The following is excerpted with the author’s permission from a post that appeared recently on the ChangeOrder blog. On the restaurant’s Web site: penne pasta, seared oyster mushrooms, greens, basil, reggiano. At the actual restaurant: penne pasta, winter greens, alfredo. Not much difference, right? But what I thought I’d be eating for lunch wasn’t exactly [...]
Category Archives: Audience research and strategic planning
To Sell It, First Give It Away
February 26, 2009We are rapidly becoming a society that sees its experts as sources of valuable information and opinion rather than as directors of behavior. For example, patients come to their doctors having already done extensive Internet research on the conditions they think they might have.
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Thoughts on New Media Strategy
January 22, 2009This guest post was provided by Jennifer Brundage of Smithsonian Affiliations, a program that fosters relationships with museums, cultural and educational organizations across the country.
Who’s Nibbling at Your Web Site?
August 9, 2008Most Web sites brag about products, services, or programs. Better sites offer proof in the form of success stories or case studies. They may also toss in analytical white papers. These real-world resources give site visitors a reason for feeling confident in whatever is being sold. But, as Jakob Nielsen points out in “Writing Style [...]
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Steal This Story Idea
June 2, 2008According to a recent survey, workers of different ages generally don’t talk to each other on the job. [A] poll of 3,494 adults by employment services group Randstad USA showed that 51 percent of baby boomers and 66 percent of older workers report little to no interaction with their younger colleagues. Employment experts fear the [...]
How to Get a Teenager’s Attention
May 7, 2008I spend months at a time traveling the world. I have backpacked Europe, Northern and Southern Africa, across Asia on a trek from Beijing to Cairo, and most recently around South America’s Southern Cone up to Peru. As a result of my travels, I get speaking engagements on my wanderings, and such venues have included [...]
Also posted in Framing content in print and on the Web Leave a comment
What Market Research Should Look Like
March 25, 2008I just wrapped up a big project (100 interviews), and it occurred to me that managers sometimes wonder what to expect in their final report. If you get a report that begins by detailing all the project steps and how the consultant came to the findings, send it back for a rewrite. You hire a [...]
Reaching Baby Boomers Where They Live
March 19, 2008“Baby Boomers are the only ones thinking about the future. The older and younger groups are all stuck in the present.” That is the conclusion reached by Judy Schriener, who is writing a book about housing design trends driven by the 76 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 What do Boomers want? Everything, she [...]
What to Say About People with Disabilities
January 4, 2008Careful writers and editors take pains to avoid bias in language, but many style guides offer only general advice. An exception is the Guidelines for Reporting and Writing about People with Disabilities, developed by the Research and Training Institute on Independent Living at the University of Kansas. Reflecting the input of more than 100 national [...]
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If the Market Calls, Will You Answer?
December 21, 2007Not long ago—just barely before the millennium turned—four gents posted 95 theses they modestly styled “the end of business as usual.” Indeed, the Cluetrain Manifesto Web site and book describe a fundamental transformation in how organizations operate and people interact with them. Though several Internet generations have passed since its birth, the Manifesto has inexplicably [...]