http://categorystrategy.com Scott Magoon's CategoryStrategy ... the intersection of consumer products, retail, and technology Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:02:39 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Steve Gillmor's podcast pair (Gillmor Gang and Gillmor Daily) have enthusiastically embraced advertising sponsors and in turn generated a small-scale listener revolt. The Podshow network was created by Podcasting pioneer Adam Curry and business partner Ron Bloom to help the little guy quit his day job and become a ... http://categorystrategy.com/paying-no-attention/ Is your customer support response time noteworthy? For the right reasons? When expectations are set so low by an industry it becomes easy to delight a customer with a quick and personal response. http://categorystrategy.com/noteworthy-response-time/ The market for post-undergraduate business education is being underserved, but not in the way you think. Executive MBA programs are gaining stature every year. Many of the country’s best B-schools now offer programs structured for students well into the workforce and with life situations that preclude leaving work and family ... http://categorystrategy.com/the-underserved-mba-market/ I paid my American Express bill late recently and incurred a $29 late fee. I called and innocently inquired about it hoping that it would be forgiven. The nice customer service rep that explained to me what day my payment had been due and what day mine actually ... http://categorystrategy.com/membership/ Sharp sells LCD TVs and to me has a great advantage. Their company name is a positive characteristic of the product. What fantastic branding. So how does Sharp capitalize on that advantage? They don't. Instead they paid some untold sum of money to branding experts ... http://categorystrategy.com/sharp-tvs/ What do you do with a customer that comes to your site wanting to buy a product you make? Well, if you are Timex you turn him away. I recently saw a Timex watch in a magazine that I wanted. That's a strong consumer impulse to make ... http://categorystrategy.com/timexcom-strikes-out/ Tom Peters points to Consumer Reports picking automotive winners in ten out of ten categories all from Japanese manufacturers. Ironically this was the first thing I read when I got back into the office. I had just picked up my wife after she had to drop the minivan off ... http://categorystrategy.com/detroits-old-economy/ Quick, Microsoft is offering Hotmail Plus for $19.95 per year. The offer expires Feb. 28th 2006. What happens then? Well, they don't say. Is it a good deal? Beats me, they also don't say what the price was previously or what it will be afterward. There ... http://categorystrategy.com/hotmail-this-offer-is-valid-until/ Clutter is a quick way to tell your customers that you don’t care about them.  Grocery Stores and mass merchandisers based in Bentonville, AR are notorious for cluttered aisles and haphazard displays.  As a retail conversation, clutter is a way to talk past your customers without regard for their perspective.  And ... http://categorystrategy.com/the-cluttered-experience/ Can a Contact Us email link actually do more harm than good? Perhaps yes, if you don't answer it. You worked hard to bring customers to you. The branding, the advertising, building the website, getting the right domain name, finding your niche, and putting your product in ... http://categorystrategy.com/contact-us-no-dont/