When Brand Is A Figment Of Imagination: “About Jenga” (Part 4)

By Guest Author Leslie Scott [Leslie wraps up her series of excerpts from her book, “About Jenga: The Remarkable Business of Creating a Game That Became a Household Name.”] Unlike Jenga, not all brands succeed in achieving so close a link between the product being marketed and the image conveyed by a brand mark. Perhaps

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Building Your Brand Experience for Hard Times (Part 3)

By guest authors Charles W. Bush and Kathy Hwang of 3Strand, a brand and business strategy consultancy. Build trust with customers through transparency. Just after the financial crisis, research conducted by OTO Research shows that 83% of consumers do not trust the brands they use. Everyone is talking about building brand trust during a recession,

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Shutterfly’s Strategy: A Conversation with CEO Jeff Housenbold (Part 12)

SM: The TAM is huge. JH: It’s a $150B TAM worldwide, and $50B in the US. SM: I am not worried about the growth opportunity at all. JH: The key for me and the management team is, and I think for any small business in any space, is how do you focus?

Web 3.0 & Online Sports (Part 3)

Business Model Most online sports sites earn money from advertisements, subscriptions, retailing of sports equipments and merchandising. They have also realized the need for convergence with other media and mobile network for better broadcast and more ad dollars. The popularity of fantasy sports leagues has also drawn advertiser attention, as the fantasy games bring in

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Re-engineering the Book Business: Blurb CEO, Eileen Gittins (Part 4)

SM: What are your top target segments? EG: We segment the market very broadly into Consumer/Prosumer and Professional. Top segments within consumer/Prosumer are: * photography books of all kinds including travel, fine art, compilations from photo enthusiast communities * wedding (participant books) * yearbooks, student/class books * family histories * cookbooks Top segments within Professional

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Salesforce.com’s Incubator: René Bonvanie (Part 11)

To conclude the interview, I bring up the topic of branding. It seems obvious that Salesforce is moving beyond what it’s name suggests it offers clients. At this point, their brand is vastly less ambitious than the company. SM: My final question is regarding AppExchange. Salesforce seems to be moving beyond CRM. RB: We are

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