Case Studies




The Golden Triangle of Coffee Joints: A Marketing Parable

The Golden Triangle of Coffee Joints: A Marketing Parable

Locally-based businesses (as opposed to multi-national corporations) are the life blood of any community. And people are beginning to understand the importance of nurturing local economies. But there are still a few hold outs. While it is clearly to our collective benefit to support local businesses, many people still patronize national chains. And the reasons don't all have to do with pricing. If you are a small, locally-owned business trying to compete with the big guys, you might want to consider the following parable.
The Remarkable Purple Carrot: A Marketing Parable

The Remarkable Purple Carrot: A Marketing Parable

Here in the West, purple carrots aren't a commonly found in your local produce departments. In fact, you'll probably have to go out of your way, by searching for them at the fringes: places like your farmer's market or a specialty grocer. There's a little vegetable stand near my house where I can find maybe 3 or 4 at any given time (mostly because there's a woman who comes in every morning and buys nearly all of them for herself). The shop owner literally can't keep enough of these guys on hand. In short, these guys are special. Remarkable even. And they're almost certainly a topic of conversation when served to dinner guests. They're so special, they make the chef look special, too.
5 Marketing Lessons from Celebrity Chefs

5 Marketing Lessons from Celebrity Chefs

Except for my client Rebecca Joseph (aka The Rabbi Chef), your goal is probably not to be the Next Food Network Star. But there's a whole lot that celebrity chefs can teach us about working in a crowded marketplace. The successful ones truly excel at building their brands and growing their fan base. How do they do it? Here are five of their marketing strategies that you can (and should) adopt today:
The Crowd Sale Experiment

The Crowd Sale Experiment

What would you rather do: sell your thing one at a time to many people? Or sell your thing all at once to many people? Hmmm. I thought so. So why do we — so often — attempt to find new clients and customers one at a time? Group sales are not a new concept....