The Demise of Stock Photography
Access to cheap images has improved dramatically with the rise of the web, and consequently, the web (and marketing in general) has become cluttered with low-quality images. How'd this happen?
Marketing to and from PDX subcultures.
Last year, I had the honor of serving on the board of directors for the Oregon chapter of the American Marketing Association in the role of the Programs Chair. Over the course of the year, I had the opportunity to collaborate with speakers for our luncheons that represented unique Portland subcultures – ranging from cycling [...]
Get on your bike – September is the BTA Bike Commute Challenge month!
Bicycle Transportation Alliance Bike Commute Challenge Website: www.bikecommutechallenge.com Tell someone that you are a full time bicycle commuter of almost 6 years and you will get two responses – shock, followed by a laundry list of reasons why they can’t bike commute…even though they wish they could. Oh, and the random third response is, “have you [...]
Remembering Matthew Simmons
Since I moved to the West Coast, even my sleepiest Texas friends are up before I am. And so it was that I awoke on the morning of Monday, August 9 to a disturbingly short email: “Apparently, Matt Simmons is dead.” Messages from other friends arrived throughout the day, a mixture of shock, sadness and [...]
Stuff I Learned From a Yard Sale
About every 10 years my wife and I decide to simplify our life and expunge our household of “valued treasures” by means of the ubiquitous yard sale. Now I’m the guy that keeps everything (I have every letter when we dated, just about every birthday and father’s day card from my 3 daughters, lots of [...]
What Adobe CS6 Should Be- One Modular Application.
What’s the worst thing about Adobe’s CS suites as a whole? In my opinion, it’s 10+ different RAM hungry behemoths, sometimes with a great amount of overlap in functionality. Need to encode a video? You should use Media Encoder. But you’ll need to fix the aspect ratio (or some other menial, yet complex, task). Then you [...]
Summertime in Portland, Oregon.
Summertime in Portland, Oregon is always beautiful. The amazing weather inspires people to become active in all sorts of social activities. There are softball leagues (I play the PAF league for ACME), the adult Soap Box Derby on Mt. Tabor, Oregon Brewers festival, Pickathon, Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival, The Rose Festival and The Bite of [...]
B2B iPAD Apps: Trends and Tips for Successful Projects
I’ve been impressed with how many CEOs, CMOs and CIOs became early adopters of the iPad. Here are some things I am hearing from the C-Suite: I use the iPad for remote desktop access. It is lighter and has better battery life than a notebook. We are designing product demos on tablet computers for our sales staff to [...]
How to Target the Gluten-Free Customer
Some people eat to live, while others live to eat. I fall into the latter category, so naturally the switch to a gluten-free diet was a difficult transition for me. After struggling with stomach aches for years, a holistic doctor finally diagnosed me with gluten intolerance. Although this diet restriction presents a few challenges when [...]
When Products Become Part of the Problem.
Throughout history, millions of products have been created…and millions of products have failed. Some of the most recent that come to mind are: Coca Cola’s New Coke, McDonald’s Arch Deluxe Burger and the DeLorean Motor Company. New Coke failed because there was nothing wrong with the original. The Arch Deluxe Burger failed because adults weren’t interested [...]
