Americans have a tremendous amount of stuff. Maybe it keeps our economy running. Maybe procuring so much stuff keeps Americans employed, either way the sheer amount is tremendous. In recent visits to friends and family, I noticed how many keep their cars outside. I ask, “What do you use the garage for?” Usually the answer is, “Oh, I just have stuff in there.” Read the rest of this entry »
Bagster – Seriously Great Innovation
September 3rd, 2010Free Innovation
September 3rd, 2010Recently, I took my mother-in-law’s iMac to Apple for repair (results of repair still pending). In that process, I had this idea for anyone in manufacturing. Free idea! Please take it! Read the rest of this entry »
Poland Spring – what it means to frustrate!
August 23rd, 2010Over on ThirdBlue, Mike makes a great point about corporations chasing a dime and losing a dollar. I thought the same thing last week with Poland Spring. I think Poland Spring is trying to save a few dollars and may end up losing hundreds.
We have Poland Spring home water delivery. In the last few months, the delivery service quality degraded substantially. What is water delivery service quality? Well to us, it’s pretty simple:
- Does the delivery occur within agreed upon timeframe?
- Is the water delivered to our home?
- Are the empty carboys taken away?
That’s it. Last month, the delivery team – in their frenzy – delivered the water and left the empties. Then last week, the delivery team delivered the water downstairs and left the empties again. By now, I have 12 empties and 6 full carboys downstairs. After 3 days of calls and promised corrections, the water was finally brought upstairs and the empties taken away.
I asked the supervisor, “why did this happen?” She said, “Well, I think they changed the way we get paid and set up time checks during the delivery process. So we need to get ahead early in the morning.” I didn’t ask any more but can just imagine that these poor guys are driving around Brooklyn and Queens in a panic to get the water delivered on time, probably so that the truck can be re-stocked and a new team can take that truck for afternoon deliveries in Manhattan.
I imagine some MBA at “corporate” said; we can save $4.2MM yearly by improving truck utilization rates if we turn the trucks around faster. Therefore, let’s create incentives for the AM deliveries to get back to base faster.
Classic problem – service has no customer acquisition or retention goal. Marketing has no logistics or service goals. Operations have no customer acquisition or service goals.
What happens? C-A-N-C-E-L.
GREAT SPAM (because of the subject)
August 23rd, 2010Does it exist? I don’t think so. This mail comes close for 1 reason – subject line. “Your credit stinks” makes me think, does it? Maybe it does, let me open this mail. This subject is concise about something I care about. We should all write business mails with concise, relevant subject lines. Read the rest of this entry »
Sweet Emotions
August 2nd, 2010Apple continues advertising positive emotions with the new iPhone4 campaign. The ads show a video call happening between two people sharing one of life’s most important moments. Basically, Apple is saying – see isn’t it better to share the best things through video, not just audio? Buy this and you can do that. I wrote a post that references Apple and their desire to build human use cases. Well, that approach continues here. Take a look at three of the four ads in current rotation:
Many people I meet and work with question the ability to add human use cases into a business-to-business selling environment. Though I agree, adding to consumer products is more natural, human use cases can be very powerful in B2B as well.
Does your firm need a Web site any longer?
July 27th, 2010Toyota directs people to facebook, via an advertising campaign (print and television). During the World Cup, Adidas directed people to facebook via ESPN Radio. Neither mentions their Web site, only facebook. Is this a trend?
How will executives decide to shift spend and focus from corporate sites to social media? Even more strategic – actually, in 2010 and beyond, do you even need a corporate Web site?
- If you are an e-commerce company (e.g. Gilt), then of course.
- If you sell consumer products through re-sellers (e.g. Gillette), then maybe.
- If you sell directly to consumers via Brick-and-Mortar (e.g. Ann Taylor), then yes.
- If you are business-to-business (e.g. Maersk), then yes. Read the rest of this entry »
Social Media Call-to-Action
July 27th, 2010Last week, I saw a television commercial first. TEMPUR-PEDIC ran a 60-second commercial where the secondary call-to-action (this is made at about the 30th second) is for twitter and facebook. This wasn’t some little twitter or facebook logo on the bottom of the screen. For six or seven seconds, the narrator directs the viewer to ask around through social media.
My first reaction wasn’t to go and ask people about this bed. My first reaction – they must have a great product if they’re directing people into places where they have no control. And probably next time we’re mattress shopping, my first stop will be TEMPUR-PEDIC.
In essence, this campaign (along with the “connect” Web site) uses broad-scale advertising to direct prospects to “ask around” or investigate, not buy. I think that’s pretty savvy and a great use of referral marketing.
Developing your Brand
July 23rd, 2010How do we develop our firm’s brand? Last night, I met a fellow Alum from my business school. He’s in the early phases of starting a Hedge Fund. I asked him, “How do you want prospective partners and investors to think of your company after a meeting or receiving an email?” He thought that was ‘critical’ and said something like: Read the rest of this entry »
Excel Woe
July 1st, 2010In setting up a business case for a client recently, I opened a blank excel document. I began building the formulas to analyze break-even and year-over-year revenue. I started plugging in values. For this business case, the dollar numbers were in hundreds of thousands and millions; my client was not going to care about “.42.” I thought – why not set “no decimal” as my default? Read the rest of this entry »
Optimism on the Rise
June 28th, 2010As I reflect and re-read my notes from last week’s meetings, I have a common trend: optimism.
Whether meeting an old colleague now in real estate, or business school classmates at top-tier firms, I noticed consistent optimism. Obviously, there may be factors leading to this:
- Selection bias
- Lucky news in their lines of business
- Intense New York City heat (optimistic that the weather can’t get worse, right?)
But assume I’m not biased or lucky. My admittedly naïve opinion follows. Business people are tired of waiting for economic news, conditions, or scenarios to improve or worsen. Therefore, they are taking matters more in-hand and finding ways to improve their personal situations. In a sense, they are worried less about external factors (e.g. pending layoffs, garnering favor with the boss’s new boss), and focusing on controllable factors (e.g. delivering fewer better results, self-improvement, assisting colleagues).
Shouldn’t we do that all the time, though?