Today in honor of Earth Day - Starbucks is giving free cups of coffee for those who bring in a reusable container and to those that save their paper container and want a refill! I love it. Happily this morning – I took my reusable container in support of our planet earth. Interestingly my regular Starbucks was busy As usual – but most visitors were using the standard paper cup. Upon my arrival there were at least 6 people in line before me and I noticed one person other than myself who had brought a cup. Read the rest of this entry »

As we celebrate both Passover and Easter – I thought this article I found from Social Media Insider – not only offers great information – but  apropos in light of the holiday season. To quote another article I found in the New York Times – which speaks about business schools – incorporating courses about social networks as part of their MBA programs. The author Fiona Mackay says in response to a large retailer who makes some real social network blunders “The lesson: social media are not marketing toys to be handled by interns but a professional communications channels that require understanding of the technology and the community that uses it.” Here is the link if you would like to read the full article. http://tinyurl.com/yd2j5xv Read the rest of this entry »

In the last few days, “thought leadership and innovation” has been a discussion topic between myself and several different business people. It was first brought to my attention a few days ago by someone who passed on the assessment (from another business associate) that, after reviewing my blog posts, they felt I was not showcasing our business skills, expertise and brand offering because I was including full articles written by others below my daily thoughts. The reason I began this blog was to use the premise of our business name, SHARE, to share with people what I read.
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This is the mega million dollar question. We don’t need to mention the stats. All businesses are now re-analyzing their marketing mixes and plans to find out who really is their target market. I think marketing to women is truly key for all businesses. The problem is (as mentioned in a meeting earlier this week) what happens if we market to women and we find out—through our research and analysis—that our target market is really men or a higher percentage of men? What do we do then?
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I have had an interesting discussion with one of my group members from Linkedin. Yesterday, I posted a blog article regarding IBM’s upcoming  social network—as a way to Share what I have to say with a professional audience and provide better exposure for our business bcad Group and our agency Share. For those that do not know Linkedin, it is a social networking community for professionals—where you can connect with business people and through those connections have access to their connections. It is a great way to create exposure for your business and your services. Gain new insights, network for knowledge and learn about other peoples experiences.
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In the spirit of sharing at this time of year I wrote about viral marketing in my last post. 2009 is now just around the corner and the premier focus will definitely be answering the question—how will you engage your consumer with the goal of building brand evangelists one person at a time? Read the rest of this entry »

I attended the opening of a new restaurant chocolate lounge last night. The theme and star of the show was chocolate in as many forms as you can imagine: drinks, truffles, sandwiches of mango, strawberry and chocolate, truffles filled with caramel and salt accompanied by champagne, guava martini’s with a spicy kick, and cognac.
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