My industry experience includes apparel, hospitality, technology, life sciences, consumer package goods, logistics, recreation and education. I’m happy to share relevant examples and case studies.
Want to know more? You can read a bit of trivia about me here, or send me an email.
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MTV was a cultural influence. Was. Now, as this post clearly illustrates, it reaches far fewer people than YouTube and MySpace. Why? Two way communication matters more than content.
Here's an idea: You stand a better chance of influencing your industry if you converse and collaborate with the people (customers, vendors, journalists, etc.) in and around it, than if you broadcast your messages and content.
Technorati Tags: conversations, content, communication
The evolution of brand/customer relationships, on the Internet:
Brands talk to customers > customers talk back (sorta, when they feel like it) > customers talk about brands, to other customers > brands begin to get it, and join in
This post at Three Minds deals mainly with step three -- customer to customer communication. Customers are exchanging tips about DIY items created at Starbucks and McDonalds:
"Counter-culture and the public's desire to stand on equal footing with consumer brands are behind the trend-of-the-moment: how-to's on scamming major corporations."I can be a cynic, too, but this statement misses the main point in its rush to point out that customers can be cheapskates. Customers who make Ghetto Lattes are taking online practices into retail settings -- in this case, creating their own mashups out of available products. It's a small way to inject some creativity into environments that are recognizably artificial, and turn brands that might otherwise feel out of scale into collaborators. And if that makes customers feel better about those brands, this kind of thing should be tacitly encouraged. Right?
Google announces a customizable search engine:
"Marissa Mayer, vice-president of search products and user experience, said it was the most significant launch that Google would announce in the final months of this year. By letting companies and individuals build their own specialised search engines, it will also create competition for the many new “vertical” search products that have recently been launched on the web, she added."
Three Minds comments on why Starbucks is finding success in being more than just another coffee joint:
"Because the brand is trusted, valued and safe, and consumers are willing to follow a commercial path of consideration and purchase they already have demonstrated their affinities for: quality, authentic experiences in clean environments. (i.e., folk rock without the drugs, moving stories without the existential darkness, films that are smart yet family safe, coffee that is quality, clean and just plain good.)"
There's a lot of insight in this brief post, which goes beyond the intricacies of brands as marketers see them to get right to the heart of what they mean to people:
"Mass brands are rarely persuasive or attuned to my needs as a dedicated long-tailer with niche interests and distrust of the corporate soft sell, but when that rare moment happens, when Netflix helps me find movies I will love by exposing me to film nuts who write reviews without promoters distorting their vision, when Google serves me ads that I actually find interesting, or when I sit in a JetBlue plane and they have little TV’s in the back of every single chair, with movies I actually like, I get that shiver of recognition. It’s like they know what I want, and they’re right. Before I know what’s happening I’ve taken out the credit card, handed it to the lady, and signed the little paper. And smiled."
Technorati Tags: brand, Starbucks, Three+Minds
The more you try to do in a demo or presentation, the greater the probability that something will go wrong.
As an observer of numerous presentations I've noticed that often the biggest glitches often seem connected to content or demonstrations that are tangential to The Big Idea the presenter is trying to communicate. A little more rigor in the editing process might have saved the presenter embarrassment.
It's easy to fall in love with our ideas -- after all, they're our children, right? -- and let them slip into presentations when they're not essential to the main message. It's much harder to remain critical, particularly when a deadline looms, and ask whether a particular slide, demonstration, media clip or comment matters in the context of the overall presentation. Almost always, the right answer is to be critical, stay on point, distill the presentation to its essence, and not give yourself opportunities to obscure your message, or worse, overshadow it with a screw up.
More from Presentation Zen.
Technorati Tags: presentation, demo
My mishap this week meant having to skip ConvergeSouth. Until Friday night I thought I might be able to make it, then common sense got the better of me. I'm disappointed I couldn't go. But, I'm enjoying it vicariously though reports here, here, and here.
Technorati Tags: convergesouth, greensboro
Netflix wants to improve the accuracy of movie recommendations by 10%. What do they do? Hire consultants? Programmers? Team up with a university? No, in a new twist on the practice of crowdsourcing, they offer a $1 million grand prize to the first team to succeed.
An interesting idea that scored a publicity coup in the bargain.
More: Chris Anderson explains why more accurate DVD recommendations are worth $1 million.
Technorati Tags: Netflix, crowdsourcing
As eMarketer points out, online marketing success can be the result of 1) intense focus, and 2) smart, integrated use of multiple online channels.
Their case study of Jonathan Coulton's online marketing is worth reading because it makes simple, but often overlooked points:
Doc Searls muses on the delusional nature of relationship marketing, and points out a missing piece: Customers aren't sufficiently equipped to relate to vendors.
This is useful reading for anyone immersed (or about to be) in CRM.
Technorati Tags: crm, vrm, relationship+marketing, vendor+management
There's a tendency to equate the content of online communities with the opinions of their members. But can 1% of a community's members accurately reflect the whole?
Jakob Nielsen looks at the participation inequality phenomenon, what it means, and what you can do about it.
Technorati Tags: community, social, Internet
Also, for those of you looking for my review of the Minox 35, it's here.
