Brand New View

All But Over

Let's cut to the chase. Hillary Clinton must drop out of this race, sooner rather than later. Obama won North Carolina handily and Clinton won Indiana narrowly. The May 6 primaries did not bring Hillary Clinton closer to the nomination. Her situation worsened. Obama extended his popular vote lead and delegate lead. He remains ahead in the number of states won as well. The only practical question is when, not if, Hillary will drop out of the race. My prediction is just a matter of days despite her remarks to the contrary today. But if the democratic primaries do drag on, who will benefit? Certainly not Hillary. Even if she were to win the remaining contests, the delegate numbers are so small as to be almost insignificant. To help her delegate situation (and her delicate situation, for that matter), she has to find a way to have the Democratic National Committee change the rules and approve the seating of the Michigan and Florida delegates. Furthermore, to catch the popular vote lead, she has to win by an overwhelming majority in the remaining states. That is about as likely as George Bush admitting a mistake. It's not going to happen. The most telling outcome of the May 6 primaries? The different tones of Obama's and Clinton's victory speeches. Obama, clearly buoyed by his double digit win in North Carolina, enthusiastically shifted his remarks toward the Fall presidential campaign, whereas Clinton was subdued in stating unconvincingly that her campaign would go on. Then, she asked for money. While some will undoubtedly still support her, where is the big money she needs going to come from? She loaned her campaign $6.4 million in the past 2 weeks alone. The super delegates that still support her needed to see her win convincingly in both states on May 6. But how can they justify continuing to support a candidate that is running out of money and will soon be a serious drag on Democratic chances for recapturing the White House in November? Like many, I was thrilled about the possibility of either a woman or an African American as a possible presidential candidate back in January. Reality is setting in and the time for turning that possibility into reality exists only for one candidate and that is Barack Obama. It's time for Hillary to throw her support behind him before she throws herself and Obama in front of a bus fueled by her blind ambition.

Odds and Sods

Another SMU colleague, friend and professor at SMU, Michael Netzley, and I are prepping for launching our new podcast series 'Leadership Matters'. You can check out more information about it at these links: http://leadershipasia.wordpress.com/ and http://web.mac.com/brandnewview.....Stanford's football team won its first game of the season yesterday, beating Bay Area rival San Jose State 37-0. It was Stanford's first win in its remodeled stadium, which re-opened last year. Following Stanford's 45-17 loss to UCLA 2 weeks ago, this appears to be another up and down season. But I LOVE the team and the games nevertheless (and I wish they were broadcast in Singapore--there is far too much EPL re-broadcasts from games 3-4 years old...)....my book, 'Measuring Marketing' (published by John Wiley and Sons in late 2006) climbed as high as #40 on the Amazon.com business best seller list last week, which was a great thrill. I just signed a contract for a new brand book that will be published in late 2008 or early 2009, plus I am putting the finishing touches on a great new book on the secrets of successful business leaders.....in the past couple of weeks Apple launched a revamped iPod line, including a version called 'iPod Touch', which looks very similar to the highly successful iPhone launched 90 days ago. Speaking of which, Apple announced a $200 price cut in the 8 GB iPhone and eliminated the 4 GB iPhone entirely. This caused a bit of frustration among many Apple customers who purchased their phone at a far higher price. But Apple is offering a $100 early owner credit to ease the pain somewhat....are the Beatles becoming too commercial? Not necessarily, but I have to wonder given the new launches in recent years of the Cirque du Soleil show called 'Love' which is designed exclusively around Beatles songs. John Lennon and Paul McCartney's solo songs are beginning to appear on iTunes (so the Beatles songs are next, one supposes??). And a new movie just came out based on Beatles songs, called 'Across the Universe'. While none of these things are that unusual, they represent a change in direction for Beatles brand, which has historically been quite tight fisted and protective of the band's unrivaled legacy. But I have to say that most of these moves are quite tasteful and consistent with the image the Beatles developed during their commercially active years and even since, so maybe these developments aren't that bad, especially compared to the overcommercialization of much of the music industry....Michael Mendenhall, a 17 year Disney veteran who was most recently EVP of Global Marketing Support, has been lured away by HP to be their Chief Marketing Officer. This portends some interesting changes ahead for HP over the next 2-3 years as they try to increase their PC market share lead (among other things...)....the Dallas Cowboys were just ranked as the #1 most valuable sports franchise in the world, valued at $1.5 billion. This is interesting because for the past several years, the top ranked sports franchise has jockeyed back and forth between Manchester United in the EPL, and Spain's illustrious Real Madrid, both of which are still around $1 billion in value. Jerry Jones has done a terrific job tending to the business of the Dallas Cowboys. Now if he can only get them back to the Superbowl! (actually, I'm a San Francisco 49ers fan, so I hope they beat the Cowboys...)....that's all for now.

Marketing Creates Growth Opportunities

Here is a podcast episode from a recent radio series I did in Singapore. This is short, as are others I will add later. Right now this is a bit of a test and I am looking forward to making this blog a richer experience for you, so tell me what you think....Download 01_marketing_creates_growth_opportunities.m4a