Weekend Digest: The Oreo Cookie Does Elvis On Its 100th Birthday

For our weekend business readers:

ON IT’S 100th BIRTHDAY, NEW LIFE FOR THE OREO COOKIE
Did you know the Oreo cookie is turning 100 years old?  What better way to celebrate than driving up sales.

Harvard Business Review takes a look at a new branding and marketing campaign for the iconic cookie, including new looks aimed at ratcheting up the water cooler banter.

Oreo recently stepped out with a new look. Several new looks, actually. The cookie is pictured sometimes in the shape of Elvis, sometimes with a tread mark in red crème in recognition of the Mars Rover landing, and sometimes in colors chosen to acknowledge Bastille day.

This is an excellent way to celebrate Oreo’s 100 birthday, but it would be wrong to dismiss it as advertising’s equivalent to party balloons. There is a method, perhaps even a genius, to this good humor.

Making brands vivid by making them conversational and respiratory is no small shift. It represents something very like a paradigm shift in marketing, setting several additional changes in train.

There’s risk in Oreo’s bold efforts. Read the full analysis here.

DOES TOO MUCH DATA REDUCE THE QUALITY OF OUR DECISIONS?
That’s an interesting question and Fast Company believes it has figured out an answer from some intriguing research.

We like to think that more information drives smarter decisions; that the more details we absorb, the better off we’ll be. It’s why we subscribe to Google Alerts, cling to our iPhone, and fire up our TweetDeck.

Princeton and Stanford University psychologists explore the subject of data overload in a fascinating study titled “On the Pursuit and Misuse of Useless Information.”

What did the data show? Click this link to find out.

MEET THE HEAD COOK AT APPLE
Tim Cook took over as CEO of Apple from Steve Jobs a year ago and The Economist takes an in-depth look at how Cook has steered one the world’s biggest and most popular companies.

When Tim Cook replaced an ailing Steve Jobs as Apple’s chief executive on August 24th last year, he took over from the nearest thing the tech world had to a rock star.

Some people wondered out loud how Jobs’s more humble second-in-command would fare in the absence of the firm’s brash and brilliant co-founder, who died in October. They need not have worried.

That pretty well sums it up, but how did Cook’s style progress the company, and what are some of the highlights that brought record profits to Apple since he ascended the throne?

Go here to find out how genius advanced to the same.

CAREER LESSONS FROM POWERFUL WOMEN
Forbes has a lengthy piece on the 100 Most Powerful Women in the World, but contributor Caroline Ceniza-Levine, a career coach and mother of two girls, boils down some of the life-lessons from this influential group.

Do these high-profile women have something to take away if you’re a less-profile business person leading your daily life? Absolutely. For example:

There are young breakout stars, such as 26-year old creator of HBO’s Girls, Lena Dunham, and career veterans, such as the top three on this year’s list, Angela Merkel, Hillary Clinton, and Dilma Rousseff, all of whom have decades of experience. Another popular lament I hear as a career coach is I’m too old or I’m too young. Just like personal efforts supersede market conditions, there is no one timetable for how success unfolds. Personal efforts supersede personal characteristics.

Read more takeaways from what these powerful women embody and access the full Forbes list of the most influential female power brokers on the planet here.

WEB ASSIST FOR WHERE TO LIVE
It’s a quest we’ve all faced. Where to live and how to find the right place.  Well, a helpful post from the New York Times has some solid advice where to go.

Fortunately, there are web sites that offer more contextual information about neighborhoods than you might find in a real estate listing or a Craigslist ad.

Click here to find out which innovative web sites can help you move to the neighborhood you desire within your budget whether you’re looking for better bike lanes or quality schools.