Todd Sattersten :: Astronaut Projects

Must Read: Lost Remote

If Lost Remote is not a part of your media diet, it should be.

inBubbleWrap

The new 800ceoread site inBubbleWrap is running in full swing.

This week is the grand opening and we are pulling out all the stops.

Today we are giving away the chance to spend a day with Ben and Jackie from Church of the Customer. You will get their undivided attention and help in develop your plan for customer evangelists.

We will have more cool things as the week goes on.

Comments on Comments

Jake was nice enough to write me and tell me there are problems with the comments. I am checking into it, so bear with me.

He wanted to tell me to publish my holiday collections as iMixes in iTunes. It is really simple to put them out there.

Astronaut Projects 2005 Holiday Mix
Astronaut Projects 2004 Holiday Mix

Enjoy!

Real Power

The head of operations at Google says "Over four years, the power costs of running a PC can add up to half of the hardware cost."

[via TriplePundit]

Brand Loyalty Start At A Young Age

This from Money Dec. 2005:

At what age do children start to develop "brand loyalty"?

A. Six Months Old
B. Two Years Old
C. Four Years Old
D. Seven Years Old

Answer: B. By the age of two--really, two--kids can recognize a favorite brand on store shelves and let you know they want it, with words or gestures, says James McNeal, a former marketing professor at Texas A&M. (In fact, his research shows that babies as young as six months are able to recognize some corporate logos and mascots.) Once the brand lightbulb goes [on], children quickly learn the art of the nag: Kids ages four to 12 influence-- that's putting it nicely--an estimated $300 billion of their parent's purchases annually.

Private Companies in Wisconsin

In their most recent issue, Forbes has published a list of America's Largest Private Companies. One of the peculiar things about Wisconsin has always been the number of large private concerns headquartered here. I went down through the first 100 companies on the list and Wisconsin is tied for third with Pennsylvania having seven companies on the list (California was first with 11 companies and New York was second with 10).

Here are the Wisconsin companies on the list:

Company Name(business)	Rank	Revenues ($mil)
Menard (home improvement stores)	23	6,508
SC Johnson (home cleaning, storage supplies)	24	6,500
Roundy's (grocery stores, food wholesaler)	40	4,777
Kohler (plumbing fixtures, generators)	53	3,600
Schneider International (trucking, third-party logistics)	70	3,198
JohnsonDiversey (cleaning, sanitation supplies)	71	3,169
Schreiber Foods (packaged cheeses, frozen entrees)	91	2,700
Ashley Furniture Industries (furniture)	148	2,000
Quad Graphics (catalog, magazine printer)	170	1,807
F Dohmen (drug distributor, benefits management services)	178	1,734
US Oil (oil, auto parts distributor, convenience stores)	311	1,047

Weekend Music - Christmas Album 2005

It is that time of year again. Every year, I put together a holiday CD for family and friends. I have found the job much easier and alot more fun with iTunes. I am going to recommend again getting off the holiday page on iTunes. Do a search on "Jingle Bells"or "Snowman" and you'll find hundreds of albums that won't ever appear on iTunes Top 100 lists. It requires a little digging, because alot of it is crap. Here are the gems I found this year:

Christmas Is... | Percy Faith and His Orchestra | Christmas Is... (2:59)
Shake Hands With Santa Claus | Louis Prima | Martha Stewart Living Music: Jazz For The Holidays (2:26)
Hard Candy Christmas | Dolly Parton | Once upon a Christmas (3:37)
Angels We Have Heard On High | Relient K | Relient Christmas (1:52)
A Scottish Christmas | The Wiggles | Yule Be Wiggling (1:43)
Christmas Time Is Here |Vince Guaraldi Trio | A Charlie Brown Christmas (2:46
Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance of The Sugar Plum) | Duke Ellington & His Orchestra | Martha Stewart Living Music: Jazz For The Holidays (3:05)
Goyim Friends | The LeeVees | Hanukkah Rocks (3:16)
Merry Christmas Baby | B.B. King | Contemporary Jazz Christmas (3:57)
An Old Fashioned Christmas Polka | Riders in the Sky| Christmas the Cowboy Way (2:26)
Gagliarda | Mannheim Steamroller | Christmas Live (3:17)
Fum, Fum, Fum | Inner Voices | Christmas Harmony (1:19)
Do You Hear What I Hear? | Whitney Houston | A Very Special Christmas, Vol. 1 (3:33)
You're All I Want For Christmas | The Persuasions | You're All I Want For Christmas (3:08)
Good King Wenceslas | Peter Briener & Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra| Christmas Goes Baroque (3:35)
Greensleeves | Mason Williams | Rhino Hi-Five: Mason Williams (2:42)
Pretty Paper | Willie Nelson | Pretty Paper (2:24)
Luke 2:7-14 As Told By Shaoey | Steven Curtis Chapman | All I Really Want For Christmas (1:30)
God Rest | Gary Hoey | Ho! Ho! Hoey: The Complete Collection (3:58)
Frosty The Snowman | The Dixieland Ramblers | Gumbo Christmas (2:45)
The New Year | Death Cab For Cutie | Studio X Sessions (3:44)
Happy New Year | ABBA | Super Trouper (4:24)
Auld Lang Syne | Barenaked Ladies | Barenaked For The Holidays (3:04)

Also see:
The 2004 Holiday Collection
The 2002 Holiday Collection

We'll look back...

We'll look back at the last two weeks as pivotal times in digital media.

We know have price points for all digital media. I am not saying this is what media will forever cost or that it is the right price point , but this is what you can soon buy for 99 cents:

• 20 pages of a book


• 3 to 7 minutes of music


• 22 minutes of video

There is a disconnect when you look at them from a production cost standpoint (i.e. books are cheap, TV is expensive). You also see something similar from a file size/bandwidth standpoint (i.e. books in KB, video in GB).

Music and video have priced their product for digital distribution.

Publishers have not. They are trying to protect their turf. I don't see any consideration for the elimination of physical distribution and returns. This attitude is going to continue cost them share of mind and share of wallet.

Converts

I knew there were a lot of you out there.

New Project Over at 8cr...

This morning, 800-CEO-READ launched a new site.

I think of it as an ad-based version of woot.

It is closed beta right now. Sign yourself up if you would like in. We will be adding more people this week.