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.
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."
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:
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
When the term Web 2.0 comes up in conversation I notice that it often is a placeholder for a not-very-well-defined set of principles and technologies. The net from this is that the discussions can be pretty nebulous.
Along comes Pew, which tries to be helpful and make sense of it all.
Technorati Tags: Web2.0
Wharton looks at the potential downside of social sites' thirst for growth. A key point:
"It's debatable whether broadly expanding is a good idea. A lot of businesses start small and expand, but when you are dealing with affinity groups that hope to foster a sense of community, [the decision] is more complicated. Is it better to focus on a successful niche or make a play for world domination?"
Adverblog is agog over the new Gucci Web site, which they call "a unique, innovative yet very luxury online experience." They also toss the word "genious"(sic) into the mix.
Why are they so excited? Because the site forsakes Flash for "a much more innovative (and brave, I would say) solution: Web 2.0 technologies - Javascript and Ajax (no, not the football team! :-),
just to name a few."
I'm a sucker for anything that sounds that good, but is it? In a word, no.
The slow load time (at the moment I'm on a Mac running Firefox 1.5.0.7, over a DSL connection) left plenty of time for anticipation to build. The "pick a country" splash page reminded me that all good things come to those who wait. Then the main event arrived.
Okay, the sliding image is cool, for about half a second. But the navigation is a mess. The product arrays are confusing and lack cues to differentiate similar looking products. The iconography is non-intuitive. If you're really intent on surfing Gucci style, you might take time to sort it out. But I don't have that kind of patience.
If this is a "luxury online experience", give me poverty. Please.
Technorati Tags: gucci.com, Web2.0, javascript, ajax
Also, for those of you looking for my review of the Minox 35, it's here.
