Intel’s newest ad displays performance in a rich context.
Love this commercial for Intel. It displays the capabilities of the 2nd generation i5 processor through rich storytelling of a chase scene; this chase scene is brought to life by multiple tools utilized on the Internet and a desktop. Performance of the story’s progression is not affected by the multiple tools that are opened and playing which most multi-taskers can relate to.
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Ponder…
“People have capal tunnel because hardware wasn’t designed with humans in mind. The same problem exists with digital interfaces—human elements are often left out of code.” (Carolyn Guertin)
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The online newspaper saves the day.
Chicago, like one-half of the country, got hit with a major storm earlier this week. This “snowicane” produced 70 miles per hour winds and 25 feet waves hitting the shoreline from Lake Michigan. It also dumped over 20 inches of snow with the wind creating over 6 feet snow drifts. Lasting over 2 days, it produced a snow day for most on the second day. The city owns approximately 300 plows (close to 600 when you include the plow-equipped garbage trucks); yet, travel was nearly impossible on the second day with main artery streets cleared, but all others nearly impassible.
The Chicago Tribune had news to get out regarding the 3rd largest producing blizzard in history, the shut-down and massive car abandonment on Lake Shore Drive, and even non-blizzard related news. Yet, the snow-filled roads made delivering the physical newspaper to stands, boxes, and homes impossible. It announced that for the first-time ever that it would post today’s edition of the paper online for free. (You can view it here: http://eedition.chicagotribune.com/Olive/ODE/ChicagoTribune/)
The Chicago Tribune does post much of its news online; it has a prominent website. This was unique because for the first time everyone was exposed to how the newspaper appears on an eReader (iPad, etc.). Die-hard hard copy subscribers could not help, but experience what an online subscription feels like. If anything, it shows the hesitators that the physical newspaper experience is similar to the eReader experience (note, I am not stating exactly like). It also made the Chicago Tribune that more relevant to the younger generation which has turned away from reading newspapers.
It will be interesting to see if this has any effect on online newspaper subscriptions. But, this certainly is a big win for the online newspaper formula; it delivered on a day when even the U.S. Postal Service (“neither snow nor rain…”) could not.
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Everyone is accessing the web via smartphones…what is your mobile brand presence? (Mobile websites—part 2)
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In 2010, I posted that companies must make mobile websites a necessity.
I cited four main reasons in a previous post (http://consumerologist.posterous.com/no-longer-an-option-mobile-websites):
>· Your audience is no longer tethered to a computer for information.
· Your audience reaches out to your company/brand on their smartphone.
· It is more useful to your shopper.
· There is a new generation growing up on smartphones.
I believe that these four reasons are still relevant—actually more so now. There are more reasons to revisit this.
· Smartphones are the last thing owners check at night; they are also the first thing they turn to when they wake up. Over one-half of American smartphone owners sleep with their phones. They use them as more than phones; these devices serve as their alarm clocks and even their remote controls. However, they also serve as their first access to news and the outside news in the morning. In short, smartphones are the adult security blanket.
· The devices are increasingly becoming the first pathway to the Internet. Outside of the home, we already know that consumers are frequently turning to their smartphones for information when in a store, walking down the street or at a coffee shop. It acts as a quick source for information, directions guide, and decision influencer. Yet, the smartphone is playing this role for its owner at the home too. Owners tend to have their mobile phones by them when watching TV, making out the grocery list or having a discussion at the kitchen table. They turn to their smartphones quickly. It is seen as the convenient Internet appliance vs. even the laptop.
Mobile has evolved our perception and behavior. It has altered our decision-making paths. Smartphones are providing instant access to the Internet for many. Adolescents are coming of age in a world where the Internet has always been at their fingertips…anytime they needed or wanted it. We truly live in an always-on society.
If mobile websites and applications are becoming a consumer’s/user’s first access wave to your web presence…they why aren’t companies still treating it as such?
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Products made by wind power get a logo
You are at a store about to purchase a new bike (maybe new dishes, a new TV, etc.). You notice on a comparable model a symbol…one that lets you know what energy supply source was used in the manufacture of the product. Does this change your decision of what model or brand to purchase? Would you find this important to know? Is it a right to know? Does this logo create “purchaser empowerment”? Or does it add confusion?
WindMade believes it can have an effect. By introducing a new logo (see the top of this post for the new logo), it strives to have a consumer pull impact; consumers will become more informed in the energy used to create products, they will look for the logo, and demand that more products carry the logo (thus, be made by wind-powered energy vs. non-renewable energy sources).
The impact will be felt in purchasing behavior. However, the general public and consumers must first be informed of the logo; more importantly educated about the “what’s in it for me?” or “why should I care?” elements of wind power.
My mind goes to other broad-base issue campaigns. Some successful, some not. Here are a few to ponder: “Made in America”, LEED Building certifications, anti-littering, and anti-smoking campaigns. How would you position this campaign? Will the logo change the general buyer populations’ perspective?
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Products made by wind power get a logo
You are at a store about to purchase a new bike (maybe new dishes, a new TV, etc.). You notice on a comparable model a symbol…one that lets you know what energy supply source was used in the manufacture of the product. Does this change your decision of what model or brand to purchase? Would you find this important to know? Is it a right to know? Does this logo create “purchaser empowerment”? Or does it add confusion?
WindMade believes it can have an effect. By introducing a new logo (see the top of this post for the new logo), it strives to have a consumer pull impact; consumers will become more informed in the energy used to create products, they will look for the logo, and demand that more products carry the logo (thus, be made by wind-powered energy vs. non-renewable energy sources).
The impact will be felt in purchasing behavior. However, the general public and consumers must first be informed of the logo; more importantly educated about the “what’s in it for me?” or “why should I care?” elements of wind power.
My mind goes to other broad-base issue campaigns. Some successful, some not. Here are a few to ponder: “Made in America”, LEED Building certifications, anti-littering, and anti-smoking campaigns. How would you position this campaign? Will the logo change the general buyer populations’ perspective?
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Facebook — Numbers give it perspective
Source: www.nittygriddy.com
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Starbucks evolves its logo and its journey with its core customers
Starbucks has presented its new logo this month which will be phased in later this year. The modified logo is meant to display the company’s move into other products and services in addition to its core coffee offering.
The logo is an updated look of its mermaid symbol. Missing is its traditional tri-color scheme, border, and most prominent to the eye, the words: Starbucks Coffee.
Gap faced a deluge of protests when it tried to change its brand logo last autumn. Yet, Pepsi seems to be able to evolve its logo continuously throughout the years as its seeks to remain modern and relevant; to little or no fanfare or notice nor uproars from its community.
As Starbucks seeks to extend its offerings, a few general questions arise that any company should ponder as its changes an embraced community symbol:
- How does the updated logo reflect its consumers? its business vision? its business promise? its relationship to its consumers?
- How can you take your customers on the business journey with you so as not to alienate them from their core “love” or “embracement” of your brand?
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Retailer, Target, Gets Even More Smartphone Savvy
Retailer, Target, gets even more smartphone savvy
Nielsen now estimates that one-half of Americans will possess a smartphone by the end of 2011. Target has embraced the tool and technology releasing a series of functional applications for its shoppers. It has followed this up with a mobile gift giving announcement. One can now purchase a Target gift card and immediately notify the recipient via her smartphone. The recipient is given a surprise or a nice event as they go about their normal routine day. Better yet, she can also utilize the card with her smartphone as the bar code is supplied with the message.
The giver will also receive notice when the recipient has opened the message which provides assurance to the buyer in their “evaluation” phase of the purchase cycle.
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How to Have an Idea
How to Have an Idea
A Frank Chimero Jam
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Today’s mindset, perspective and reality of the 18 year old entering college freshman
Beloit College publishes its Mindset List every year. What is this, you wonder? It provides perspective to the 18 year old entering college freshman’s world. It tells you what they have always known to be true, exist or be of thought; it also tells you products or version they have never known nor use as a frame of reference. I love this list. I wait for it every year. It is enriching information to utilize as you begin to understand their minds—their outlooks, perspectives and crucial milestones that have shaped them.
Beloit College is located in Beloit, WI. Authored by: Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and former Public Affairs Director Ron Nief. The official Mindset List website is located at:http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/index.php Though I have provided it below:
Beloit College Mindset List for the entering college class of 2014
Beloit, Wis. – Born when Ross Perot was warning about a giant sucking sound and Bill Clinton was apologizing for pain in his marriage, members of this fall’s entering college class of 2014 have emerged as a post-email generation for whom the digital world is routine and technology is just too slow.
Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college this fall. The creation of Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and former Public Affairs Director Ron Nief, it was originally created as a reminder to faculty to be aware of dated references, and quickly became a catalog of the rapidly changing worldview of each new generation. The Mindset List website at www.beloit.edu/mindset, the Mediasite webcast and its Facebook page receive more than 400,000 hits annually.
The class of 2014 has never found Korean-made cars unusual on the Interstate and five hundred cable channels, of which they will watch a handful, have always been the norm. Since “digital” has always been in the cultural DNA, they’ve never written in cursive and with cell phones to tell them the time, there is no need for a wrist watch. Dirty Harry (who’s that?) is to them a great Hollywood director. The America they have inherited is one of soaring American trade and budget deficits; Russia has presumably never aimed nukes at the United States and China has always posed an economic threat.
Nonetheless, they plan to enjoy college. The males among them are likely to be a minority. They will be armed with iPhones and BlackBerries, on which making a phone call will be only one of many, many functions they will perform. They will now be awash with a computerized technology that will not distinguish information and knowledge. So it will be up to their professors to help them. A generation accustomed to instant access will need to acquire the patience of scholarship. They will discover how to research information in books and journals and not just on-line. Their professors, who might be tempted to think that they are hip enough and therefore ready and relevant to teach the new generation, might remember that Kurt Cobain is now on the classic oldies station. The college class of 2014 reminds us, once again, that a generation comes and goes in the blink of our eyes, which are, like the rest of us, getting older and older.
The Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2014
Most students entering college for the first time this fall—the Class of 2014—were born in 1992.For these students, Benny Hill, Sam Kinison, Sam Walton, Bert Parks and Tony Perkins have always been dead.
1. Few in the class know how to write in cursive.
2. Email is just too slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail.
3. “Go West, Young College Grad” has always implied “and don’t stop until you get to Asia…and learn Chinese along the way.”
4. Al Gore has always been animated.
5. Los Angelenos have always been trying to get along.
6. Buffy has always been meeting her obligations to hunt down Lothos and the other blood-suckers at Hemery High.
7. “Caramel macchiato” and “venti half-caf vanilla latte” have always been street corner lingo.
8. With increasing numbers of ramps, Braille signs, and handicapped parking spaces, the world has always been trying harder to accommodate people with disabilities.
9. Had it remained operational, the villainous computer HAL could be their college classmate this fall, but they have a better chance of running into Miley Cyrus’s folks on Parents’ Weekend.
10. A quarter of the class has at least one immigrant parent, and the immigration debate is not a big priority…unless it involves “real” aliens from another planet.
11. John McEnroe has never played professional tennis.
12. Clint Eastwood is better known as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry.
13. Parents and teachers feared that Beavis and Butt-head might be the voice of a lost generation.
14. Doctor Kevorkian has never been licensed to practice medicine.
15. Colorful lapel ribbons have always been worn to indicate support for a cause.
16. Korean cars have always been a staple on American highways.
17. Trading Chocolate the Moose for Patti the Platypus helped build their Beanie Baby collection.
18. Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess.
19. They never twisted the coiled handset wire aimlessly around their wrists while chatting on the phone.
20. DNA fingerprinting and maps of the human genome have always existed.
21. Woody Allen, whose heart has wanted what it wanted, has always been with Soon-Yi Previn.
22. Cross-burning has always been deemed protected speech.
23. Leasing has always allowed the folks to upgrade their tastes in cars.
24. “Cop Killer” by rapper Ice-T has never been available on a recording.
25. Leno and Letterman have always been trading insults on opposing networks.
26. Unless they found one in their grandparents’ closet, they have never seen a carousel of Kodachrome slides.
27. Computers have never lacked a CD-ROM disk drive.
28. They’ve never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day.
29. Reggie Jackson has always been enshrined in Cooperstown.
30. “Viewer Discretion” has always been an available warning on TV shows.
31. The first computer they probably touched was an Apple II; it is now in a museum.
32. Czechoslovakia has never existed.
33. Second-hand smoke has always been an official carcinogen.
34. “Assisted Living” has always been replacing nursing homes, while Hospice has always been an alternative to hospitals.
35. Once they got through security, going to the airport has always resembled going to the mall.
36. Adhesive strips have always been available in varying skin tones.
37. Whatever their parents may have thought about the year they were born, Queen Elizabeth declared it an “Annus Horribilis.”
38. Bud Selig has always been the Commissioner of Major League Baseball.
39. Pizza jockeys from Domino’s have never killed themselves to get your pizza there in under 30 minutes.
40. There have always been HIV positive athletes in the Olympics.
41. American companies have always done business in Vietnam.
42. Potato has always ended in an “e” in New Jersey per vice presidential edict.
43. Russians and Americans have always been living together in space.
44. The dominance of television news by the three networks passed while they were still in their cribs.
45. They have always had a chance to do community service with local and federal programs to earn money for college.
46. Nirvana is on the classic oldies station.
47. Children have always been trying to divorce their parents.
48. Someone has always gotten married in space.
49. While they were babbling in strollers, there was already a female Poet Laureate of the United States.
50. Toothpaste tubes have always stood up on their caps.
51. Food has always been irradiated.
52. There have always been women priests in the Anglican Church.
53. J.R. Ewing has always been dead and gone. Hasn’t he?
54. The historic bridge at Mostar in Bosnia has always been a copy.
55. Rock bands have always played at presidential inaugural parties.
56. They may have assumed that parents’ complaints about Black Monday had to do with punk rockers from L.A., not Wall Street.
57. A purple dinosaur has always supplanted Barney Google and Barney Fife.
58. Beethoven has always been a dog.
59. By the time their folks might have noticed Coca Cola’s new Tab Clear, it was gone.
60. Walmart has never sold handguns over the counter in the lower 48.
61. Presidential appointees have always been required to be more precise about paying their nannies’ withholding tax, or else.
62. Having hundreds of cable channels but nothing to watch has always been routine.
63. Their parents’ favorite TV sitcoms have always been showing up as movies.
64. The U.S, Canada, and Mexico have always agreed to trade freely.
65. They first met Michelangelo when he was just a computer virus.
66. Galileo is forgiven and welcome back into the Roman Catholic Church.
67. Ruth Bader Ginsburg has always sat on the Supreme Court.
68. They have never worried about a Russian missile strike on the U.S.
69. The Post Office has always been going broke.
70. The artist formerly known as Snoop Doggy Dogg has always been rapping.
71. The nation has never approved of the job Congress is doing.
72. One way or another, “It’s the economy, stupid” and always has been.
73. Silicone-gel breast implants have always been regulated.
74. They’ve always been able to blast off with the Sci-Fi Channel.
75. Honda has always been a major competitor on Memorial Day at Indianapolis.
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No longer an option: mobile websites
No longer an option: mobile websites
My mind has been focused on the adoption and usage of smartphones this week, due to the impending launch of Apple’s iPhone 4G. In the U.S., most mobile users are looking to smartphones for their next purchase/upgrade (of those who do not already own a smartphone). Currently, over 25% of the U.S. population have smartphones. More noteworthy, Nielsen predicts that by the end of the 2011, more U.S. cell phone subscribers will own smartphones rather than feature phones.
Nielsen also reports that only 3% of smartphone owners utilize their device only for voice use. Thus, we have a booming ownership group leveraging the device for photos, Internet access, applications, location-base profiling, and more. In my own studies, one of the most prominent disappointing factors these users experience when utilizing the device is the inability to purview a website. Many users I have spoken to become frustrated when accessing a website remotely, only to experience a site unreadable (scalable) or sensible for a mobile reader. Companies, organizations and brands can no longer ignore this pertinent touchpoint. Mobile websites need to be adopted on universal scale instead of viewed as an ancillary website offering. True, mobile websites may not be getting the attention as apps are today, but they must not be overlooked nor forgotten if your consumers are accessing the Internet via their mobile devices.
· Mobile websites are needed by all, not only the large companies/brands nor early adopters. Prospects, readers, consumers are all accessing the Internet via smartphones. This is not a venue for only large companies; it is an important media form for all companies (big or small). For some, this even becomes your phone book listing that lives right at the source of the phone. Be present and “brand alive” where your target market is.
· Your audience is no longer tethered to a computer for information. Your prospects, consumers and users have busy lives. They may not have the luxury of spending time at home purveying the web before they venture on a shopping trip or need to make a phone call. They may be in a discussion with a friend or family member while away from home that demands the need for information. We live in a 24-hour news cycle where information is demanded to be at one’s fingertips. Be accessible where (and when) they are.
· Your audience reaches out to your company/brand on their smartphone. Convenient. Transportable. Simply put: the smartphone lives where your consumer lives. It is crucial to align the purpose of a mobile website with the need of your consumer: Why would she reach out to the company, product, or brand on her phone? Where is she in her daily routine? Where is she location-wise (near store, in store, at the office, at a coffee shop, etc.)? What is her primary need? What is her frame of mind? How can you solve her problem, make her day easier, and delight her? Understand and be her.
· It is more useful to your shopper. The shopper is increasingly sophisticated in her use of technology. Her decision-making path has been altered. She now seeks information outside of the home. She is able to fact check product claims, product compare, price compare, and even order online through her smartphone device. If your website is not easily accessible, nor readable, she simply moves on to a competitor site. In turn, that competitor is more likely to become her go-to resource and win her business. Be supportive when she needs you.
· There is a new generation growing up on smartphones. We speak often about digital natives, the generation that has never known a time without computers nor the Internet. Digital behavior is intrinsic to them. When on your next public outing, take a long look around yourself, the teens of today are texting, uploading photos, accessing Facebook, and searching for movie listings on their smartphones. Be your future.
(Post by Anne Gibson)
Target iPhone app answers shopper’s in-store needs with the additional of barcode feature.
There is no doubt that consumer are becoming more empowered on the shopping front. With the smartphone, shoppers are able to access a range of informational tools while in the store, in a specific category aisle, and when directly facing a brand or product on the store shelf.
Social media has led to community sourcing through product reviews, customer service reviews, and recommendations. Online retailing has given shoppers the ability to price compare. As a marketer, I understand that many decisions are still made when in the store. No matter how many commercials or online advertisements she is exposed to or how many websites visited, the “moment of truth” lies in that shopping aisle when the shopper reaches out her hands to remove the branded product off of the store shelf and place into her shopping cart. This is not to exclude the other actions that are occurring: reviewing product labels, checking on pricing, reviewing past experiences and influencing by formed perceptions.
The retailer Target understands that shopping and in-store decision-making has changed as access to information is easily accessible in-store on the shopper’s own terms and peer influence is able to invade the in-store stage itself (before it was prominent in the pre-store and post-store experience). Target has responded with a strong shopper iPhone application. Recently, it added a new feature that hits to the heart of the decision at the aisle…that moment when a shopper is reviewing a product label, has the product in hand, and is a second away from putting it into her cart or back onto the shelf. That feature is Target’s barcode scanning. A shopper can use her iPhone (with the Target app) to scan any item. This allows her to gain access to product reviews, information and ability of it within the store.
· Have unanswered questions? This iPhone app may have the additional product information that she needs to feel satisfied that this product will perform the function she needs fulfilled.
· Will I have buyer’s remorse? The product reviews exposing opinions from shoppers like her may soothe her hesitations; thus, nudge her towards placing it in her shopping cart.
· How many are left within the store? For big purchases, knowing there are 2 versus 20 can either speed up or slow down her decision-making process.
The biggest factor I believe the barcode feature addition provides is the ability to shop Target when at a different retailer. UPC codes are universal; thus she is able to scan the code to gain Target’s price and stock information, as well as any current special deals. She is able to garner value-added information providing a goodwill and helpful gesture by Target. The app is able to affect the “moment of truth” at another retailer’s store shelf; it may influence her to return her cart, leave the store and shop at Target.
(Post by Anne Gibson)
Facebook Facts You Didn’t Know
<br />Via: Online MBA
Much more than a brand. Much more than a commercial.
Powerful. Enamoring. Inclusive. Epic.
A story that you need to see more than once.
Much more than a brand.
Much more than a commercial.
(Nike, World Cup 2010 commercial)
