Barbie turned fifty and is  losing market share.  Doesn’t that happen even to the best of us?  Except in her case, a team of experts spent two days in some hip LA hotel where they examined her past, reviewed where and how the decline happened and then designed a course for her reintroduction. Basically a facelift if you will. They decided she would have six personalities: wild, artsy, cutesy, glamourous, sassy and girlie. And all at fifty!!

Now I am a fifty-one year old marketing consultant in Indianapolis and trying to reinvent myself. Perhaps I could get some friends to go on a two day retreat and think about the next stage in my life. If anyone is interested let me know.

The magazine industry is in a flux and wondering if people will pay for digital content after they have been giving much of it away. Circulations are down and e-newsletters are everywhere. The advertising opportunities are confusing. There are Web pages, e-newsletters, e-blasts, classifieds, directories and finally the actual printed publication. Most of the options give you little if any information on actual open rates and click throughs.

There are so many options that they are in effect competing with each other and unless packages are better developed they affect one’s ability to make any impact on readership.

Sullivan is a marketing, planning and research consultant in Indianapolis, Indiana

Susan Boyle has established herself as a simple woman with an angelic voice.  She is religious, volunteers and loves animals. You won’t see her doing much of a makeover. She has already it appears, thinned her eyebrows some and tidied up her hair. Too much though would ruin her image. Part of her charm is in her simplicity, humbleness and frugal appearance.  Susan Boyle has established her personal brand and her brand promise to millions.

These direct response technologies deliver digital content to your phone, but is sounds like a lot of steps to me. You have to take photos of bar codes and then have either downloaded an application or send a text and forward the bar code. Scanlife must use a web-enabled phone. Jagtag does not.

They are testing many potential applications. The most bizarre is to see a slide show of a loved one from a tag/barcode on a gravestone. Are you kidding!!!

I see some possibilities. How about going the other way? Let me register for coupons on my phone and then let me beam then at the store right to the cash register.

My cousin from Italy came recently for the first time to the US with her new husband on their honeymoon. They had been to New York and Las Vegas among other places. Her husband proudly showed us her new necklace. It was a simple chain with a small tag that read Tiffany’s. When I read later that week that Breakfast at Tiffany’s was having its 50th anniversary, I thought—now there is a product placement!! That movie and Miracle on 34th Street were classic examples of the value of  product placement.