Business and management articles | Cooler Insights

Six Festive Marketing Ideas for Kids

December 10, 2010 • Blog • no comments

Christmas is in the air, and retailers are all out to garner those precious year-end gifting dollars. With bonuses likely to be bountiful this year, any business worth its salt would be finding ways and means to target the consumer wallet.

Young children probably form one of the most important markets in the season of giving and receiving. Nothing beats the story of how Santa Claus will shimmy down your chimney – or rubbish chute in Singapore’s highrise context – and bear tidings of fun-tabulous toys. On a more pragmatic level though, how can companies cream this festive occasion for their own profits (and bonuses of course)?

Advertising Taglines from Heaven (or Hell)

November 30, 2010 • Blog • 1 comment

Do you consider this a good slogan?

In the world of branding and advertising, developing a catchy slogan or tagline is probably considered the Holy Grail of the craft. They can be found in practically anything and everything, from shampoo to milk powder, movies to museums, cities to churches, and cars to condos to credit cards.

Almost any organisation or institution worth its corporate salt would purvey these one or two liners, in the hope of raising mindshare, deepening heartshare, improving top-of-mind recall, and of course growing brand equity.

Freakonomics is Freaky Fun!

November 28, 2010 • Book Reviews • 3 comments

Want to know why drug dealers live with their mothers?

Curious to uncover what dishonest schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?

Don’t Make Them Go Uphill

November 26, 2010 • Blog • 1 comment

Don’t make your customers go on an uphill battle (Source)

As I was running this morning, I’ve noticed a very interesting observation at the jogging track on a little hillock near my home. This was the same place I’ve gone for my regular exercise for close to 8 years. Its a little loop which goes for about 680 m per round.

Almost everybody was going in the same direction (except me – I’ve got a thing for running against the human traffic…;)). What’s more, they were all IGNORING the directional signages painted on the track which said “START” and “END” along a certain path.

Ship Ahoy! Aboard the Legend of the Seas

November 23, 2010 • Blog • 7 comments

Courtesy of MaritimeQuest

At the kind invitation of Omy.sg and Royal Caribbean Cruise, I had the chance to glimpse into the jetsetting – or rather seafaring – lifestyles of the rich and famous on board the “Legend of the Seas”. It was a novel and eye opening experience considering the number of things one can do on board (you can check out the virtual tour here too).

Inaugurated on 16 May, 1995, the sizable passenger liner could take a full load of 2,074 passengers. Measuring close to 300 metres and weighing in at almost 70,000 tonnes (some of those in Europe are twice as heavy), the massive cruise ship provides endless entertainment through indoor and outdoor facilities like a rock-climbing wall, outdoor pool and jacuzzi, miniature golf course, bar and lounges, glass-walled dining rooms, a mini shopping mall and a casino (of course).

How to Keep the Flame Burning

November 21, 2010 • Blog • 1 comment

Flames like this YOG one require lots of work to keep going (at Singapore Science Centre)

Perseverance and “stick-to-itiveness” are vital virtues in any personal, social or professional endeavour. Almost anybody who has accomplished anything substantial in any undertaking would share that age-old adage. Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” spelled that well with the “10,000″ hour rule. You must have also heard of how Rome wasn’t built in a day.

However, gritting your teeth and slaving to the grind isn’t the easier thing in the world. There are multiple sources of distraction, both online and offline, that may conspire to rob you of your resilience. After all, we now have multiple MMORPGs, marvellous movies, mile-long malls, and of course lots of makan places to check out.

What Do Women and Geezers Have in Common?

November 17, 2010 • Book Reviews • 1 comment

Give up? The answers, according to uber guru Tom Peters and Martha Barletta in their slim volume Trends are oodles of cash, purchasing power and huge influence.

Written in Peters’ no-holds-barred, rant-heavy and straight talking narrative, Trends provides lots of facts, figures and anecdotes to show that women and Baby Boomers are probably the two largest blindspots in the eyes of marketers everywhere. With a steely-eyed determination to tear down age-old prejudices against the “weaker sex” and “old geezers”, Peters and Barletta described how myopic views of catering largely to “White men in the 18 to 44 age group” have resulted in organisations neglecting huge markets worth “trillions of dollars”.

Outliers – The Story of Success (Book Review)

November 12, 2010 • Book Reviews • 1 comment

What is the secret to outstanding performance in any field? What makes world class musicians, athletes and scientists different from the rest of us?

In a similar vein to earlier titles like The Tipping Point and Blink, acclaimed nonfiction writer Malcolm Gladwell spins a fascinating tale on what made people remarkable in Outliers – The Story of Success.