Famed market researcher AND friend of IdeaMill, Lindsay Zaltman, stopped by the shop to talk about his new book, Marketing Metaphoria. Check out the the interview (above), but more importantly, read the book and learn about deep metaphors and their guiding role in decision making.

Product placement is a touchy subject for marketers. After all, it’s not just the the size of the audience that counts. The audience must be the right audience. And the context must be the right context; one that is brand positive.

I’d say the three (possibly four) A&F shirts flanking Barack Obama was a big score for the Abercrombie & Fitch brand; probably a big score for the Obama brand too.

Kudos to the Milk Processing Board of California and Goodby for laying some White Gold on us. The campaign was just launched to court the teen audience. It’s intergalactical.

The New York Times published an article about the human tendency to keep all options open despite the cost. The implications of this are significant for any marketer. The marketplace has repeatedly proven that great companies must forgo many smaller opportunities in order to grasp the one opportunity that will provide the most success.

Read the article, and don’t look back.

So you’re a blogger. Ever wonder how that little micro-cybercreation you just published finds its way around the world wide web? Matthew Hurst, an artificial intelligence researcher who studies the internet ecosystem at Microsoft Live Labs will let you know with this nifty graphic from Wired: Check it.

Howard Schultz is back at Starbucks. Any marketer who is interested in using a brand strategy in their business should study Mr. Schultz, his business philosophy, and the performance of Starbucks under his watch. The picture above is the Green Apron book. Walk into any Starbucks and ask your barista for it. The book champions Starbucks core values. Or just check out this memo from the man himself: Memo from Howard Schultz

Related links:
- Howard’s Wikipedia Entry
- Seattle Post-Intelligencer Article

Here’s a great article from the NYT about one of the biggest pitfalls in marketing: talking to yourself. Many very intelligent people and innovative businesses have been found guilty of the offense. The author points the finger at the “Curse of Knowledge.”

Chip Heath (author of Made to Stick) illustrates the problem very well: “It’s kind of like the ugly American tourist trying to get across an idea in another country by speaking English slowly and more loudly. You’ve got to find the common connections.”

Logos can reflect the the state of branding at the time of their creation. Many inferences about humanity and how we communicate to each other can be seen in a logo sampling from a particular year. Logo Lounge has produced a yearly review of logos and logo trends since 2003, and the 2007 version is hot off the presses.

Check it out.

Since 2003 Burger King has been fighting its way back from the dead with a consistent flow of marketing ideas. The Whopper Freakout is the latest. Rather than tell us how great the Whopper is, the King’s ad agency (CP+B) pulled the burger off a store’s menu and let the hidden cameras show the rest. The resulting footage has fed a television advertising campaign and viral video that attracts audiences rather than repelling them.