Tuesday, April 15, 2008

For Goldie


2000-2008

Her brown eyes are closed.
The beat of her tail is stilled.
She was a good girl.

Thanks to her family for letting me share her love.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Marketing Lessons

Marketing to Americans 101

You go to buy a chocolate bar and discover that the price has gone from $1.00 to $2.00. When the price drops to only $1.70 you are thankful.

The price of gasoline creeps up by a dime a week from about $2.50 to $3.00. You are thrilled when it drops back to $2.90.

The president jacks up the number of troops in Iraq. Next he lowers the number of troops by bringing half of the additional troops home. The American people thank him for cutting back the number of our troops in Iraq the way we wanted.

The American people are being scammed in which scenario?

a- Chocolate bar
b- Gasoline
c- Troops
d- All of the above.


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Marketing 102

Several years ago the amount of coffee in the "one pound" cans quietly dropped a few ounces to anywhere from 11 to 13 ounces. The cans remained the same. The price per can remained the same.

When shoppers caught onto the scam the coffee companies' spokespersons explained that they were responding to the wants of their customers. [Huh?]

The moral? Always look carefully at what is really inside the can even if the can looks the same.

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Marketing 103

Shoppers are familiar with the changes in wrapping on their favorite foods that occur from time to time. Usually the price goes up with the "New and Improved" packaging even is the contents are identical.

The moral? Always look carefully at what is really inside the package even if the package looks different.

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In this morning's New York Times Bush is quoted as saying "Fifteen months ago, Americans were worried about the prospect of failure in Iraq."

Who are these Americans? I can't find them.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

The Presidential "What If"

Writers, particularly fiction writers, are familiar with the “what if” exercise, the practice of taking a familiar event or day-to-day experience, introducing an unexpected twist and then seeing what happens. For example:

What if in January 2009, Inauguration Day arrives and everyone is ready for the swearing in of the next president…and the current president decides he shouldn't leave?

He determines it is in the best interests of the country for him to stay president because we are involved in a controversial war and in a domestic economic crises and he believes he is the only person who knows how to manage everything…and his attorneys and advisors tell him he can.

Now what?

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One of the rules of the “what if” game is that your answer can’t be “oh, that would never happen.” Besides, is this scenario really beyond the realm of possibility?

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Despite the date, this is not an April Fool’s Day post. I’m not sure what writer I would pick to take a crack at this “what if”; Stephen King doesn't seem quite right.