The Spin Within

AP photo

The Kroger Co., the largest traditional supermarket chain in the country, is preparing to release its fourth-quarter and annual earnings March 1, and the results will have as much to do with filled carts as filled gas tanks.

The Cincinnati-based chain, which operates about 2,500 stores under the brands Kroger, Ralphs and Fred Meyer, is expected to post its 33rd consecutive quarter of sales gains. In the third quarter, same-store sales rose 5 percent. Kroger expects similar gains in the fourth quarter.

That figure excludes gas sales, but that … Continue Reading

Being only 2 hours away from Indianapolis, the tragedy that occurred at the Indianapolis State Fair last summer is still fresh in people’s minds here. Many of us Northern Kentuckians and Cincinnatians attended the fair or knew someone who was there when the concert stage collapsed and killed 7 and injured numerous others. My parents have attended benefits to help raise money to help fund the medical bills for a friend and her daughter after they were seriously injured under the falling stage.

What happened was truly a tragedy, but now that Indiana has already paid out the $5 million to … Continue Reading

Health care marketers should have the dates March 26-28 circled on their calendars. Rarely will America’s newsrooms be more fertile ground for their pitches, press releases and opinion pieces.

Over the course of those three days next month, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear six hours of oral arguments on constitutional challenges to President Obama’s health care law, the Affordable Care Act, testing whether the government can force people to obtain insurance. The hearing schedule has few, if any, precedents in modern history. Arguments usually are a single hour.

The nation and the world will be watching — figuratively. As of this … Continue Reading

Is anyone not buried under email?  If I had a dollar for every time I heard some iteration of “my in box is out of control,” “that got buried under a thousand other emails,” or “STOP THE MADNESS, EMAIL IS RUINING MY LIFE!” (ok, I made that last one up just to be dramatic.), I could retire with my millions to a beach house off the coast of Exotic and Fabulous.

Here at JZMcBride and Associates, The Hamster Revolution was required reading.  A cute, quick read (comparing an overwhelming in box to being stuck a hamster wheel) that offers several … Continue Reading

Worth a cool $525 million – in today's dollars

A story on MSNBC.com lists the 10 wealthiest presidents in history and here’s the surprise: If you want to see the richest, then pull out a dollar bill and say hello to Washington.

That’s right, the first president not only earned a salary that was 2 percent of the total U.S. budget of 1789, his Mount Vernon plantation covered 8,000 acres of prime farmland, and Martha enjoyed a sizable inheritance of property herself. In all he was worth … Continue Reading

Most of us have been in a situation at a bar or restaurant where our server comps a drink or a dessert. We appreciate the gesture and likely tip a bit more than we would have without the freebie.

Seems like an innocent exchange.

Well, apparently it’s not. It falls under the category of employee theft. And it even has a name: sweethearting.

 According to a recent study by Clay Vorhees (Michigan State University) and Michael Brady and Michael Brusco (Florida State University), 40 percent of the $200 billion in U.S. employee theft costs … Continue Reading

These are no doubt the words a few men heard this Valentine’s Day when their order from 1-800-Flowers failed to arrive. Oops.

1-800-Flowers is under fire this week for failing to deliver countless orders on Valentine’s Day and giving no reason why. When customers were stuck on hold ‘endlessly’ – as some say – they turned their ire to 1-800-Flowers’ social media pages. Here are just some of the comments:

- @kyrauff, “How many couples broke up because of @1800flowers’ no good, very bad Valentine’s day?”

- @vancouverkate, “I’ve already been waiting 14 … Continue Reading

You are about to hear the pen ultimate example of the beauty of keeping it simple in PR.

I’m not in the market for a new pen. I don’t collect pens. I couldn’t even tell you the brand of pen sitting on my desk as I type this blog. But thanks to the magic of a PR campaign that is absolutely beautiful in its simplicity, I happen to know that Paper Mate is selling a new InkJoy line of pens that deliver a revolutionary writing experience at an everyday price.

There’s just one reason I know about the InkJoy. The DJ’s on … Continue Reading

Facebook has been in the news a great deal lately, primarily focusing on its IPO filing and the fact that billionaires and millionaires seem to be dropping from the sky. 

I doubt that Mark Zuckerberg and his college buddies dreamed that Facebook would become such an integral part of society and that they would become the richest group of 20-somethings in the world. 

Even more, I’m sure they never dreamed their social networking/photo-sharing creation would also become the source of life-altering events…in a negative way.

In … Continue Reading

Perhaps it has something to do with our general fondness for footwear and do-goodery, because when it comes to delivering a positive image, Zappos.com walks pretty tall even if the headlines are bad.

Zappos.com recently announced that it was the victim of a data breach that affected 24 million customers. Yet it did not appear to suffer the same consumer or media scrutiny as did other companies in the same spot.

This is in part because Zappos.com responded quickly and pretty transparently. But I have a hunch that Zappos.com’s investment in goodwill among … Continue Reading