Marketing and all things related

If you are like many homeowners, you have a garbage disposal unit under your kitchen sink. That unit is likely the InSinkErator brand, but to you--a garbage disposer is a garbage disposer. At least until the sucker breaks down, and then it becomes a damned garbage disposer. But InSinkErator has decided to return to television for the first time in 30 years to tell you about their new line of—ah—more upscale garbage disposers. Now if you are puzzled about what constitutes an upscale garbage disposer, think noise. The new InSinkErator carries the tag line “grind more, hear less.” So now you can toss in a rib bone, pineapple top, or whatever, and this puppy hums—not screeches. New thirty and fifteen minute spots will appear on the Today Show, Oprah, the Food Network, Discovery, TLC, and A&E. You will also see print advertising in Better Homes and Gardens, Beautiful Kitchens, and Women’s Day Kitchens and Baths. Marketing Blurb still urges you not to feed your garbage disposer rib bones or pineapple tops—unless of course, you intend to ratchet up the volume swearing when the unit locks up. You can read more of this grind from Brandweek.

Regular readers know that Marketing Blurb does not eat at McDonald’s. We prefer dining venues without plastic seats, sticky floors, red and yellow décor and clowns. Yes, McDonald’s is remodeling some of their locations, and the results are decidedly more... Continue Reading

Just last month, we told readers that DaimlerChrysler should dump chairman and CEO Dieter Zetsche, as their commercial spokesperson. Face it, the guy has a dynamite mustache and smile, but it takes more than a German accent to sell a car... Continue Reading

Marketing Blurb wants the US auto industry to retool and survive. But as we often remind our readers, advertising is not the path to salvation. We do wish, however, that the auto industry would craft messages suitable for their target... Continue Reading

Okay sport fans, get ready for a dandy Super Bowl gimmick from our friends at Frito-Lay. The salty snack juggernaut just announced the “Create Your Own Super Bowl XLI Commercial” contest for their Doritos. According to Promo Magazine, “The winning... Continue Reading

Can we talk? No, we don’t want to talk about erectile dysfunction advertising. We already get a daily overdose of erectile dysfunction advertising on the evening news. Instead, we want to talk about premature ejaculation. No, this is not a... Continue Reading

Back in February, we told you about the novel KFC commercial for their new Buffalo Snacker product. KFC included a secret coupon offer in the commercial, but—aha—you had to re-watch the commercial in slow motion to review the offer! While... Continue Reading

If there were more hours in the day, Marketing Blurb would watch more football. But since the job of marketing pundit is time consuming, we must be selective about our choice of contests. Think Ohio State versus Texas—which will be... Continue Reading

Marketing Blurb suspects that consumers are tuning out television commercials. And we are not just talking about digital video recorders zapping commercials electronically. Rather, consumers are not longer paying much attention. Yes, they will laugh if you add is amusing.... Continue Reading

Like countless other merchants, JC Penney desperately wants your back to school business. So the retailer will be advertising where kids congregate to convince them JC Penney’s fashion is hip. (We hate to tell JC Penney that kids look to... Continue Reading

Business travel has changed dramatically over the years, and significantly over the last few weeks. We used to travel with a few simple rules. The first and most important--never drink airline coffee, which is brewed using water from the onboard... Continue Reading

Now you might think that consumers evaluate companies based on brand reputation, product or service quality, and perhaps social responsibility. And while this might be true, the Parents Television Council is evaluating companies by their choice of advertising venues. In... Continue Reading

Marketing Blurb is an advocate of point-of-sale marketing, which we deem superior to most any other advertising venue. We love grocery shopping, because we are a sucker for POS displays. So even though some consumer advocate will cry foul, we... Continue Reading

Look, we don’t want to talk about divorce. We are faithful to our wife and our girlfriend, and life is good. Advertisers want us to live the good life too—so they don’t talk much about divorce either. But according to... Continue Reading

Now you might think that sitting in a doctor’s waiting room for your hour overdue appointment is a colossal waste of time, and you would be wrong naturally. While you are waiting, you are forced by anxiety or boredom to... Continue Reading

We don’t want to talk about beer advertising. We want to drink beer, quietly without advertising. But we thought you should know that Newcastle Brown Ale has a new advertising campaign based on the pitch “Smooth like no other.” Now... Continue Reading

Marketing Blurb loves (and hates) advertising. We chose to be a marketing pundit because our advertising experience is limited to the client side. Yes, we know a think or two about ad agencies and the ad trade, but next to... Continue Reading

We think Toyota’s Scion line is a collection of funky cars. Our neighbor has a black coup that looks like it going 50 miles an hour just parked in his driveway. And to hype the funk (we made that up)... Continue Reading

We have discussed Celebrity fragrances from on numerous occasions, because we believe everyone should smell like a star (burning hydrogen gas.) But the newest celebrity fragrance is not associated with lame pop star, but rather a lame Showtime television series.... Continue Reading

We often tell our marketing students that most advertising is a dicey proposition. Direct marketing is the exception. If you measure everything, you know exactly how well your advertising succeeds. But if you want a more detailed scoop on what... Continue Reading