Adpulp
Advertising News and Know-How
By David Burn
The book I've been reading, The Ten Commandments for Business Failure, by Don Keough is a pleasant read for a business book. After a spectacular career at Coca-Cola, Keough kindly offers those who might follow in leadership roles some sage advice, not just about business but about life. His business thesis boils down to this: If you want fail in business Quit Taking Risks; Be Inflexible; Isolate Yourself; Assume …
Continue Reading about An Anecdotal Return to Business Basics →
By David Burn
Mark Goldenson started an internet TV network for games called PlayCafe 18 months ago. Things didn't work out exactly as planned. Thankfully for others walking the entreprenurial path, Goldenson isn't afraid to air his laundry in public. In fact, he's offering a "post-mortem" on Venture Beat. Two of his 10 points really ring a bell with me: Content businesses suck (or: do it for love and expect to lose money). …
By David Burn
Paul Isakson is in the branded utility camp. So am I, but allow me to point out the most important word in the passage below: As an industry, we have to stop just looking for ways to "build brands" through messaging and start looking for ways to actually help people have better days and build better lives. The key word is "just." Change isn't as black and white as various change agents sometimes proclaim. It's a …
Continue Reading about There Are Cash Registers In The Brave New World →
By David Burn
Melissa Allison and Amy Martinez, business reporters for Seattle Times, are reporting that founder and former chief executive of Jones Soda, Peter van Stolk, has left the building. Van Stolk also negotiated a $100,000 reduction in severance pay in exchange for the freedom to talk freely about the company and compete against it if he wants to. His reduced severance is $350,000. He wasn't specific about differences …
Continue Reading about Head Joneser Embarks On New Jones-Like Journeys →
By David Burn
Do what you love and the money will follow. Many have heard these sweet Campbellian whispers, but the concept doesn't work for all. There are too many variables and money doesn't grow on trees, it has to be earned through ingenuity and consistent, often difficult work. Friend of AdPulp, Tom Asacker, gives us a tangible example from the art world of how fortunes differ. Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso were two of …
Continue Reading about When I Paint My Masterpiece Everything’s Gonna Be Different →
By David Burn
"The easiest thing in the world for a reader to do is to stop reading." -Barney Kilgore Barney Kilgore was a newspaperman from Indiana who took The Wall Street Journal to heights unimagined before his arrival at the paper in 1941. For instance, when Kilgore joined the WSJ the circulation was a paltry 33,000. Under his direction, circulation rose to over one million by the early 1960s. With "creative destruction is …
Continue Reading about The Change Agent’s Change Agent: Barney Kilgore →
By David Burn
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a contribution from a veteran food marketer who prefers to remain anonymous. Looking for a line extension or a new niche business? Oceanspray is abandoning their Cran-Fruit product, both the cran-orange and the cran-raspberry. This is a great shelf stable product packaged in 12-ounce plastic containers with a paperboard over-wrap and positioned right next to canned cranberries in all major …
By David Burn
Shawn and I are both from Nebraska, so we've always taken a special interest in one Mr. Evan Williams, a.k.a. Boss Tweet. Williams grew up on a corn and soybeans farm in Nebraska. Which of course is great training for Internet entrepreneurdom. Both professions demand that you work all the time. Here's how he describes his business path thus far: In 1997, I moved to California and worked at what is now O'Reilly …
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