Marketing Innovation

Chelsea Soccer Game

2007-07-15T08:18:00.000-07:00

I went to a soccer game yesterday! That's something I wouldn't normally do in this country, for lack of premier soccer games played here. Being a fan, I shall refer to it in its true name - football.

Chelsea, the English premier league football club was playing Mexico's Club America in a friendly game at the Stanford Stadium. It was an incredible experience to see players like Michael Ballack, Andriy Shevchenko, Joe Cole, Ashley Cole, Ricardo Carvalho, John Terry, Claude Makelele, Frank Lampard and Scott Sinclair. I am not very familiar with the Mexico Club America squad, so I have no names to list, but I will say that they played extremely well. Chelsea won 2-1 at the end, but there were times I thought that they may not win the game.

Even though it was a friendly game (an exhibition game) there were 2 yellow cards handed out and a fight that broke out between some supporters. Attendance was estimated at around 45,000, an impressive number for a country that supposedly doesn't follow soccer.

There's something about being around soccer fans that's very - for lack of a better word - cool. It's a sport people are passionate about, and growing up in a family that never missed a world cup game, I am one of those people, well, I used to be. Having been in this country for 7 years, I have lost touch with the sport, but I always watch the world cup and the Euro Cup, and that keeps my love for the game going.

This obviously has nothing to do with marketing or innovation, but it was something that got me very excited, and well, its a big deal for me to see these players play! Just to throw something related to marketing in this post, I was surprised at the lack of marketing / advertising at the game. Perhaps it was because the game was held at the Stanford University Stadium and their advertising rules. I expected to see a lot more advertising for something that attracted 45,000 people to a single place in the Bay Area. How often does that happen, and why did Bay Area soccer teams and soccer shops not play a part in this event?

All in all, it was a good game, and an incredible feeling to be sitting about 200 feet away from some of the worlds best football players. Thanks for coming down to the Bay Area Chelsea!

The Laws of Simplicity

2007-07-10T21:30:00.000-07:00

This book has been on my list of books to read since it was published. I've been a bit of a slacker, and finally finished reading it today! The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda is one of the best books I've read in a while.

I normally hate text books, or anything that preaches endlessly like a text book does. This book preaches, but it's very practical industry like preaching that actually makes sense and can be enforced. The focus of the book is, like the title suggests, simplicity, as it applies to design, technology, business and life.

I highly recommend this book to anyone in a product development role or an innovation based environment, or looking to enter it. I am just getting into a product development role, and I know the Laws of Simplicity will be a good guide. I wish I had this book as a text book in college, as it would have brought in a different and conflicting perspective to all those innovation and product development classes.

How to lose a customer for life

2007-06-27T18:29:00.000-07:00

I know I have complained about this before, but as a friend told me when I told him about this, it needs to be documented- for its comedic value if nothing else.

I had sent in my HP notebook twice in already for overheating issues. They told me the fan was replaced, and I shouldn't have any more problems with it. Turns out they were wrong! The notebook got so hot I couldn't touch it and it would just shut down by itself. There were some other issues with it too, but that was the most annoying considering I had it sent in for that twice already.

So I call up HP and talk to a really nice lady. I explained how frustrated I was with the computer and she said since I had the accidental and damage protection 3 year extended warranty, she would arrange to have a brand new notebook sent to me. I was happy- for about 1 week. The address that HP put on the package that was sent to me was incorrect, and FedEx wouldn't let HP or me change it. The nice lady at HP called then and said since they couldn't send it to me, to send it back to them and they would resend it to the correct address.

Just to make sure that it was going back to HP, I called FedEx to check the status of it. FedEx told me it was going back to the sender - phew ... atleast it's on track... right? NO! The notebook came from the HP factory in China, so, FedEx was sending it back to China! I tried calling HP to talk to the lady that was handling my case, and she works normal US work hours, so she wasn't there, and her voicemail box was full. I was left helpless till the next morning.

I called HP and got a hold of the lady, and she said she would call FedEx and clarify the ship address. She did, and it got sent to the HP office in Tennessee. For the next 4 days, they couldn't find the returned notebook. How does a company this big and reputable manage to mess things up this much???

Finally, they find it, and send it out - BUT they get the address wrong again - this time instead of suite # 942 , they had suite #94. The notebook finally made it after I called FedEx and asked them what the address they were trying to deliver it to was - the tracking said that no one was there to sign for it. It finally made it, and so far, it seems to be a decent machine. But rest assured, I will NEVER, by choice, buy another HP product. I have to say though that the lady I was dealing with was cool and she did the best she could given the circumstances. In any case, that's how you lose a customer for life!

How important is customer service - Part III

2007-04-07T19:17:00.000-07:00

OK - last post on this topic.

I finally got the AC adapter a few days ago. It's been a whole month of frustration, but it's great to have a working computer again. Oh, I have HP's extended warranty, but apparently that din't count for much in this whole process.

Back to customer service.. In the small company I work at, all I have to do is run downstairs to see if we have something in stock when a customer needs something. All I have to do when there's a customer that's overcharged, is walk to our accountants office, and in under 5 minutes, we sort it all out and have a happy customer that's very satisfied with the service we provided. A customer received 2 defective products, and requested it to be tested before we sent out another one to him, so I tested it myself for 3 days, and sent it to him.

We are a small company, and of course, we want to grow- but how do we maintain the efficiency and amazing customer service once we reach the size that HP is? Are we still going to play basketball at 4pm everyday? Or are we going to be so busy expanding that we stop having fun doing what we do? Where's the balance? And more importantly, how do we reach the point where we are growing, and still keeping customers happy? HP certainly hasn't figured it out. Hopefully, along the way, we will.

How important is customer service - Part II

2007-03-20T19:13:00.000-07:00

A whole week later, with no AC adapter, and a very unreliable laptop, I called HP again, once again to be on hold for a while... and when I finally got a hold of someone and asked him why I did not have my AC adapter yet, he assured me that it had been shipped and that I would receive it in the next day or two.

The day after I talked to this person who told me I would have a new AC adapter, I receive a voice mail from HP saying that they are back ordered and will not be able to get one to me for another week or two. I was pretty annoyed when I got that message for two reasons- I was lied to by HP, and I had pretty much been without a laptop or any other computer at home for over a week. So, I call up HP again to find out what was going on, and why I was given false information. Once again, on hold for forever, which only made the situation more aggravating, but even when someone answered, he could not help me, and there was no one senior to him that worked at that time. So, I asked for someone ( a case manager) to call me. When she finally did she said they did not have any AC adapters in stock- how is that possible for a company that makes laptop computers??? Anyways, she said there was nothing that could be done, but to wait 4-7 business days and I would get one in the mail.

4-7 business days passed, and still no AC adapter. I called them again, and once again, someone assured me that it was shipped out to me, but he had to transfer me to a senior technician again .. when I talked to the senior technician, he said that the item was back ordered again! So, I was lied to once again!

How important is customer service?

2007-03-07T13:22:00.001-08:00

I talk to people on the phone a lot at the job that I'm at- and no matter what the situation, I try to be really nice to people, and never lie. Simply because, they spend money on our products, and we appreciate their business!

The company I work at is a small company, and although it is not a start-up, it has a start-up like environment. Although I want the company to grow and be super successful, I can't imagine it retaining it's culture- playing basketball at 4pm everyday, going to a company lunch every month, and having a company meeting around the table in the owners office, or the kitchen table.

I tend to go off on tangents when I write, so having just glanced over the title of this post, I’ll revert back to customer service. I know we all have our horrible phone and customer/tech support stories, but I have to share mine - this has to be the most horrible experience I've had - period! I recently had to order an AC adapter from HP for my laptop. Seemed like a simple enough product and I thought I would just call in, and ask them to send me a new AC adapter.

After being on hold for at least 30 minutes, I finally got a hold of someone- and I told him I needed a new AC adapter as the one I had was fraying and the insulation wore off and the laptop was not getting any "juice". Apparently, for just that, I had to be transferred to a senior technician, to see if he could miraculously remedy the problem on the phone.

I explained the problem to, once again, someone in India with an "American" name who spoke decent english, but had zero people skills, and could not understand the problem at hand. Now, I am Indian myself, and if I could not make sense to this person, how is the rest of world getting through to him, and all the other "Jack's" that companies are employing. Anyways, they put in my request for an AC adapter, and was told that I would receive it in 2-5 business days.

Digital Signage on Highways

2007-01-15T14:38:00.000-08:00

I was on highway 101 going south towards San Jose, which is my daily commute going back home from work in Menlo Park. I was approaching the East Palo Alto exit, better known as the IKEA exit, and I saw a digital signage billboard that made me crack up. The message read "This page cannot be displayed", the exact kind that shows up in a browser. Ok, so it's really not that funny, but I was laughing thinking of how much money was involved in that- most billboards /digital signage costs are based on the number of eyeballs it catches. So, at 5:15 pm, there were a lot of people driving by that, and I'm sure it wasn't as amusing for them, but all that money spent for nothing was kinda funny.

I do that drive everyday, to work and back, and I've never noticed the ads on them, I know there are ads- but have never remembered a single one- except for when the "page could not be displayed". That's a little ironic.

The cool part of marketing

2006-12-02T14:26:00.001-08:00

I came across this in my readings online. I hate it when I tell someone that I'm in marketing, or am looking for a marketing job, and the first thing they think of is sales or "pushy" salesperson.. there's a lot more to marketing than that and this excerpt summarises my thoughts.

"Marketing is not a department. Marketing is a combination of elements that creates the environment in which it is possible to meet a customer need (starting right back at product development). Promotion and sales are just sub-sets of marketing." Full article

Strangely enough, the above excerpt is part of an article that's entitled "Geek Marketing 101". I don't consider myself a geek by any means, but over the years, I have developed an affinity for knowledge of things that are geeky-ish.. I want to get into product development in my career, but with lack of a technical background, it seems to be hard to get into.

Personnelity counts

2006-12-01T22:36:00.000-08:00

It seems like in every magazine I read, and every blog, there's a lot of talk about how companies can make it in the long run .. how to keep that spark and enthusiasm that a new employee has, all through their time at the company.

It's great to be motivated- after all, it's your business, your division, your (pardon my language)- your ass on the line. How do you spread that enthusiasm to every person in the company? There are several ways to approach this; many of which are widely used, and fewer, and the more effective ones, that aren't so prevalent.

One way that seems so obvious is one that I'm not sure is being used too much. Hire great people. I interviewed a bunch of people in my last job, and it was hard to tell when someone was genuinely interested in a position, or whether they were just interviewing because they needed a job and a paycheck. One question that I always asked was "what motivates you?" I think that's a really important and insightful piece of information to know about someone. I've been interviewing a lot for jobs recently and haven't once been asked that question. I think it's important to get to know someone before they join your company- and it's the interviewer that should be asking those questions.

I read an article that stated that most employees only spend 30-40 percent of their time actually doing work. That's a ridiculously low percentage and companies need to do more to increase it. One way is to offer incentives, but if you hire the right people in the first place, you can ensure that they are more likely to work well above 40% of their time, and that they see the company as being just as important as you do.

Oh- this has nothing to do with marketing or innovation, as is the scope of this blog- I've been reading about it so much and felt strongly about it, so thought that justified a post.

Can mantras replace mission statements?

2006-11-20T13:51:00.000-08:00

There's been an unusual amount of talk about mantras. A blog I read pretty often talks about mantras and I thought I'd try to find mine. Having just read a number of mantras, all that's coming to mind is a concoction of those that I read.

Can a mantra replace a mission statement? All through undergrad and grad school I was taught the importance of a mission statement and a vision - personally, I think it's important. It keeps an organization in line and helps it not to stray from its decided path- but in the world of constant innovation today, a mission statement may put constraints on an organization and its creativity. If a mantra provides more vision and direction than a mission statement and vision, it should be what defines the organization.

According to Wikipedia, Buddhists in Tibet carve mantras in stone as a form of devotion. The cool thing about mantras is that they apply to more than just organizations- they are a strategy for life. Since I haven't put mine to words yet, I'll use Roger von Oech's mantra as an example- "Look for the second right answer" - it's a great mantra for organizations as well as a great personal mantra - it makes you look beyond that one good idea, and hopefully gets you to that second or third great idea.

I know one of my mantras is to never stifle creativity, at work, and at home. That's probably not my final mantra, but who says I can have just one?

What's your mantra?

More smart advertising.. this time with toilet paper!

2006-11-17T10:43:00.001-08:00

A lot of people I know avoid using public restrooms- especially in crowded and over-populated places like New York City! Although, if I was in New York City over the next few months, I would want to check this out.

Charmin, the popular toilet paper brand, is going to have public restrooms set up in Times Square between November 20th and January 1st, open for use between 8am and 11pm. There will be 20 stalls in total, and cleanliness and a good user experience is guaranteed by employing one bathroom attendant for every 2 stalls.

What a great way to advertise- and more importantly, get the public to participate in your advertising efforts. Charmin estimates that the stalls will get more than 300,000 visitors, but, as in most advertising, using the number of eyeballs as a measure, this campaign will have amazing results just based on the location of choice- New York City's Times Square.

What I want to do

2006-11-10T21:26:00.000-08:00

A number of people ask me what kind of career I want or what I want to do with my education. At interviews, people ask me where I see myself 5 or 10 years down the line, and I try to explain it to them, but the concept of innovation is, surprisingly, not as well known as I thought it was.

I found this article that talks about innovation and the role of innovation in organizations. That's what I want to do- that's what I want to be a part of... Here it is:

http://www.businessinnovationinsider.com/2006/11/mark_johnson_of_innosight_innovation.php

Smart advertising

2006-11-07T16:02:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to write about this for a while- and, no, I don't have a weird obsession with product placement.

If you watch the show Heroes, it's impossible to not know what the Nissan Versa looks like- after all, it's the car from the future that Hiro (a character on the show) specifically asks for when he lands in America and is at the car rental office- and of course, the rental agency had only one car left.

The Versa is Nissans newest model that I've only seen advertised on TV- I love that they are doing product placements in the show Heroes. They take it a step further and have ads on the Heros page on nbc.com, and on the Heroes blog, and on Hiro's blog. They have the Versa in their comic book too (top right), which is available on their website and is incorporated into the show.

Since most internet users are immune to ads on the internet and most people switch channels or forward thorough ads on TV or the radio, I wonder why more companies aren't doing these product placements- I think it's one form of advertising that cannot be ignored- sure you can stop watching a show, but how many people just stop watching a show they like? I don't watch a lot of TV, but I watch enough to know that there isn't enough product placement on TV. Of course I don't want it to get to a point where I'm watching commercials when I'm watching a show, but I think this is a market that advertisers need to capitalize on.

From the Mini Cooper in the Italian job, to Carrie Bradshaw's Macintosh laptop, product placement works- and isn't limited to the several placements done in James Bond movies!

The next time you can't make it to the celebration

2006-10-19T15:37:00.000-07:00

The next time you are out of town, have to work late, or just dont want to be at the bar for that celebration, you can still buy your friends drinks- just text it to their cell phones. Sure, it's not as much fun as being there and having that drink with them, but atleast you did your part of the ritual of buying your friend a drink on their birthday or for that promotion that she got, and you din't.

The way it works is to go to bcodedrinks.com and select the bar and drink you would like to buy, pay for it online, and enter a cell phone number to notify the recipient at. The recipient takes his/her cell phone to the bar, where the message and code is scanned and gets a drink!

It takes the fun out of being at the bar, but if you cant make it, or just dont want to, you'll still be part of the celebration. You can even send it to them when you cant think of what gift to get them. Ofcourse, the bar needs to have some kind of scanning device as well, so it's not everywhere yet, but it'll get there, as does everything tech.

More product placement- in pornography!

2006-08-21T06:42:00.000-07:00

We all know pornography is one of the first industries that took off with the popularity of the internet. The Girls Gone Wild empire is supposedly worth over US$ 100 million! The growth rate for this industry has been between 30-40% for the last 7 years. Marketers take advantage of growing industries. They come up with ways to incorporate advertising on peoples cell phones, so why has it taken so long to combine pornography with product placement? Perhaps it's because clothing and pornography are not really associated with each other.

This is the first incident of it that I have seen - I was directed to it by ProductDose and thought the idea was amazing, and can't think of a reason why no one has thought of it earlier. Actually, I can- there would be a number of legal issues that may not reflect so well on the company and the messages it sends to kids and teenagers in this medium will definitely be considered taboo.

A French clothing brand Shai is the first I know of to incorporate pornography in its ads and make it interactive. I don't know how many people think of shopping while watching porn, but I'm sure these ads will drive a lot of people to their website- possibly reaching a more accurate target audience than a TV commercial would. Here are the ads!

Friendster meets... everything?

2006-08-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

I hadn't logged in to Friendster for a long time. Although I have accounts on some social networking sites, I'm not big on the whole scene. An old friend left me a message on Friendster, so I logged in recently. I was surprised to see a whole bunch of changes, which were .. somewhat neat, somewhat annoying.

The word convergence took a whole new meaning when I saw blogs, videos, classifieds, photos, customizable pages and more! It is a case of Friendster meets Flickr, YouTube, Craigslist, Blogger, Match.com and MySpace. Nice concept, but is that enough to get people on Friendster? And keep them there?

Although I was impressed with the changes Friendster has made, I was very turned off by how bad the overall design and navigation is. Not to mention Friendster taking you to a whole page of advertisments when you are trying to get to another page. It definitely is not the type of ad you overlook or are trained to ignore, so, in a way, it is effective. Annoying, nonetheless.

Where's the marketing and promotion for all these new and great features anyways? I've been on Friendster for a while and I didn't know about them till a few days ago. How will they get new users to sign up? There's still more that can be done to make Friendster better. Will we see a chat program directly from Friendster, like Google Talk? Maybe link up with cell phone providers and offer discounted text messages, or just enable users to text message directly from their Friendster account.. there's a lot more that can be done.

Once again, great concept, followed by not so great execution.

How much will it take for you to buy a car?

2006-07-31T22:27:00.000-07:00

A recent article in MarketingVOX revealed that Saturn spends an average of $1012 in advertising on every car they sell. I thought that was a fairly high number. Apparently, Toyota and Honda spend half that number. Interestingly enough, Saturn sold 213,657 cars in 2005, about half the sales of the Camry alone. Toyota sold over 2 million cars in the US last year, and Honda sold just under 1.5 million cars. Source

I was surprised that the top two car manufacturers still spend so much to sell their cars. Toyota sold 10 times the number of cars Saturn did, but still spends half of what Saturn does on advertising (per car). That's a staggering amount of money spent on advertising considering these cars are the bestselling cars in America, and one would think they would sell themselves. If there were no more ads for the Camry on TV, how much would sales drop? I'm sure it would be a significant amount- Toyota and Honda would not be spending 500 advertising dollars on every car they sold if they did not have to. With all the competition in the car market, a great product is good, but not good enough- it's all the other marketing stuff like customer support, service and advertising that makes them great.

Bikini with built in UV sensor and alarm

2006-07-27T15:13:00.000-07:00

With the growing concerns of skin cancer and global warming, Canadian swimwear manufacturer Solestrom has designed a bikini which has an inbuilt UV meter. There are two kinds of displays for the SmartSwim UV Smart Fabric Bikini so far- one with a digital LCD display on the belt which displays the current UV level, and the other which has beads which change color, from white to dark purple, to indicate different levels of UV intensity.

Prices range from $70 to $140 (Canadian) and these bikinis are available at Solestrom's website. Seems like a high price to play, but with a million new cases of skin cancer every year in the US alone, it doesn't seem like that much after all. The built in LCD UV reader also has an alarm that beeps when the UV index reaches dangerous levels. As for the one with the beads, you'll just have to keep checking on the beads color.

With a number of these bikinis already sold out, you should get yours soon if you want to have one for this summer. With little marketing, these bikini's have become extremely popular in a number of regions that are experiencing abnormally high temperatures this summer. That's less money spent on marketing and more money spent on R&D for more cool products like the SmartSwim UV Smart Fabric Bikini. The company also sells a tote which has a built in light and portable solar charger for cell phones, MP3 players and other small devices.

Taking the fun out of the game

2006-07-25T13:31:00.000-07:00

In an effort to keep up with the plastic economy, Monopoly has stopped making their famous colorful bills. Instead, new monopoly sets are going to come with phoney Visa debit cards and a calculator / reader which keeps track of your money.

Is the game still going to be as much fun as it was with paper money? As for Visa.. nice job on sealing that deal with Monopoly, every child out there playing the game will know who you are before they know MasterCard or American Express.

What's next? Texas Instruments keeping your Taboo scores? Digital snakes and ladders boards? Somethings, I would like the remain the old school way.

Making the most of the PC / Mac ads

2006-07-24T14:46:00.000-07:00

I was listening to the radio, on a radio, (yes, I'm one of the few people that still do that) and this ad comes on- "Hi, I'm a PC ; I'm a Mac" .. you know how it goes.. and then this DJ's voice comes on and he says something to the effect of "Hi, did you know that both of you can listen to this station for free online, anywhere in the world, virus free...... "

I was pretty impressed. Making ads based on ads is not a new concept, but it is when there's a positive spin put on the ad, instead of something derogatory or competitive. Normally I tune out when ads are played, but this definitely caught my attention. Nice job!

India banning Blogs

2006-07-23T20:23:00.000-07:00

When I read about the banning of blogs in India, it I thought it was a joke. Never before have I heard of India restrictng freedom of speech. It's actually one of the silliest things I've ever heard.

Is the Department of Communications (DoC) ignoring the fact that some people make a living off of their blogs? Journalists, freelance writers, amature writers, and just people that use their blogs and others as a way of keeping in touch with the world and learning important information all stand to lose. Not to mention companies that use blogs and product reviews as part of marketing budgets.

Censorship of this type stifles free speech, and advancement. How is a developing country supposed to grow and seek investment from other countries if its governmental organizations let this type of stuff happen? There are always talks about the brain drain and leaving talent in India... can you blame them? Talent is not something to be surpressed.

This isn't marketing India very well to the rest of the world now is it, DoC?

Technology for your Pets

2006-07-23T20:22:00.000-07:00

You really can't be in any industry and survive for too long if you are not thinking of how to tech it up. Litteraly. :)

The Litter-Robot is an automatic self cleaning cat litter box that promises to leave you and your cat purring! No more litter scooping and plenty more long weekends and business trips without worrying about your cat's litter box. The waste drawer has the capacity for several days, and changing the drawer is supposed to be as easy as changing a kitchen garbage bag. It's easy to set up and with no special receptacles or expensive waste bags, it's definitely a long run money saver. It's also supposed to last through all nine lives.

Are cat owners drop $300? I've yet to see any commercials for the Litter-Robot. So far, reviews are pretty good. This definitely is evidence, (not that much is needed) that technology plays into everything, from sunglasses to flushing your toilet to pets!

Rent Something Green

2006-07-23T20:21:00.000-07:00

There's a rental car company that's all green. EV Rental offers its customers the three most popular hybrid cars to choose from- the Toyota Prius, Highlander and the Honda Civic. It is the first US company that carries all hybrid vehicles. It's growing really fast because it a great way to let people try out a hybrid car longer than just a test drive, and it's time and cost efficient, and the daily rates are the same as any other rental company.

So far, the only EV Rental locations are at airports through Fox Rent A Car. They have 8 locations, all on the West Coast. With soaring gas prices and increasing traffic, hybrid vehicles get more than 55 miles per gallon, and they qualify for driving in the carpool lane in California.

I rented a car twice in the last 2 months, and I did not have the choice of renting a hybrid, but if I did, I would definitely get one. Are we going to see Enterprise and Avis and all the other car rental companies make the switch to hybrids soon, or atleast include them in their fleet?

If I was a part of Toyota or Honda, I would give hybrid cars to rental companies for free, or atleast give it to them for a great price. It's a great marketing tactic- it takes a while for some people to adapt to something new, let alone try something new. By offering hybrid cars at car rental companies, it speeds up the awareness and adoption process, and hybrid car manufacturers are not spending millions of advertising dollars doing it.

Shop and Save the World

2006-07-23T20:20:00.000-07:00

Through the ecoShop, you can make all the purchases you normally would online. The only difference is, you collect ecoMiles with each purchase you make. These ecoMiles are like points that you get when you shop at retailers. And these points are equal to dollars. However, what makes this so cool is that you get to donate these dollars to an economic or enviornmental development initiative of your choice. So, you get to shop at places you normally shop at, and the only different thing you have to do is log in to EcoMiles first. You still get your credit card points or AirMiles, you get your store points and you get to be part of economic development or environmental preservation.

There are close to a thousand major e-tailers affiliated with EcoMiles. Corporations want to be good global citizens right? The main goal of this type of service is to create a global, barrier-free currency to help a good cause- and you get to choose what you would like to invest in- wildlife, birds, children, or the environment. So why not? You always wished you could do something, but just dint know what. Here's something you can do, and it's effortless. You may actually get better prices through EcoMiles than you would if you shopped directly from a retailer. So far, everything about it is a thumbs up- so, give it a shot- if we all do it, imagine how much of a difference we can make.

Exclusivity

2006-07-23T20:19:00.000-07:00

A decade or two ago we did not have as many choices as we do today. Stores brag about being a "one-stop-shop" satisfying every need a person can have, giving them all the choices possible. At Carrefour in Dubai, and other parts of the world, they have everything from cheese to TV's to clothes to shampoo. Pretty much like Wal-Mart here.

So, what's with Apple stores, and Nokia stores? Besides, ofcourse, the fact that they are gorgeous!

And that's just the outside. Once you're in the store, it's even more mesmerizing. And is it possible to go in and come out empty handed? iPod users allegedly spend $1 on iPod accessories for every $4 they spent on their iPod. Whoever said accessories never go out of style wasn't talking about the iPod, but it sure does apply. So, is the one-stop-shop going out of style? Personally, I love the exclusivity of these stores- I like being surrounded by all those amazing products, all from one glorious brand. That's why they do it. You compare Nokia products with other Nokia products, and not with competitor products. They get you into this exclusive store, enamor you with amazingly beautiful displays of their awesome products, - it wouldn't be right if you walked out empty handed. Or so they hope.

Are these stores just a place to make a purchase that you would make anyways, or are they part of a huge marketing ploy to eliminate "options" from your mindset and make you focus on just that one brand and all it has to offer. Are we going to see more of these exclusive stores? Will Motorola, Sony and Dell follow suit? Will they start changing their business models and adapt to this new trend? Or will too much exclusivity give way and the one-stop-shop prevail?

Competition Spurring Innovation

2006-07-23T20:18:00.000-07:00

I've always rooted for the underdog- unless I feel very strongly about a team or product or brand. I've waited for a long time for something to challenge the mighty iPod. Not because I don't like it, but because I like healthy competition. There's been a few MP3 players that have created a little talk, but nothing that has said, "iPod, get ready for a challenge".

Zune, the MP3 player Microsoft is working on, has incorporated the iPods simple and easy design, but has added some handy and enticing features. Besides playing audio and video, Zune is supposed to be WiFi enabled allowing users to download from MTV's Urge service straight to their MP3 players, and it also lets Zune users share their music with each other. It is also rumored to have gaming capabilities, and some say it may even offer Sirius or XM radio.

Sounds like worthy competition. Now maybe both will try and outdo themselves, possibly add GPS capabilities so it works as a navigation system as well. But more and more cars are coming with nav systems anyways, so that may not be a good idea, but it would be handy.

How will the Zune do, considering more and more people are downloading and listening to music on their phones? You can even play sudoku on some phones. Will the next generation of the iPod or the Zune be the answer to the much wanted convergence of technology? Or will the cell phone take over and soon erase the MP3 player? If the iPod can facilitate communication between you and your shoes, why can't your cell phone do it? Will the iPhone do it? Will it be too much for the cell phone to handle? Or will we just be paying a little more for the super cell phone which combines your digital camera, MP3 player, nav system, PSP, personal computer and more? It sounds like a lot, but nothing's impossible- hopefully anyways. :)

This Advertising Company I Used to Work For

2006-07-23T20:16:00.000-07:00

When there's a good product on the table, how do you take it that extra step further, and make it an amazing product?

I worked for an advertising company that had, in my opinion, a great product. They sold certificates full of buy one get one free coupons, for free oil changes, or buy one get one free ski resort passes, or buy one get one free dry cleaning, and my favorite, buy one get one free movie passes (and some passes were entirely free!) The entire value of these certificates was no less than US $500. And they sold them for anywhere between 20 and 40 bucks.

Would you buy one of those if you ordered pizza fairly regularly and you ordered 2 pizzas at a time? I would and I did! I paid 25 bucks and got 4 oil changes and a bunch of other discounts on brakes, alignments, and other stuff. Normally I'd pay 25 bucks for one oil change, so the deal made perfect sense. I dont ski, but the people I knew that did, were all over our sking certificates- that stuff can get expensive, and more often than not, you dont go sking alone! And the certificates came with buy one get one free meals at the ski resort restaurant and other goodies.

The way this was marketed was going door to door or business to business. This way, 90 percent of the houses or businesses we went to heard the name "Pizza Hut" or "Sam's Dry Cleaning". How did we know where to go? We located the business we were doing this promotion for, and drew a 5-10 mile radius around it. We broke up the map into grids, and targeted these grids. Everyday, a sales rep would go to a new grid, and there were anywhere between 5-15 sales reps working every day. That's a lot of word of mouth advertising. And even if people dint buy these certificates, they heard the name of the company we were representing, so the next time they were going to order pizza, Pizza Hut was probably one of their choices.

Our advertising company did not charge these Pizza Huts anything for doing them this great service. Pizza Hut had their name out in the public without paying a cent for this advertising - ofcourse, to get something, you gotta give something - all they gave up was a free pizza or 4 bucks off a large pizza. But wait, most people, if they think they are getting something for free, or they think they are getting a good deal, they will reward themselves for it... so, yea, i'm ordering 2 pizzas, i'm getting one for free, why dont I go ahead an order some wings since I saved on the cost of that second pizza. Or, my movie ticket was free, so I'll get myself some popcorn. Do you think one seat at a movie theatre was a lot to give away for the Cinema? Probably not... however, they just made 3 or 4 bucks on that popcorn you just bought, and that cost them 20 cents.

Great idea right? I certainly think so. So, why aren't more companies doing this? I know of one company that was a client of ours, and after our promotion was over, they decided to make their own certificates and sell them at their store. It was a local automotive repair shop. Apparently, the promotion we did for them brought in so much business, they loved the idea of these certificates and started designing and printing them themsevles. This way, they weren't giving away free oil changes, but were still getting the money for the certificates, and the customers that already went to them, had to option of getting their certificates directly from them and they got to save a bunch of money on their cars maintainance costs.

Why aren't we seeing these certificates at more stores? If I went to Applebees once a month, every month, and I always went with a friend, I would give them a one time payment of 20 bucks if I got buy 1 get one free meals for a year. That would cut the dinner bill in half every time and I would make my 20 bucks back in a few visits there, even faster if my friend split the 20 bucks certificate with me.

I think the idea the advertising company had was a great one- there's nothing like word of mouth advertising. Companies need to smart up and do this for themselves if the advertising companies aren't doing it for them. This way, Pizza Hut gets to keep the money from the certificates, not the advertising company.

Brajackets

2006-07-23T20:15:00.000-07:00

Adding on to my earlier post about product placements in books, here's another cool marketing innovation that has book readers in Japan all over this new trend. Brajackets are just branded bookcovers. They go easily over a book, keep the book clean and neat, and is free advertising for companies, and users can choose brands they identify with. The covers are free and durable, usually in vivid colors.

It's a great way to give consumers something they can use, identify with a brand or product, and its advertising for companies. It's great for cities where public transportation is a norm, or where coffee shops are abundant and frequented by book enthusiasts or book clubs.

As far as I know, these brajackets only available in Japan so far, and are on stands in bookstores. Why not take it everywhere- coffee shops, retailers, laundromats- unless ofcourse the bookstores have a special contract with them. But, if a company is paying for the printing, how does it matter where these brajackets are distributed? Once everyone knows about it, they'll be rushing to these distributors and increasing foot traffic there.

Some of the big brands already in the game are Adidas, Canada Dry, Perrier Universal Studios, Levi's, Haagen-Dazs and a Japanese music bands. I hope this trend attracts more companies and catches on in more countries. Come on Barnes and Nobles and Borders, you have to get these brajackets in your stores, and stack them near the bestsellers and clearance stands.

Why not kick it up a notch? Why not have these brajackets for all kinds of book? The incredibly hard to advertise to segment is high school kids right? Maybe even college kids. If high schools and colleges stocked these brajackets at their local bookstores or ebay or half.com gave away a free brajacket of the consumers choice everytime they sold a book, that'd help get these brajackets popular in new markets. Ofcourse, there'd have to be a little something something in for the distributors, but that's a small price to pay for getting their names into these target segments.

This probably wouldn't be free because of the cost and quality of materials, but the companies making these brajackets could start making laptop sleeves. I have a boring one- i'd much rather have a sleeve with a product or brand that I like.

Flat Furniture

2006-07-23T20:14:00.000-07:00

Who thought flat furniture would be an idea that sold? It's obviously not really flat, but it ships flat- thereby reducing its shipping size and therefore, its cost to ship. IKEA certainly din't.

Blu Dot owes its success to great furniture design and also lower shipping costs because their furniture is shipped flat. That's a pretty big selling point. I wouldn't buy furniture online because shipping would probably cost more than the furniture. However, if shipping costs are almost equal to what I'd pay to rent a truck or to get the furniture delivered to me, and I can do it all online, or after seeing it at a store, I'd definitely get it online. That's what everyone's doing right- buying everything possible online. Blu Dot's furniture is supposed to be easy to assemble too. So, win-win for the customer.

Some of Blu Dot's line of furniture is sold by a few retailers. So, if you are the type of person that needs to see something in person before buying it, (and it is furniture, so it's OK if you are) you can definitely check it out in these stores and order it online - or, since it's all boxed flat, it may even fit in your car.

More companies need to focus on making their products consumer friendly- and online consumer freindly. Almost everything you purchase online has a shipping cost to it, so if you can reduce it and save your customers some money, they'll probably come back to you the next time they need something- till your competitors catch up anyways.

Product Placement in Books

2006-07-23T20:09:00.000-07:00

James Patterson is one of my favorite authors. He's the only author whose books I've read I can't put down- literally. I finish them in less than a day- which annoys me because I like the idea of reading a book before going to bed every night or at a coffee shop on the weekend. But, Pattersons books are seriously un-put-down-able!

James Patterson has 3 kinds of books- the Alex Cross Series, the Women's Murder Club and some romantic stuff that I've never read. I love the Alex Cross series- perhaps because Patterson has so many books in that series and all of them revolve around Detective Alex Cross and his family and friends. You get to know Alex Cross and his family and that, I think, is one of the biggest selling points of his series. He's a very likeable character, and he's really good at what he does. Oh, and if you decide to read the Alex Cross series, try and go in order- the best part, 2 of his best books are the first in his series- Along Came a Spider and Cat and Mouse. The movies don't compare- the books are awesome. I read a few of the Women's Murder Club books and wasn't that impressed by them- probably because there was no Alex Cross and he was something I was accustomed to and expected when I picked up a Patterson.

There's my bit of free advertising for Mr. Patterson. I can't wait for him to write more in the Cross series.

Now for the product placement bit. We've seen product placements in movies and on TV. None of the books I've read so far have them. Sure, it's gonna be a long shot deciding who your target audience is or even finding out how effective your product placements have been if they use books, but think about it - If there are fans out there, like I am of James Patterson, they'd keep coming back for more - if Alex Cross used his cell phone for something out of the ordinary and it was described in the book, or if the book revealed that he read Forbes magazine on his oh-so-frequent flights because he loved how it caught him up with all the latest business news he din't get to read in the newspaper or online because he's too busy solving crimes and catching serial killers- wouldn't that leave an impact on readers? Whether people read it in print, e-books, or in their cars on their way to work, I think it's a great way to reach a new segment.

Will we see John Grisham writing about his characters using the best law related databases in his new books? I sure hope so- that's a sure way to get the law enthusiasts aware of this hot law database.

Bacardi Party

2006-07-23T20:08:00.000-07:00

Sure, we've all had parties with a lot of bacardi bottles. They were fun. But Bacardi's doing it better. They host the party at your house. They give you a DJ, a bar, and a lot of Bacardi drinks. They are your bartender, your DJ, and you get to be a guest at your own party instead of making sure everyone has a drink and worrying about what kind of music everyone will like. It's called Bacardi Bespoke.

I don't know what kind of price range Bacardi's charging for this service- but it is cheaper than ordering a drink at a bar because it's promoting bacardi drinks- and, it's all Bacardi. Great marketing tactic. As of now, it's only available in the UK, but hopefully, Bacardi will introduce it in other countries soon.

Once again, hats off to Bacardi. I thought Bacardi did amazing with the Mojito commercials and the "Mojito" dance, but this is brining service into a product dominant company. They are capitalizing on their amazing products and making more money from it by offering it as an incredible service package.

Intro

2006-07-23T19:27:00.000-07:00

I've always been intrigued by innovation. How does it happen? How does an idea become reality? Can one person really be behind a product or a commercial? How do products get to market? Why do so many products fail?

Well, my college recently introduced a major called Technology Management in their MBA program, and that convinced me to go to grad school. The major covered most of those questions I had. I dont agree with the name "technology management" as I don't think it expains what is covered in the degree. Nonetheless, there were some great professors in the program that made me realize that this was the field I wanted to get into.

I have a marketing background, and I think that it's a big part of innovation and successful products. I've done some direct sales- it was quite an experience. Definitely something I don't see myself doing again, but, it made me realize how important it is to get to know customers.

For more about me, please go to my webpage.

Here's to the blend of marketing and innovation.