Archive for category: Filosophy

There is no point in deceiving ourselves. American public opinion rejects the market economy, the capitalistic free enterprise system that provided the nation with the highest standard of living ever attained. Full government control of all activities of the individual is virtually the goal of both national parties.

Seen from the point of view of the particular group interests of the bureaucrats, every measure that makes the government payroll swell is progress.

The cyclical fluctuations of business are not an occurrence originating in the sphere of unhampered market, but a product of government interference with business conditions designed to lower the rate of interest below the height at which the free market would have fixed it.

A short time ago the demagogues blamed capitalism for the poverty of the masses. Today they rather blame capitalism for the “affluence” that it bestows upon the common man.

If one rejects laissez faire on account of man’s fallibility and moral weakness, one must for the same reason also reject every kind of government action.

Credit expansion is the governments’ foremost tool in their struggle against the market economy. In their hands it is the magic wand designed to conjure away the scarcity of capital goods, to lower the rate of interest or to abolish it altogether, to finance lavish government spending, to expropriate the capitalists, to contrive everlasting booms, and to make everybody prosperous.

The time is now.

Friday Filosophy v2013-12

March 24, 2013/in Filosophy/by learningwithoutscars

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion If you want to be happy practice compassion

Dalai Lama

Confidence is the companion of success

Author Unknown

If you do not hope, you will not find what is beyond your hopes

St. Clement of Alexandra

The time is now…..

Friday Filosophy v2013-11

March 15, 2013/in Filosophy/by learningwithoutscars

Happiness is not a matter of events, it depends upon the tides of the mind.

Alice Meynell

Leadership is intangible, and therefore no weapon ever designed can replace it.

Omar N Bradley

A successful man continues to look for work after he has found a job.

Author Unknown

The time is now…..

WH Filosophy v1.7

March 9, 2013/in Filosophy/by learningwithoutscars

Hate traps us by binding us too tightly to our adversary.

Milan Kundera, Czech writer

Profit is the result of risks wisely selected.

Frederick Barnard Hawley, American economist

The time is now

Friday Filosophy v2013-10

March 8, 2013/in Filosophy/by learningwithoutscars

I love life because what more is there.

Anthony Hopkins

The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.

Harvey S. Firestone

Keep in mind that neither success nor failure is final.

Roger Ward Babson

The time is now…..

Friday Filosophy v2013-09

March 2, 2013/in Filosophy/by learningwithoutscars

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

Buddha

Success is a journey not a destination.

Ben Sweetland

Humanity is never so beautiful as when praying for forgiveness, or else forgiving another.

John Paul

The time is now…..

Friday Filosophy v2013-08

February 25, 2013/in Filosophy/by learningwithoutscars

A belated Friday Filosophy with my apologies.

Always remember the future comes one day at a time.

Dean Acheson

Great efforts from great motives are the best definition of a happy life.

William Ellery Channing

If you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one.

Mother Teresa

And in keeping with the Oscars

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.

Abraham Lincoln.

The time is now…..

Friday Filosophy v2013-07

February 15, 2013/in Filosophy/by learningwithoutscars

Exert your talents, and distinguish yourself, don’t think of retiring from the world, until the world will be sorry that you retire.

Samuel Johnson

Blessed is the person who is too busy to worry in the daytime and too sleepy to worry at night.

Author Unknown

Honor bespeaks worth. Confidence brings satisfaction. Cooperation proves the quality of leadership.

James Cash Penney

The time is now…..

TESTIMONIALS

The Basics of Marketing, How to Avoid the “What were they thinking” Moments

Guest writer Bonnie Feigenbaum introduces her lecture series with this debut blog post: The Basics of Marketing, how to avoid the “What were they thinking” Moments.

Marketing is all about creating a connection between your company and your customer, a permanent place in their lives for your product and a permanent place in their heart for your brand. In 1971, as a very young child I remember belting “I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony, I'd like to buy the world a coke and keep them company… “learning the iconic Coca-Cola Hillside singers’ ad by heart. The ad was so popular that Coca Cola had Hilltop Reunion in 1990 and brought back the singers to recreate the commercial.

There are many times I watch marketing campaigns roll out and wondered who was the marketing genius who came up with that! For example, McDonald's does so many customer connection points right and really raised the bar on creativity in my mind when they launched their pizza line in 1989. The traditional golden arches were angled to make the Zs in pizza to communicate with one picture and one word that this is McDonald's Pizza, a logo within a logo.

In 2018, I was intrigued by Nike's decision to use Colin Kaepernick as their brand ambassador. I read the article by the Montreal Gazette columnist Scott Stinson, “Nike stands with a bet that outcry from Trump and his allies won't cost them business.” Kaepernick choose to “take a knee” using the moment of the U.S. national anthem to protest racial injustice and lost his football career in the process. The US was sharply divided on whether Kaepernick protesting during the anthem was disrespecting the flag. Nike, it would seem, was placing a large bet on the support their target market has for the issue and on Kaepernick’s sacrifice connecting with them. Would the tagline, “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything” resonate?

Nike’s choice did create a social media fervor as some more ardent opponents of their choice of influencer created a boycott hashtag and posted videos of them burning their own Nike shoes, socks and carving the Nike swoosh out of their garments. I would like you to remember one thing these people already paid for the products. Nike already had their money. The only person who was losing was them, as they had to spend money to replace the martyred items. Ironically, putting in practice the Nike/Kaepernick tagline. Nike did their research right, sales increased in the wake of the controversial advertising campaign, with online sales growing by 31% in the holiday weekend after the ad launched, according to researcher Edison Trends.

However, there are other times where I wonder to myself, what were they thinking and how did nobody throughout the whole creative and control process clue into the customer disconnect.

Let us go through some of my favorite fails

Urbn Outfitter was founded in Philadelphia in 1970 and is an international clothing corporation that has retail stores located in Montreal. My fashion marketing students were trying to determine why there was a significant decrease in sales over the past year. The Urbn Outfitter store brand sales were declining while the parent corporation’s other brands Anthropologie and Free People's net sales had increased by 2% and 5% respectively at the same time. Through research the students were able to prove that in general the retail sales for the target demographic had been enjoying a continuous increase in revenue. So, what was the problem?

They investigated further and discovered that the year earlier Urbn Outfitter had launched controversial clothing lines featuring edgy and questionable mental health and body shaming crop tops with messaging like “depressed” and “eat less” while their direct competitor, Forever 21 T-shirts proclaimed positivity with “eat more” and “love yourself” on their tops.

We also discovered that some of their product line choices left a lot to be desired. There was a Kent State University sweatshirt with blood spatters on it, a black and white horizontal striped T shirt with a 6-point yellow star on it reminiscent of the Holocaust and T-shirts in a colour Urban Outfitter identified as “Obama black”. For the life of me I cannot understand how these items got through the approval process.

Another example of product fails because the company did not even think to take the customer reaction into account is Simons, a Quebec retailer. In September 2018, Simons launched a line of bralettes, a type of women’s lingerie. The story goes that when the Simons team was looking for a vision for their new lingerie line, they looked at inspiring Canadian women that were respected and admired. The line was meant to honour women who made historic contributions to Canada. The bralettes were called the Elsie, the Clara, the Nellie and the Beverley. So, while the last names were never used, the ad copy made it clear that the designs were inspired by aeronautical engineer Elsie MacGill, trailblazing lawyer Clara Brett Martin, suffragette and politician Nellie McClung and jurist Beverley McLachlin, the first woman to be appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Now Simon's never sought permission from the estates of the first three women to use their names or even to ask if they wanted to be bralette brand ambassadors. Nor did they ask the sole living “honoree,” the Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin who had just retired in December after spending 28 years at the Supreme Court including almost eighteen as Chief Justice.

After receiving a call from McLachlin, the president Peter Simons, immediately gave in to her demands for her a public apology and a request to get involved with fund raising campaign for the Cornerstone Housing for women emergency shelter organization in Ottawa.

In his apology, he stated that he sincerely regretted the naming mishap citing the lack of judgment on his part and that they decided to discontinue and destroy all materials related to the line following the call. During the media storm, I wondered where were the women in the room? I noticed a line in one article, “Simons apologizes for bra named after former chief justice Beverley McLachlin,” by Tara Deschamps of the Canadian Press where Simons acknowledges that there is a deficiency in their corporate culture, a lack a comfort of the staff to stand up and express concerns.

That is what my basics of marketing series is all about. I will give every employee the tools to spot the potential problems and recognize the opportunities to improve the customer experience. But it is up to the management in the company to embed that into the corporate culture, empowering their employees to put customer connections above corporate politics.

We will start by reviewing the marketing process which is a good opportunity to show a relationship between several concepts we will be discussing, during the lecture series. During the first half of the series, I will focus on introducing marketing, the marketing environment and then market research. I will explain how we use the secondary data to develop marketing information systems. We will then delve into Consumer Buying Behaviour, comparing it with Business and Institutional Buyers’ Behaviour. We will then discuss the segmentation and positioning process that work in conjunction with the company’s marketing strategy. We will also cover the marketing mix, where we implement our strategy using our 4 Ps-Product, Price, Place & Promotion. In our final lecture, we will put it all together and discuss how to prepare the full marketing plan.

I look forward to helping you discover the full potential and powers of a full formed marketing process for your company.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me by e-mail at bfeigenbaum@sympatico.ca.

Did you enjoy this blog? Read more great blog posts here.

For our course lists, please click here.

August 2, 2022

As I am late this week, my daughter is teasing me that I want it to be Friday already.

Our Friday Filosophy is aimed at inspiring people to stop and reflect on the subject of the week. To allow you to think about your situation and be inspired to grow as a person and as a professional. With that in mind this week, in our Friday Filosophy #2016-14, we focus on personal growth.

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.

Viktor E Frankl

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.

Friedrich Nietzsche

In our struggle for freedom, truth is the only weapon we possess.

The Dalai Lama

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Mark Twain

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.

Albert Einstein

Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.

Buddha

Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness.

Eckhart Tolle

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.

Nelson Mandela

What we fear of doing most is usually what we most need to do.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The time is now.

April 12, 2016