Archive for March 9th, 2011

McKinsey says;”Public sector productivity is at least 10 years behind the private sector” … that’s a shocker, isn’t it?

March 9, 2011

Winding through TSA at BWI on Sunday, I could only laugh.  When the supply of shoe-bins reached empty, the world’s slowest  moving human started wheeling a fresh stacks of bins to the front of the line.  I swear, the women was moving at the speed of about 10 feet per minute.  What-she-worry?  She was getting paid by the hour, not based on how many bins she stacked per hour.

With that experience fresh on my mind, a friend emailed the below article to me.

Coincidence?

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According to Time mag …

Many Americans think of Washington when they think of government workers.

But the vast majority are state and local employees. The country has 2.2 million federal civilian workers — compared with 19.4 million at the state and local levels.

Almost half of the 19 million work in education, which rivals health care for the most wasteful sector in America.

The rest are mostly police officers, firefighters, social workers, nurses and prison guards.

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And though public workers have suffered job losses in the past year (and will suffer more this year), the government remains the most reliable employer in the country.

Compared with before the recession, there are only 1% fewer employees at the state and local levels, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The federal civilian workforce is actually 12% larger than it was in November 2007.

Meanwhile, the number of private-sector employees has declined 6.5%

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For now, the efficiency gap between the public and private sectors is holding us all back.

The U.S. ranked 68th (out of 139 countries) in terms of wastefulness of government spending in the 2010-11 World Economic Forum report on global competitiveness.

Experts put our public-sector productivity about 10 years behind that of the rest of our workforce.

If public workers could halve that gap, the annual savings would ring in at $100 billion to $300 billion, according to a new study by the McKinsey Global Institute.

That would mean the equivalent of a recurring stimulus package every three to eight years.

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Full article: Time, What Public Employees Really Cost, Mar. 07, 2011 

Thanks to SGC for feeding the lead.

Posted in Gov't Waste & Inefficiency | Leave a Comment »

PSA: “Weddings by Costco” … why not?

March 9, 2011

HomaFiles is a non-commercial site that doesn’t accept advertising and doesn’t endorse specific products.

But, if we did, you can bet that “Weddings by Costco” would be in our strike zone.

Costco has sold coffins for years … ‘bout time they fot into weddings.

Be sure to email to a friend who’s getting married …

image

Posted in Laughs, Retailing | Leave a Comment »

Keds Steps It Up … to Kick It into Gear

March 9, 2011

TakeAway: Keds is repositioning itself and wants to remind people that it is an iconic brand. 

The buildup of artist collaboration and partnerships over 2010 culminates in the 2011 “How Do You Do?” campaign, which will encourage the target audience to create and collaborate, and emphasizes the idea of Keds sneakers being a canvas used to express that creativity.

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Excerpted from WSJ, “A Campaign to Introduce Keds to a New Generation” By Tanzina Vega, February 22, 2011

Drivers who see a 32-foot shoebox rolling down the highway over the next few weeks should not be alarmed. The large white box is part of a new national marketing campaign for the sneaker company Keds.  The campaign, called “How Do You Do?,” is intended to reach millennials by taking the shoebox on wheels on a cross-country tour of college campuses. The campaign is also part of an effort to reposition the Keds brand, which has existed since 1916.

Since 2009, the company has been laying the foundation for that awakening by revamping the Keds Web site and participating in partnerships with designers and outlets like Alice and Olivia, Jeffrey New York and Richard Chai. Keds has also joined with the Whitney Museum of American Art on the Keds Whitney Collection, where artists like Jenny Holzer, Laura Owens and Sarah Crowner created limited-edition designs of the canvas sneakers, which were sold in Bloomingdale’s in New York City.

The company also created the online Keds Collective, where artists and designers could create their own versions of Keds to be sold on the company Web site. Users can also design their own Keds sneakers by customizing each of the 15 parts of the shoe, including details like the tongue binding, eyelets and laces.

A print campaign that began in 2010 was the next step in reintroducing the brand to the millennial demographic, defined as optimistic, collaborative, open and diverse. The ads featured groups of people doing things like building a sustainable garden on a rooftop.

Inside the shoebox, visitors will find two touch-screen maps of the tour where they can watch videos about the local artists, retail outlets and charity organizations that Keds is working with in each city. On another wall, users can see a gallery of Keds shoes inspired by each city on the tour schedule.  Outside the shoebox, visitors will see activities that expand on the “How Do You Do?” campaign slogan. For a section called “How Do You Do Keds?” students will be able to customize their own sneakers using a touch-screen kiosk, and can purchase the sneakers from the shoebox. The kiosks will also promote a shoe-design competition called “How Do You Do Your City?” which will run through the month of March.  The winner of the competition will get a $1,000 prize and a $5,000 donation to an arts-based charity. Keds is also sponsoring a segment called “How Do You Do Charity?,” where users will be asked to post messages on Twitter, using the symbol #HDYD, describing what inspires them about their city. The company will donate $1 per post to a local arts-based charity in each city, up to a predetermined maximum.

For each city in the tour, Keds has teamed up with local artists who will use the sneakers as a canvas. The slogans for each of the city stops will reflect the city name, as in “How Do You Do Austin?” and “How Do You Do New York?” For a concurrent promotion — “How Do You Do Art?” — local artists will create a mural on an eight-foot canvas inspired by the postings on Twitter using the tag #HDYD.

Edit by AMW

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Posted in Mktg - Brands | Leave a Comment »