Born to geek

iGeek
With $200 and a bike, Robert Stephens started the Geek Squad out of his dorm room. Taking UPS as his corporate model (uniforms, branded vehicles, and house calls), flat-rate pricing from Rapid Oil Change, and brand style inspiration from comic books and "Dragnet," he's grown the company, part of Best Buy since 2002, into a 24K-person customer service dynamo. It's the largest tech support firm in the world. A nerd and his dream: magic. (source: LA Times, 4/1/10)

Mommy TV
If you want to reach moms with TV, be sure to buy time during shows they watch without their kids. How old the kids are doesn't matter, they're still getting more of mom's attention than the show or commercials. Moms are also partial to Hulu and DVRs for catching "me time" programming. (source: Media Post, 3/31/10)

Time for therapy
6% of people over 25 and 11% of those under 25 say they'd interrupt sex to check out a new text message. (source: Retrevo)

In Warren we trust
Berkshire Hathaway tops the 11th annual Harris Interactive US Corporate Reputation Survey. What's not to love about a down-to-earth, self-made gazillionaire? Rounding out the top 10 are: Johnson & Johnson, Google, 3M, SC Johnson, Intel, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Amazon, and General Mills. On the naughty end are: Freddie Mac, AIG, Fannie Mae, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Chrysler, General Motors, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and Delta Airlines. Ford made a huge 11-point leap into the "good" category. (source: Marketwatch, 4/5/10)

Today, Drano
Every day for 3 years, Kate doodled something she bought. It's her attempt to personalize mundane consumption. Now her doodles along with prices, locations, and comments are a book. Oddly interesting http://katebingamanburt.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kateconsumption/sets/72157622976912066/

Rejection by association
35% of Americans have decided not to buy something because they found the brand's advertising distasteful. 28% because they didn't like the spokesperson. 27% because they didn't like the program or event the brand appeared in. 22% have considered it. (source: Center for Media Research/Harris, 4/8/10)

Magic wheels
Doctors in the Netherlands have found that many patients with Parkinson's who can no longer walk can ride a bike over long distances. They have trouble getting on and off or stopping, but they can pedal and balance. There's no clue why yet. (source: NY Times, 3/31/10)

What does WPP stand for?
Wire & Plastic Products. When Martin Sorrell left Saatchi & Saatchi, he bought a company that makes supermarket carts in hopes of financing an agency empire. 25 years and 99K marketing employees later, they still make carts. (source: CityAM.com, 4/8/10)

Brandlings
U of MI has found that 3- to 5-year-olds recognize brand names and symbols and are willing and able to make judgments about products and people based on their associations with brands. For example, they know that a kid who has his birthday party at McDonald's has lots of friends because he takes them to McDonald's to eat and play on the jungle gym http://slate.com/id/2248986/ (source: Slate, 4/3/10)

Cheers to Model 1460
Dr. Martens are 50 years old this month. Rock on.

2 million calories
That's what Donna Simpson, currently about 600 lbs, figures she'll need to eat over the next 7 months to reach her goal of 1,000 lbs. She's going for the record. (source: Wall Street Journal, 4/2/10)

Super shoppers
10% of a supermarket's customers generate the lion's share of its sales and profits. They stop in twice a week, spend over $39 per visit, generate nearly 39% of total sales, and only 11% of that spend is on marked-down goods. (source: Shopper Marketing, April 2010)