Javen Blog » Marketing

The Friday Cool: Soda Pop Stop

javen — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 13:52:15 +0000

Watch this cool little documentary about a soda pop specialty store.

Would that I could live there…

LINKS

Soda Pop Stop Store

Trader joe’s trade secrets: be smart and clever and do good work

javen — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 11:00:28 +0000

Fortune Magazine digs into Trader Joe’s secretive methods of doing business.

They make smart deals to keep prices low, they put high priority on customer service, and they know their business very well.

LINKS

Inside the secret world of Trader Joe’s

Struggling to self-promote

javen — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:00:41 +0000

This past weekend there was a local indie comics convention. I wasn’t able to make it as a customer or as an exhibitor.

Part of the issue is that I just don’t have the time or the material to put up the sort of table that I want at this point. But the other part is that I’m just not that comfortable with self-promotion yet.

So I pay special attention to articles like this one by Alex Mathers of Red Lemon Club on getting over your self-doubt in order to get done what you need to get done.

LINKS

How to Smash Through Self Doubt to Become a Better Self Promoter

Ralph Bakshi speaks plainly to young animators

javen — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:00:05 +0000

I’m not a huge fan of the man, but he sure tells it like it is to an audience of aspiring animators at the San Diego ComiCon a couple years ago.

This rant also applies to those of us who wish for any kind of career in a creative line of work. Take heed.

Links

Ralph Bakshi’s site
Ralph Bakshi on Wikipedia

37signals’ take on the Shake Shack

javen — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:00:46 +0000

Read 37signals’ very interesting analysis of an NYT piece on Danny Meyer’s Shake Shack.

1. Have an enemy. In Meyer’s case, the enemy is fast food that strips away the human experience.

“The whole experience is to cram people into a cookie-cutter space, to feed them as many unhealthy calories as possible — then get them to leave,” said Mr. Meyer, the president of the Union Square Hospitality Group and the Yoda of Shake Shack. “That stripping away of human experience? That is where fast food went astray.”

Contrast and compare, then, with the three Shake Shacks in New York City, where patrons are cheerfully welcomed at the counter of a neighborhood-centered, urban-fantasy version of a burger roadhouse. On the menu? Whole-muscle, no-trimmings, fresh-ground, antibiotic-and-hormone-free, source-verified-to-ranch-of-birth, choice-or-higher-grade Black Angus beef.

Furthermore, “people have to wait in line just to place their orders,” Mr. Meyer, 51, said on a recent afternoon. “After that? They have to wait for us to cook their orders. And then? We hope they’ll stay awhile, as they eat. To enhance the communal experience.”

Links

The Accidental Empire of Fast Food

Lessons to learn from Danny Meyer’s Shake Shack

The Online version of the crabby old storekeeper

javen — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:00:27 +0000

Matt of 37signals does a great dissection of Birdwell swimwear’s sales copy.

I wish I sold something that people wanted so much that they’d be willing to put up with my true and undiluted misanthropic disposition.  

Links

[On Writing] Birdwell swimwear wants “no more of this wishy washy stuff and nonsense” | 37signals

Cory Doctorow: How free ebooks are good for well-known and obscure writers

javen — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:05:52 +0000

Doctorow recently published a column in the Guardian on the benefits of free ebooks:

Releasing a book as a free download isn’t newsworthy in and of itself. It was, once upon a time, especially when that book had the backing of a major publisher. Publishers are often characterised as being conservative about the net, so it was surprising when it happened. These days, many writers have convinced their publishers to dip their toes in the water on this, and it’s simply not notable when it happens again.

Which is not to say that free downloads have no role when it comes to promotion, publicity and marketing. Their main effect is to magnify any good feeling your book has generated, by making it simple for people who love the book to get it under the nose of their social circle.

via How free ebooks are good for well-known and obscure writers | Boing Boing.