http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/automobiles/10chevy.html?hp This was reported in the NYTimes today and I have to say that I am flabbergasted! Shocked that they would call this “branding” and confounded as to why they would choose this as a way to resurrect the brand. Calling your car a Chevy is one of the most flattering things you can do. It shows a personal relationship with your car. Like when people call me “Jules” instead of Julie. Those people know me well, we have a kinship…to make it a penalty ($0.25 in the “swear jar” for those GM employees...

So this Memorial Day, as we reflect on the heroes that have helped make our country great, we are also making plans to kick off our summer properly and for many that means..road trip. But as I was thinking about places my family could run off to this weekend I was sent an invitation for a group on …Facebook that read: XXX invited you to join the Facebook group “STOP BUYING BP GAS UNTIL THEY STOP/CLEAN THE OIL SPILL”. Hmmm..I appreciate the notion but will not buying gas really fix the problem? For anyone living under a rock, there is an oil spill/leak/spew of epic proportions...

It’s a debate that’s more common than you might think. Strategy or Tactics first when it comes to social media? Many companies approach their participation on the social web tentatively, picking a popular tool like Twitter, Facebook or for the more adventuresome, a blog. The exercise of setting up and populating a profile, friending others and seeing what happens is akin to the proverbial “throw spaghetti against wall to see if it sticks” school of marketing. There’s a time and place for tactics, for strategy and for experimentation. I think it’s perfectly reasonable for a company to...

Today Ad Age posted an article based on an interview with Bob Lutz. When I read the comments, it was clear the 99% of the respondents were very critical of the interview. My take is that Bob understands that a wholesale shift has to be made. He understands obviously that he is retiring later this year and so is likely to be thinking about setting tone and leadership that will outlast his tenure. Given all that I know of Mr. Lutz he has every intention of shaking it up and has the attitude and experience to make good on that promise. My personal wish for him would be to start with thinking (and...

Marketing powerhouse Julie Roehm arrived at Bentonville, Arkansas with the 21st century equivalent of the counterculture flowers-in-her-hair.  She was hired by Wal-Mart to make it more competitive against emerging usptarts like Target. Roehm was different, at least for Bentonville and Wal-Mart.  She had to be to turn around its prosaic branding.  It was an outsized Lee Iacocca who turned around the staid Chrysler in the early 1980s.  It is the idiosyncratic Nassim Taleb who’s turning around business assumptions [See "The Black Swan."] But unlike Iacocca and Taleb, she was different and...