With March Madness about to launch into full swing, you might be dusting off your list of favorite sports bars. In South Florida, there are a lot to choose from, but there is only one that combines good vibes, good food and a decent rewards program – Duffy’s Sport Grill. If you aren’t familiar with [...]

My Dad taught me the value of money. Cash is King and all that.
A dollar is a dollar, that can’t be denied. And, those dollars are increasingly hard to come by with the demands of business pressing harder on most over the past two years.
With my mind on cash and flipping through the latest issue [...]

A small firestorm over the efficacy of Loyalty Marketing programs broke out over this past weekend thanks in large part to an article written by Joanne Kaufman for the Wall Street Journal.
Ms. Kaufman recounts a telling tale of how her own household purchase behavior adapted to take advantage of rewards programs from Duane Reade to [...]

I need to do some consumer research. Do minor consumer revolts against good sense constitute a leading indicator of good times returning, or confirm that the economy is still struggling with frustration leading people to make irrational choices?
Whatever the answer, it seems a minor groundswell is taking place in the restaurant business with new chains [...]

A celebrity endorsement—for a loyalty program?
The pros and cons of using a celebrity spokesperson in advertising have been long established.

The pros? A celebrity draws attention
The cons? A celebrity draws attention—away from your product or service

What’s more, as we recently saw with golfing legend you-know-who, there’s the potential downside of aligning your company with a celebrity [...]

When it comes to brand recognition, the usual names that dominate the conversation are Apple, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Visa and …. Chick-fil-A?
Ok, Chick-fil-A may not be a household name of the same caliber as Starbucks, but I guaranty that the “second largest chicken restaurant chain in the US” has the most passionate fan base in [...]

Black Cats, Black Magic, and Black Friday … sounds like a threesome to avoid.
But untold millions will be lining up the day after Thanksgiving in the wee hours of the morning with steely-eyed focus and adrenaline pumping – all with the almighty bargain in mind.
Maybe it’s a gender thing, but while you might find me [...]

Sam Walton’s vision of creating a retail giant that would stock shelves with every day low priced items and crush the competition is still standing tall, even in a tough economy. They have managed to wipe out nearly all the competition and are looking to take out what’s left via Project Impact.
Project Impacts is [...]

In the middle of bustling multi-cultural Miami, Coral Gables is an oasis of sleek affluence framed by Spanish and Mediterranean architecture.
The rhythm of the city at lunch is to skip franchise restaurants and instead seek out one of the many independent stops for a meal or just coffee.
Last week, lunch turned into a two-part experiment, [...]

Even though I come from the creative side of the business, I’m a big fan of customer data.
There’s no better way to build a relationship than using data to personalize communications according to a customer’s past buying habits. Amazon, of course, does a great job of this. So does iTunes. But is there such a [...]