Ideas | Sarah Merion

How + Why Students Use Social Media

Friday, March 19, 2010

My buddy John Battaglino recently asked me how and why college students use Twitter. Johnny of all people should be interested in this because as the Executive Director of Boston University, it’s his job to put them on the map and understand the student body. Since meeting Johnny last year, it’s clear he is truly in [...]

“Improvement” Doesn’t = Up

Thursday, March 18, 2010

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I’ve always taken “improvement” to mean up, rise, ascend. On the ladder scale of “improvement”, anything upward moving is considered “good” and anything downward moving is considered “bad”. For the sake of this argument, anything stationary is also considered “bad” because it’s not going up, which is the expected movement. If we think about this though, [...]

Advertising As Supplemental Content

Monday, January 4, 2010

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Banners don’t work too well, right? It’s not nice to be interrupted by an ugly banner when I’m in the middle of looking for something completely different. We can agree on this, correct? Then again, banners are merely advertising. Albeit not a very effective form of advertising, but if you’ve got the budget, you may do what [...]

Simplicity & The Superbowl

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

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Advertising wants to be the biggest and the baddest. Advertising tries to blow itself out of the water. I’m not insinuating that we shouldn’t strive for excellence and progress. Just sayin’ that excellence and progress are not synonymous with over-the-top and in-your-face. It is synonymous with creative thinking and innovation. Let’s talk Superbowl for a [...]

Quantum Physics & Marketing

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

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I wrote this article with a little help from Dr. Quantum. Dr. Quantum teaches us about physics, so unless you’re an astrophysicist, you will get more value out of this article if you watch this 5 minute video. Dr. Quantum is my favorite teacher for alternate views on business subjects. This cute video on physics has [...]

Outrageous Customer Service

Friday, December 4, 2009

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It’s not what you think. Outrageous in the over-the-top-way-to-go-I’m-a-customer-for-life-awesome-customer-service. I’m outing Rent The Runway I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY by their customer service. If you’re unfamiliar with Rent The Runway, they’re the hottest trend in female apparel e-commerce. You can rent designer dresses for a fraction of the price. Anyway, here’s the nitty gritty: I ordered one [...]

The Future of Advertising Is Invisible

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

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It’s a primal challenge: driving consumers to action – getting money from your hand into mine. And that’s where advertising helps. But in a world where non-homogeneous humans inhabit the universe, your consumers are inherently non-homogeneous as well. (If they were, business wouldn’t be as challenging and as fun!) Rolling out national ad campaigns or even [...]

Put Your Business Model On It’s Head

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

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Cars run forwards. And they run backwards. Whether you’re in drive or reserve, you go somewhere, the car runs the same (assuming it’s not a clunker), and you get to your destination. Business models should do the same. If a business model works, it should work when you turn it on it’s head. Create models like well oiled [...]

Filter Information Going Into Your Brain

Saturday, November 14, 2009

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Filter Information Going Into Your Brain

There is an overabundance of information: I call this information overload. I used to subscribe to a lot of feeds. Now I’ve narrowed it down to a few. (Find them here.) Information is beautiful. But only if you know how to handle it. If you can’t, you’re gonna get the wind knocked out of you [...]

New-Age Dilemma

Friday, September 11, 2009

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I miss the good old days. I had a land line and an email address. I’d get calls to my house and if I missed them, people would leave a message on my answering machine. When I got home, I’d listen to the messages and call people back. (Let me interject that I would return communication [...]

Tag Archive | "ideas"

How + Why Students Use Social Media

“Improvement” Doesn’t = Up

Advertising As Supplemental Content

Simplicity & The Superbowl

Quantum Physics & Marketing

Outrageous Customer Service

The Future of Advertising Is Invisible

Put Your Business Model On It’s Head

Filter Information Going Into Your Brain

New-Age Dilemma

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