Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Kraft: What is going to happen to those crown jewels aka brands?

Last August trusty Kraft announced it was splitting into two separate companies: North America groceries and global snacks.  No one is worried about the latter.  Emerging nations have faster GDP growth than the biggest economy in North America - the U.S.  Also, in some of those emerging countries snacking is a dominant pattern.  Eat on the run.

Grocery causes concern.  As I explain in this analysis for the financial information company Motley Fool, many of Kraft customers such as A&P and Safeway are struggling.  The supermarket business is under attack by the big boxes, and more recently, the dollar stores.  Another factor is the stiff competition for Kraft brands from private labels.  The time when we wouldn't serve private label edibles to guests (Mum only served Sara Lee) has long passed. So, why should I pay more than a buck more for a Kraft item in Wal-Mart's when I have the choice of private label Sam's Club and Great Value?

Kraft brands are frequently referred to as its crown jewels.  Will they lose their value in a changing marketplace?

 

Whole Foods: Will that be the next place we're interviewed for assignments, jobs?

Most of us have been interviewed for assignments and jobs at Starbucks.  Then I had two interviews at Panera.  Now I'm expecting for my next audition to be conducted at Whole Foods.  Yes, Whole Foods. 

What started out as an upscale supermarket for natural and organic foods has evolved into one of those third places, just like Starbucks and later Panera.

I analyze that phenomenon for the financial information site Motley Fool.  Here you can read all about it.

"Mad Men" - Don's boy scout among the young, old, and restless

A stable monogamous husband Don Draper has the professional edge over his young, old and restless colleagues Pete and Lane.  The latter are falling apart as Don fixes up professional relationships and recommends to wife Megan that they have a baby.

Pete and Lane, two different generations, are both trapped in hating their lives.  Pete is stuck in the Connecticut suburb of Cos Cob with a distant wife and a baby.  Lane is stuck in America with a uptight status interested wife his father made him return to. His taste is more toward women of color in offbeat jobs.

Of course, those in pain pass on the pain so Pete and Lane get into it.  There's a fist fight.  It's low self esteem Joan, already in a degrading affair with Roger, who comforts Lane and cleans up his bloody nose.  Will she add Lane to her list of men office suitors?

This portrait of unsatisfied men from the 1970s on "Mad Men" is not how I lived it.  At the time men seemed to be plenty satisfied since they had all the power at work and in society.  If they felt restless they could arrange some quick-acting fulfillment. We Don fans wonder how long he can remain a boy scout.

A.M. Wars: Cola wars r so 20 minutes ago

A growing number of players in fast foods have decided breakfast is the way to get more of the consumer dollar.  The items on their breakfast menu can, like the McDonald's Egg McMuffin, become cult items.  My bet is on Taco Bell's burrito for the A.M.

So, where the promotional and media fun will be is in the A.M. wars.  Does Dunkin' have the edge over Wendy's and Starbucks?  That will be much more interesting than the tired Pepsi versus Coca-Cola wars.

I look at the battle plan for financial information company Motley Fool.  Here you can ponder all that and plan out where you're going to break the fast Saturday morning.

Lame Ducks: Andrea Jung for sure, Indra Nooyi maybe

There's nothing about a lame duck the world likes.  The stock market especially hates it.  Avon's stock price is being penalized because it was announced long ago that the chief executive officer Andrea Jung is out. Yet she's there until they find a replacement so there's no there.

Meanwhile over at PepsiCo the rumors keep getting stronger that the chief executive officer Indra Nooyi might be going to the World Bank or even just out.  Around her there has been a management shakeup that sure looks a lot like a succession race.

I look at lame ducknes for the financial information company Motley Fool.  Here you can review that.

St. Patrick's Day Mythology: Ruin of many a fine writer

As writers know, at least those serious about the craft and who get somewhere, the inner software which equips them for that line of work is atypical.  Let's leave it at that, not attempting to assess if it's better or worse than the software which runs the rest of the human race.  

Because of this obvious difference, writers tend to isolate, even if they appear publicly to be among people.  Yeah, hiding in plain sight.   Look at Truman Capote, supposedly gregarious, who never really was himself out there.  The role he played, as Falstaff to the wealthy, finally destroyed him.  He turned to drink, which finished him off.

Like many writers, Truman defaulted into the myth, whose foundation was laid down by Irish literary geniuses, that his unique talent gave him license to drink as much as he wanted.  Actually what it did do is impair his judgment.  Otherwise he would not have assumed he could out the rich in his later writings and get away with it.  He was their entertainment, not a member of the tribe.

Last night at our usual 12-step meeting in North Haven, Connecticut, it was announced that the West Haven, Connecticut 12-step club was sponsoring a traditional Irish feast, sans booze, for St. Patrick's Day.  The writers among us had no excuse to become Irish for the holiday and embrace the centuries old mythology that being unusually sensitive permitted us to be unusually self-destructive, without dire consequences. 

Mommy Bloggers: Will the majority go the way of so many early adopters in social media?

Everything changes.  And that everything is changing a lot faster, given the astounding developments in technology. 

Not so long ago, the Mommy Bloggers were the phenomenon on the web.  THE NEW YORK TIMES covered how financially successful Heather Armstrong had been with her blog Dooce.  The advocacy group Momsrising.com sprung up to become a high-profile advocacy group on political issues related to women and families.  More recently, there was a lawsuit filed by The New York Times Company when its Mommy Blogger of "Mother Lode" Lisa Belkin went over to Huffington Post and the latter named its new blog "Parentlode."  Yeah, Mommy Blogger was big biz.

All that was then.  Now, Armstrong and her husband Jon are separated.  The daily emails I receive from Momsrising.com don't engage me.  Belkin seems a little long in the tooth to be the Pied Piper of mothering.  Will Mommy Blogging turn out to be a short-lived fad and not an enduring trend on the web? 

Could be.  As the economy picks up more attention is shifting back on how to make a buck rather than how to get Johnny to eat carrots.  Also, as we settle back into more normal times after the whopper of a downturn, a sense of proportionality is returning.  We are questioning if we want a culture which is so child-centric.

The majority of Mommy Bloggers could fade away as did the lion's share of early adopters of social media.  Of the latter, only Robert Scoble, co-author of "Naked Conversations," remains high profile. 

What does it take to endure?  My hunch is that it demands that we continually retrofit our mindset, knowledge base, and skills.  Not easy.  The default is to become a prisoner of past success.

Creative Destruction: The supermarket

Can a cat treat be the bellwether for an industry?  For me it is.  Today, the weather was spring-like, even here in the heart of New England.  I had a few bucks in my pocket since business has been on an uptick.  So, instead of going yet again in the grim big box, I re-entered a real supermarket where the food is laid out attractively and there are even upscale items like imported cheese.

With a skip to my step I went to the pet aisle.  Temptations Wild Alaska Salmon Flavor feline crunchies was on sale @ 2 for $4.  Sale.  Yeah, that was pricing according to the supermarket.

I walked out, maybe forever.  I drove to Wal-Mart in New Haven.  There Temptations, not on sale, goes for a buck fifty.  As a financial writer for Motley Fool I have to wonder how many other middle class folks like myself are going through this kind of epiphany.  A&P, the prototype for today's supermarket, just emerged from Chapter 11.  Unless it adopts a new business model, the odds for its making it aren't too hot.

Kellogg Breaks out of Boy Scout Branding

Kellogg, started by a wholesome health activist, has broken with that.  At least a lot of it.  In purchasing Pringles, which comes in versions with extra salt, it is veering away from its Boy Scout branding and hawking a snack like Pringles just for the taste of it.  Not because it's good for anyone.

I deconstruct this branding move for financial information company Motley Fool.  Here you can read all about it.

"Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen" - Susan Gregg Gilmore's 2008 novel still resonates

 

 It was 2008.  My business was feeling the hit from the economic downturn.  To center myself I went to Barnes & Noble and shelled out full price for the new release "Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen" by Susan Gregg Gilmore. 

That did the trick. From then until my fortunes eventually changed for the better, I have stayed safe in the Southern tale of the two Cline sisters who used their Saturday trips to the local Dairy Queen to sort out their worlds.  Of course, right from the get-go, I contacted the author Susan Gregg Gilmore to babble about her novel.  Shock: it was her first.  I gave her plenty of advice, which, given her continuing success, she obviously didn't take. I also did Dairy Queen weekly, just like the Cline sisters.

About a week ago, Susan and I again connected.  I have been blogging for the financial information powerhouse Motley Fool.  In one post I analyzed Dairy Queen as a cult brand. That identity resonated with readers, including those hard-nosed investors.  In the post I mentioned "Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen" as evidence of the cult status.  Here you can read that post which attracted so much attention.

I begged Susan for an interview.  She graciously accepted.

************************************************************************* 

 JG: What led you to write your novel, which was your first, about Dairy Queen? And, why do you think the Dairy Queen brand resonates with so many diverse groups?

SGG: For many of us, Dairy Queen is a part of our childhoods.  It was certainly a part of mine.  My grandfather, a revival-bred preacher, took me and my sister there ever Wednesday night after church services.  We always got a Dilly Bar.  But I cannot count the number of people who have written me sharing their stories of the Dairy Queen.  For people growing up in small town America, Dairy Queen was the gathering place where, I’m convinced, we learned about life and love with a soft serve cone in our hands.

JG: In last year’s tornado Ringgold, GA, where your book is set, was destroyed.  Can you describe what happened.

SGG: One killer tornado ripped right through the heart of town around 8:30 pm on August 27th.  I live in Chattanooga about 10 miles north of Ringgold.  I had watched the sky darken all day as one tornado after another swept through our area.  I watched the debris field from miles and miles away swirl above downtown Chattanooga.  But I was shocked when I woke up the next morning and realized what had happened to Ringgold.

Restaurants, churches, businesses, homes, schools were all destroyed.  Eight people were killed, including two seniors from Ringgold High School. 

Ringgold didn’t have a Dairy Queen, but there was a Chow Time.  It, too, was gone.

JG: Susan, you mentioned when we reconnected that two book companies made contributions to the area after the tornado.  Can you tell us a little about that generosity. How can others make a contribution?

SGG: A wonderful young woman from Ringgold, Julie Golden, contacted me about donating a signed copy to an online auction she was planning.  She and I got together and decided to do something a little more.  Out of that meeting, RINGGOLD READS was born.  We’re a small group of book-loving volunteers of all ages that ran a social media campaign to bring novels back into the high school.

First thing we did was organize a social media campaign to collect novels for the high school.

Bookstores and book lovers from across the country began sending donations  One little indie bookstore in Lititz, PA, partnered with us and sent books donated by their customers.  And then Random House, my publisher, stepped up and donated big.  They sent boxes and boxes of novels.  Simon and Schuster read about the Random House contribution and did the same.  We were overwhelmed with everyone's generosity.

The head of the school’s English department, Mark Pierce, saw an opportunity to further excite his students about books and reading.  So now we’ve started the school’s very first after-school book club.  We launched our effort with “Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen.”  I was almost teary-eyed at our first meeting - thirty or more kids showing up after a long day at school to talk about a book.  It was something special.  

Our goal at Ringgold Reads is that every student that participates in the book club is able to keep his or her copy of the selected book.   

JG: You also write on cooking.  How did that happen?

SGG: Call it cliche, but it’s a Southern thing, I guess.  I just can’t separate the foods I love to grow and cook from my writing.  Now I’ve teamed up with a nutritionist and registered dietitian to tweak all of those favorite Southern comfort dishes so I can offer a healthy alternative. 

I really believe preparing our foods is one of the most loving things we do for our families and our friends.  I just want to give people a some healthier options.

It’s called the Southern Culinary Book Club because we love to tie our cooking to books whenever we can!  Here is the website.

JG: Also, the novel you have just submitted. You indicate it’s darker.  Have you become darker in your world view?

SGG:  The title is tentatively called "The Funeral Dress."  It is darker, (the title may give that away!) but I don’t think I’ve become darker in my world view.  I think these thoughts have been there in my head simmering for a real long time.  If anything, I think I’m more hopeful than ever before and maybe it’s only now that I'm able to go to those dark places and see a way out.  I do believe you've got to walk through the valley before you can get to the mountain top.   

JG: What advice would you give someone who has a “need” to write?

SGG:  READ.  And read critically.  Read all kinds of books to figure out what works for you and what doesn’t, what you gravitate to and what turns you off.  And then sit yourself down in a chair and start writing.  For many, that’s the hardest part, staying in the chair! 

 JG: You also do speaking engagements?  How can people book you for those?

 SGG:  I love to speak to groups. It's great to connect with people who love books as much as I do.  Just visit my website. You can contact me from there.

JG:  Thank you, Susan.  It's funny, how lives and themes interconnect.  "Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen" got me through very tough times.  It has been integral to my emerging success as a financial writer.  I will be on the look-out at Barnes & Nobel for "The Funeral Dress."

Incidentally, many of the inhabitants of "Downton Abbey" are walking through the valley.  Too bad they couldn't read "Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen" to help them exit that dark place.