Marketing

As recent surveys have noted, online dating is growing in popularity. And people who meet online typically like to meet for the first time in a setting that provides an easy “out,” so to speak. That setting, surveys also have suggested, is quite often a coffee house like Starbucks.
Armed with that data, the coffee giant has teamed with Yahoo! Personals to produce an “Espresso Dating Guide” that can be found exclusively online at https://personals.yahoo.com/espressodating The guide offers advice such as what to wear on a first date, what to talk about and, if necessary, how to end the date gracefully.

Chicago Times

The key to evangelism is a great product. It is easy, almost unavoidable, to catalyze evangelism for a great product. It is hard, almost impossible, to catalyze evangelism for crap. (Evangelism, after all, comes from the Greek word for “bringing the good news,” not “the crappy news.”)

So what is a great product – read Guy’s Blog

guykawasaki

Anne Saunders, svp of marketing for Starbucks, says creating customer loyalty starts with just one thing: A really great coffee house. An exclusive HUB interview by Tim Manners

Full article : The Hub

every one…

1. Take responsibility
2. Pay attention to detail

The thing that’s so surprising is how little attention is paid to these two, how often we run into people (business to business or b2c) who are totally clueless about them.

Seth Godin’s Blog

Samuel Adams Utopias 24oz.

Brewer Notes:Truly the epitome of brewing’s two thousand year evolution, Samuel Adams Utopias offers a flavor not just unlike any other beer but unlike any other beverage in the world. Its warm, sweet flavor is richly highlighted with hints of vanilla, oak and caramel. Our 2003 batch topped out at a record breaking 25% ABV, beating the records that Samuel Adams Triple Bock and Samuel Adams Millennium had set before it. And like those groundbreaking brews, Samuel Adams Utopias is not carbonated and should be served at room temperature.

Price: $129.99

Liquorama

What an amazing world we live in. Information flying about at the speed of light. Cures or treatments for many major diseases. Airplanes. Food for many, if not most. Cat food that tastes like pate.

It almost feels churlish to complain.

But here’s the deal: almost everything is lousy.

More on this from Seth Godin to me he has it spot on.

Which global markets are ripe for quick-serve expansion in the next decade? Here’s a clue” Think emerging.

According to Dr. Ilon Alon, Ph.D., Associate Professor of International Business at the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College, 80 percent of the world’s population lives in so-called emerging markets. And, as he writes at www.franchise-chat.com, the U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that more than 75 percent of the expected growth in world trade over the next 20 years “will come from developing countries, particularly big emerging markets??

But where are these markets?QSR Magazine

The first thing Dietrich Mateschitz did before launching Red Bull was to ignore the focus groups, reports Kerry A. Dolan in Forbes (5/28/05). “People didn’t believe the taste, the logo, the brand name,” he says. “I’d never before experienced such a disaster.” But like a true marketing hero he went ahead anyway, opened up offices just outside Salzburg, and deployed a six-person sales force to “retail outlets and bars across Australia.” Today, Red Bull, redbull.com, is a raging success: “In some countries (it) commands an 80 percent market share. In the U.S., where Red Bull enjoys a 47 percent share of the energy drink market, sales are growing at a 40 percent clip. Last year it sold 700 million cans in the U.S.; this year it hopes to sell 1 billion.” Yes, the brand’s U.S. market share has fallen some over the years, but there’s no denying that Dietrich Mateschitz created what is now a $1.7 billion category.