This week, I dashed into Safeway to pick up some paper towels. While standing in the aisle, I noticed that the left side held tissue, paper towels, and other essential sundries. On the right side, I found impulse buys, such as chips, pop, nuts, and popcorn. Brilliant. Safeway obviously realizes that, when customers pop into […]

Can advertisers push buttons in your brain to make you buy? A study reported in The New York Times suggests that advertisers can highjack your brain circuits for memory, decision-making and self image. Neuromarketing is a controversial practice and I can’t say I’ve ever applied it in creating ads or campaigns. However, understanding buyer behaviour […]

Vancouver film director Lisa Jackson has found success with guerilla marketing of her short documentary Suckerfish. Jackson’s film premiered at Hot Docs this April, and has since screened at festivals in Edinburgh, Melbourne, Toronto and Vancouver — with scheduled screenings in Detroit, New York, and other cities. As an independent film maker, Jackson markets her […]

Several people have asked me about Vancouver MBA programs. Accredited, recognized MBA programs in Vancouver include: Simon Fraser University (SFU) Executive MBA for seasoned managers SFU Global Asset & Wealth Management MBA SFU Management of Technology MBA SFU Specialist MBA UBC MBA Queen’s Executive MBA Many people have asked me to explain why I chose […]

Thinking of sending commercial email? Check the law before you click “send”. If your email turns out to be spam, you can face significant risks and penalties. By sending unwanted commercial email, you may annoy potential customers, losing sales and relationship opportunities. Email providers, such as Telus, Shaw or Yahoo may add you to their […]

The beta version of My Yahoo! features RSS feeds, allowing users to choose their own content. In the past, the My Yahoo! page offered a range of news, financial streams, comic, and web tools. The new portal turns My Yahoo! into a web-based RSS aggregator. RSS is an XML syndication technology, frequently used for syndicating […]

Add this to your list of times when assumptions are knocked out by market research — viewers of Comedy Central’s Daily Show with Jon Stewart have more education and political knowledge than viewers of Fox News’ O’Reilly Factor. Daily Show viewers also report higher incomes. Bill O’Reilly recently called Jon Stewart’s viewers “stoned slackers”. His […]

Just a quick note to say that I’ve added a new feature to my blog. Effective immediately, you can access any post on an individual page — this is handy for anyone seeking to link to an individual post. To pull up a post on a single page, just click on the corresponding header. Thanks […]

For years, many Windows users have been exchanging pictures with friends and family, happily clicking away at JPEGs with the belief that they were virus-free. Today, Microsoft warned users that its JPEG-processing utilities have a security hole that allows hackers to run remote code. Ouch. Keep your computer safe — update your Windows sytem. Visit Microsoft’s […]

China will open its doors to the world’s advertisers by 2005, says a Chinese government official. This will provide Canadian companies with better access to Chinese markets. I’ve been watching the Chinese market since I developed a set of “Exporting to Asia” factsheets for Agriculture Canada in the mid-1990s. I initially created the factsheets after noticing […]