Blog

My Op-Ed Piece in the San Francisco Chronicle “Netflix’s Avoidable Mistake”

Yesterday, my Op-Ed piece on Netflix's recent price hike was picked up by the San Francisco Chronicle. The copy is below, or you can click to link. Netflix, the popular movie rental service, announced last week that it will be unbundling its DVD business...

Report from Paris: Nespresso and the Coffee Club

As I sipped my morning Starbucks today, I got a call from friend and fellow consultant Roberta Matuson. She just returned from Paris, where she was charmed by a fascinating example of the Membership Economy: the Nespresso Store. The Membership Economy is...

Research and Your Mother-in-Law

When you assume, you make an ASS out of U and ME. The tech companies I work with need to move quickly, and don't always have the luxury of doing primary research on their customers and prospects. In many cases, actual historical data is available, which can...

Membership Programs and Retail Chains: What Happens When Your House Burns Down

Last year, a friend of mine and fellow consultant lost her everything in a fire. Her insurance company required her to itemize and price everything that needed replacing. What she discovered was that there is a huge discrepancy among retailers' ability and...

Playboy’s New Online Subscription

I have been avidly following the evolving strategy at Playboy ever since I met Christie Hefner at a Watermark talk a few years ago. Despite how I feel about their airbrushed, objectifying content (as a woman, a mother and a member of the human race) I admire...

The Membership Economy (or The End of Ownership?)

It seems that nearly everything is available on a pay-as-you-go or pay-for-access model. Even things that you used to have to buy outright. You can pay for membership to musical content, games, encyclopedias, and software applications. But you can also...