Trade Shows Again, Kind of
Following Vegas, in the last issue for the season of TransWorld Snowboarding Business, I wrote about trade shows and the issues we have with them. To make a long article short, I basically said, “We’re...
View Article“Jeff, This is a Hard Business!” Why Is That and What Can You Do About It?
That unsolicited quote is from the President of a snowboard brand that you all know and that’s been around for a while. It would generally be considered successful. I consider it successful. It’s not...
View ArticleHard Truths about the Action Sports Business; Use Them to Make Lemonade from...
As I said in the last issue of Boardsport Source, the way companies choose to compete in the action sports industry and, I suppose, in most industries, is largely responsible for the maturing and...
View ArticleDoing Marketing; What, How and Why?
At the Skateboard Industry Conference earlier this year and in these hallowed pages, I’ve argued: 1. That advertising and promotional tactics like running ads and hiring teams pass for marketing...
View ArticleAction Sports; Are We Still in That Business?
Seems a silly question I suppose. Action sports are what we do. It’s what we’ve always done. It’s what we love. Our trade shows are more fun than anybody else’s. We get to take vacations and call them...
View ArticleThe Relationship Between Marketing and Business Risk; Do One and Reduce the...
Have you ever noticed how often the group of people who create ads, run promotions, and manage sponsorships are called the marketing department? That’s always struck me as kind of odd. I think...
View ArticlePopup Playgrounds; An Intriguing Marketing Idea
It’s not like I look to the New York Times for all my good industry advertising and promotion ideas. Still, once in a while, they come up with something that gets me thinking. Their “Presto Instant...
View ArticleI Like Market Data
Even before they contacted me to ask if I was interested in writing about it, I’d seen that Krush had released the Executive Summary for the Krush Buyers Report and it seemed an intriguing idea. Most...
View ArticleHeinz’s New Ketchup; New Product Introductions and Social Media
I came across this a few weeks ago (actually, my wife sent it to me and if I don’t give her credit, I’ll hear about it), but have been busy reading quarterly filings. Heinz, it seems, has introduced...
View ArticleMy Wife’s Cosmetics and Skateboarding
My wife uses Bobbi Brown cosmetics and I doubt most of you really care. Like me (and I’m guessing all the guys who read this), until right now, you’ve probably never heard of Bobbi Brown. Maybe some of...
View ArticleWhy It Pays to be a Jerk
A gentleman named Jerry Useem wrote an article with this title for the June 2015 issue of The Atlantic. You can read the whole article here. It reviews research on how behavior in the work place...
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