10 Marketing Lessons You Can’t Learn From Walmart

Posted by Jon Thomas, 19 Nov 2012

This post originally appeared in our November '12 issue of “Live Report from the Future of Marketing,” our monthly Post-Advertising newsletter. Subscribe for free here.

I’m not ashamed to admit that one of my favorite movies is You’ve Got Mail—a complete rip-off of Sleepless in Seattle, even using the same lead actors (Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan). Ryan’s character runs a small independent bookshop in Manhattan, while Hanks’s character is opening a large retail bookstore with low prices (if only he’d known how technology would change the way we read) just down the block.

In the late 1990s, when the movie was made, this was a common story line. What were small businesses going to do when Borders, Walmart, Kmart and Target moved into town? How could they compete with rock-bottom prices and one-stop shopping?

Share

Follow That Ad! Geo-Based Marketing Takes Over Your City

Posted by Andrea Fjeld, 17 Dec 2010
You know who takes cabs in New York? The rich and the drunk. And tourists. Can't forget about them. Basically, the audience the Blue Man Group is looking for! So next time your taxi takes you through the East Village, don’t be surprised if an ad for its Astor Place show pops up on the rear-facing screen. Marketers are beginning to capitalize on in-cab, location-based advertising to dictate when and where their commercials should air.
Share

Marketing and NYC’s 10-second Rule

Posted by Luke Dringoli, 06 Jan 2010
There's an understood rule in New York City when it comes to stuff left out on the streets: If it goes unattended for 10 seconds, it's yours for the taking. Minneapolis-based furniture company Blu Dot had some fun recently and dispatched a well-orchestrated street team to place 25 of the brand’s Real Good chairs around town for passersby to take.
Share

Find the Stash to Get Your Wings

Posted by Luke Dringoli, 17 Nov 2009
Red Bull has long soared above the competition with real-world branding experiences—like Flugtag, which every year sends people plummeting into flying over large bodies of water. For its recent campaign, Red Bull abandoned the air for the web in an e-scavenger hunt promo.
Share