Marketing Articles About Consumer

Marketing Articles About Consumer Search Results

Results for: consumer

82 items found:

Turn your leisure pursuit into an Ebook!. Ebooks are an enormous thing right now. A consumer can simply purchase an Ebook and download it in a few minutes. Now they can begin learning something fresh right from their computer. Do you have a h... (09/07/08 09:00 AM)

Copywriter Seizes The Moment ?" Tells The Story. Feel free to use this article as long as credit is given to the resource box. © Copyright Arthur Levine, 2008 Words: 417 Keywords: Copywriter, Product, Service, Consumer, Unique The time i... (09/06/08 09:00 AM)

Big Spenders Spend Less as Inflation Congeals, Home Values Slip. Consumers in all income segments are cutting back spending, and doing so to a greater extent recently than at the beginning of the second quarter, according to a comScore study examining changes in...

(09/05/08 09:01 AM)

Email's Effectiveness Erodes Against Texting, SocNets, Mobile. Use of online social networking, text messaging and cell phones is diminishing the effectiveness of email marketing, especially among consumers that say promotional messages inspire their purchases,...

(09/05/08 09:01 AM)

Machine Vision Applications in Plastics Injection Molding. In the manufacture of consumer products, quality control is of utmost importance. In most instances where manual processes are involved, the individual who operates the machinery also performs this ta... (09/04/08 09:00 PM)

Lookery is in Boulder Tonight.

The gang from Lookery is in Boulder tonight and having a publisher meetup from 6:30pm to 9:00pm in the TechStars Bunker at 1375 Walnut Street. I've started using Lookery on Feld Thoughts and am starting to collect a different set of analytics about you, oh blog reader.

Lookery is a user-targeting service and advertising network. They provide free analytics to promote to publishers, bringing them attention, organic traffic, sales leads, and partnership opportunities. They are looking for publishers who represent:

as much Facebook app and consumer Internet page volume as possible , preferably attached to big registration databases, and
as many online marketing services execs as possible.

Cool stuff - definitely worth hanging out and having a beer with them if you fit the description or think you might want to partner with them. Sign up on the Facebook page for the event.

(09/04/08 09:00 PM)

Consumers Using More Coupons. Seven in ten consumers (72 percent) use more coupons now than six months ago, some three-quarters of them (equating to about half of all consumers) ascribe the increased use to the troubled economy,...

(09/04/08 09:01 AM)

How Anger Helps Businesses (and Politicians) Gain Consumers. I confess, I’m caught up in political fever. The theater of it fascinates me, both among the politicians themselves and the way everyday people react. Yesterday’s post about Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin got me thinking about anger. In politics, its main purpose is to enhance conviction. Candidates talk a lot to peoples’ softer [...] (09/04/08 09:01 AM)

Personal Income, Consumer Spend Down in July. Personal income decreased 0.7 percent in July, after increasing 0.1 percent in June, according to the "preliminary" estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) of the US Department of...

(09/04/08 09:01 AM)

Online Behavior Changed by Financial Worries. Brands that fail to embrace and engage in online consumer dialog are set be among those most severely affected by an economic downturn, according to research conducted in the UK by E-consultancy,...

(09/04/08 09:01 AM)

After Studying Three Drugs, Researchers Claim Pharma Advertising Doesn’t Work. From the Wall Street Journal: Consumer advertising for prescription drugs had a negligible impact on sales of products studied by Harvard Medical School researchers — in a finding that may confound both advertisers and their opponents. The study may undercut the arguments of opponents of such ads, which have been allowed almost nowhere outside the U.S. Critics [...] (09/03/08 09:00 PM)

The Rich Still Read — at Expense of Other Media. The 2008 Mendelsohn Affluent Survey reveals affluent consumers — those with incomes of over six figures — read print publications just as much as they did five years ago: about 15 per week, reports...

(09/03/08 09:01 AM)

Mobile Phone Sales Down: Units, 13%; Revenue, 2%. Mobile phone handset sales to consumers in the US totaled 28 million units in the second quarter of 2008 - a 13 percent decline from 2Q07 - according to The NPD Group, which also estimates total Q2...

(09/03/08 09:01 AM)

Foodzie - Online Marketplace for Artisan Foods.

We've done TechStars for two years now. While I love every company involved, each year I've had a major crush on one particular company. This year it was Foodzie.

I liked Rob, Emily, and Nik from the minute I met them at TechStars for a Day. They came up to me and offered me chocolate. Brilliant. They then explained that they were creating an online marketplace for artisan food producers and growers. Their target customer are foodies. As a foodie (and major consumer of artisan foods - just look at my body shape even after running all the marathons I do) I totally got it.

They did a great job this summer honing their business, working out logistics and pricing, and getting their first few producers up and running. Are you a chocolate lover - give Seth Ellis Chocolatier a try. Popcorn anyone - how about Boulder Popcorn? And organic tea - try Tetulia Teas.

Having contributed to the very long list of potential artisan food producers that the Foodzie crew is testing (where "testing" means eating stuff and making sure it's really good) I can assure you that there is a bunch of great stuff coming.

If you are an artisan food producer - or know one - and want to get connected with Foodzie, drop Emily an email. If you love to eat, cruise the Foodzie site. And - if you like food porn, take a look at the Foodzie blog.

(09/02/08 09:01 PM)

Direct-to-Consumer PR Reflects Power of Do-It-Yourself. With the rise of search engines, Wi-Fi, and a Do-It-Yourself mindset, today's consumers are more empowered than ever before. They not only believe that they're entitled to information but also have unprecedented access to information on a global scale. An increasing number of consumers turn first to the Internet when they want to make a purchase?even if the product will be bought offline. That's why any PR strategy focused solely on media gatekeepers is missing a large piece of the market. While there's still value in sending your message via traditional media, more and more prospective customers are doing their own research online, bypassing newspaper, magazines, radio, and TV complet (09/02/08 09:01 AM)

US Mobile Web Surfing to Surpass UK Levels. Mobile web use is gaining traction in the United States and may soon surpass use in the United Kingdom, where consumers have accessed the internet from phones for years, according to data released by...

(09/02/08 09:01 AM)

Paper Catalog Remains Primary Remote Sales Channel. The paper catalog is still the largest revenue generator — some 50 percent of sales in both 2007 and 2008 — among all channels used by companies that sell goods to consumers and businesses from a...

(08/28/08 09:01 AM)

Should My Biz Have A Toll-Free Number?. AllBusiness.com: Consider getting a toll-free number for your small business. These numbers can be a powerful sales and marketing tool. Consumer research shows: • Customers are much more likely to call a business with a toll-free number than a business with a long-distance number. • Toll-free numbers boost consumer confidence. Consumers assume that businesses with toll-free numbers are [...]
(08/27/08 09:00 PM)

Consumer Confidence Improves in August. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, which improved moderately in July, made more gains in August and now stands at 56.9 (1985=100), up from 51.9 in July, The Conference Board announced...

(08/27/08 09:00 PM)

Better Business Bureau: Trust in Biz Down in 13 of 15 Industries. In a seven-month period, American consumers' trust in businesses fell in 13 of 15 industries measured, with an overall composite Index decline in consumer trust of 14 percent, according to the second...

(08/26/08 09:01 AM)

Tough Times Increase Pressure to Meet the Marketing Effectiveness Imperative. Businesses today are hunkering down. With consumers clutching their wallets more tightly, companies are scrutinizing every budget item in an effort to maintain profitability even as revenues are flat and costs rise. And with marketing commonly viewed as a discretionary spend, it is one of the likeliest victims of the ax. (08/26/08 09:01 AM)

The Luxury Catch-22. In the luxury brand business, stretching brands too thinly across market segments may gain short-term revenue increases, but it also almost guarantees long-term loss to the shareholders, brand owners, and, well, consumers. So, set your limits for how much you really want to stretch your brand before you open your doors to the public. (08/26/08 09:01 AM)

Local Online Media Offer Significant Ad Advantage. Consumers trust advertising on local newspaper, magazine and television websites, and are very likely to take action after viewing ads on these sites, according to the "Local Online Media: From...

(08/26/08 09:01 AM)

Husband-&-Wife Share Secrets To Building Thriving Biz. NewsBlaze: In today’s society, many husbands and wives are also married to their careers, which can make it difficult to maintain a healthy and happy marriage. Other married couples, like Luke and Maisie Knowles, combine work life and home life as husband-and-wife entrepreneurs. The co-founders of FreeShipping.org, a one-stop destination for consumers to find online retailers that [...]
(08/26/08 09:00 AM)

Haagen Dazs Viral Vid Sparks Bee-Lovin' Buzz. Associating environmental, social, or political causes with brands isn't just a cheap trend. Done properly, it is also effective: studies say 7 in 10 consumers have purchased a product or service...

(08/25/08 09:01 AM)

Tech Purchasers Committed to 'Green,' Women More Environmentally Conscious. Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of business technology purchasers agree that being perceived as "green" helps their brand image, and the same percentage of affluent consumers (64 percent) say...

(08/22/08 09:01 AM)

Gluing EventVue and Twitter Together.

At Foundry Group, one of our investment themes is Glue. We've done a handful of investments in this area, including Gnip. Since Gnip's launch last month, it's been put into production in a number of cases - some obvious, some subtle. Part of the fun is watching the adoption of it evolve rapidly as we continue to build out the core capabilities of the what Gnip can do.

I had a long conversation with a VC I work closely with about the value Gnip ultimately provides to its various constituencies (data providers, data consumers, and end users) and how / where it expects to get paid in the long term. During the conversation, we covered a number of different potential areas, but I realized that my thinking could be much crisper. That's normal for this stage of a startup as Gnip is still very early stage (we've done one seed round of investment and are gearing up for the next financing) but the exercise of defining a clear business endgame (vs. just a technology endgame) is extremely helpful and self referential, as it creates more focus on what we should actually be building.

There is nothing quite like an example. Yesterday, we had the TechStars 2008 Investor and Demo Day. EventVue - one of the TechStars 2007 companies - provided the online community infrastructure for the event. They automatically extracted all the data from the registration system and build an online community. As part of this, members of the community could add their twitter account and - if they had already been a member of another EventVue conference community - like me - would automatically have all their information already in EventVue and wouldn't have to do anything.

The then created a techstars08 twitter account. This rebroadcast all the tweets from anyone at the event that had a twitter account set up in their EventVue profile. However, rather than writing the polling software to Twitter to continually check for updates in the twitter stream, the used Gnip for this.

EventVue had a data set (I don't know the number - but lets say it was 100 userids) of twitters at the conference. They wrote a tiny piece of code that monitored Gnip's twitter notification stream. Whenever someone in the set of 100 usersids appeared in the twitter notification stream, EventVue's handler then queried twitter for that one discrete piece of data and then rebroadcast it on techstars08.

This took a huge load off of Twitter. It was much easier code to write for EventVue. It created a virtually real time twitter rebroadcast stream. I'm sure I'm missing at least one of the technical nuances - hopefully the guys at EventVue will write up a deeper post on what they did, how they did it, and why it was valuable to them.

Look for plenty of more thinking out loud from me on our Glue theme as we bring some of the investments we've made into sharper focus.

(08/21/08 09:01 AM)

Olympic Ads Awe With Aww… Factor. Coca-Cola’s Bird’s Nest ad appeals to consumers’ heartstrings From the Wall Street Journal: For winning advertisers during the Games, the key ingredient is proving to be emotional ads. According to IAG, a Nielsen firm that uses an online panel to track the performance of advertising, the big winners so far include Coca-Cola, General Electric and Visa. Emotional [...] (08/18/08 09:00 PM)

Another Recession Proof Industry: School Supplies. Today is the first day of school in our house. I sent the kids off with brand new back packs filled with grown-up scissors, wide and college ruled paper, and Vis-a-Vis markers. And I was not alone. Nielsen predicts consumers will spend almost $1.6 billion in back-to-school supplies this year. Despite economic concerns Nielsen forecasts [...] (08/18/08 09:00 AM)

AOL Acquires SocialThing.

After some rumors a few weeks ago, it's now official. AOL has acquired SocialThing. I'm immensely proud of the Matt, Ben, and Brian. As one of the members of the TechStars 2007 class of companies (and the first one to have an exit), I have a long list of entertaining stories that I'll save for the closing dinner when we roast everyone. In the mean time, I give you David Cohen's memory of events and some of the history of how SocialThing came to TechStars last year.

Frank Gruber - who has known the SocialThing team since they demoed at TECH Cocktail Boulder last spring (which Frank co-hosts) - also has some good thoughts up from his perspective inside AOL.

Guys - congrats! Everyone in TechStars and the Boulder entrepreneurial community is proud of you. And AOL - congrats to you also; you just added some really great ingredients to the mix.

Finally, as a special bonus, SocialThing won the Boulder 2008 IQ Award last night for Consumer Internet company. And - I'm having lunch with Matt and his parents today. Life is just never dull around here.

(08/15/08 09:00 AM)

On Materialism, Living Simply, and Thrill-Seeking. Alpha Consumer’s Kimberly Palmer recently posted a telling interview with professor and materialism expert Tim Kasser. Here are my favorite excerpts: Kasser: (I found) that when people were especially focused on goals that pertained to money and possessions and wealth, they were less happy. A materialistic lifestyle tends to perpetuate feelings of insecurity, to lead people to [...] (08/13/08 09:00 AM)

Case Study: The Attraction Advantage?How Mexican Mangos Ripened Sales 13% in Four Months. It's a marketer's dream. Customers are so passionate about your product they actually crave it. In fact, outside of the US, your product is the number-one consumed fruit. However, here's where the dream hits reality. You're in the US, where two-thirds of US consumers have never tasted a mango. You've been hired to generate sales during the Mexican mango season?which is only four months long. One thing is crystal clear: You have to get it right the first time. Or mangos will be out of season and you'll be out of a job. That's the situation that our firm, Lewis & Neale Public Relations and JRS Consulting, faced when EMEX, an association of Mexican mango producers and shippers, retaine (08/12/08 09:00 AM)

Mobile Phone Apps Finally Take Off, Thanks to Apple. iPhone apps are taking off. And the companies who program them are benefiting off consumers’ thirst for upgrades. Businessweek wrote about Illusion Labs, which invented the iPhone app version of the game Labyrinth: The first game Illusion Labs developed has become one of the most popular pieces of software for the iPhone. The game is called [...] (08/12/08 09:00 AM)

Bad Economy Makes Telephone Land Lines Even More Obsolete. Slate today published an interesting article on land lines, our old, obsolete telephonic companions. Reporter Daniel Gross cites the economy as provoking shifting attitudes towards these former mainstays: In this first real slowdown of the wireless age, consumers seem to be saying that home-based telephones are expendable luxuries, like Starbucks lattes or Coach handbags. And it [...] (08/07/08 09:00 AM)

The Olympics have become too political and divisive for most major brands to continue to support with large sponsorships..

With more than 17 million people living in Beijing, the potential Olympics market is huge. In fact companies like?Adidas and?Anheuser-Busch have?paid tens of millions of dollars on marketing to Chinese consumers. Adidas is opening its largest store, and spent an estimated $80 million, according to IEG. To a company like Adidas, the marketing spend is worth it.

(08/05/08 09:01 PM)

Proctor and Gamble Shows How a Weak Dollar Benefits US Multinationals. From Bloomberg: Procter & Gamble Co., the world’s largest consumer-products company, reported fourth-quarter profit that rose more than analysts estimated and said earnings may rise further as price increases and the dollar’s declines boost sales. Chief Executive Officer A.J. Lafley’s strategy of raising prices on Cascade dishwashing detergent, Iams pet food and Gillette razors helped counter record [...] (08/05/08 09:01 AM)

Whole Foods Dismayed to Find It Can No Longer Excise All Funds From Your Paycheck. From the New York Times: Whole Foods Market is on a mission to revise its gold-plated image as consumers pull back on discretionary spending in a troubled economy. The company was once a Wall Street darling, but its sales growth was cooling even before the economy turned. Since peaking at the beginning of 2006, its stock [...] (08/04/08 09:01 AM)

This Week’s Links. Knowledge@W.P. Carey talks about how death makes consumers buy more. Dean Baker says the media is distorting Brazil’s success. This Reuters article urges people to think in gallons per mile, rather than the other way around. Science Daily illuminates how striking is bad for your mental health. Cities are changing their faces: These days, affluent people [...] (08/01/08 09:01 PM)

Gnip Starts Getting Twitter Data.

One of the questions I've been asked numerous times since Gnip launched a few weeks ago is "when is Gnip going to start working with Twitter?" The answer is: today. Gnip's current partners now include Twitter.

Thanks Twitter guys! This happens to coincide with the end of my experiment of "a week without Twitter" (yes - I missed it) so to commemorate this I turned my Twitter client (Twhirl) back on and started tweeting again.

The Gnip data producer and data consumer universe is getting larger quickly; drop me an email if you want to come play and I'll get you gnipped-up.

(07/18/08 09:01 PM)

The Who, Inflation, Blogging, and Global Warming.

It's time for another quick list of interesting things I found this morning on the web along with my occasionally witty commentary.

Harmonix Party: Rock Band owns LA with Who concert. I love everything about Harmonix and Rock Band. Er, um, The Who just played at a Harmonix / MTV party at the Orpheum Theater in LA. The Who. The Who! One of my best friends - Warren Katz - who was also an angel investor in Harmonix had the following to say about the party:

"My jaw is on the floor and I am speechless. Not because I semi-randomly got hooked up with a game that's turning out to be one of the greatest hits of all time. Not because that game is actually fundamentally changing how a great hunk of the world interacts with music. Not because this game hosted a party featuring my favorite rock band of all time, The Who (and I would have hurt myself to get on a plane for this party). I am stunned mute because, in my opinion, one of the three best songs in Rock and Roll history, "Won't Get Fooled Again" (the other two being "Paradise By the DashBoard Lights" and "Bohemian Rhapsody"), was referred to throughout this article as "the theme from CSI". We cannot possibly be that old, and the youth of today cannot possibly be that out of touch. It actually took me a minute to realize what song they were talking about."

Alex, Eran, and all the rest of the people at Harmonix. You are the coolest nerds ever. Ian - you have real competition here in the cool nerd category!

Latest shocker: June prices go up, up, up: "Consumer prices rose 1.1 percent in June from the month before, far faster than the expected rate of 0.7 percent and almost double the reading from May, the Labor Department said Wednesday." Hmmm - an annualized rate of 13.2% - that would be "inflation."

SAP, Oracle Boost Software Prices: "Unlike price increase for food, fuel and many other commodities, the changes in software don't stem from a shortage of supply or a rise in demand. They are attempts by software makers to increase their bottom lines, said Brendan Barnicle, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities Inc." Well - yes - but it's also called an "oligopoly." SAP annual maintenance, which has been at 17% for a while, will now be at 22%. Oracle simply implemented a 15% - 20% across the board price increase for US customers.

Blogging's Dead, Long Live Blogging: While this particular meme goes round and round and round, especially among the A-list bloggers talking about blogging (or not blogging), Fred nails why he - and I - blog in this post. Whenever someone asks me "why do I blog" I now have a new link to send them to.

Chill out - it's just a normal cool summer: My part time meteorologist Josh Larson emailed me this link. Apparently it's just been a normal summer in Alaska with endless clouds, cool weather, and for the last 24 hours non-stop rain. ""We were in a warm phase of the Pacific decadal oscillation in the '80s and '90s. (Some forecasters) believe we may have entered into the cold phase." Where is that damn global warming when you really want it?

(07/17/08 09:01 PM)

Warranty Repair and Online Retail Don't Mix.

My partner Ryan McIntyre has an excruciating story up titled Sharp's Dull Service / My eCommerce Nightmare about his experience buying a snazzy new 52" Sharp Aquos LC-52D92U via Amazon only to have to go through over four months of warranty repair hell before his (now old) new TV worked. He's being politically correct with his title - I would have titled the post "How To Get Rat Fucked When Buying A High Ticket Consumer Electronics Item From An Amazon Affiliate." But then again, Ryan is nicer than me. And he's apparently more patient than me - I simply give my broken things to Ross and order a new improved thing.

(07/17/08 09:01 AM)

Olympic Games Widgets From NewsGator and AFP.

I've been really pleased with the way NewsGator's widget business has taken off. Two years ago I regularly got questions from people about "how would NewsGator monetize the consumer web reader business." The answer to that is "they won't - but they'll use the infrastructure they've build - which is rock solid, scalable, and unique - to build a really interesting widget and data business based on RSS content."

NewsGator now has over 100 paying customers for their widget business. Over the past 30 days, they've served almost 19 million unique users over 250 million widget views. They've also served over 44 million API calls to paying data partners (a total over over 385 million API calls if you include all the free clients out there, including NetNewsWire, FeedDemon, and NewsGator Go! that call the API on a regular basis.) This is in support of 2.8 million feeds and 211 million articles over the past 30 days. The overall NewsGator feed archive now stands at 2.1 billion articles. Non-trivial!

Today, NewsGator - with AFP - announced a new initiative called The Road to Beijing - the 2008 Games widgets. This is an Olympics game news widget with a twist - NewsGator will guarantee you a $0.20 CPM for distribution of the widget on you site! You'll get co-branding on the widget, traffic, great Olympics content, and a guaranteed CPM.

Jeff Nolan - who runs this part of NewsGator's business - has a long blog post up at NewsGator and AFP Olympics Widgets, Guaranteed CPM - explaining how it all works. Join NewsGator and APF on The Road to Beijing and make some money while you are at it.

(07/09/08 09:00 PM)

I've Been Gnipped.

Earlier this year we made a seed investment in a new company called Gnip. Yesterday, Gnip launched their first service - a free centralized callback server that notifies data consumers (such as Plaxo) in real-time when there is new data about their users on various data producing sites (such as Flickr and Digg). I've written my version of the overview on the Foundry Group blog in my post titled Gnip is Ping Spelled Backwards, there are a couple of posts up already on the Gnip blog, and a number of people have already written about Gnip including TechCrunch, TechCrunchIT, ReadWriteWeb, VentureBeat, Dave Winer, and Joe Smarr (Plaxo's Chief Platform Architect). Rather than repeat what Gnip is here, I'm going to tell you how this investment came about.

It started in 2004. I got an IM out of the blue from someone named bpm140 (my IM addresses are easy to find - AIM/Y!: bfeld; Skype: bradfeld; MSN: brad@feld.com.) bpm140 asked me if I'd be willing to take a quick look at a business plan he had. I IM'ed back that he should email it to me - I got it 30 seconds later.

I took a look and scheduled a call. It was a plan for an educational game thing that I didn't really get but I was intrigued by some of the stuff in it. I talked to bpm140 (Eric Marcoullier) and gave him some feedback. After talking for a little while I told him it wasn't my thing, but he should feel free to holler if he thought I could be helpful.

Over the next few months I periodically got IMs from Eric. We'd have quick interactions - usually around a specific question - and he shared with me a new idea he was working on. He and his partner Todd Sampson (who I only knew through Eric's references to him) had this idea for a thingy (this was before little lines of javascript that you put on a blog were called widgets). You put this thingy on your blog and it gave you statistics of how many times someone clicked on a link. I'm a stats junky so I loved it. Eric said it would cost $3 / month. I told him it was stupid to charge for it, but I'd prepay for a year for $25. He took my money.

Over the next few months I gave him plenty of feedback on this new thing he was calling MyBlogLog. The UI of the stats service was hideous, but the popup link data on my blog was awesome and the stats were killer. By this point I had invested in FeedBurner, so I introduced Eric to Dick Costolo - FeedBurner's CEO. More feedback ensued.

One day, I got a familiar bpm140 IM saying something like "we came up this amazing idea to turn your blog into a social network." All I needed to do was put a little different piece of javascript on my blog. I did and the old version of the MyBlogLog widget - with names only and a really yucky font appeared on my blog. For those of you that remember it, it was one of those amazing widgets that you suddenly couldn't ever remember living without. Names were great, but soon little images appeared and the idea of seeing who had recently been on my blog was incredibly satisfying. MyBlogLog took off like a rocket.

Up to this point, Eric and his partner Todd hadn't raised any money. I remember the first "are you interested in investing call" happening in May 2006. Amy and I had rented and apartment in Paris for the month and I can remember the conference call with Eric and this new guy Scott Rafer who Eric and Todd had brought in to be CEO. They were considering putting together an angel round with the idea of going for a venture round in three or four months. I committed $25k on the spot, although I remember Scott saying he really didn't want investments of less than $50k.

MyBlogLog continued its torrid growth over the summer, appearing on virtually every blog I read. Fred Wilson - one of my co-investors in FeedBurner and another fan of MyBlogLog - and I started talking about doing a VC round. We came close to do a deal (the documents were a few days away from being signed) when Yahoo! acquired MyBlogLog shortly after getting excited about them after seeing them at the Web 2.0 conference in 2006. I had one awkward conversation with Eric where I quickly told him that while I was disappointed that I wouldn't be investing in MyBlogLog, I was psyched for him, Todd, and Scott and wished him luck. I also told him that I'd love to stay in touch and have another chance to work with him in the future.

I didn't expect Eric to stay at Yahoo! very long (he lasted about six months, although Todd is still there trying hard to keep the MyBlogLog flame alive.) True to my invitation, Eric and I stayed in touch, he and Todd were a big help at TechStars in 2007, and Eric started making occasional trips out to Boulder to see me.

I spent most of 2007 raising our first Foundry Group fund. By the fall we had finished raising our fund and had turned our focus towards making investments. It was in this context that Eric and I sat down on one of his trips in the fall of 2007. Over a couple of hours, Eric ran me through a half dozen ideas he had for a new business. He was hedging a little - struggling with whether to go deep on one business or try to start a few. I strongly encouraged him to focus on one. I told him that four of the six ideas were stupid, one wasn't for me, but one was awesome. It was the seed of what turned into Gnip.

During that trip, I dragged my partners Ryan and Seth into a conference room to sit with Eric and sketch out Gnip more. Eric was originally calling the idea Pingery but somewhere along the way Gnip popped out and it stuck ("meta-ping server" was a little awkward). Gnip fit perfectly in a new theme that Ryan, Seth, and my other Foundry partners were calling Glue and we told Eric that if he wanted to do Gnip as the exclusive thing he worked on, we'd be game to go after it with him.

I got a call from Eric a few weeks later that he'd decided to go all in with Gnip. We'd recently made an investment in Zynga and Eric had spent some time with Mark Pincus, the founder/CEO of Zynga. I think Mark's single-minded obsession with the business he was creating made a deep impression on Eric, especially since Mark is a multi-time successful entrepreneur who also has plenty of angel investments and can basically spend his time wherever he wants.

Part of Eric's success in MyBlogLog was his partnership with his technical co-founder Todd. I told Eric he needed either Todd, or a technical co-founder like Todd, as part of Gnip. Todd wasn't available as he was committed to staying at Yahoo! so we introduced Eric to a few people, including Jud Valeski. We'd known Jud for several years as he was a Netscape/AOL refugee that had settled in Boulder. Jud had recently left Me.dium and was working out of our offices as he contemplated his next gig. Jud and Eric hit it off immediately and started working together remotely (Eric in the bay area; Jud in Boulder) to both flesh out the idea behind Gnip as well as see if they could work together.

A few weeks later Eric and Jud gave their formal pitch to us for Gnip. It was a 10 page PowerPoint presentation that outlined the idea, opportunity, and how they would go about it. We committed to leading a seed investment of $1m on the spot - either by ourselves or with another VC firm. A few weeks later we closed a $1.1m round with SoftTechVC (Jeff Clavier) and First Round Capital (Josh Kopelman) and were off to the races (BTW - Josh has written a really clever post about Gnip titled The Story of Francis Bates.)

Eric, Jud, and Gnip have surpassed all of our expectations from our seed investment at the beginning of the year. They've totally nailed the concept we were kicking around when we first started talking about Gnip, have built a superb initial service in a remarkably short period of time with the help of Pivotal Labs, and have added a handful of awesome technical people to their team. They've managed to do this while still being split between the bay area (Eric, Tiffany, and Pivotal) and Boulder (Jud and the rest of the team).

It took a three year courtship, but Eric and I are now working together as partners. As my grandmother used to say, "My Gnip Runneth Over."

(07/03/08 09:00 AM)

Face-to-Face Marketing: When Media Alone Is Not Enough. While most people think of public relations as media relations, there are times when either you can't reach your audience through print, broadcast or the Internet, or you need to supplement your media program. That's when you need to think about face-to-face marketing?placing clients directly in front of targeted audiences through informational events structured around their interests. This strategy works well for consumer markets (think cooking demonstrations in grocery stores, hospital-sponsored health fairs, and hotel-sponsored bridal expos). It also works well for B2B companies like construction companies, law firms, or consultancies?businesses that want to showcase the expertise of t (06/24/08 09:00 AM)

Insight for Ad Agencies - Listen or Go Back to Print.

This is quite possibly the most timely and exciting article I've read as of late (come to think it, this I've been rather busy and this might be the only thing I've read of late...nope, this really is the best).

Joseph Dumont penned a piece for Imedia entitled "Why Agencies are Failing" in it, he lays out several of his own observations that are founded in a report from Forrester (might be worth the $279 price tag if you're seeking some Forrester Research Therapy for your agency) and compiled from his keen insights into the agency world.

This article really hits home as it comes at a time when I'm doing a bit of work with a few agencies that I regard with the utmost respect and I can't help but see some of their challenges echoed in this article. Those are the agencies that are truly students of advertising, marketing, customer behavior and have a genuine purpose in this world. They will succeed because they can learn, they can grow and like energy (you know, never at rest) they are always moving and changing and they're on the right path.

On the other end of the spectrum are agencies who are truly stuck. They're afraid of stepping outside of their comfort zone, afraid to admit that they need help, don't have a mastermind group internally that's challenging their age-old positioning and their clients are suffering as a result by way of crusty old strategies, reheated ideas and basically an ignorance of the end customer that we're all trying to reach. Those agencies will fail a they aren't even on a path - they're standing still.

Here are a few observations that I took from Joseph's article. I really recommend read though it with you highlighter handy - there are some real nuggets in there. If you're an agency, take this to your next staff meeting and discuss it. It's that important. If you like, buy the Forrester report (and tell me if it was worth it!)

1. Damnit, get out there and do the hard work to really understand how your client's consumer has changed their habits, where they hang out and what they want to hear from you. Media kits are for armchair advertisers. You need to get out there, listen, react and move. Oh, and get your client's leadership and front line folks on the same page too. Customers are smart. They see through the disorganization.

2. Watch political marketing. I've said this for years and I'll say it again "the harbingers of the next generation of marketing are working in politics". Watch all 3 candidates and how they leverage the digital space. Also, pay attention to their budgets. They're moving mountains and spending very little (comparatively) online...they reach the masses on TV and the influencers through digital (online) means...it's a great country we live in!

3. Interactive does NOT mean Internet. It means really in-ter-acting... get people involved, acting and interacting and engaging. Most of what's called "interactive" is anything but.

4. User generated content is not the holy grail. User generated genuine interest in a brand that excites consumers and pushes their 'loyalty button' is what we're really seeking. There are many UGC campaigns that are bolt on piles of crap... If UGC is not aligned with your brand and the only respondents are professional contestants, you should rethink things a bit. Just because it's cool doesn't mean it's you (or that an agency should sell it to you)

5. I actually think that we're in pretty good shape - there is BRILLIANT marketing going on out there (just read iMedia, Marketing Sherpa and others to see the kick ass campaigns and strategies that are rocking the marketing world)...but there's always room to do better. Both agencies and internal marketers can't afford to get lazy. The entire profession of marketing is founded on a "faith in the future" perspective! That's why we market - for the future...so hurry up and let's all get there!

(06/09/08 09:00 AM)

Insight for Ad Agencies - Listen or Go Back to Print.

3. Interactive does NOT mean Internet. It means really in-ter-acting... get people involved, acting and interacting and engaging. Most of what's called "interactive" is anything but.

(05/29/08 09:00 PM)

Identity PR: Reaching the Minds (and Wallets) of Today's Diverse Consumers. Today's diverse consumers are looking for more than just talk. They want companies that are an authentic part of their niche community. They are savvy, skeptical, and tired of spin. They are watching to see how sincere you are in including them?as employees, senior managers, board members, media partners, vendors, and so on... (05/13/08 09:01 AM)

Five Ways to Optimize Luxury Online Sales Channels. Considering the stakes, it's no surprise that the online sales channel is becoming increasingly important to the bottom line of top-shelf brands as consumers of luxury products and services continue to demonstrate their willingness to spend as much through commerce-enabled Web sites as they do in stores. Despite this trend, many luxury brands continue to separate their online and mainline marketing efforts, confusing customers with disconnected messaging and missing golden opportunities to cross-support expensive marketing initiatives. What few realize is that the best experience?the experience that the customer wants?results when all channels work together and complement each other. H (05/13/08 09:01 AM)

How to LIVE RICH. A good friend and ex-Dell colleague passed away on Friday, April 25, 2008, after a courageous and inspiring battle with brain cancer. I want to celebrate and share the piece of his life I knew, and the words of wisdom he left for all of us. Two months after I joined Dell in March 1999, a curly-haired Harvard grad moved into the cube next door. Over the next seven years Rich and I worked together to help build Dell’s consumer eBusiness to a $3.5B business, and then on Dell’s CRM and segmentation strategy (he worked on corporate strategy while I worked in Consumer division). But what he worked on is not as important as HOW he accomplished his goals. Rich exemplified leadership. In fact, he had the rare quality of being a Level 5 Leader, as outlined by Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great. He excelled through confident humility amidst a (typical) corporate environment of politics, ego and alpha aggression. He always put decision in terms of what was right for the business, and helped others grow in the process. Everyone loved to work with Rich or for him. So many of us were awestruck at Rich’s knowledge and wisdom. Rich often put up ‘observations’ on his small whiteboard in his cube. One time he made the observation that time and quality of mission statement are inversely related – graphed on the board, the more time spent on the mission statement the less it resonates. So true. And so funny.... (04/29/08 09:01 PM)

What Not to Do for Email Marketing Done Right. Email marketers must keep in mind that a consumer who decides to opt in to the brand's email channel is likely a fan of that brand. Do not lose those consumers by making the following mistakes. (04/15/08 09:01 AM)

How to Make Email Marketing More Mobile-Friendly. Mobile technology continues to develop. The number of consumers with mobile devices capable of retrieving and viewing email continues to increase rapidly. The early adopters of the Blackberry have given way, in numbers at least, to those using what are fast becoming fully functional internet-ready devices. With multiple mobile platforms on the market and mobile phone companies vying for the sale of not only the devices but also the data plans that supply the bandwidth, these "mini-messengers" are in the hands of millions of consumers. Could your email be more mobile friendly? (04/08/08 09:01 AM)

Social Shopping and Getting Your Share of the $600 Stimulus Check.

Personally, I'm a huge fan of social shopping sites. Several times per year our family, just like everyone else, is tasked with purchasing various gifts for relatives, Christmas, birthdays and other such moments. Like most guys out there, I rarely, if ever know what to buy!

Enter social shopping sites. According to a recent AP article on MSNBC "Web surfers buying into social shopping sites":

Social shopping sites with such names as Kaboodle, ThisNext, Wishpot and StyleHive combine two of the Web's most prominent activities: engaging in commerce and chatting with like-minded folks. The sites don't directly sell things, but encourage users to share links to good bargains, obscure finds, products that work and ones that don't.

All of those sites are pretty sweet, if you ask me. While not a 'social shopping' site per se, I'm partial to using Gifts.com as well. I've gotten some solid ideas from there as well.

With Valentine's Day just around the corner (hmm...what should I get this year???), now is a great time to test out all of the social shopping engines to see what kind of goodies they recommend.

Personally, Kaboodle and Gifts.com had the most ideas for gifts I'd likely purchase. However, the others had some good ideas as well. Wishpot is actually powered by results from Shopping.com.

Now, how does all of this have anything to do with the likely "stimulus package" that we're about to receive? (If you've not tuned in to the $150B economic stim pack banter, here's a square assessment from the WSJ[sub]). Well, if you believe that Americans will follow a similar behavior pattern following tax refund time (Tax-refund season helps kick off the spring shopping season. Last year, retail sales jumped 12% to 20% in March), there's going to be a portion of us, 12% to 28% of us, depending on who you ask, who will go out and immediately spend the money, it's a marketer's world and the smartest marketer will win when seeking their fair share of the potential 'windfall' check that consumers are likely to receive this late spring to early summer. Here's where really knowing your customers and their behavior can pay off. A few ideas:

Go back to your customer or buyer profile and figure out who in your customer base will be getting the lion's share of the stimulus monies. For reference, families with <$110K in earnings and individuals with <$75K will be getting the most, while the lowest income and highest income segments of the population will be getting the least. Needless to say, this won't be the time to go after your high rollers who just got a check for $200...
Run a contest or a survey or something to get inside the heads of your customers. If you're doing a regular email newsletter, throw in a survey question or two that takes a fun approach at getting after "what they're going to do with their checks". Segment out those that intend to 'spend it' for a separate marketing effort around the time that checks are distributed.
Be mindful of all of the recession talk. People might not splurge on that big gas grill they've been lusting over, but they might be interested in securing a raft of gift cards or gift certificates to kick off their Christmas or birthday shopping. Now would be a great time to mention that yours have no expiration date and that they're a great way to stretch their dollars for themselves and their loved ones

Whether or not you agree with the efficacy of the stimulus package, if you look at this from the perspective of 'customer behavior' and tap into the most 'likely to buy' segment of your customer base, you're setting yourself up to capture your fair share of the $150B that's likely to be doled out.

(04/04/08 09:00 PM)

Increase Your Email Campaign's Power to Persuade: Move, Motivate, and Entice. The ability to move, motivate, and entice consumers within the confines of their inbox is not an easy task. Too often, marketers overlook the tools available to attract and draw customers to open their messages. The inbox is a competitive arena in which you must fight for your open. The battle can be won by effectively utilizing and optimizing four straightforward email marketing elements. (03/25/08 09:01 AM)

Mystery Solved!.

The other day, I wrote about some of the top websites that refer people to my site. One of those sites is the US House of Representatives, which has been sending people to my Guestbook page for quite some time. Well, yesterday I decided to try to find out where on the House site the link to my own site is listed.

It took me only a few seconds to find it using Google. I searched for "US House of Representatives government grants" and the first site listed on the search results was this one: Federal Funds Express - a site I'd never seen before. But apparently a lot of other people have.

Federal Funds Express may be a good place to start looking for government grants and other sources of funds, but it's not really an in-depth resource. However, there are some good links on the site (including mine, of course), which in turn can lead to other good resources. Links are listed under the following categories:

How to get and manage grants
Federal charitable and corporate sources of grants
Resources to help small businesses
State and local government funding, data resources and disaster assistance
Educational resources for students, schools and colleges
Property, surplus, donated and unclaimed
Family issues: health, housing and consumer protection

The website hasn't been updated since October 2007, but you may still find some good sources of information there. I checked a few of the links, but didn't have time to check them all.

I'm thinking about sending an e-mail to the Webmaster asking him or her to direct people to a page on my site other than my guestbook. But maybe it would be best to leave it as is.

(03/20/08 09:01 AM)

Future of Online Retailing -- Four Predictions. Forrester and Jupiter report that more than 70% of online shoppers seek out user reviews before making a purchase decision. MarketingSherpa reports that 84% of consumers prefer the opinion of other consumers vs. experts. Hundreds of retailers including WalMart, Best Buy, HP, and the Home Depot have followed Amazon’s lead by allowing their consumers to review products in the online channel. Consumers demand social commerce solutions and retailers are driving measurable results. As consumers are presented with increasing choices, channels, and messages, they will continue to turn to peers to discover, research, and make decisions about products and services. Retailers will need to utilize technology and best practices to provide authentic, relevant, and effective social commerce solutions to retain their customers into the future. 1) SOCIAL CONTENT IS GOING MULTI-CHANNEL The future of reviews and social content is going beyond the product page and into other channels such as mobile phones, kiosks, print collateral, online advertising, and social networks. It is clear that consumers rely on social content to make purchasing decision. They will expect to be able to access to this content regardless of channel in order to inform their purchasing process. The retailers that provide this multi-channel access will develop competitive advantages in their markets to attract and retain consumers. Additionally, more retailers will see the value of integrating social commerce with CRM and other “back-end” channels. Retailers will start to leverage social content as a key input into driving decisions in marketing, sales, advertising, customer support, and... (12/09/07 09:01 PM)

Be Masters of Reality. At last week's Forrester Consumer Forum, Richard Edelman suggested today's PR has to be 'masters of reality' rather than focus on spin and hype. This was underscored by his tagline, "Be it. Don't Buy it." I think that's a great mission for marketers in general. In a world of higher transparency the best products and companies will succeed. The true reflection of their quality and character will be amplified. As masters of reality we will realize that products need to be great, word of mouth follows, and marketers (as masters of reality) will leverage the truth. (10/14/07 09:00 PM)

10 Rules to Live By (Deborah Schultz). I was at the Forrrester Consumer Forum last week. The topic of the conference was social technologies. At a place like that you meet people that have blogs. I try to check out blogs of people I meet, I scan them, and see if something pops out. I met Deborah Schultz, a consultant in the Social Media / Interactive Design, and this post popped out to me where she outlined 10 things she tries to live by. In a busy, transparent world these rules are relevant for a consultant or corporation...they are salient for management and marketing...and some are useful to remember when living your life! Do not ignore your customers, it WILL come back to haunt you Constant iteration is NECESSARY - build in flexibility so you can respond quickly Don't LIE - you can't HIDE the truth anymore Build LISTENING into your DNA (Put it in customer service, marketing, product management - just PUT IT SOMEWHERE) Learn to BALANCE the listening with PERSPECTIVE so you are not constantly in REACTIVE mode. DESIGN matters - Make it EASY (iPhone anyone?) Be CLEAR & CONCISE - who has time for long winded-ness Be EMOTIONAL - tell a story [read this to learn the basics] Be HUMAN - talk like one, act like one. Sounds like a big DUH but it is amazing how easy it is to get lost in complexities when we forget this one. Take a BREAK - and step back to think BIG thoughts Great stuff Deborah! (10/13/07 09:00 PM)

Brand Management Position Available in Eau Claire, WI. Hey Folks, I recieved an email today seeking some referrals for a brand management position in Wisconsin. The role is based in Eau Claire, WI If you're interested, please contact: Leasa Sanders McIntosh leasa [at] shouldbeskiing.com 303-757-4103 Position Details:

Develops marketing strategies and programs to drive corporate revenue and communicate corporate vision/strategy.
Leverage market knowledge, customer understanding, marketing research, competitor assessments, and analysis to develop clear customer acquisition, retention and recapture strategies.
Partner effectively across the organization, including corporate sales, development, operations, technology, and finance.
Manage multiple projects simultaneously with attention to detail, tenacity, and a focus on results.
Identify new product and market opportunities and develop/execute plans to realize revenue goals.
Analyze program results using qualitative and quantitative techniques.
Develop and manage marketing budget.
Works to build and maintain relationships with all internal management team members to provide the highest level of service to our clients and their consumers.
Provides feedback, including appropriate reporting to key management personnel in order to identify continuous quality improvement opportunities.
Develops sales support materials, including presentations, brochures, and proposals.
Develops materials to support internal communications and strategies.
Develop client communications and strategies.
Performs other duties as assigned.

(10/04/07 09:01 PM)

Yahoo Buys Zimbra for $350 Million. Yahoo has agreed to buy Zimbra, a startup that offers Web-based corporate e-mail (and a Next Net 25 company from 2006). The price is a hefty $350 million—one of the largest for a Web 2.0 startup to date. Yahoo is right to build up its portfolio of Web-based apps, but Zimbra is an enterprise app. Yahoo (YHOO) is a consumer company. So this could end up being a stretch for them (or its entry into a whole new market). Update: A senior Yahoo executive just told me that the acquisition was more for Zimbra's technology than an attempt to create a wedge into the nascent enterprise Webtop market. That makes more sense. So expect to see some of Zimbra's gee-whiz Webtop features appear in Yahoo's consumer e-mail, contact, and calendering apps down the road. (See my earlier coverage fo Zimbra here, here,and here) (09/17/07 09:00 PM)

VCs Keep Throwing Money at Web 2.0 Startups. Dreams... Originally uploaded by noahwesley The numbers are out for how much money venture capitalists poured into Web 2.0 startups like Facebook, Zillow, and Netvibes during the first half of this year. Worldwide, counts Dow Jones VentureOne, VCs put $464 million into 101 deals. That’s up from 89 deals worth $432 million during the first half of 2006. (See the full-year 2006 figures here). Most of this increase comes from Europe, where early-stage investors are getting the Web 2.0 bug. Two thirds of those 101 deals were in the U.S., maintaining a steady pace with the activity during the same period last year. But the $357 million raised in U.S. venture deals represents a mere 1.6 percent up-tick from last year. And while Web 2.0 deals made up 30 percent of all “information services” deals, that’s actually down from 41 percent last year. With all the low-hanging fruit already well picked over in the U.S., VCs here are migrating to later-stage financings and funding startups focused on the enterprise, whereas consumer-oriented deals still dominate overseas. Sequoia Capital and Draper Fischer Jurvetson lead the charge in Web 2.0 financings, with six and five deals, respectively, But, for the first time, New England beat out the Bay Area in terms of money raised for Web 2.0 companies ($102 million vs. $90 million). Soon, it is going to stop making sense to count Web 2.0 deals separately from any other Internet deals. At this point, any Internet company worth its salt can claim... (09/17/07 09:00 AM)

Startup Watch: Fellowforce.com (the Business Smarts of Strangers). The best ideas for new products and businesses often come from outside a company's walls. Now, those companies have a Website called Fellowforce.com to help them try to tap into the business smarts of strangers. On August 1, the Amsterdam-based startup launched its consumer-facing site where people can sign up as fellows and answer challenges posed by companies large and small. There are only about 20 challenges so far. Some have been posted directly to the site itself, like one startup's plea for a blockbuster TV-format for a new website. While others are links to existing crowdsourcing efforts elswhere on the Web, such as Nokia's invitation to consumers to help design an N76 phone, or the Motion Pictures Laboratories quest to develop a theatrical projection screen that can handle both 2-D and 3-D movies. Like InnoCentive or NineSigma, what Fellowforce fosters is a form of open-source innovation. People who submit the best ideas can get paid by the companies anywhere from $250 to $10,000. Fellowforce itself is offering 1 percent of its stock to the person who comes up with the best tag line for the site. (How about: Where it pays to have good ideas). Fellows can submit unsolicited brainstorms to specific companies as well, such as one member who came up with a novel type of door hinge. Fellowforce charges companies $295 to $1,000 to post a challenge. The site is free for Fellows. And in a few days, the company plans to release an Innovation Box—essentially a... (08/09/07 09:00 AM)

It's Time For Open-Source Hardware. Open-source software has proven that users are sometimes the best designers with products like the Linux operating system and the Firefox browser. The next logical step is open-source hardware, a movement that is gaining ground in design circles. For instance, Chuck Messer at Tackle Design in Durham, North Carolina has developed an open-source jaundice light for developing countries using blue LEDs that can be manufactured for $75 (versus $3,000 to $5,000 for a similar piece of hospital equipment). And he is also involved with the Open Prosthetics Project, which is trying to bring back an updated version of the popular World War One-era Trautman Hook. Similarly, there are efforts to create open-source computers, cars, telephones, and 3-D printers. There is even a venture-backed company called Bug Labs trying to apply the concept to the commercial realm with what sounds liek open-source consumer electronics. As Fred Wilson, an investor in Bug Labs, cryptically puts it:The thing about Bug is that it's not anything like the iPhone. It's closer to Ning. It's all about what people will make with a Bug, not what a Bug is when it comes out of the box. The buzz around open-source hardware is just going to keep getting louder because it is an idea whose time has come. Bringing the culture of participation to physical products is a natural evolution of the open-source, DIY world we are now living in. What open-source hardware/products would make the most sense to build a business around? Comments are open.... (07/31/07 09:01 PM)

Spectrum Auction to Be Run By Google Rules. From inside a rainbow... Originally uploaded by jerikojosh It appears that the FCC is going to adopt open-access rules backed by Google and other tech companies in its upcoming spectrum auctions. This is not good news for incumbent wireless carriers. What Google (GOOG) wants is for the resulting 4G networks built on top of the auctioned spectrum to be more like the Internet, so that you can plug in any device or run any application on it no matter who happens to be billing you for your wireless broadband access. Google's principles going into this are: * Open applications: consumers should be able to download and utilize any software applications, content, or services they desire;* Open devices: consumers should be able to utilize a handheld communications device with whatever wireless network they prefer;* Open services: third parties (resellers) should be able to acquire wireless services from a 700 MHz licensee on a wholesale basis, based on reasonably nondiscriminatory commercial terms; and* Open networks: third parties (like internet service providers) should be able to interconnect at a technically feasible point in a 700 MHz licensee's wireless network. It might not get everything it asked for, but even one or two concessions would make it much more likely that Google will decide itself to bid for some of the spectrum. If such rules were in effect today, you would be able to buy an iPhone and not be locked into ATT's network. It's nice to see Internet rules finally winning the day... (07/10/07 09:01 PM)

Disruptors Video: Turning Bits Into Atoms (Desktop Factory). This week's New Disruptors video is up. I visited Desktop Factory, an Idealab startup in LA, and interviewed CEO Cathy Lewis as well as Idealab CEO Bill Gross. Most people probably remember Idealab from the 40-some Internet startups it launched in the late 1990s. Those included some duds like eToys. But also some major home runs like CitySearch and GoTo.com (which pioneered the concept of paid-search advertising, became Overture, and was eventually bought by Yahoo). I was surprised to learn that Idealab has a lot of atoms businesses these days (as opposed to bits businesses), including Desktop Factory. Desktop Factory is developing a 3-D printer for the masses. It literally prints out three-dimensional objects made from a gray plastic powder. Most rapid-prototyping machines cost $50,000 and up. When Desktop starts selling its machines later this year, they will cost $5,000. And they eventually want to get them down to $1,000. Not only will more businesses be able to use 3-D printers to iterate their designs faster, but consumers will be able to afford them too. I'm sure this will be a niche business at first, but I can also imagine all of those Second Lifers printing out their avatars and all the virtual clothing, buildings, and vehicles that they already design online. Gross and Lewis want to encourage users to share or sell 3-D CAD designs online, so that people can find objects online to download and print as well. Watch the video. (Full transcript after the break):... (07/06/07 09:00 PM)

Microsoft Plays With P2P TV. Video: LiveStation Demo Microsoft Research (MSFT) and a UK-based company called Skinkers are developing peer-to-peer software called LiveStation for streaming live television over PCs. Think of it as a Slingbox Without the Box. (See demo video above). Except that TV stations would have to sign up to stream their broadcasts over the service. Using P2P networks is the most bandwidth efficient (and least costly) way to deliver video over the Internet. Joost, Babelgum, and Veoh also all use P2P distribution techniques in one form or another. But they all deliver videos that are already stored somewhere (their servers or the computers of their members), as opposed to live streams. I'm not sure how difficult it would be for any of these services to offer live streams as well. It doesn't seem like that big a deal. Joost, for instance, is working on (or already has) the ability to synchronize the streaming of a particular show so that you and all of your friends can watch it at the same time while chatting over Joost. Making that a live stream should be easy enough. The bigger question is: On the Internet, does live TV even matter any more? The TV schedule is a product of the historical limitations of broadcast television, where you have to broadcast the same shows to everyone at the same time. But those limitations are falling away. Even in cable and satellite TV, the growth of pay-per-view and on-demand channels proves that if you give consumers more... (07/06/07 09:01 AM)

Product loyalty: consumers mistake familiarity with superiority. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070605-product-loyalty-consumers-mistake-familiarity-with-superiority.html (06/07/07 09:01 AM)

Succinct Positioning. Five words or less. Use consumer language, not clientese. Follow the 4D rule. These are a few of my guidelines for writing positioning statements that are compelling and executable. Five words or less. See if you can write your own... (04/23/07 09:01 AM)

Free download of ONE chapter. Author Stefan Engeseth today made the first chapter of his upcoming book ONE (about consumer power) available for download. It's well worth a read -- Stefan mixes high and low, deep and shallow. He's the kind of writer that makes you think, whether you agree or not. (04/06/07 09:01 AM)

3 Emotions to Drive Execs to Action. Yesterday I was on a panel for a Forrester bootcamp on Social Media. One of the common questions was how to convince senior management to agree to and resource these new emerging channels and marketing strategies. What moves consumers to action? Emotion. It’s not much different than with executives and managers…you just use data to create those emotions! In my experience, there are three emotions I’ve seen drive executive action: Fear – show the competition is having success with a strategy that you are not. I’m putting this first because fear is the biggest motivator in the human psyche. And the first reaction for executives when they see a competitor doing something successful is to react. I’m not suggesting this is always right, but it’s reality. It’s a call to action event. If a competitor is launching an emerging channel strategy, your executives have to decide to do something or nothing. Use this time to drive a recommended strategy. Excitement – show and prove the revenue impact from such a strategy. Changne resistance is typically due to prioritization and predictability. Corporations, and management in them, have a need to drive predictable growth and mitigate risk. Priorities are driven based on familiarity of strategies that drive confident results. Something that can be proved to drive better results and meet or beat forecast excites executives. Pride – most forward-thinking executives want to be first to market, forward thinking, innovative and cutting edge. Some want this because it is right for the company,... (03/22/07 09:01 AM)

Career Tip #12: Take Bigger Risks. If change is not happening in your organization, it’s 99% probable that the company is on the decline. And if you’re the only one who knows this, start preparing your resignation letter now. Executives who land a high level position, play it safe, and clutch onto high salaries, need to be flushed out of corporate America. They have the triple impact of holding back innovation, sucking profits from bonuses, and demotivating great people who eventually leave. And, by definition, these executives reach a plateau. Whether you’re an executive or not, I suggest you take bigger risks to move your career forward (and for fun). Make big plays. Take initiative for change at a strategic level. Bigger risks help your career because you stand out, differentiate, and accomplish great things. Whether you’re an individual contributor or manager, anyone who takes initiatives and risks can become a leader. They are the ones who are break through the next level. Their reputation is lasting and their contributions are recognized and rewarded over the long haul. Plus, the accomplishments create great soundbytes! At Dell I led a small ‘big change’ team. We were responsible for Dell’s consumer CRM strategy, customer centricity, retail competitive strategy, Hispanic marketing, customer segmentation, and other large projects. All of these initiatives were not part of day to day operations. They had to be invented, sold, implemented and finessed into company operations over time. The challenge for each of team member, from a career perspective, was to get the perspective... (01/17/07 09:00 PM)

Career Tip #10: Go Where There's Margin Growth. The tabloid paparazzi attacks a story they know will sell magazines. Hence you see five tabloid covers at the supermarket all covering Brad and Jennifer’s break up, for example. Similarly, executives swarm around areas of the company that margin dollars. They will focus there, invest there, and grow that area as quickly as they can. And it is there where you can also find career growth. In any company with multiple product lines or divisions there are some parts of the company that have high margin % and/or high revenue growth (preferably both), and some that don’t. For Dell, for example, there’s high margin and high growth in servers, storage, and service. You find lower margin % and lower growth (yet an unfortunate large % of Dell’s revenue) in workstations, desktops, and consumer laptops. Which divisions do you think will hire more people and the best people? Managers in those high margin divisions are growing their career and learning things other companies want. Are you in a position to help your company grow a high margin category? Can you learn a new skill that helps grow a high-margin category? Remember, the ideal situation is high margin % and high revenue growth. If management is smart, they are trying to grow margin dollars (a.k.a. profits). If only 5% of your revenue has high margin % and is growing slower you’re your overall business that’s not the greatest place to be. But if a high margin % part of your company is... (01/17/07 09:00 AM)

Career Tip #7: Connect to a Visible Brand. Sometimes it's helpful to have something recognizable on your resume. My first interview with Dell in early ‘99 was for managing Dell’s Small Business site. I was a finalist with someone who had no online experience. But, she had worked at Coca Cola and Deloitte. So, the small business division ended up choosing her. Fortunately, they liked me enough to refer me to the Consumer division for a peer position. I was hired and enjoyed a prosperous career at Dell. What happened to her? Well, long story short, she didn’t receive her two year appreciation certificate. Did you go to a well-known school, work for a well known company, work on a visible project, or work for a well-respected person? If so, you have an advantage. This is a tip that goes under the “do as I say, not as I do” category. Prior to Dell I helped launch and grow three startups you probably n ever heard of (User Group Connection, ThirdAge.com, Telepost). I appreciate what I learned from these companies, but the names didn’t help open doors. I’ve seen less talented people get through the door because of the brands listed on their resume. As unfortunate as that is, it’s an obvious advantage considered for a job or promotion.... (01/15/07 09:00 AM)

15 Ideas to Create a Great Conference. I may have attended 20 events and conferences this year. I've been to conferences all my career my life, but it was especially concentrated this year as an exhibitor, speaker and attendee. So, I've seen conferences, events and symposiums from multiple perspectives at events such as Internet Retail, eTail, Shop.org, SuperNova, WOMMA, iCitizen Symposium, adTech, SES, eMetrics, Creative Good, Forrester Consumer Forum, eComXpo (virtual conference), and others. iPods are great because they do so many little things right -- software, packaging, itunes, advertising. It's a whole experience. The goal is to create an iPod-like experience for conferences. Attendees, exhibitors and speakers have limited time and money. Some can only attend one or two conferences a year. So excellent logistics, attendees and speakers make a conference stand out like iPod stands out among MP3 players. A great conference experience has great topics, ample networking, and a bunch of little things that just go right. So, in the interest of creating an excellent event experience for exhibitors, speakers and attendees, here are some of my tips (some big, some small) for creating a great conference experience! Send a Countdown to Hotel Sell Out -- Every conference has a preferred hotel with reserved room. Most attendees are procrastinators on booking the hotel. With a regular email tell them how many rooms are left. Send a To Bring Reminder to Attendees and Speakers -- No one does this. But why not send an email a couple days before the show reminding attendees to bring... (12/21/06 09:00 AM)

Whale Season. The web hates channel conflict. Actually, it's consumers who hate it. Channel conflict is what happens when a producer doesn't want to favor one retailer over another, or gets stuck because the terms at the effective retail channel conflict with... (12/12/06 08:47 AM)

[Experience Manifesto] MOVIE PLACEMENT CREATES DEMAND FOR NONEXISTENT SHOE. http://blog.brandexperiencelab.org/experience_manifesto/2005/02/movie_placement.html The unpaid inclusion of a nonexistent Adidas shoe in the movie The Life Aquatic has sparked a brisk consumer demand for the product. more...... (12/12/06 08:04 AM)

Future Marketing Thoughts From Forrester's Consumer Form. A couple weeks ago I spoke on a Word of Mouth panel at Forrester's annual Consumer Forum in Chicago. Attendees were senior marketers, online/ecommerce executives, and CMOs. The theme was Humanizing the Digital Experience. The tracks were: Experience-based Differentiation Devices Everwhere Next Generation Branding Social Computing I don't really like Social Computing...but you can pretty much pick the term you like: Long Tail Folksonomy Word of Mouth Crowdsourcing Prosumerism P2P Marketing C2C Marketing Listenomics Social Media Social Computing Social Networking Citizen Marketing Open Source Marketing User Generated Content Customer Created Content Consumer Generated Media To me all these underscore the same theme: Consumers are in more control than ever (their voices are amplified) and they are taking a bigger role in creating the consumer experience and content. As part of Forrester's follow up they posted all of the presentations here, host a blog here (here's the summary of my panel), and are hosting an open Wiki here. Here are some of the themes from the conference, a la their wiki: YouTube things are going to happen. How do you set standards that define your brand as you want? The product must speak for itself. Listen to what’s out there and understanding the negative and positive. Research cost benefits, insight methods. Blogs as a tool for brand analysis. Chance to engage pissed off customers. Chevy Tahoe Apprentice—create your own ad. Environmentalists were creating bad ones. The world didn’t end.It blew over. Most of the discussion about the brand is actually positive... (11/06/06 09:00 AM)

Bullseye Interview: Rich Lloyd (President, Peruvian Connection). As part of the Marketing Bullseye series I will interview people who 'get it'. Rich Lloyd is one of those people. Rich Lloyd and I worked together for 7 years at Dell. While I ran the consumer web site, he built the email and My Account capabilities for Dell. When I ran Consumer CRM, he was leading Dell's Global database infrastructure CRM efforts. Rich has an extensive background in database and direct marketing and has a Harvard MBA. That's enough to say he knows his stuff. And on a personal note, he's an all-around good guy! Rich recently joined Peruvian Connection, a multi-channel hig-end apparel retailer, as President. Rich understands measurability and word of mouth, and looks to several key principles to get as much return from imited resources as possible. Here are a few questions I posed to Rich. When you joined Peruvian Connection, how did you figure out what was or could be the most effective marketing? A big part of this decision was looking at historical performance and realizing we'd had a successful, but fairly one-dimensional marketing approach. A beautiful and efficient catalog had been successful, but was tapping out in terms of reach, and needing to be augmented with a broader portfolio of marketing tools with different price points and different audience reach. Online marketing, in particular was an attractive area to ramp quickly on both of these dimensions. eMail and search have been very efficient and effective thus far. What key principles would you suggest... (10/22/06 09:01 PM)

Search marketing works for B2B, too.. Thanks to a reader, I learned that there was a 'B2B Case Study' session at the recent Search Engine Strategies conference in San Francisco. The article reviewing the session, titled, Search marketing works for B2B, too, starts with this gem:

"Most people assume search marketing works only to reach consumers, but it's actually quite effective for businesses wishing to connect with other businesses, as well."

Um, I'd counter that SEM is more effective for B2B, but I think this comment just shows the lack of knowledge of the author--obviously B2B is off the charts for some folks. The article throws up comments about basic SEM for B2B but this bit is probably of interest B2Blog readers:

"Rick Brown, President of NetTrack closed out the session with a discussion of the effectiveness of paid inclusion in vertical aggregator sites like ThomasNet, GlobalSpec and Industrial Quick Search. Brown articulated his endorsement of such aggregators cautiously, saying that they can bring in relevant traffic as well as provide valuable links to a company's homepage but that many of the metrics such websites use to promote their services (such as "reach," "page views," and "brand activity") don't have much impact on a client's bottom line.

He also noted that the value of the links from content aggregators is highest when the landing page can be controlled and there is a one to one relationship between the product category being searched and the landing page on a firm's website. Brown suggested than firms who invest in paid inclusion on a vertical aggregator site have their own analytics like ClickTracks to determine the value of the traffic coming in from sites like Industrial Quick Search. "

Um, get an analytics program? Duh. What most B2B folks don't do is actually look at the data and ponder its meaning.

One thing that Rick Brown said that is innovative, is that he proposes a 1-to-1 relationship between the seller's landing page and the product categories on the directories. I've opined before that part of the problem with directories is that once the user clicks-thru, they have to start their search over again.

BTW: A rather interesting post by Marketing Headhunter Harry Joiner about a SEO specialist looking for a new job. Key fact: $125-150K pay for specialists at SEO agencies. Wow! (08/28/06 09:03 PM)

Secret product differentiation in a public world. Michael points us to: BBC NEWS | Business | 'Product sabotage' helps consumers. I don't buy the sabatoge part, not at all, but it's interesting to see how the BBC outed Starbucks on one of their secret menu items. (thanks,... (08/25/06 09:03 PM)

Looking at How Feature Articles Can Boost Public Relations. Placing feature articles with appropriate trade, consumer, or business publications is a powerful and effective PR technique. Unlike a news article, which gives a straightforward report of recent ev ...

(08/24/06 09:00 PM)

The Riddler. John Sawatsky of ESPN knows how to ask questions, and he thinks you don't. You need to ask questions every time you interact with a consumer, a job applicant, a co-worker with a great idea or even someone sitting next... (08/14/06 09:03 PM)

Seth Godin Q&A on Blogging and Marketing. Since I interviewed Guy (#2 marketing blog), I thought I'd ask Seth (#1 marketing blog) to answer some questions. I met Seth Godin in the early 90's searching for a book expert for advice as I wrote my first book. This was just before Seth became the marketing guru he is known as now (after Permission Marketing). He's a lot more busy and popular now, but he is as gracious to answer questions now as he was back then. (Note: Now that I have the top two bloggers, maybe I should interview all the other bloggers who have more popular blog than mine until I can get back to interviewing myself! #21 :-) Which blog posts have gotten you the most impact (not necessarily traffic, but actual personal or business impact), and why?Actually, it's not a post by post thing. There's no question in my mind that it's cumulative. Do a google search for MARKETING CHOCOLATE and there I am. Go figure. It adds up. And over time, it tells a story. You can't fib for four years...Here's how I'd summarize the main points in your books...feel free to modify these. Permission Marketing = customer is in control. Idea Virus = ignite consumer networks. Purple Cow = be remarkable. Marketing are Liars = tell a story. What's next? What else?I have actually tried to summarize my books at www.squidoo.com/seth {note from sam: there is a download there for Seth's new ebook, Flipping the Funnel} What are the three biggest mistakes... (07/29/06 02:28 PM)

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