society of North America have recently discovered that brand names have an affect on the part of the brain associated with feeling good about rewards.

How did they make this discovery? Volunteers were hooked up to MRI scanners and then shown popular brand names and unpopular brand names. There was increased activity in that certain…

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Do you know what the first site I check each day is? Beneath the Brand of course! But as soon as I do that I head over to Woot. What’s Woot? A shopping site for boys and their toys. I’m sure some girls shop Woot, but the site’s focus is clearly guys like me: gadget-happy geeks with an insatiable lust for new shiny objects at cheap prices.

Woot offers one thing for sale a day and once it’s sold out, or the clock strikes twelve, it’s over. You can’t buy it again, unless they happen to offer the same thing at…

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Marketing is about communicating, telling your current and prospective customers what you have to offer and how it benefits them.  That seems simple enough, but because many small companies start with a focus on product before marketing, there’s often a hole in the communication between the product development and marketing teams, leading to confusion and lost opportunities.

Cross-training between the marketing and development teams can relieve a lot of heartache, especially for small tech companies.  The marketing team needs to understand the technical nature of a product, while the development team needs to understand how products are communicated to customers and…

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There are scores of social networking websites and applications on the market, everything from Ning to Twitter to Facebook.  But what is social networking really best suited for?  It’s not so much a tool for traditional marketing, but  for more for point-to-point lifestyle marketing, it makes it possible to build a community around your brand and products.

Each of the social networking platforms offers their own unique way of getting out the word.  While platforms like Facebook and Ning allow you to produce environments where you can commune with your customers and they can interact with each other, tools like Twitter…

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There’s an article in Ad Age today about Proctor & Gamble’s decision to purchase the Art of Shaving, a small, upscale retail chain that offers barbering services and shaving accessories for men. The story got a response from a reader who wondered why, in these challenging economic times, a big CPG company like P&G would decide to add to their operating expenses with a purchase like this, when the potential sales gain would be relatively small.

My comment, to answer this query, was “Companies like P&G aren’t moving to small retail stores like this to drive volume; they are looking to create quality…

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