“I want to live in a mall where the temperature is always the same and people are nice.” – Kevin Meaney, Comedian I am obsessed with dead malls. What are dead malls, you ask? They’re the shopping centres that are neglected, abandoned and or scheduled for the wrecking ball. They are full of empty stores,…
Read MoreHow to win customers and influence the ones you have “Customer satisfaction is worthless. Customer loyalty is priceless.” – Jeffrey Gitomer Having more customers is, generally speaking, better than having less. More customers mean more sales, and more sales mean more profit. Customer acquisition plays a big part in making that happen, but there’s another…
Read MoreI spent more than two decades in the entertainment industry, where I reported on new movies. The competition for audience dollars was fierce. Studios that spent $100M+ to make a film often invested an equal amount in marketing, advertising and promotional events. Sometimes the studios’ excessive spending was the stuff of legend. One of the…
Read MoreHow blasts from the past shape our future An interesting thing happened during the last weekend of May. A low-budget horror thriller called The Wretched was the number one movie for the fifth week in a row. The movie’s total gross of $841,000 was impressive during a pandemic, but a mere fraction of what a…
Read MorePeople love good storytelling. It’s a scientific fact that we are hardwired to dramatize, to imagine, and immerse ourselves in good stories. Neuroscientists can demonstrate that our brains light up like Christmas trees when we are absorbed in a compelling story. Our motor cortexes, emotions, imagining sensations and visual image processing are all working overtime.…
Read MoreConsumer behaviour has been altered by large-scale social and economic variables for as long as economies have existed. I never once saw my mom buy a new roll of aluminum foil. She would use the same well-worn sheet for baking, clean it and then return it to the box. This frugality was passed on to…
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