iPad’s Crazy Numbers
Excerpt:
Non-iPhone buyer's remorse
How Customers Saying "No" Can Become a Consumer Experience "Yes" | Fast Company
Every industry has its issues it gets hung up on. Hospitality has many--shower soap is just one of them. Determining whether to switch shower soap from a bar to a bulk dispenser consumes an inordinate amount of energy. Switching would save a hotel over $4 a day per room. But if your ask consumers, they'll tell you they prefer bar soap. They will describe how bulk dispensers remind them of truck stops and how gross those bathrooms are and how once in a truck stop... A lot of companies would listen to this and stick with the bar soap. It's easy. The customer said they wanted it.
Starwood didn't listen. It redefined bulk dispensing by putting its Bliss branded spa products in a redesigned dispenser and connecting it to an overall story of cheap-chic modern travel. In the process they enhanced the customer experience and pocketed $4 per room.
Branding 2010: From logo to social platform
Simply put, no one really cares about the logo anymore. Today, people are more interested in what a brand can do for them. Great brands are discovering that logos or advertisements are losing relevance, and instead put their efforts into creating social brand platforms that invite participation and create value in authentic and relevant ways. The real reason the Gap logo failed was that it wasn't backed by any of this; the same goes for Tropicana and the rest.
Useful
Logos create value for brands, but social brand platforms create value for people. Nike+ helps people run and get healthy. Facebook keeps people in touch with friends and family. Etsy connects cottage industry craftsmen with buyers. Converse has just announced that it's building a recording studio in Brooklyn to help up-and-coming musicians.
Social brand platforms are not experiential marketing gimmicks. They do not exist to promote something else, but rather they are useful in and of themselves. A logo, by contrast, doesn't actually do anything.
CRM gives way to customer control?
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Can Facebook Titan succeed where Google Wave failed?
Google Wave was a classic example of "build it and they will come". Facebook's approach to Titan is the opposite - "they're already here, now let's build it".
1.0 Is the Loneliest Number — Matt Mullenweg
ReadWriteWeb - Web Apps, Web Technology Trends, Social Networking and Social Media
Nudgemail is a newly launched service that lets you forward any email to the future, without ever creating an account. Forward or cc to 2hours@nudgemail.com, tomorrow@nudgemail.com or Monday@nudgemail.com and that's when you'll get a follow-up email back in your inbox.
World Wide, Web Surfing Down as Entertainment, P2P Dominate Global Internet Usage
As people look more to real-time entertainment and social networks, Web browsing is on the decline everywhere, except in Europe - the only part of the world, according to the study, that also saw a decline year-over-year in P2P traffic.
