According to the following article, your testimonials should be short and sweet.

 From Gaspedal.com:

Great testimonials are priceless word of mouth assets. Here are three things the best ones have in common:

1> It's short
2> It says something specific
3> It's from someone fantastic

1> It's short

You don't need a book to show potential customers that people love you. It's especially critical on the web, where a lengthy testimonial is likely to get overlooked by a busy shopper scanning your site. Keep your blurbs short -- around 6 words -- to ensure they're being seen.

2> It says something specific

A great testimonial conveys something specific about how great you are. Numbers, results, and comments about specific features are the strongest forms of endorsements. Help your customers leave better testimonials by asking them specific questions about how your stuff has made their businesses better rather than using vague, open-ended questions.

3> It's from someone fantastic

The more recognizable and respected the person saying something nice about you is, the more influential that testimonial will be. Take the extra time to actively pursue your big-name clients, event attendees, and high-profile industry analysts for their opinions on your work. While this isn't to say a fantastic review from a "regular" customer is worthless, mixing in a few reviews from well-known individuals and brands can mean a lot to a new customer.

Maurice Sendak, author of children's literature...

included dogs as characters in many of his books.  On a personal level, Sendak felt the loyalty and playfulness of his own pets supported and contributed to his success even during his darkest periods and most challenging projects. 

Consumers are ready to spend again...

Yippie.  Ready, Set, Shop!!

The "Great One" failed as a coach...

Wayne Gretsky, arguably the greatest hockey player ever, did not do so well as a coach and didn't come close to winning a Stanley Cup coaching.  His tenure reminds me of Ted Williams, a great baseball player who bombed as a manager in the big leagues.  That's probably why you don't see Joe Montana, Michael Jordan, Reggie Jackson, and other great ones coaching in a professional capacity in their respective sport.

A magnificent read...strongly recommend this book

Gee, I wonder what the % of adults could pass this 1st grade class?

By Thomas Jefferson on 6/10/1815

"I cannot live without books."
His books provided Jefferson with a broader knowledge of the contemporary and ancient worlds than many of his contemporaries had obtained through personal experience (excerpt from Thomas Jefferson's Library brochure)

By King Henry V

"Men of few words are the best men."

The Power of Google

Having lunch at Au Bon Pain and Joel Wishengrad from WMR News noticed my Oakland A's cap I was wearing and asked what I was doing in DC.  Just vacationing I said. While he was waiting for his colleague reporter, I asked him what WMR News is.  He saw my net book, and told me to "GOOGLE" WMR News.  My home page defaults to Yahoo.  He saw it and quickly said, "Don't use Yahoo, use GOOGLE."  In the internet space, that's why GOOGLE is King and everyone else is scrap (maybe you could even delete the letter s)!

Good statement...

Saw this phrase on a postage stamp:

I hear, I forget
I see, I remember
I do, I understand

So many folks mistaken "Abuse" for "Art"

The Prez calls Kanye West a "Jackass"....

deservedly so Even Obama chimes in

US Open

Who predicted that Juan Del Potro could have beaten both Nadal and the Great Roger Federer in the US Open? Upset of the year!

From the book Instinct by Thomas L. Harrison

"Intuition follows information."
"Innovation isn't about me-too's.  You need to be on the playing field to see openings to score."
"If the marketplace is telling you something, if customers are saying the same thing over and over again, and you don't listen, you've got a problem."
"Make your values part of the value of your product or service.  If you do this, your customers will believe in you, in your brand, and in what you're selling."

Not just Girl's night out anymore...

In a global initiative to promote retail, restore consumer confidence, and celebrate fashion, U.S. and international editions of Vogue are coordinating evening extravaganzas in their respective world fashion capitals.
Fashion's Night Out??

Maybe it's time to look at some of these stocks...Coach, Ralph Lauren, Saks, Nordstrom's, etc.
Fashionable Profits??

Museum to visit

This would be an interesting Museum to visit....
Museum of Chinese in America

Oakland Fly Fishing Casting Club

"People discover how cathartic casting is because it places a premium on focus and intuition about different parts of your body," JohnWurzel (club's casting instructor) said.  "If you're interested in learning casting don't bring equipment. Come first, learn to cast and then buy a rod."  "Casting is always a work in progress," Aram Aykanian (club member) said.  "There's always something you can learn at the casting pools."

Oakland Casting Club article

Chris Martin on why they play "Yellow" during its concert...

 "I love playing it.  I love the tune.  I love the chord.  I love the balloons that we use live.  But I still can't quite work out what's it about."  (Enjoy the song, but don't understand it at all)

 "Even if I don't really feel like playing it, those guys that paid their ticket money, they want us to play Yellow, so we'll play it....and give them something extra." (Don't need to understand everything, just do what the customer wants and give them more than expected)

Singer Chris Martin of Coldplay

"We rely more on enthusiasm than actual skill.  Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically and people will like it more.  I can't dance like Usher.  I can't sing like Beyonce.  I can't write songs like Elton John.  But we can do the best we can with what we got.  And so that's what we do--we just go for it."  Chris Martin of Coldplay

Could Costco be the next Nordstrom?

A Customer Review on Costco's Web Site:


Exceptional Quality/Value

"I've been wearing these Kirkland shirts for years. Some time ago, my shirt laundry (which has been in business since the 1940s) told me the quality of these shirts is equal to or better than any they see (from Brooks Bros on up), which is probably why they fly out of my local Costco store. Even if they're in stock, the hard part has been finding them in my size. THANK YOU COSTCO FOR FINALLY PUTTING THEM ON COSTCO.COM!!"

Good summary by Julie Clarenbach on the characteristics of a strong company and stock

One Sign of a Strong Stock

By Julie Clarenbach
August 28, 2009 |

Think about your favorite company, the one you believe in the most. Now imagine getting its logo tattooed on your bicep.
What's your immediate, knee-jerk reaction? I'm going to guess you think it's a bad idea.
Even so, thousands upon thousands of Harley-Davidson owners have done it -- it's one of the oldest and most popular brands-as-permanent-affiliation. And they aren't alone.
So what's the difference between the company you thought of and Harley-Davidson? And why should it matter to your investing?
Four ways to get ahead
There are lots of things that make a great company: strong financials, excellent management, well-produced products or services. But however great a company is, it won't last unless it has some kind of competitive advantage, some way to protect its market share and grab more.
Competitive advantages come in many forms:

• Economies of scale, which allow bigger companies to offer products for less. Think Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), which can use its mammoth size to bargain for better rates from suppliers and better prices from customers.
• Network effects, which increase the value of the service as more and more people use it. Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), for example, is creating network effects by both bringing smaller sellers under its search umbrella, and allowing individuals to sell their used books alongside Amazon's new copies -- it's increasingly one-stop-shopping.
• Intellectual property, such as patents. Drug companies like GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK), for example, are dependent on drug patent protection to recoup the costs of research and development, and to ensure a steady stream of customers.
• High switching costs, which make it difficult for customers to trade one company in for another. The sheer amount of data it takes for a company to set up its payroll with Paychex (Nasdaq: PAYX), for example, will preclude that company from hopping to a competitor on a whim.

But not every company can avail itself of these gold-standard competitive advantages. Other than economies of scale, those competitive advantages are largely predicated on industry membership.
Everyday retailers don't have intellectual-property rights, nor are they likely to have network effects or high switching costs. What they do have is brand.
Standing out in the crowd
A brand is the conglomeration of all of those "soft" associations customers have with a company or a product -- the totality of the experiential and psychological aspects of their interactions.
Brand may be difficult to measure with any confidence, but it points toward something important: the customer's attachment to this particular product as opposed to all of the other options he or she could pursue.
Think about Nike -- people pay hundreds of dollars for athletic shoes that get far more wear on the street than they do on the court. Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) can sell a T-shirt for $50 simply because it has the Abercrombie logo on it, while an identical shirt minus the logo would fetch a fraction as much.
But brand loyalty on the basis of style fads aren't sustainable over the long term; remember when Gap (NYSE: GPS) was the brand of choice?
The strongest retail brands are the ones that express people's identities -- and continue to do so no matter what happens in their lives. Harley-Davidson clearly has it; if you're a Hog lover, you aren't going to accept a Honda.
Are you sure you don't want that tattoo?
Every company will claim it has a strong brand, but the real test of a brand is how well it holds up through the slings and arrows of an outrageous economy. Many food and household products, for example, have excellent name recognition and substantial customer loyalty, but nearly 60% of Americans are currently forgoing their favorite brands for store brands.
Even in the worst economy since the Great Depression, however, Apple has continued to hit it out of the park with the iPhone, based largely on the way its sleek design and continued innovation feed into an identity people want to claim, and its stock has nearly doubled since the turn of the year.
It's that kind of market performance that demonstrates the importance of a strong brand to a great investment -- no matter what the economy.
You may not want to tattoo a company's logo on your body, but if you can't imagine trading its products in for those of its competitors, then that's a company worth investigating further.
A strong competitive advantage, including brand, is one of the things David and Tom Gardner look for at Motley Fool Stock Advisor.