Category — marketing

Ok, so the iPhone phrenzy has calmed down slightly and every major news outlet or blog has covered their view of the device. Now lets examine how the opportunities in mobile have evolved with this fancy new device.

The GPS capabilities have been upgraded so my iPhone friends will be able to easily figure out, not just who, but also where they are. This brings a variety of Location Based Services to the iPhone that are more readily available now. Local coupons, location aware information and a slew of soon to be spammy SMS services are sure to be around the corner.

I’d like to focus on an interesting new technology that is very popular in Japan, and I’ve mentioned before - 2D Barcodes. Google made these next generation bar codes available in their print ads. Heres an excerpt from their explanation:

Recently, you may have seen newspaper ads for ServiceMagic placed through the Google Print Ads platform. These particular ads include a Google Consumer Response Tag (CRT) with multiple response mechanisms: URL, search terms, phone number, coupon code, SMS code, and 2D barcode. This test is part of our efforts to make print advertising more useful for readers and more measurable for advertisers. 2D barcodes are an especially exciting part of this because they allow readers to “click” on interesting print ads with their cellphones and seamlessly connect to relevant online content.

Whats really exciting about these “Quick Response” codes, is that many features of these 2D bar codes will soon be reaching consumers and connecting them instantly with businesses. With their application to convert local search online to the real world (and vice versa) these QR codes could be extremely valuable to marketers and small businesses.

To the right is an example of a 2D Barcode from the website semapedia.org. Semapedia.org lets you take a link from wikipedia, wikimedia and several other wikis, create a 2D Barcode to link back to specific articles, then print it and place it where ever you wish. Their goal is to “connect the virtual and physical world by bringing the right information from the internet to the relevant place in physical space.” Now picture this applied to your favorite restaurant, or take out place.

You’re walking down the street, right around the corner and you see an ad for the deli. You whip out your phone and snap a picture of the code and bang, you just got a free beverage if you come into the deli and order a sandwich in the next 10 minutes. Just bring your phone.

This technology has applications across many mediums, business types and ad types. Use it to get more information on cars at the bus stop, movies on the subway, hotel rooms at rest areas or just about anything - on demand, on location, while the consumer is in purchase mode. Talk about ROI, send the coupon to a tracking URL and see how many coupons are redeemed from your coupon.

No Nigerian Spammers, no number harvesting, just on demand information. Brilliantly simple.

I see an opportunity in a tinyurl style “QR” generator. Although there are a couple companies doing it in Europe and Japan (Kaywa seems to be the most friendly). They currently offer personal QR codes free as well as enterprise and API use for a fee. Unfortunately there is little traction in the market here in America, as usual we are behind the mobile curve.

Here is an example of mobile marketing from Sweden: Crossmedia Avenue ran a MMS campaign for a pension insurance company that invited users to send in a picture of themselves and see their face transformed 70 years in the future. With over 262k photos sent via MMS in one month! That is a powerful response in a country of 9 million people. I can’t imagine that we are more than 9-12 months away from these sort of campaigns coming to the US.

With over 14 million BlackBerry’s sold last year in the US, iPhone sales expected to reach 10 million world wide by the end of this 2008 and analysts expecting the pie to keep growing, the proliferation of smartphones into our lives is close to reaching a critical mass.

Now if only I could grow a second set of thumbs…

I was at my parents yesterday for my fathers birthday. This morning while I was reading the paper (yes,my parents still get the paper and I actually read it today!) I noticed something different. It had a whole new design; new font, new colors, it was brighter. Well, I didn’t like it, but thats ok. The main reason I didn’t like was that it was a waste of their time, and it reeked of arrogance.

Maybe its just me, but I really feel newspapers need to bite the bullet and go to town on their websites. The Day has a pretty good website, but it doesn’t do anything different its just a website for a newspaper with news. How about instead of spending time and money, giving an old car a new coat of paint, throw a new engine in there, give it some new brakes. MAKE IT BETTER.

A couple weeks ago I was pondering what I should do to make this blog look better. Then I realized that it doesn’t really matter what the blog looks like, as long as it isn’t making you vomit, its what I write here that makes you read, or come back. It wasn’t really news to me, but its interesting to see how so many organizations are unable to think that way.

A coat of paint can make a big difference on a room, but if there isn’t something provoking or interesting about what or who is in the room, why should I stay - or come back?

Ok, anyone who knows me knows I can get pretty fired up. And sometimes in the privacy of my computer I can get a little overzealous about my thoughts/feelings, especially related to recent experiences. I am also pretty good at acknowledging these blights, and when necessary correcting them. In the past few weeks, I think I may have transmitted some of these blights into this blog, so I’d like to address them.

I have of late been very hard on the financial markets and the coverage of them RE: their view on the internet. And in fairness, I live alot of my life on the internet, I run an internet company and I know a few people who do as well. However, coming across a few data points (particularly this one from Greg Sterling) about E-Commerce having basically flat growth and a few fairly average earnings reports, I think I was getting a bit ahead of myself. I know a good bit about the markets, I know alot more about the internet, but the internet is still a small piece of the economy, and as a whole of our nation, only the early adopters are really savvy to its power and potential. I guess I just never really considered myself and early adopter.

On a second point, I recently remarked on a meeting I had a few weeks ago and used the term “don’t get it.” After reading this post from Mark Cuban, I realized that in some way I was being lazy when discussing the potential project. I didn’t drill “it” down enough for them. Although I never actually used this term with them, nor would I (it is rather insulting), it hit me that in many ways I’ve rationalized deals that never happened or meetings that didn’t go well as them “just not getting it.” The important part of this is that it made me a little better, and now I realize I have alot more work to do to get to a level I didn’t realize I wasn’t already on. If that makes any sense.

You can’t manage what you don’t measure, or something like that.

I found a new Starbucks location (that has assured me they won’t be closing anytime soon) in White Plains, right next to the new Ritz Carlton. Its a swanky joint and reminds me of somewhere that isn’t anything like what I pictured would be going on in White Plains.

I hadn’t planned on writing anything (my life never stops), but I was thinking about my different Starbucks experiences and thought I’d make a note of a few of the good and a few of the bad. Most notably the bad.

Starbucks can be viewed as a microcosm for the world, you find people of all walks of life, all shapes and sizes here, and its a great place to observe how people interact with each other. Particularly the way the baristas interact with customers.

I’d have to say that my favorite Starbucks is across from Yale on Chapel St in New Haven. It has an incredible blend of higher-ed, Ivy League types, statesman, businesswomen, students and your standard toothless chess players. But the real reason for my affinity here is that the customer service is always excellent. “Hi how are you today?” and they wait for a response. You have a conversation with someone, which is often more refreshing than the coffee you’re about to have.

The worst Starbucks I’ve ever been to is in the Biltmore Hotel, Providence, RI. No class, mean spirited baristas (with one exception) and you practically have to beg for a key to the bathroom. In my mind, a key to the bathroom is a rather overt way of seperating people into classes, and making them feel less welcome and important. I mean this place is just mean, and its a great example of why there are so many Starbucks closing. I feel bad for the good people and baristas that actually care, who will be losing there jobs in this upcoming layoff. But not for the rest of them.

Starbucks was created as a place to get a great cup of coffee, and I thought that the notched up prices meant you could get a smile with that. As they grew so quickly, they lost both of those elements, burnt coffee and bitter employees (or was that the other way around). The worst Starbucks isn’t about one particular place, or one bad experience, its about many particularly bad places and thousands of bad experiences.

Coffee can be about the coffee, it can be about the experience drinking it, it can be about the caffeine, it can be about alot of things. But the constant, as with any purchase, is your experience as a consumer. And in the rare chances I get to be the consumer, I’d like my experience to be good.

This isn’t really about Starbucks, its about why they are failing, and how when they stopped focusing on giving people a great coffee drinking experience, they stopped doing what they do best - Making Coffee.

Make coffee people!

We are working on developing an entirely new pricing structure, from the sales materials to the training to the handling of new and recent prospects to the web architecture that facilitates it. Whole new focus, which I’m very excited about. So far this month its taken on very well.

What I’m curious about is how other companies my size are handling the current economic climate. From a general downturn, to the burgeoning online economy. I’ve been hearing alot about some other startups in our field and laugh and wonder about some of their statements.

There’s alot going on in the local search market, and its only going to get more packed. Its a very exciting time to be involved in local, and we are getting after it.

Time will tell who will make it to the “next level”

And why its actually useless.

Last week my (never met him before or interacted with in anyway whatsoever, but read so much of what he thinks that I usually think to myself “what would Seth Godin say about this” whenever I do anything) friend Seth Godin wrote a valuable post about “Grand Openings” and how they are not so grand. I laughed when I read it because I was scheduled to attend the Grand Opening party of an old restaurant that had closed and re-opened under a new owner/management that evening.

It was Saturday when I realized the value of the Hype, the artificial pumping up of events, products and companies. I was at the Belmont, in hopes of witnessing history in the form of the first Triple Crown winner in 30 years.

You had to live in a cave to not know about this event. The trainer was everywhere, the horse was everywhere, a big dollar investment was made and a multinational company purchased a first of its kind endorsement. Big Brown came around the final turn and stopped running. The most heavily favored horse to go off at Belmont Stakes in decades, the sure shot, became the first Triple Crown contender to finish dead last.

More than twice as many people watched the stakes on television this year over last year and over 100k people braved the heat to watch in person. People were excited, then they were disappointed. Massively disappointed.

When things don’t live up to the hype, people remember the bad, the letdown or they don’t remember it at all. Eitherway, all the press, all the hype that was put into the event was a waste of many and probably will hurt the brand/event/promoter in the long term.

Don’t try to live up to the hype, let the hype try to live up to you. Make the hype follow the event, let people talk about how great it was, because if something was really worth all the hype, you won’t need to put all that hype into it before hand.

At 5 o’clock vendors were selling Big Brown tshirts for $20. At 6:30 they were selling those same shirts 3 for $5. Of course, if he had won, those shirts might have been selling for $40. Perhaps the Belmont Stakes is not the best example, but it made me think about what we do in order to hype things up and get people to pay attention. As Mr. Godin commonly puts it, make something remarkable - worth talking about, and people will talk about it.

Speak softly and carry a big stick. Just Do It. Walk the Talk. Moral of the story, instead of talking about doing it, go ahead and buckle in and do it. Because almost never was, and probably never will be.

Its late now, and I’m going to stop hyping this post.

Not necessarily you, but alot of people out there who are responsible for making decisions based around incorrect or misused information. “Well we just got our new RSS feed live so we are on the forefront of the the online game.” “Our online advertising needs are being met by our facebook page because (insert 3 random and conflicting facts about facebook here).” We just placed a large buy with the local paper’s website, so we are all set for now.”

All three of these are actual comments I’ve heard from advertising prospects in the past week. Of course we get turned down, we’re not perfect, but it is frustratingly amusing when I hear these responses. “No, we don’t need your services because we have this other program that isn’t measurable and entirely different from your program. But what is it you do again?” The beauty of the internet is that it is measurable, fixable, flexible, adaptable, etc. But just because you can measure 37 different variables on your latest campaign doesn’t mean you’ll get the data you want.

I’m digressing from my point. I sometimes feel like half of the people out there using new technologies are like 16 year olds with out their license cruising around in a Lamborghini - they don’t know what they hell they’re talking about. Sure your RSS feed is nice to have, and I’m happy to hear that you have a blog for your business, and I’m impressed that you have taken the time to build a facebook page. But your facebook page has 2 fans, and the last time your wrote on your blog was December - what is a new feed going to do for your business?

My point is, just because you have something fancy, doesn’t mean you’re using it right. Technology is not a money tree, you have to use it wisely and there isn’t just one way to do that.

Last night Ryan Seacrest was on Larry King, and was speaking on a variety of issues, including the usual useless gossip, but he also touched on his BlackBerry Addiction. Larry asked him about the several businesses he runs and how he manages to keep them all together and when he sleeps. His response was basically that he turns his BlackBerry to silent, but wakes up routinely to check it through the night. I was watching this with my girlfriend and she informed me that Ryan’ BlackBerry use sounded an awful lot like mine.

Took a fairly last minute trip to North Carolina to visit my Grandmother, and we crushed the BlackBerry on the way here. Same old stuff for me that I’ve written about before, but it emphasizes how relevant it truly is. AT&T has announced that it will subsidize the release of the 3G iPhone this summer by as much as $200. BlackBerry announced its new “Bold” device (with 3G). Overall, the market for mobile phones and web-rich devices is growing enourmously. If people are able to buy iPhones for 2 or 3 hundred dollars, imagine how many they will sell.

Once everyday people, not just the early adopters and business savvy customers, but everyday Jones is able to access rich, mobile internet - then we will see the explosive growth in mobile advertising. I’m very excited to see what happens in the 4th quarter this year…

This week I saw a few examples of how mobile is finally beginning to cross the chasm between innovators and early adopters. Large players are seeing a shift in their advertising dollars, Google announced it was making a major partnership with Sprint, and launched their international portal for iPhones, iMedia Connection came out with a great overview of mobile barcodes, and also yesterday my BlackBerry was with out data for about 4 hours and I kind of freaked out.

The combination of these events, along with specific posts from two of my favorite bloggers (David Berkowitz on privacy and Darren Herman on privacy) led me to the conclusion that we are near the tipping point of doing something great with mobile (working on a very cool new mobile tool for our company).

If you read David and Darren’s posts, you’ll see that they feel strongly about privacy and the prospect of invasion of your personal space on a cell phone. I don’t see mobile marketing being a success if its seen as an invasion; however, mobile marketing becomes a success when marketers are able to reach people as they are in transaction mode. Transaction mode being any of the following: “Lets find a hotel nearby,” “I’m hungry,” “I’m thirsty,” “I really want one of those…” etc. As marketers see the value in reaching users searching for this information, and the mobile device becomes more of a “pocket” notebook computer more dollars will flow across the mobile airwaves.

As the devices transition, the dollars will transition behind them.

I was thinking about how several different brands are really able to reach a large audience, with a long term campaign and I thought I would do a little research and put together a list of the 5 best brands out there today. Based on longevity, current and past campaigns, and their ability to capture significant segments of their markets.

1. Nike: The brand that Phil Knight built out of a waffle iron in his garage now controls over 30% of the worlds athletic shoe market and does over $16 billion a year in sales. “Just Do It.” captivates audiences around the world, from Portland to Paris, from Michael Jordan to the World Cup to Tiger Woods, Nike continues to bring powerful campaigns all centered around the same slogan from the 70’s.
2. Coca-Cola: The current Coca-Cola logo was originally designed by Frank Mason Robinson in 1885. Today, over 120 years later, the logo still graces the pages, screens and stadiums of locations all across the world. In 1918, Robert Woodruff - Coke’s first President - said he wanted to “ensure that everyone on Earth drank Coca-Cola as their preferred beverage.” Now over 25% of the worlds $250 Billion soft-drink market belongs to Coke.
3. Apple: A brand doesn’t have to be centuries old to be great, but after hovering just above obsolete during the 90’s, Steve Jobs returned to bring Apple back to glory. Using an extremely simple advertising campaign, just the product, music and a little graphic design shows how “cool” their products are. The new “Mac vs PC” campaign is brilliantly simple and the iPhone commercials simply show several different features of the product. Did I mention how cool their products are - who doesn’t want an iPod? (Oh man, I forgot to mention the 1-3 connection: Nike + iPod)
4. Lexus: I don’t drive a Lexus, and probably never will (I am an Audi guy) but as a marketer I love their brand. They use simple luxury and sheer performance as the key ingredients to all of their campaigns and they always keep them simple. The Pursuit of Perfection (Cadillac recently ripped this right off..). Of course, Toyota is no slouch either.
5. Sony: HDNA. My first stereo had to be a Sony. The Sony Walkman, and then the Discman were the iPods of their day. The Bravia TV’s are in most everyone’s top 3 sets. When I was in Video Production in high school, almost everything we used was a Sony product, the cameras, the monitors, the VCRs, the speakers,  the mixers, etc. Their current HDNA campaign (with your favorite “all sell anything” football star spokesman Peyton Manning) is brilliant - it gives you many compelling reasons why you should use their products to facilitate your HD experiences. Granted I think Sony should have seen the  MP3 craze perhaps a little better than they did considering their dominance in mobile music prior, but they have transitioned through 5 generations of technology and as we begin to transition into a new one, I see Sony having a large presence in what ever future markets develop.

These were just a few of my thoughts on some of the best brands, based on their historical prevalence, current advertising campaigns and over all brand management. I’d love to hear some other brands grabbing your attention.