Business and management articles | Cooler Insights

How C. Wonder Pampers Its Customers

May 22, 2012 • Blog • no comments

Leading investor and serial entrepreneur J. Christopher Burch has more than 30 years of experience in various technology and luxury brands, including Aliph (Jawbone), NextJump, and Tory Burch. At a talk given at the Asia Fashion Summit recently, he shared about his experience with C. Wonder – a fast growing apparel, accessories and home décor retailer, and how he built a strong retail brand focused heavily on delighting customers and meeting their lifestyle needs.

Predicated on the concept of the customer being “our girl”, the customer experience in C. Wonder stores are predicated on “service credos” such as the following:

May 20, 2012 • Blog • no comments

The platforms are free but the time and effort producing them isn’t (courtesy of zenfolio)

Let’s face it. We are swamped by content.

What used to be physical has now invaded our virtual and mobile spaces. With a gazillion blogs, videos, photos, podcasts, slide presentations, and so on, consumers are literally “consumed” by data.

The Role of Semiotics in Marketing

May 13, 2012 • Content Marketing • 54 comments

What does this ad tell you? (source of image)

What is the relationship between signs and marketing communications? Why do certain symbols and icons work more effectively as advertisements in reaching consumers than others?

A brand of cultural anthropology which looks at the use of signs and symbols as a means of communicating and conveying meaning, semiotics is a vital discipline in the science of marketing communications, advertising and branding.

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7 Trends for the Museum of the Future

May 10, 2012 • Business and Management • 4 comments

Interactive and educational gaming at the Maritime Experiential Museum & Aquarium

I’ve just read very quickly the Center for the Future of Museums (an arm of the American Association of Museums) well written report called TrendsWatch 2012 which outlined key trends in the development of museums. With lots of links to examples and highlights of cutting edge ideas in American museums, the report provides lots of food for thought for museum and attraction professionals.

Let me highlight the seven trends that they have identified and provide a local context to them.

Extreme Focus: A Book Review

May 8, 2012 • Book Reviews • no comments

Michael Jordan: a proponent of Extreme Focus (source of image)

How does one truly achieve one’s dreams? What are the secrets behind ultra-successful folks who make a “dent in the Universe”?

The answer according to NBA Orlando Magic’s Senior Vice President Pat Williams and author Jim Denney is “Extreme Focus”.

Marketing – Fact, Fantasy or Fallacy?

May 6, 2012 • Blog • 2 comments

Too bad marketers don’t have growing noses like Pinnochio! (source of image)

In the world of marketing, there are three schools of thought.

The first is the school of facts. Proponents of this idea hinge much of their marketing on bread and butter issues, focusing on very tangible aspects of their products or services such as cost, value, features, utility, convenience and savings.

Mickey’s 10 Commandments for Theme Parks

May 3, 2012 • Blog • 1 comment

Disneyland provides lots of photo opportunities for kids!

Thanks to Bob Rogers, I recently learnt about the 10 rules of theme park design which were created by Disney legend Marty Sklar, Vice Chairman and Principal Creative Executive of Walt Disney Imagineering. These rules are designed to help anybody developing or designing a theme park to create memorable experiences for their guests.

So what are these precepts modelled after the “happiest place on Earth”?

Steve Jobs: Lessons from a Legend

May 1, 2012 • Book Reviews • 7 comments

Image from Mashable.com

Everybody knows Steve Jobs.

Icon, innovator, brilliant entrepreneur and creator of “insanely great” products, Jobs was the founder and CEO of Apple.

Creator of legendary products like the Macintosh computer, iPod, iTunes Store, iPhone and iPad, Jobs founded the Disney beating Pixar Animations (which was later sold to the behemoth), and opened the much lauded Apple Store.

Adapt by Tim Harford: A Book Review

April 29, 2012 • Book Reviews • 1 comment

“Undercover Economist” Tim Harford’s latest book Adapt – Why Success Always Starts with Failure blends economics, psychology, evolutionary biology, and anthropology to explain why trial and error is preferred over grand strategic plans. Touted as “Britain’s Malcolm Gladwell”, Harford’s central thesis is that countries, companies and individuals should embrace an evolutionary and empirical approach in determining what works and what doesn’t.

Using analogies from evolution such as variation, selection and adaptation, Adapt uses far flung examples ranging from the Iraq War, Global Warming, 2007’s Financial Meltdown, to 3rd World Development efforts to prove its point. Some of its stories – such as the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg – date all the way back to the middle ages. Others, such as the almost accidental success of Google (which purportedly has no corporate strategy) are more recent.