Monthly Archives: October 2007

online view vs. page view

The trade news is full of it. The “it” being the continuing defection of marketeers from print to digital. For instance?

According to Advertising Age, last week’s Association of National Advertisers meetup had as one highlight – or lowlight, depending – ConocoPhillips’ brand manager complaining about the lack of solutions for advertisers need to reach their market.

Formerly with LA’s Dailey & Associates (who also handle media for Honda) the company brought their account in-house in 2005. Since then they’ve gone from spending about $20 million in measured media to $18.7 million in 2006 to $3.6 million for the first half of this year. Looks like a trend.

But they’re not happy with a continuing lack of awareness by their market. And they don’t have a solution, either, other than to call out agencies in general for not solving their, and others, problem with communications.

All of which indicates a time that’s either quickly approaching or already on us requiring open minds and clever thinking when it comes to message creation and dissemination. Please stay tuned.

and then the snow began falling…

The 33rd Annual Cycle World Trek’s history, and this one topped the ’04 Slushy Finale by a ton. Details to come, but if you ever think you’ve done a cold ride, unless it was below freezing at 7,000 feet in the middle of a full-on blizzard, you haven’t.

Complete posting to follow.

back from the brink

Once again Coke’s stymied its detractors by clawing its way to the top of the best brand recognition mountaintop. Perceived by the market as the top cola beverage in a crowded field, Coke’s bragging rights are secured for the time being with edgy ads, pervasive online presence, and new product rollouts – we’ll see on the Zero thing – that keep the competition off balance.

We thought they’d made another classic blunder when they pulled back from the bears. Guess again.

How’s your brand doing these days? Recognized? Recognized in a lineup of three? First to come to mind when someone mentions your channel or category? Brand development, building and maintaining is an ongoing part of any marketing plan that considers success inevitable. Learn from the best…it’s the real thing.

that’s a lot of billet – really

According to Professional Motor Sport’s latest issue, the California tool manufacturer Haas Automation is on track as the fastest growing cnc maker on the planet. Sales in ’06 totaled more than 12,500 units. The 2007 target is nearly 14,000 machines, with an annual goal of 15,000 cncs and sales of $1-billion.

That’s a lot of capacity. A lot of aluminum. A lot of aftermarket for the automotive and motorcycle industries. I mention this only because it wasn’t that many years ago when a milling machine was strictly the domain of a tool and die shop, and setup and operation was at the hands of a dedicated toolmaker.

Times change. Once again, without a computer to interpret the programs humans write, it’s fair to contemplate an aftermarket much, much smaller. And at this rate of growth, it’s almost possible to imagine a time when shopping for a new home might include a 3br/2ba/gar/pool/NEW cnc listing.