The Super Bowl was a great game, but, given my profession, I paid a bit more attention to the ads, seen by over 97.5 million fans- the most ever. You may recall my review of Super Bowl 2007 Ads last year. 30 second spots cost about 7% more this year, averaging $2.7 million a piece. Overall, I think last year was a better year for the ads, and I was actually a bit disappointed with some companies this year. Which ads succeeded, and whose flopped? I tell all, below.

A while back, I covered the three rules of recovery customer service, which a company should use when they have messed up. Sadly, very few stores keep to them, and consequently lose a lot of longtime customers over rather trivial incidents. Just the other day, I had an opportunity to revisit that idea at ShopRite.

I went into ShopRite, my favorite supermarket, to go food shopping. Walking around, I noticed a price label for 32 oz. of Norwegian Salmon that was surprising - $2.99 (after Price Plus card discount). Excited, since this item usually costs $20.53 for just one pound, I looked around for the right package, only to find that none existed. It was then that I realized they made a labeling error, and guessed that all of them were bought up already by someone with a sharp eye.

Back in the good old days way before I was born, people were fairly self-sustaining. They planted their own food, made their own clothes, and had a wide range of daily tasks just to survive. While life in those days certainly was harder, I believe it also led people to develop greater confidence and happiness. In contrast, the modern workplace is all about compartmentalizing, specializing, and repeating.

People are Special

One of the things that sets humans aside from other animals is our unrelenting interest in novelty, and learning. Indeed, one of the best ways to keep our brains sharp is by challenging it with crossword puzzles, “brain games”, and constantly demanding new solutions from our brain.

Usually, people just wait to be promoted, or move to a higher position at a different company when they want to move up in their career. A few days ago, a friend of mine told me about his new (creative) attempt to move up the corporate ladder at his company. What he did was create a brand new job description for the job he wanted to do for the company. That’s right - he created his own title, essential job functions, listed the needed relevant skills, and made his own compensation figures. He then handed it right in to the boss.

Sometime around June this year, Social networking sites (such as Facebook.com and Myspace.com) experienced a huge boost in visitors. However, if you really look at when the social networking sites started spreading like wildfire, it was around 4 years ago, and mostly in the college-age segment. Now, four years later, there is some evidence America is tired of social networking, or at the very least, social networking with no particular end goal.

My friend Jay White, who runs the large and well-known DumbLittleMan blog, has graciously asked me to guest post on his blog, which is a “tips for life” type of blog.

My post was put up there today, and I figured I’d pass along the link to anyone who doesn’t mind reading my work off-site:

• Keep Your Day Super Productive
  

I believe Staples made an error of omission. Their old slogan “Staples, yeah, we’ve got that” seems to be missing a crucial last part and so does their new slogan “that was easy”. Today I ran into a Staples in Manhattan to buy some RAM for a computer, and had a very odd shopping experience.

As an internet entrepreneur, it can sometimes be difficult to stay organized. A constant flood of information is at your fingertips - leading to information overload. As we enter 2008, with New Years Resolutions at the forefront, I thought I’d take time to share some great organizational tools that I’ve found to help me on a daily basis.

I recently changed my Verizon Wireless phone, and figured I would share with you the exact steps necessary to do this (while my memory is still fresh). Considering Verizon Wireless has more than 63.7 million customers, I’m sure quite a few readers here either had this question, or will have a need for this within the next few months. Don’t worry, it really isn’t hard, although I wish their toll free line would do a better job of getting me a human instead of a machine for the first 10 minutes.

You know the old saying, “being in the right place at the right time”? That is usually used as a sign of luck, rather than carefully planned action. But what if we could be at the right place at the right time more often than just by luck?

I have found over the years, that you can market anything a lot easier if you ask yourself one question:

What question does the customer have, but isn’t even consciously aware of?