It was nice to walk to the Snow Show the second day when it was actually snowing. I think I’m completely acclimated to Denver, though I do miss playing blackjack with friends. And I still get confused when one of the people who works at the convention center says, "How are you today, sir? Have a nice day and enjoy the show." They actually seem to mean it. After so many years in More…
Notes on SIA’s Denver Show and Thoughts on the Trade Show Slog
February 1st, 2012It’s Tradeshow’s Season. I Started with Agenda, But I’m also Thinking About SIA.
January 13th, 2012Among the things I liked at Agenda, the one I liked the most was Shmooza Palooza, the jobs fair jointly sponsored by Agenda and Malakye.com. 500 people preregistered for it and it was busy every time I looked in. It’s great to sell a few more T-shirts or another snowboard, but it’s even better to help somebody put food on the table. The guy who probably didn’t get a job at More…
Follow-up on my Last Article; the Nau Example
January 9th, 2012My last article, “Do Retailers Really Need to Carry All That Inventory?” garnered quite a response. One of those responses was a link to an article about a brand called Nau. Their web site is here. The link to the article is here. The article was written back in 2007 and the brand is still around and, judging from the list of stores where they are available, successful. Here’s how the article starts: More…
Do Retailers Really Need to Carry All That Inventory?
December 31st, 2011I suppose that seems like a stupid question. But having just been through another Christmas shopping (and return) season, I’m not so sure it is. I’ve shopped on line. I’ve been to too many malls too often (I confess it- I hate shopping). In those malls I saw way too much product on sale at way larger discounts than I like to see before Christmas. As an aside, I’m wondering if the increased holiday More…
What Will You Do When Your Greek Receivables are in Devalued Drachmas?
November 17th, 2011There are lots of public company quarterly reports I should be writing about, but I am going to step off that track and think, for a bit, the unthinkable. Or at least it was the unthinkable. But at this point the Eurozone seems to be moving towards two choices, either of which has huge implications for managing any international business. Let’s review for a minute. What are the three things you can More…
The New LAUNCH LA Trade Show; I Wondered When This Was Going to Happen
October 26th, 2011Well, what a long strange trip it’s been. It was just about a year ago that the demise of ASR was officially announced. Since then, as the trade show environment has evolved and people have worked to figure out how to adapt, I’ve written a few times about trade shows. Here, here, here, here, here, here, and here actually, from oldest to most recent. You would think that would be enough, but More…
September’s Leap in Outdoor Sales
October 21st, 2011The Leisure Trends Group does a lot of good work. On October 20th, they sent out an email you may have seen announcing record September outdoor retail sales of $462 million up 17% over a year ago. Leisure Trends analyst Scott Jaeger said it was the strongest September since they started keeping records in 1998. Great news obviously. But I’d like to offer a perspective on those results that’s a bit different from More…
I Like Market Data
October 4th, 2011Even before they contacted me to ask if I was interested in writing about it, I’d seen that Krush had released the Executive Summary for the Krush Buyers Report and it seemed an intriguing idea. Most of my five loyal readers know I think three things about market research and data. First, that we don’t get enough of it, though that seems to be changing. Second, that when we do get good More…
Get Out of the Office! It’s Amazing What You Can Learn
September 29th, 2011Yesterday, I had occasion to meet up with Jaimeson Keegan, who’s the President/Floor Sweeper (according to his business card) of SUPERHEROES Management. It offers athlete and entertainment talent representation combined with social media strategies and some other stuff that I thought was a very sensible aggregation. Anyway, we’re both up here in the Northwest and just thought we should get together and meet each other. Not being from Southern California, we get lonely More…
