Earlier in the year, we hammered Starbucks pretty hard for abusing, and ultimately losing, their market position as the exclusive ‘club' that everyone wanted to belong to. Too many stores, too many products, and a suggestion of mass retailer. Obviously, they paid for their mistakes - hardly turning a profit last quarter.

I live in Big 12 country. Which is also Dr. Pepper country. I watch a lot of sports. Due to the fact that Dr. Pepper sponsors Big 12 sports, I am exposed to their ads quite often. Or should I say ad? The ad with Julius Erving (aka Dr. J.) shooting an ice cube into a glass. I must have seen this ad at least 50 times in the past year. My guess is that many of you have similar habits and have seen it too many times as well.

It’s hard to resist the urge to lower the prices of your retail products or services during these times, but you must realize that if you do so, you are taking a risk.

At first glance, Yoplait’s pink lid collection drive is pretty clever. Buy the product with the pink lids (only the pink ones), send them in to Yoplait and they will make a 10 cent donation to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for each one they receive. They will donate between $500,000 and $1.5 million to Komen, depending on how many are turned in.

Flown lately? If so, you probably paid about $15 for checking a bag. If you paid $320 for your flight, wouldn't you rather have paid $335 when you booked it and been done with it? Instead of delaying your check-in and being forced to pay again? I realize that Internet travel sites sort by lowest price. 

So, Time Warner is going to shed AOL from its portfolio of media properties. Big news in the media world and Wall Street alike. Like so many other companies in 2000, TW over-estimated the value of convergence as we knew it and subsequently took about $100 billion in write-downs. Ouch.

There's been a lot written about wasted marketing dollars lately. Not so sure I understand ‘tougher financial discipline' ‘belt tightening' and ‘optimizing the use of marketing funds' as they are being applied to marketing these days. We've talked before about the general mistake of cutting marketing efforts during a down economy as there is such significant opportunity for market share.

Early this month the U.S. Court of Appeals for New York overturned a ruling that previously blocked cable networks from making use of a “network DVR.” This technology will allow users to record programs to an off-site hard drive by a simple push of their remote button and without upgrading their set-top boxes. Think On-Demand without limits.

During a recent conversation with a guy I know, he revealed to me that he knows exactly what will motivate prospects to try his brand and how to keep them once he has them. Basically, this marketer used some sort of internal matrix to figure out what drove his best customers to his door and what made them stay. 

Should you find yourself with a smaller marketing budget and need to prioritize your efforts, start here:

Every market condition provides opportunity. We’ve discussed, many times already, the obvious opportunity to increase your market share while your less informed competitor pulls way back on their marketing. But, some opportunities provide for increased revenue immediately.

According to a newly released National Report from Media Audit, U.S. adults now spend an average of 3 hours and 2 minutes per day online, compared to 2 hours and 2 minutes per day a year ago, a 62% increase. As a result, the Internet now represents 29% of the typical media day for U.S. adults, when compared to time spent with TV, radio, newspaper and outdoor media such as billboards.