Father’s Day in the Nathan household typically means one thing: Golf.
Even though my dad plays golf two to three times a week anyway, Father’s Day is almost always reserved for a round of 9 or 18 on the links.
I’ve played recreational basketball for as long as I can remember. Whether it’s going to the park with friends to run 5-on-5 or to the gym for a pick-up game with strangers, I’ve played enough in my life to not only participate in the sport, but make acute observations as well.There are certain trends that exist in the gym. These trends are actually more truths than anything else. I call these truths, “Court Culture.”
Truth 5: “Seriously guys, I’m not this bad.” Photo courtesy of menshealth.com
We have all, at one point or another, pitched someone or been pitched to ourselves. If you are part of the former group, you’ve had those meetings or phone calls where you can feel your clients’ eyelids getting heavier with each slide as the energy you sought to bring to the room gradually dissipates. Your confidence in your pitch shrinks and you start to realize banking is not in your future since you fail to generate any sort of interest.
As I celebrated my 24th birthday yesterday, December 3rd (the Kobe birthday, as I like to call it), I thought it would be fitting to write down 24 things I learned in the past year. Learnings about myself, about life, and about others. These 24 things are in no particular order:
Did someone say, “Kobe”?
Sales.
Eww.
The very word makes your teeth cringe, ghouls shriek, and sends people running to a safe house quicker than the girl in the Thriller video.
I’ll pause momentarily so that your imagination can play out you in a red jumpsuit leading the undead in a cemetery two-step.
Okay, now snap out of it.
Let’s think for a second why exactly we naturally harbor such a negative connotation for “sales”.
Almost everyday when I walk home from work, I cut through the Wrigley Building passage, past the Trump Tower across Wabash, down the steps to Hubbard, and turn right on State Street. While pacing down State, I pass the Jewel at the intersection of Ohio Street. For the past four or five months I have noticed a homeless man who sits in front of this intersection. I don’t always leave work at the same time everyday, so I don’t see him everyday, but I assume he camps out there on a daily basis. While we did have a mild winter, it’s still not much consolation when you have to sit outside with just a blanket for hours on end. As is standard for the homeless, he has a change cup. But he also has something else that I’ve never seen in my almost five years living in Chicago: Resumes.
Recently, while working with a client, my team was asked to brainstorm some concepts for an upcoming promotion for the brand’s loyalty program. Naturally, we asked the client for rough ideas, marketing objectives, goals, success measures, etc…
We received none of the above. They didn’t really know what they wanted to do, outside of the fact that they wanted us to create an “exciting game”.
As a self-proclaimed wordsmith, I would like to take this time to stop and look at the adjectives arbitrarily being thrown around by brands in an effort to attract customers. As trends point that there is a shift in consumer preference towards more (relatively) luxurious items at wallet-friendly prices, it is only natural for marketers to respond to this demand in one of two ways:
1) Release new products that are significantly higher end than its competitors’, and its own previous versions, and find a way to justify the price increase.
2) Release virtually the same product as before, with slight improvements, but slap a new moniker on it so it goes from also-ran attractive, to Kardashian-like sexy.
This QR Code was used for Macy's Backstage Pass promotion. Were scans higher in locations with better cellular reception? Photo courtesy of qranywhere.blogspot.com
As QR codes continue to gain popularity, it is important to remember that functionality should be at the focal point when making a decision on whether or not to include them as part of your campaign. Brands can decide to include QR codes on in-store signage but need to take into account location when doing so. Continue reading
There is really only one way I can say this: If you are a college student, get on Twitter!
It’s downright stupid to not be on the second largest social network in the world, and especially so if you are on the road to an undergraduate degree. Continue reading
