'Tis the Season to Be Clever and Creative

Letting my fingers do the walking, I paged through the cleverly-written Coldwater Creek catalog. The entries are imaginative and engage the senses with descriptions of color, touch, experience, and lifestyle.

Online, the firm uses just a few words to get attention but those few words capture the feeling of wearing each piece of apparel. Take a look here. None of these jackets is simply "red" or "gold." One is "alluring," one is "opulent," one is "cozy." Isn't that good marketing (in a nutshell)?

Sirius's Serious Segmentation

Sirius Satellite Radio is obviously serious about segmenting its market using powerful variables like interests and lifestyle: Check out its channel guide, with everything from an all-Elvis, all-the-time channel to a college sports channel (featuring football, basketball, you name it). Just launched: a Grateful Dead channel for Deadheads who can't get enough of Jerry Garcia and his buddies. Whatever your taste in music, talk, news, sports, or entertainment, Sirius is working hard to have channels for you.

Will Sirius and XM merge? Seems likely and would make sense but who knows?

Get an Eyeful of Pepsi

Because Pepsi's HQ is just over the border in Westchester, I like to keep an eye on the company's doings. It works hard to give every brand a distinct personality, using the name, packaging, clever tag line, and so on (here's a page with all the Pepsi-family brands available in the U.S.).

Pepsi Lime's tagline: "Have the lime of your life." Tropicana Juice Drinks: "The official juice drink of your backyard." See what I mean?

Rating charities

The American Institute of Philanthropy's no-nonsense A to F ratings of nonprofit organizations indicate whether a charity is spending money on its cause or devoting too much to salaries, administration, and fundraising expenses. Thanks to this information, I'm now supporting charities where my contributions will do the most good.