The Intentional Entrepreneur

April 29, 2009

The Answer Could be “SHOCKING”

Marketing budgets have taken a punch to the gut. Advertising dollars overall, are predicted to sink 6.9% in 2009, representing the largest drop in 29 years. According to ZenithOptimedia, all media are negatively impacted but one, internet advertising. So how does an enterprise battle for consumer focus in a sea of clutter with fewer dollars but still get seen, heard and remembered? The answer is quite “SHOCKING” really, or is it? At first, I logically accepted that shock advertising or “shockvertising” was going to be the ad trend of choice for 2009. (Trendhunter TV ranked it at 16.) It seems... Continue reading »»

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December 19, 2008

What is popular is no longer cool

If there is a trend theme for 2009, this seems to summarize it pretty well. It is no longer cool to display extravagance, ostentatious wealth, designer labels, or haute couture. Move over the “size 2, size matters, traditional status symbol” mentality and make way for the “waste distasteful, social conscious, highly indivualistic, understated but very connected” consumer. Things that are popular, mainstream, accepted or a little too accessible are well…PLEASE…so yesterday. The In-Crowds now are abandoning the “popular” and are redefining what are the “opposites” or “anti-trends” that truly engage and move them. “Luxury” has turned into “Lux-your-way” for us... Continue reading »»

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July 22, 2008

The Tenuous Slope of Developing Entrepreneurship

What comes to your mind when you think of entrepreneurship in Africa? What are the opportunities and barriers? What is being done to build the entrepreneurship ecosystem/culture? Being on my way to Tanzania, I got curious. Tanzania is considered a ‘least developed’ African country. Is your prediction of what examples of entrepreneurship that I may encounter, the same as most who I have asked: some tour guide companies, a jewelry/craft stand, and open food markets, etc? Is that it? Some secondary research set a bit more promising picture. Tanzania has a solid natural resource foundation. In 2002, it exported... Continue reading »»

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April 18, 2008

Science is Not Enough

Getting your grades is a big part of life this time of year on campus. Sometimes a pleasant experience and sometimes not so nice. Our nation is also getting graded in critical areas of performance and right now Canada is seriously underperforming in innovation with a lackluster grade of ‘D’. In 2007, Canada ranked 14th place among the 17 OECD nations. In partial response, Industry Minister, Jim Prentice, communicates ‘his’ strategy on innovation involves, “attracting the best minds, funding the most cutting edge research and commercializing the best ideas”. The federal government introduced a science and technology strategy and... Continue reading »»

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April 11, 2008

Push vs. Pull

I met John Jantsch from Duct Tape Marketing at mesh last year in Toronto. I was impressed with his down to earth, effective approach to small business marketing. In fact, this blog is partly based on our conversation! In a recent post, he talks about how Tis better to be found than to find.. I am linking to it because of the relationship between his topic and one near and dear to my heart, Sales 2.0. John points out that the Internet is, “the greatest small business enabler of this strategy ever created”. I couldn’t agree more. Now we need... Continue reading »»

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