by Sue Horner | Apr 28, 2009 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
USB drives are useful. Mini highlighters are cute. There are magnets, keychains, stress balls, lanyards, mugs and sports bottles everywhere. But THESE are cool ways to promote your company (sadly, not available to Canadians): *Â Sharpie will personalize your pen...
by Sue Horner | Apr 16, 2009 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
A card arrived yesterday the old fashioned way, in the mail with postage stamp and all. It was from my friends at the local Honda dealership. Since I have just closed the deal on a new car, I thought it might be a “thanks for buying our car” type of card....
by Sue Horner | Mar 22, 2009 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Car sales representatives have a reputation that’s hard to shake. There are exceptions, of course, but would you generally link them with words like “honest,” “trustworthy” and “working for me”? I didn’t think so. They...
by Sue Horner | Mar 16, 2009 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Here’s a rare sight: a television ad that makes you smile, and you don’t even mind when it repeats several times during the show you’re watching. I’m talking about the Discovery Channel’s “I love the world” ad, sometimes known...
by Sue Horner | Mar 12, 2009 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Have you noticed that companies seem to be deliberately managing our expectations downwards? I’ve run across this a couple of times lately : When I traded in loyalty points for lift tickets for a recent ski trip, the web site said it would take about two weeks...
by Sue Horner | Mar 9, 2009 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Happy birthday to Barbie, who turned 50 today. Talk about a toy with legs! Whether 50 is the new 40 or 50 is the new 30, she sure looks good. And she’s got all kinds of “dream” things — dream bedroom, dream dining room, dream kitchen, dream...
by Sue Horner | Nov 19, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Christmas catalogues are landing in the mailbox about as fast as the two maple trees next door dropped all their leaves last week. Today’s specimen: Lee Valley Tools. The company is based in Ottawa, but they have a dozen locations across Canada and a thriving...
by Sue Horner | Sep 18, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Having just edited a client’s news release, I found David Meerman Scott’s post on weasel words, gobbledygook, jargon and other baloney quite topical! (Check it out for some awful examples of what not to write.) The release I worked on started out in the...
by Sue Horner | Jul 17, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
Marketers are going after another supposedly influential group these days: Generation Jones, a term coined by Los Angeles “culture expert” Jonathan Pontell. This is the group within Baby Boomers born between 1954 and 1965. It probably tells you something...
by Sue Horner | May 13, 2008 | The Red Jacket Diaries blog
With golf season upon us, Golf Town has been busily advertising. I have to say, these ads are good. In one, you see a mom at the wheel of her mini-van, counselling her unseen charges to “stay together” and “don’t cry when we have to...
