Conversation Agent - Valeria Maltoni

Connectivity and Blogging Tips

One of the blogs I syndicate comes all the way from Australia by ProBlogger Darren Rowse. Darren has been helping bloggers earn money by providing useful tips and blogging about them for 3 years. That in blog years is a very long time. I found an old entry by Darren via Huey's World. This demonstrates how highly connective the blogosphere is. I left a comment to Darren's 18 tips on his blog and wanted to share my take of his points with you: Be Lucky -- ever read Fooled by Randomness? That's what this point is about. All things being... Read more →

Six Characters in Search of an Author

Six Characters in Search of an Author was written by Luigi Pirandello in 1921. The story plot goes like this. The rehearsal preparations of a theatrical company are interrupted by a Father and his family who explain that they are characters from an unfinished dramatic work. They want to interpret again crucial moments of their lives, claiming that they are "truer" than the "real" characters. "How can we understand each other if the words I use have the sense and the value I expect them to have, but whoever is listening to me inevitably thinks that those same words have... Read more →

Is Radio Obsolete?

A while back Italian singer Mina wrote an article for La Stampa on her take of what listening to the radio used to be; parts of which I translate liberally here. In a world that has alas celebrated the extinction of the verb "to listen" what is left is visual enslavement. In such a world, radio is a last oasis, a natural environment where among bushes and stones one can still find everything -- literature and gossip, from Cole Porter to Puccini, from politics to some extinct musical form. On the radio, it is still possible to find words offered... Read more →

Pushing the 'Buy' Button

I stated in another post that marketing is part art and part science. What has gained interest in recent years is the objective view of buying decisions as a possible measurement tool. Christophe Morin, co-author of the book Neuromarketing: Is There a Buy Button Inside the Brain? has a theory that marketing, to be successful, needs to target the most primitive part of our brain. New research in neuroscience reveals that the human brain is categorized into three separate parts that act as separate organs with different cellular structures and different functions: The "New Brain" thinks; it processes rational data.... Read more →

Made in Italy: Music to my Ears

Each conversation follows a rhythm. There are the exchange of the speaker's tempo, which includes pauses, the listener's attention range, and the pitch of the words to the tune this rich combination stimulates. When we connect with someone, the rhythm seems effortless as we are immersed in the flow together. Every so often, there is a special someone who manages to arrange a different kind of experience and the result changes us forever. Let me take you through a journey of pop and rock musicians from my own region (Emilia Romagna) in Italy to illustrate. We are susceptible to the... Read more →

Cinquecento: Fiat Wants You

"FIAT has saved itself from extinction; today it is a place called hope". With these words Sergio Marchionne, Managing Director of Fiat, brought his two-day meeting with financial analysts at the Lingotto plant in Turin to a close, and earned long applause from the public. In a caption from Il Corriere della Sera: By 2010 Fiat will be debt free with 3 billion euros worth of liquidity on the balance sheet. Marchionne announced 23 new models for 2007-2010 (the new Fiat 500, in the photo, will be launched in September 2007), as well as restyling for a wide range of... Read more →

How to Travel with a Salmon

I'm packing for a flight. My first one since the Transportation Security Administration enforced the ban on liquids, aerosols and gels, which it has adjusted recently. To check in or not to check in, that is the question. These new rules add to the fun of passing security. Like an exam, people discover a new self in the process. In addition to letting your laptop out of the case, you now have the little transparent baggie to show your goodies in 3 oz. portions. You are juggling that while taking your shoes and jacket off and the person behind in... Read more →

The Art and Science of Marketing

Peter Brook in Threads of Time says that experience cannot be divided into two opposing categories, into what can be felt and what can be defined. Behind taste, artistic judgment, and cultural habits exist proportions and relationships that touch us because a quality of emotion is integral to their nature. At the same time, lurking inside every measurement is a factor that goes beyond classical physics to relativity and a place where science springs to life and becomes pure poetry. Guided by this thinking, Brook wanted to break through the divisions among science, art, and religion and unite them within... Read more →

Design of Story the Sensual Way

This picture by Helmut Newton for Pirelli, the Italian group famous for its iconic and sensual calendars, never made it to a calendar. If the project had come to completion twenty-one years ago, says the caption in Il Corriere della Sera, there would be another prize out there for icon hunters to chase -- the first, and only, Pirelli calendar made in Italy by Newton. This image is a perfect example of the use of sensuality to tell a story. It reveals just enough to connect with your imagination yet not too much as that would detract from your subjective... Read more →

'Vive la Resistance' and What it Means to Marketers

Consumers are becoming increasingly advertising-proof. A 2005 Yankelovich study on marketing receptivity found the resistance particularly acute when consumers perceive the message or the delivery method as invasive. Consumers are pushing back especially since marketers continue to increase the noise level and clutter in their mail boxes. I'm with Steve Pearlstein when he says that you don't need extensive market research to predict the winners. In politics, as in business, the quality players are focused on their customers. So it will not be a shock to find out what the Yankelovich survey respondents indicated as their Top 10 preferences. For... Read more →