The Big Fat Marketing Blog

A recent e-mail blast from the American Catalog Mailers Association warns catalogers of a potential “postal storm” due to an expected exigent rate case filing by the U.S. Postal Service next month. more

In the past, I’ve written happily and proudly about the fact that I’m a major comic book geek. And like most fans of comics, I love to see people get introduced to the medium. That’s why we love Free Comic Book Day so much, because it gets newbies into the shops (well, we also like getting free stuff too).

Bluewater Publishing, which puts out a line of biographical comics called “Female Force”—profiling a diverse range of women such as Hillary Clinton and Lady Gaga—has expanded its market presence by getting its books sold in Jo-Ann Fabrics.

It’s an interesting tactic—and one that got me thinking that marketers in general should be looking more outside their comfort zone.

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The much-beleaguered U.S. Postal Service has a rare chance to show leadership now if it can seize the moment.

This past week, the USPS Office of the Inspector General came out with a report saying the postal service could save as much as $342 million a year if it would replace some of its vehicles instead of continuing to repair them when they break down. To read the report, click here http://www.uspsoig.gov/foia_files/DA-AR-10-005.PDF

Anything the postal service can do to save a few bucks is good.

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The sky is falling! E-mail is dying! Or so says Chicken Little, aka Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg.

In a much-quoted presentation at the Nielsen Consumer 360 conference yesterday, Sandberg declared that e-mail is going the way of the pterodactyl and the Betamax. Only 11% of teens use e-mail, she noted, and “if you want to know what you’ll be doing tomorrow, look at what teens are doing today.”

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Last month I caught some flack for a blog post in which I noted that while the recent L.L. Bean catalogs were damn-near perfect, they risked being a bit dull. Having just seen the Summer 2010 edition of the L.L. Bean Women catalog, I’d like to say that it’s damn-near perfect, and not dull at all. It manages to inject a sense of newness without diluting its much-loved brand in the least.

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Six Flags Entertainment and Walmart Stores, Inc. have just partnered to offer customers discounts to Six Flags when shopping at Walmart.

The two companies couldn’t be in more different circumstances financially. But even with the dramatic differences, the distinctions meld away when it comes to the benefits, a true testament to working hard to seek out a compatible partnership.

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