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January 22, 2006

Motorola to place a "Google" button on their phones.

I was just reading the Sensis Classified News Service blog, doing some research when I came across a post that quotes the New York Times, who ran an article about Motorola making cell phones with the Google button on them.

Here's an excerpt:

"Motorola will soon begin selling web-enabled mobile phones in the US that feature easy access to Google's search engine by clicking on a button on the phone's keypad, the world's second-largest maker of mobiles said."

I suppose Yahoo and MSN should be shaking in their boots... well it depends on how you see it. Yahoo's database is a force to be reckoned with. They have so much information about so many people's lives, and how they are using the internet and they have connections to all kinds of small businesses. They have aimed at being a place where people spend lots of time online...

Google is banking on the fact that people don't necessarily want to spend lots of time online, they may just have something very specific to do and then want to be finished with it and move on. And everything they do is top notch... albeit very simple. Google may have already won the search game and that's a key component... actually, let me rethink that "may"...when the 2nd largest cell phone maker puts a "Google button" on their phone it's pretty much game over.

Although, I think Microsoft's new browser and operating system will be interesting, so will the world of TV and/or film entertainment if the stuff I'm reading in the SF Chronicle is true. Pretty soon you'll just be watching TV (through your computer) and be able to pause it, roll your mouse over the hotel in the background of the movie you're watching and be able to get it's business details or have your computer dial their reservation line to book your next vacation. Microsoft is so big that when they decide to innovate, they can create quantum leaps in the industry...

It's going to get exciting again in the world of "tech", something close to the late '90s... just because of the pace of technological developments and the way the demand is increasing around the entire globe.

Posted by Andrew Spencer at 12:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 20, 2006

Lost in Translation?

Just found a new blog on Corante that I really like, called "Idea Flow." It was perfect because I was on my way to work today and thinking that I needed to find some blogs (or other published "intelligence") about ideation techniques. I'm not exactly sure that Idea Flow is an "ideation" blog, but it's a start.

The first post I read was a January 12 post called "An unlikely example of creativity at work." where Renee Hopkins Callahan told a story involving getting a piercing for her daughter. At one of the tattoo/piercing parlors, she saw photographs of work completed on other customers, including Chinese characters - which lead to a subsequent thought about how people get tattoos they can't read themselves.

Ultimately, Renee moves on to discuss a blog site called Hanzi Smatter, "a blog which tracks the misuse of Chinese characters in Western culture."

I thought, as someone responsible for developing content on the Web that is ultimately viewed by the Global audience, and in many cases in developing specific Global marketing strategies for my clients that are looking to get their messages into Asia - that it would be good to have some insights on just how silly "we Westerners" must look when we misuse and/or misinterpret other cultures and their languages.

All of these companies that are outsourcing to China and India need to be conscious of how easy it is to make a mistake when attempting to market yourself in different places.

Posted by Andrew Spencer at 09:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 19, 2006

How do I start my blog?

My dad, who recently started his own blog called "Practical Efficiency" and I were talking about strategies to get more people to visit your blog. I have several friends with blogs, and I'm trying to convince several other friends to start blogging. Here is an excerpt from the August 2005 issue of my favorite business magazine (Fast Company) on the subject. The basic premise was that creating a business blog is like hosting a cocktail party.

The author, Jory Jes Dardins, spoke to Elizabeth Albrycht of the Society for New Communications Research and Andy Lark of the Lark group.

From "Business Blogging for Beginners" on page 28, by Jory Des Jardins.

Make Introductions
A good host connects guests. Albrycht recommends spending 30 to 60 minutes a day scanning feeds from your favorite blogs. Maintain a blogroll, linking readers to blogs you recommend, and use the trackback function on most blog publishing programs to notify other bloggers by email when you cite them. Chances are, those grateful peers will return the favor.

Be Authentic
Perhaps you are authentically reserved, or authentically dull. That's okay: Being yourself, in any case, plays best. If you can't write passionately, consider "blinking" - (Andy) Lark's term for snippets of commentary that alert readers to interesting articles or discussions. But storytelling is a better way to get readers interested in your ideas -- and in your product.

Dress Business Casual
An informal style (and grammatical imperfection) works well in blogs. But don't go too casual: Stay away from topics you wouldn't share with your mother -- or without a nondisclosure agreement. Yahoo's blogging policy is a good one: "Be respectful of your colleagues, get your facts straight, provide context to your argument, and engage in private feedback."

Don't Scrimp
Nothing brings a party to a halt like running out of booze. Likewise, one reason blogs fail is a failure to dedicate the resources necessary to keep the conversation going. "Blogs are incredibly low cost," Lark says. But "they require a time commitment." Adds Albrycht: "Blogging has to be part of someone's job description, you have to have a maintenance plan."

Have a Contingency Plan
If the party gets out of hand -- your company hits a crisis, say -- you should be ready. General Motors' Bob Lutz ignited blog readers' ire when he avoided discussing the struggling automaker's strategy. "Could you be a little more vague on your game plan?" one customer wrote. Confonting a problem directly can earn your company some needed trust.

My own advice is to "just keep blogging"... the more you are putting your thoughts and ideas out there, the more likely you are to make a connection with topics that consistently interest you and people that find your content compelling. Once you start to get some "bites" from your content, you can think about how to take advantage. Look at which feeds people pay attention to on your blog and which posts people comment on and then follow up and explore those areas... The nice thing about putting this stuff in a technology-based format is that you can manipulate it all later. But that's just my opinion...

Posted by Andrew Spencer at 01:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 12, 2006

Marketing: The Move from Push to Pull

Andy Lark, from the BrandShift blog posted a quote from AG Lafley (from P&G) stating that consumers "have the power in the consumption and media and message chain... and so the world is shifting from a push to a pull" giving the consumer a lot more choices.

This is quite a significant statement from the man at the helm of the company responsible for some of the biggest brands in the world, the company that practically invented the concept of "brand management" who lived and died by campaigns and taglines and mass marketing for so long.

This is not news, I know... not even for my blog. But I think that a change this big is so significant that it may need to be repeated a few times before it truly sinks in. Here are some examples from the world around of just how serious this change is, in fact, it's not just a change in how to market to people. It's a change in how to deliver any content to people, whether you're trying to sell laundry detergent or a movie you've made.

-By 2007, 42.5% of the households in the US will have a Digital Video Recorder (such as TiVo), by the end of the decade, this number will easily reach 50% - meaning more than half the country will have the ability to skip 30 second TV ads
- Over 500 Television titles were made available for release on DVD in 2003 (I need some updated numbers, send them to me if you have them) so people that don't TiVo will have a version of "Lost" without commercials altogether
- iTunes and the iTunes music store is a success story for the music industry and their struggles with online content
- A recent issue of Fast Company Magazine talked about the movie industry's plans to begin investigating internet releases of feature films, on the same day as the theatrical release, because people have created home entertainment systems through their computers and don't like to leave their house
- Television content, such as "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" is now available for download on iTunes, and as a result Google's video service will begin exploring pay-per-view models on their site

People can almost completely control the content they are exposed to throughout their entire day, so how do you get through to them? Exactly as AG Lafley suggests, through "pull" strategies not "push" strategies.

A "push" strategy is designed for you to push information out to someone. Typically the person you are "pushing" information to hasn't asked for the information, so what you have to do is to think about the story you are trying to tell, determine what will be most appealing for the people you are "pushing" it to and then find a way to intercept them with your message. But if they are in complete control of what does or doesn't get in front of their eyes, then you'll have a pretty difficult time making a push strategy work.

In a pull strategy, you basically put your story together but rather than just dumping your whole message on someone you devise ways to get them to come to you. An example of a pull strategy would be to include a feature on your Web site that would allow people to spread the word about you to their friends. You didn't push your information out to the friends, you used good information as the reason to pull them in and you relied on people that already knew about you to do the pulling.

Some companies have recognized that this shift from push to pull is a challenge for everyone, not just the marketing department. As Seth Godin implied in his book "the purple cow" we should be focused on creating remarkable products that fill a need in society (not just the market) and then letting the "marketing" happen on it's own (well, ok perhaps with a little "push") but look at products like the iPod... It is so cool, so well designed, and so well suited to how people live their lives today that it needs almost no marketing. People know they need an iPod and just naturally flock to them.

Things to consider if you want to create a "pull" strategy for your product or service...

1) How are people currently finding out about our product? Is advertising the only way people find out about us? What could we do to get people talking about us?
2) Do the people that do business with us or use our products feel "proud" to do so? Would they tell their friends about it? Is there some incentive we can give them that would help them spread the word without being an obvious scheme (we'll give you $100 to tell people)
3) Does our Web site feel like a brochure? Does it put things into the perspective of the audience or does it talk all about us? (We've been in business for 500 years... our product was the first, is the best, is the biggest, etc...)
4) Would someone that's not necessarily a potential customer still find our product or service intruiging?
5) Do people have the ability to maintain a relationship with us on their own terms, to choose how to communicate with us, what content they want to receive (and in what format) and so on, and in a way that does not compromise what we want to get across?
6) Have we sought out and created connections with complimentary services or made sure that we are linked to from the appropriate places on the Web? Do we have a good search engine strategy?

I have made some posts about Pandora's music service. It is very cool and has all of the key elements for a good pull strategy.

1) It's based on a very cool idea. Exposing people to new music, based on their individual tastes.
2) It's very simple to try and very simple to tell your friends about
3) It remembers you the next time you return and anything you told it about yourself
4) They have a blog, which means they can communicate with their audience, link to/from other related sites and offer content as RSS to people that want to pull their news into another location
5) Even if you aren't someone that listens to music online, the idea of a service that will help you find other artists/songs that you may like is a great idea... and the fact that it's connected to Amazon.com and iTunes gives it the potential to go mainstream since that's already how people that are online are getting music - which means it fits into their lives.

Without ever running an ad or a radio spot, Pandora can execute their idea... and keep pulling in new potential customers just by doing what they're best at... sharing music.

If you want to look at a company that's had to make a major shift in their strategy, just look at Blockbuster video vs. Netflix. Netflix keeps adding ways to make their service easier and more accessible to people, offering incentives such as 3-free months of video rentals, no late fees, a chance to share your recent rentals with your friends, and an endless queue of movies that you actually want to see. They took all of the ways in which someone traditionally rented a movie to watch at home and simplified them... so much so that you don't even have to leave your house to be a customer... and how has Blockbuster responded? By emulating the service... eliminating late fees, adding the ability to have movies mailed to your home and so on. No more coupons in the "valu-pak" mailers... now it's email referrals.

Times they are a changin'

Posted by Andrew Spencer at 10:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 10, 2006

Welcome to Practical Efficiency...

My dad has just put together a new blog called "Practical Efficiency", if you're looking for tips on energy management and other green-friendly advice, this site will be full of them.

Here's a clip from a recent post called "Seal & Insulate: Stop the Heat and Save Money", which gives some good tips on keeping your home warm without having to run the heater. This winter, we decided to turn our heater off and throw a sweater on while we're around the house. I'll admit that when we first wake up in the morning, it's nice to have a small blast of heat to warm up, but only that one time. Outside of that, we just keep our socks and sweaters on or throw a blanket over our laps on the sofa.

It's amazing how much money people will spend just to be able to walk around the house barefoot with some shorts on.

Posted by Andrew Spencer at 09:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack