The New PeterThink

To all of my faithful PeterThink readers I invite you to join me at the new home of Peter's Thinking over at http://peterthink.blogs.com. There you will find a lot of recent posts and fresh thinking about advertising, marketing, branding, technology and culture. Please take a moment to update your blogroll and bookmarks. Thanks

Designer Outhouse?

Michael Graves continues his high design for the masses work with Target by offering designer pavilions in partnership with prefab home-builder Lindal Cedar Homes. These three pavilion designs come in kit form with a variety of options. The only problem is that the pavilion out back will have more design savvy than the over inflated tract home starter castle that sits in front of it.

Oprah's Favorite Things

Materialistic frenzy strikes again today. Oprah is flocking her swarm of fans in a marketing frenzy that grows and grows each year. The phenomenon that is "Oprah's Favorite Things" strikes again today. It's the power of celebrity writ large as an Oprah product endorsement is sure to provide holiday success to manufacturers and marketers. The show would be nothing more than an infomercial if Queen Oprah did not dispense products to her incredibly ecstatic audience. Marketers know that a few hundred free products given to the Oprah show audience will flock huge amounts of word of mouth advertising as audience members tell everybody about the products and where they got them. That is if they survive the frenzy. People are crying and hyperventilating throughout the show. Some products receive an extra boost by having been gifts to or from Oprah and her celebrity friends. It's one thing to see that Oprah loves something it's another level to hear that Madonna gave an item to Oprah or that she personally gave the item to all her friends. Some of the products are clearly personal favorites and some seem to be more like product placements. The behind the scenes maneuvering to get a product on the show must be incredible. The show also provides some great quotes from Oprah. "I just love to bathe and vacuum seal." Highlights this year: A Blackberry A Sony DVD camcorder—the most expensive item she's every given away at $1000 A $400 necklace A Smoked Turkey A Vacuum Packing system A Panasonic portable DVD player All this plus food, cloths, lotions and potions of all kinds. Oprah is smart to do this show only twice a year. That protects both the power of it and her audience's tolerance for it. If she did it more often it would feel more like product placement and simply celebrity endorsement. She does do a similar list in her monthly magazine however that context is more tolerant of new product lists.

Thinking About the Shopping Experience

Interesting discussion over at Signal vs. Noise about shopping for cloths by color. The specific example is an online experience at the J. Crew website. Evidently there is an option to see sweaters arranged by color groups. WhatÍs interesting is brought out in the comments.

Brick and mortar selling experience of retail e-commerce sites can hamper usability enhancements to the online shopping experience. "That's not how we do it in the stores." People shop differently online then in stores. What's possible online is different then what's possible in physical stores. Filtering is important. People want to see merchandise by color, size and in stock status. I have been aggravated numerous times when shopping either online or in stores by selecting a product and subsequently discovering that it's out of stock. (Note to Retailers: I always leave the store empty handed when this happens. I never buy something else instead. Piss off your customer; customer goes away.) Is it so hard for people to put a sign on products that are sold out? Simply putting the name of the color on the price tag can help the colorblind population. No one in a store is going to ask a clerk what color something is. Embarrassment is a powerful demotivator. Retailers who make it easy for people with special needs to shop and buy in their stores or websites are winners. Hey, store manager, have you ever driven that scooter around your Target to see what it's like to shop in it?

People still think it's OK if their business isn't accessible because "No one in a wheelchair ever comes in here." It's most likely because they can't or because it's less of a hassle elsewhere. What if you were the most accessible store in the area? What if you had a special time designated in your grocery store for "Assisted Shopping?" Every Thursday afternoon/evening you'd welcome people with special needs. You'd publicize it and be ready with plenty of trained clerks ready in each aisle of your store ready to assist shoppers in getting products from shelves, answering questions, reading labels, talking to people. What would happen? Would it cost you more? Yes. Would it be above and beyond industry standards? Yes. Would it be profitable? Yes, Absolutely! Word would spread through the target communities like wildfire. If the physical configuration of your customer experience is better than your competition people with disabilities will fill your store or restaurant and your cash register. While it is tragically true that many in the disabled community are living in poverty or near poverty it is also true that many are not. Many disabled people and their families have the same socioeconomic statistics of your target market. Most people enjoy a good meal in a good restaurant. Even people who use wheelchairs use credit cards. But if they can't get into your bathroom, they'll use that credit card somewhere else. Just something to Think about.

Loving Vespa in the Heartland

Incredible: The leading Vespa Boutique(dealership) in America is in Kansas City, MO. Also, is anybody surprised that 30% of Vespa buyers are women. I'm surprised the number isn't higher. Having been to Kansas City I am not surprised. They are more sophisticated than people might think.

Tacky Police

Halloween was last week. Every year more and more people are decorating the outside of their homes for Halloween just like they do for Christmas. Soon the "tacky police" will have to work several months a year. Regardless of the figure, Frankenstein, Santa Claus or Baby Jesus the words "plastic" and "light-up" should not appear in front of their name. I have proposed for years that a "tacky tax" should be levied on plastic light-up figures to just slow people down a little. The problem is that the plastic figures are too cheap. People start with one or two but then after the holiday the stuff goes on sale. Why stop at just one when you can literally get four for the price of one? Suddenly three toy soldiers turns into a full-fledged battalion marching down the driveway ready to greet the aforementioned tacky police. A four or five hundred percent tax would make those $4.98 figures cost enough for people to pace themselves. At least people get a little exercise moving the plastic Halloween figures out of the way so they can get to the box with their beloved icicle lights. Come on people, you have just days to get those lights up. That is unless you were smart enough to just leave them up from last year. I'd already have my lights up but I've been busy shopping for a huge inflated light-up Santa. Bigger is better right? Oh, please!

Clueless Kmart Looks to Martha Again

The clueless Kmart announced today some new ads featuring among others Martha Stewart. Kmart short on any innovative thinking is looking to minority communities trying to carve out a niche they feel they can compete in. Hence the "diversity" in their new ads. They are even introducing the new ads during the World Series. While that makes for good media attention I doubt it has much play with their target customer for those Martha Stewart sheets. Time to revisit some previous Thinking on Kmart.

So Easy Even a Man Can Use It

I love good products that work. I recently heard about the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser from Proctor and Gamble. Always interested in cleaning products that make cleaning easier I thought I'd try it out. I didn't like the fact that it was more than $1.50 more than the suggested retail price at my local grocery store but I thought it was because it's a hot new product. I tried the eraser on a dirty wall that's been resistant to other cleaners. It worked surprisingly well. From there I used it on some scuff marks and some soap scum. It works great. I especially like the fact that it's self contained you don't need a sponge, bucket, paper towels or gloves. As advertised it really makes cleaning fast and easy. I love it when new technologies make it to market in products that work. I often stop to think about how much life has changed because of advancing technology. As I have said before, It won't be long until robots will do most household cleaning. Already we are seeing robotic vacuum cleaners like the Roomba. I'd like to see a robotic Swiffer and a robot for cleaning windows. The future of robotics is less about "look what I can do" and more about "Look how I can make your life simpler." It's gonna be a great future. Full Disclosure: I've not been asked or compensated to endorse this product.

VW Goes Retro

Volkswagen has announced the introduction of the new minibus. Clearly VW is out to capitalize on the retro trend that has made the new beetle such a success. The Minibus won't be coming to America until late 2006 as a 2007 model. VW plans to market the Minibus as a lifestyle vehicle with room for mountain bikes and surfboards. This seems to be at cross-purposes to the retro trend. If VW is serious about appealing to baby boomers who owned the original Microbus they need to optimize the vehicle not for the lifestyle of a twenty something but the lifestyle of a fifty or sixty something. VW has the opportunity to offer the first hip vehicle for the aging (former hippie) boomer population. Why not a version that accommodates people with mobility challenges? Accommodate a matching three wheel electric scooter or a pair of Segways. How about factory designed and installed hand controls as an option? Baby Boomers are going to stay active through their aging. Mobility aides like scooters and Segways are going to become very popular with those with conditions affecting their knees, backs, feet. These and other features that appeal to an older and less ambulatory population are currently in the realm of after market modification companies. As the population bubble advances into the 50s and 60s a huge marketing opportunity exists for companies that mainstream accessibility features. VW has a unique opportunity to make enhanced personal mobility truly cool by combining it with the retro appeal of the Minibus. Additionally, driving aides like navigation systems, sonar obstruction detection systems, rear view TV systems, On-Star safety and concierge services and vehicle monitoring systems like remote tire air pressure sensors are all going to appeal to aging drivers. In fact most of these features are already becoming popular on large luxury vehicles. Volkswagen is uniquely positioned to provide a cool vehicle not just for the 20 something market but for their loyal customers who now need a little help getting around. Why should someone, who started out to college in a VW Bug bought a VW Golf after graduation, drove a couple of Passats through the years and now owns a new Touareg, have to switch to the ho-hum design of an American minivan when they need a scooter to get around? It's gonna be a great future.

Evidently the Cluephone Does Ring at Kodak

Kodak has announced that they will stop making 35mm slide projectors next year. I am surprised that it's taken this long. The professional organizations I have been a part of stopped using slides and projectors at least five years ago. Evidently someone at Kodak can see the writing on the wall (and the sales reports.) This old market company desperately needs a path to the future. They insist on making the mistake of taking their powerful film and photo paper brand and simply applying it to digital imaging products. The opportunity they are missing to link old to new in a meaningful way is huge. They risk loosing all the brand identity and cache that they have built over the last 75 years or so. What's missing? A straight forward story. The turn of the century from the 20th to the 21st represents a defining Kodak Moment for the Kodak company. It's no secret that photography has changed and so to has Kodak. Digital cameras and display technologies have changed the way you capture and share images. Kodak has over 70 years of experience in understanding and supporting photography from the professional photographer to baby's first snapshot. Today we partner those with 70 plus years of experience with design engineers fluent in today's digital imaging technologies to create new ways of capturing the most important moments in your life. Today Kodak combines the best of film and paper photography with the best of the digital age. East, a new name for a new way of taking pictures. From the people at Kodak There's more Thinking on Kodak here and here. †

Nate Berkus for President

I guess it's undeniable. Nate Berkus is a very popular guy. He appeared on Oprah yesterday having redecorated Oprah's office suite. I think Oprah had space envy after her visit to see Celine Dion's huge dressing room space in Las Vegas. The space looks good. Now Oprah is doing an interactive "Ugliest Room in America" contest with the winner getting a free room makeover by Nate Berkus. Viewers can vote on Oprah's website. Oprah is coming late to the party of the power of viewer interactivity via the web. NBC's Today show has been doing it successfully with wedding planning for a couple of years now. My speculation stands. I predict that Nate Berkus is the next Dr. Phil. I think Oprah will feature him for another season and then spin him his own show.

LimoLiner an Alternative to Flying

LimoLiner is a new company offering luxury bus service between New York and Boston. The 28 passenger buses feature lather seats with WiFi Internet access, satellite radio and TV. There's even a private conference room to the rear of the bus. The idea is to attract business travelers weary of the pricier air shuttle flights and the unreliable train service. The price point is less at $69 each way roundtrip. Sure it takes four hours each way but with Internet access, a comfortable seat and the ability to use a cell phone the time is productive. I think we'll see more of services like these. If the NY- Boston run is successful I can imagine the service expanding to NY- Washington. LimoLiner could even use the buses on weekends to shuttle execs, celebs and wannabes to the Hamptons in style. One thing though, with this service it's all about the bus. Too bad they cranked up the PR and the website without any pictures of the bus. By that, of course, I mean the interior of the bus. We all know what the outside looks like. It's the seat and the legroom that just might sell this thing. I wrote about this kind of service as a response to airport delays in a previous post. Today I heard discussion of a potential hovercraft service between Milwaukee and Chicago. We're finally beginning to see alternatives to air travel and it's associated security hassels.

The Great Garage II

In addition to the Vehicle Turntables, Stacking Systems and Specialized Storage systems I mentioned in my first post about the Great Garage, I failed to mention the extension of a longstanding trend into the garage space. The "HisandHerification" of the American home that began in the 70s with the double sink vanity in the master bathroom has grown up to include almost all areas of the home. The spread of his and her closets, separate home offices, bathrooms, exercise areas, kitchen work areas, even his and her living spaces like game rooms, home theatres, sewing rooms, and sitting rooms has been a part of the increase in the size of the new American home. As more and more square footage has found it's way to the garage and three, four and five car garages have become the standard for upscale new houses the idea of his and her garages has become real. "His" garage dedicated to vehicle maintenance/restoration and property maintenance equipment like lawn mowers and snow blowers separate from "her" garage space dedicated to gardening support and children's sports equipment storage surrounding the minivan. Just as the husband and wife have different needs and desires in other areas of the house it is now evident that they have different needs and desires when it comes to the fit and function of their garage space. Obviously, every household is unique and not every house needs or wants separate functional areas, but the trends are clear. The American home is changing and the lowly garage is ripe for a makeover. The technology of the automobile has grown radically in the last 100 years but the garage hasn't changed much. Automatic garage door openers have become standard in the last 30 years. The next 30 years may see the standardization of garage technology like turntables, vehicle stacking systems, modular storage systems even trash compactors. It's gonna be a great future (in the garage.)

Digital Signs in Department Stores

This story talks about the adoption of digital paper in department store signage. Beyond cost savings of printing and placement/change out labor the battery powered signs can be changed automatically by a central server thus appealing to different buyers throughout the day. Appealing to stay at home mothers in the morning and teenagers in the afternoon. I wrote about an application like this back in May. Read my previous post here. Includes a picture of the thin flexible digital paper prototype by E ink.

Air Canada: The Squeeze Is On

This story reports that bankrupt air carrier Air Canada is reducing the number of lemon and lime slices it stocks on flights as a cost cutting move reportedly worth $40,000C. This is another incident of incrementalism in lieu of innovation. Companies all over do this everyday. They look to squeeze costs out of their product or service hoping to continue a no longer plausible reality in a changed world. When the world changes products and services need to change also. When an airline realizes it can no longer offer it's product or service in a profitable way the goal must be reinvention not just minor tweaks and cost cutting. Reexamine the entire offering not just a small portion of it. Air Canada needs to reinvent itself as a Canadian airline. By just cost cutting they are doomed to be just a shadow of what once was and that is a vulnerable thing to be. Competitors can sweep in and provide something new and innovative that will attract people rather than disappoint them.

In Search of Convenience and A Cold Drink

On a recent roadtrip my girlfriend was thinking about the impact of pay-at-the-pump systems on convenience store sales. I am certain that the ability to purchase gas without having to enter the store has severely negatively impacted impulse buys. Many of the modern gas stations along Interstate highways combine fast food restaurants with convenience stores. An interesting study would be to see how many drivers fuel up, pay at the pump and then go through the drive through to acquire beverages. People are in a hurry. The more they can do in their cars the better. Even if the in vehicle waiting time matches or surpasses the in store waiting time people prefer to wait in their vehicles where they can use wireless phones and vehicle entertainment systems (audio and video.) While many vendors are racing to bring Internet connectivity to the gas pump enabling the ubiquitous advertising supported news and sports headlines even email access and MP3 downloads. While MP3 downloads might have potential it's not enough to build a business model around. No one is going to read serious email on a gas pump. Besides people have other portable devices for that. Much like pay at the pump technology has swept through the industry Wi-Fi connectivity will be widely available in the near future. My girlfriend did have a very good idea. She suggested linking vending machines to gas pumps allowing people to pay for vending purchases as part of their pay at the pump purchase much like adding the purchase of a car wash to a gas purchase. Who wouldn't purchase a Coke or bottle of water with their gas on a hot summer day? The key is to locate the vending machines close to the pumps so people perceive it as quick and easy. On our next fuel stop we saw a variation on this very idea. The fueling location we stopped at had a deli sandwich shop. Sandwich menus were tapped to the gas pumps. A simple intercom allowed gas customers to call in their orders while fueling their vehicles. There was no provision for paying for your order at the pump. The intent was to save waiting time for sandwich buyers through pre-ordering food.

Posting

A sudden death in the family will limit posting in the next week. Please use the search box to see what can be seen in the PeterThink archive or visit the links at left and read PeterThink on Airlines. Thanks for understanding and I look forward to sharing fresh thinking on marketing, advertising and culture real soon.

Uhmmm Gel

I had my own interesting experience in perceived value last night. While shopping for moisture wicking performance socks to wear while exercising I stood for 10 minutes in front of a huge sock display debating the morality of spending $12 for a single pair of socks. Having decided against such a scandalous financial outlay I found myself (with three-dollar cotton socks) not a half-hour later purchasing $12 gel insoles for my shoes. I am sure the socks would have been more comfortable and a better use of the $12. Since when did washer fluid blue goo become marketing gold. Who doesn't like things with the wonder of gel in it? From shoes to wrist wrests to bicycle seats. Life is better with gel. Thank you Marketers everywhere.

Nate Berkus on Oprah Again

Another Oprah rerun featuring interior designer Nate Berkus today. If the pop in traffic for my original post Harpo productions has their next personality brand to groom and launch like they did with Dr. Phil. Today's show also featured a trip by Oprah to a local Walmart. It seemed like a royal visit. Oprah appeared to have never been in a Walmart. For someone who wants to appeal to the average American having the appearance of slumming at Walmart doesn't seem to be a strategy. Perhaps her audience likes that she is a wealthy queen who doesn't shop with the masses. What do you think? Leave a comment.

The Great Garage

I mentioned the other day that I think the next focus in the super hot home decorating and makeover world will be the car-home interface also known as the garage. While the teen/pre-teen room redecoration trend wave is just now cresting with retailers like Pbteen, Pottery Barn Kids, IKEA, Target, and Ethan Allen scrambling to capture market share, the Great Garage trend has yet to emerge. The jungle drums are beginning to be heard though. New manufacturers are eyeing the market and the DIY/Decorating media are about to discover a new space in the home ripe for renewal. Most importantly the progression of decorating dollars has been working its way through the house. Starting with the living spaces like the living room, dining room and family room people spend their decorating budgets on the public spaces of their home. These efforts have been fueled by the popularity of decorating shows from Martha Stewart Living to Trading Spaces. The next step is often the kitchen in older homes that need updating. In newer homes the decorating budget often flows through to the outdoor space creating landscaping and outdoor living spaces like decks and patios. Next come bathrooms and bedrooms or home office space. Children's bedrooms are where it's at right now. Specifically, the most dramatic transition in a child's life, the change from child to teenager is clearly the point where a redecoration is in order. Once the bedrooms have been done the next logical focus are the utilitarian spaces of laundry rooms, storage areas, and the beloved garage. In many homes the garage represents all the utilitarian functions in the home. There may also be a social dynamic at work here as well. While the decoration of the kitchen and living spaces in the home are often viewed as the territory of the woman of the home, the garage is man-land and men may be feeling that it's their turn to spend on their space and spend they will. As men (and women) are continuing to buy expensive vehicles clearly the need for suitable garage space is a priority. New homes are featuring three, four and even five car garages. Bigger and bigger SUVs are driving up the size of garages. An architect friend of mine who does high end residential work says the garages keep getting longer and longer growing four feet at a time. Soon I think we will begin to see some of the vehicle handling and storage equipment we see in other space poor areas of the world like Japan and Europe.

Vehicle turntables are an obvious addition to the garage/driveway configuration. With speed and convenience a premium in America it's not a big leap to see a market for anything that will help people maneuver their Super-Sized vehicles in tight spaces. If people will buy vehicles with power sliding doors surely they are ready for powered turntables that will rotate their vehicles.

For Baby Boomers who are buying their third or fourth vehicle. (Cooper Mini, Ford Thunderbird, Chevrolet SST etc.) the must have garage equipment may be a vehicle stacking system. These systems are popular in pre-car areas of Europe where parking space is at a real premium. Utilizing space above or below a garage is the answer for those unable to add another parking bay for a sports car or a collector car.

Storage seems to be a common element in all garages. Often its active storage of yard maintenance equipment, workshop tools and materials or sports equipment like bicycles, golf clubs and rollerblades. Often it's deep storage of furniture, files, cloths and clutter. New products and service have entered the market to help in these areas as well. A variation on the self-storage concept, containerized storage services will deliver an empty storage container to your driveway ready for loading. Once loaded the service trucks and warehouses the container for you keeping it ready to return to you at anytime. While these are popular with those who are moving I think the "portable garage" aspect will grow in importance as people makeover their garages. For active storage and workspace many companies are offering products to help store everything from golf clubs to spray paint cans.

One of the latest players is Whirlpool's Gladiator line of garage equipment. Gladiator is a comprehensive system including a slat wall system, storage cabinets, lockers and shelves all with a tough garage like diamond plate aesthetic. The system seems like an odd move for an appliance maker until you discover that a specially insulated refrigerator/freezer, a mini "beer box" fridge and a trash compactor are a part of the system. Seems Wirphool sees a new market for home appliances for the garage. Obviously, this represents the high end of the market. Other manufacturers like Rubbermaid have numerous products to help organize the garage. Even closet organizer manufacturers are positioned to capitalize on garage storage needs.

Technology is important in the Great Garage. Beyond utilities like water, power, heat and air conditioning, telephone, cable TV and computer networking cabling all have a place in the garage. For a variety of reasons the garage will be an important place for the just replaced family computer. In homes with WiFi networks coverage in the garage will be important to facilitate web browsing for vehicle maintenance information, DIY information and shopping (check to see if Home Depot has the right widget.) MP3 players in cars can even download music via WiFi. In the future vehicles with video systems will accept digital movie files over WiFi thus eliminating the need to stock the car with heat and theft sensitive DVDs. The crystal ball for the future holds more technology ideas for the future of the garage. Cleaning robots like the Roomba could be adapted to clean the garage floor unattended. One day small independent cleaning robots will attach themselves and wash your vehicle each night while you sleep. There are even plans for fueling appliances that extract hydrogen from water to fuel up your new hydrogen powered car right in your garage. The garage is about to be Great it's the savvy marketer and trendspotter that's going to be ready. Americans love their cars and their homes so it's only natural that they're gonna go crazy over the place where the two come together. It's gonna be a great futureÖ.in the garage.

Good-bye Kodak Part 2

Today Trendsetters is reporting the introduction of the first disposable digital camera. The two megapixel Digital Dakota will be sold for $11 at Ritz Camera. This marks the beginning of the end of the last bastion of consumer film sales. Prices will drop, profits will disappear and companies will flounder. Kodak needs to start a new brand for it's digital products and scale back it's Kodak line to cater to the smaller professional and art photography market. Kodak means film it doesn't mean digital imaging. [via]

Reality Show to Feature the Drama of Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines is the new subject for a reality show for A&E. I think a show featuring Jet Blue would be far more interesting but then why would Jet Blue want to tip their hand and show the rest of the world how to really run an airline.

After the Kids Rooms are Done...

I just saw the new IKEA catalog. I am a fan of IKEA on several levels from their product design process to their marketing and retailing practices. I like what I see and I certainly would suggest that anyone looking for decorating ideas for teenagers rooms, dorm rooms or college apartments should check out the cool stuff available from Ikea. It's affordable and it's cool. The competition is heating up as the home makeover decorating trend fueled by popular TV shows like Trading Spaces and While You Were Out now turns to rooms for children and teens. Specialty retailers like Pottery Barn have staked out their territory with sub-brands Pottery Barn Kids and PBteen. Big box retailers like Target are offering hip merchandise by designer brands that are popular with the 8-18 set. Lots of opportunity to separate a parent from their money in pursuit of the perfect room for their offspring. What's next: I think the lowly garage is the next space ready for the attention of design savvy consumers. Living space makeovers chase clutter out to storage in the garage and people continue to drive bigger and bigger SUVs requiring more and more space. These and other forces (pets, workshops, car repair, boat storage, etc) are putting a lot of pressure on valuable garage square footage. Opportunities exist in products and services that help people do more in their existing space and also develop strategies for designing new approaches to accommodating the various functions traditionally served by the garage. Markets for everything from shelving and storage container systems to vehicle turntables to new technologies such as the application of RFID tags to consumer storage applications will boom when millions of do-it-yourself home makeover mavens turn to the garage. Imagine RFID tagging every storage container in your house giving you the ability to know by way of a database exactly what you have and exactly where everything is in your home. Imagine never having to search through box after box for a particular book or tool or clothing item. The time saved would be significant, as would the cost savings of never repurchasing items intentionally or unintentionally because you can't find what you need. It's gonna be a great future.

Flash Mobs

This Flash Mob thing seems to be catching on all around the world. Today Smart Mobs and boingboing are a buzz with word of Flash Mobs in Paris and Rome joining mobs reported in Seattle and New York. It's only a matter of time before the marketing community adapts the flash mob for marketing purposes either directly by flocking potential customers to a particular business or indirectly by staging a flash mob as a promotion stunt for a product or business.

Watching Kodak Disapear

Kodak is slashing jobs. Is this a surprise to anyone? They can cut them all. They are so left behind in this digital age. What can save them is their OLED display technology. The challenge is rebranding Kodak to mean first class displayed images rather than film and processing. They are today's buggy whip manufacturer looking at automobiles taking away their market.

BA and VA Fight for the High End Traveler

First, British Air announces the end of Concorde service. What are celebrities and the ultra-luxury travelers going to do? That touches off a marketing battle. Virgin Atlantic airline wants to buy the Concorde planes from British Air. British Air fearing the loss of the high-end customers to the competition is claiming that the planes have surpassed their useful life and should be retired. In the mean time both companies are developing new classes of service to appeal to the top of the market. Recently, the struggling British Air has even tried to buy Virgin Atlantic to keep it from merging with another BA competitor. And we all thought the plight of US carriers was interesting. Also of interest is the fact that Virgin wants to fly the Concorde to the Caribbean and the middle-east from it's London base. Selling price is of interest as well. BA has not accepted Virgin's first off of one pound ($1.70US) for each Concorde. This matches the symbolic price paid by British Air to the joint British/French maker of the plane. When the plane was developed both the manufacturer and the airline were nationalized businesses. It was the British and the French people who paid for the development of the Concorde. Subsequently, Virgin has offered one million pounds per plane.

Now Boarding Bring Your Bags

United Airlines has started a new system for getting the sardines in the can that it claims is 30% faster. Rather than fill airplanes by calling row numbers and filling from the rear of the airplane forward United now fills the plane by type of traveler and section of the plane. Boarding frequent fliers first and those sitting in the front of the economy cabin first. This has to cause bottlenecks and problems as passengers in the rear of the plane struggle to pass those in "economy plus" who are trying to get settled. I don't believe for one second that this is "faster." What's really going on here is catering to frequent fliers and profitable class of service customers by allowing them to board first and fill the overhead bins with their carryon luggage. This has nothing to do with the speed of the boarding process it's about carryon luggage. United is catering to the coveted business travelers who are reluctant to incur delays in checking their luggage. If you are a super-ultra-silver-gold-bronze-platinum-titanium-orange-premium club member you'll soon be able to carryon seven or eight bags before the airline even thinks about asking you nicely if you'd mind perhaps checking one or two of your bags. They don't want to anger their best customers. What they should do (after getting real about what's going on here) is offer discounts for passengers who don't require overhead bin space. A $5 United coupon handed to me when I board the plane with one small bag that fits under the seat would go a long way towards keeping me happy with United while I wait for people to stuff the overhead bins with their luggage.

Anybody Got A Favorite?

Ya, well who doesn't like the Gugg? I am researching for a piece on Museum Marketing. Anybody got a favorite museum that's marketing itself in an interesting way? Leave your recommendations in the comments section. Thanks.

A Gifted Friend

I don't usually plug people on PeterThink but I just found out that my friend Steve Herrlin has a great new site. Steve is an accomplished Director of Photography for film, video and high definition video. Steve travels all over the country working on all kinds of shoots. He's especially good with the complexities of underwater and aeriel shoots. I've seen Steve work and his attention to detail is intense. No wonder his footage is so beautiful. I learned a lot about lighting and camera angles from Steve. Even if you have just tried to shoot decent home video you understand something about the complexities of shooting professional film or video. Check out his site and if you are working on a project requiring film or video images hire Steve.

Tools & Taco Shells? - What is Sears Thinking!

Sears has figured out how to die faster. They're going to take on Wal-Mart and Target by foolishly adopting a "me too" approach to retailing. Sears has announced that they plan to build Sears Grand stores. These whoppers at 150,000-200,000 square feet will be freestanding stores that include groceries. How in the world can they compete with price leader Wal-Mart or "cool" leader Target? Did they not learn anything from that whole Sears Hardware thing? Did they really think they could compete against Home Depot and Loews when it comes to tools? It might have worked if it had focused on the Craftsman tool brand calling it The Craftsman Center or something like that. Sears like Kmart needs new ideas and fresh concepts. Embrace what the Sears name means and more importantly what it does not mean. Sounds like a good way to waste a billion dollars.

Has Oprah Discovered Another Dr. Phil?

Is Oprah on to something or, more accurately, someone. Yesterday was a rerun featuring her new favorite designer Nate Berkus a 30 something self taught interior designer. This is to my knowledge her second show featuring Nate and his quick makeovers of viewer decorating challenges. Does Oprah see a Dr. Phil like opportunity here for Harpo productions? Will we be seeing a Harpo produced entry into the already crowded home decorating TV category? With Oprah's participation in the Oxygen Network it would seem a good fit. Martha Stewart even without all her troubles is attempting to do a "Dr. Phil" with her popular pet expert. Seems these personality brand machines/empires are seeing the need to broaden their offerings to both grow their business and protect themselves from the devastation of the misbehaviors of their stars personalities. New Post on Nate Berkus on Oprah

Biohazard Update

The Chicago area reports their first case of Eastern Equine Encephalitis. A mosquito borne virus that's even more rare than the West Nile virus. Only 153 confirmed cases since 1964. No treatment available. Potentially deadly. Permanent neurological problems for survivors. New sales for bug spray. It's gonna be a scary future.

A Little Publicity Stunt and We all Bit.

You don't suppose Randall Simon the baseball player that took a swat at the sausage in Milwaukee was looking to do something to get some publicity. Raise his profile a little. Seeing what happened after the Sammy Sosa cork incident he probably was looking to do something just outrageous enough to set the country a buzz about him. He probably thinks it's too bad the woman who was in the costume doesn't plan to sue him. That would have extended the publicity nicely. Maybe his people can place a call and see if they can encourage her to sue him.

NASCAR Rings Up Marketing Opportunities for Nextel

If you aren't tuned into NASCAR you're missing the boat..er Ship. NASCAR is perhaps the fastest growing sport in America. The fan base is huge and growing and the best part is that the fans embrace a marketing saturation rate far higher than other sports. As this story (free registration required) in the New York Times points out, the marketing and advertising opportunities for the NASCAR Winston Cup series are about to explode as the title sponsorship switches to Nextel effective next season. Current cigarette advertising restrictions limit NASCAR's ability to market to children and buy advertising for the events. The article also speculates that a new high tech sponsor may broaden the appeal of stock car racing beyond the south.

Mob Action

Feel like being in a mob? Everyone is doing it. Suppose those bars where mobbers are suppose to meet up have anything to do with this? Viral marketing perhaps. There's real potential here.

No, You May Not Take My Order

Another story about McDonalds and technology. Finally after years of waiting it sounds as though McDonalds is finally taking steps to allow customers to enter their own orders via touchscreen kiosks. I have wanted fast food restaurants to do this for years. It's a win win situation. Customers can save time and aggrivation by accurately entering their own orders while resturant opperators save money on labor costs and wasted food from misunderstood orders. The next step: Accept orders and payments over the Internet. RFID tags in cars trigger kitchens to prepare preplaced orders when customers drive onto the property.

Will WiFi Help McDonald's?

McDonald's is piloting WiFi hotspots in their restaurants in the San Francisco area. While the story points out that the typical WiFi target customer - the business person eager to check their email - isn't likely to want to spend extended time in a McDonalds. I agree and hope that McDonald's isn't missing the opportunity presented by Wi-Fi connectivity. Adding "hotspots" to restaurants can revive them as a cool places to hang out for teens and college students. The key is dirt cheap or even free access even if it's tied to food purchases. For hungry cash poor teens or college students who need cheap Internet access this could be the ideal solution. It's all in the location, marketing and advertising of such offerings. Locations close to schools and college campuses would seem the obvious spots to make hot.

Aluminum Obsession

I have a new obsession. Airstream travel trailers. I love these things and I was stoked to see that various people and organizations are doing custom interiors that are far superior to the standard "grandma's family room" standard interiors most RVs come with. Check these out: Ralph Lauren - As a charity fundraiser the Polo brand has done four themed interiors. My two favorites:
An interior design firm has done this trailer interior. Now this is traveling in style.
Airstream - Perhaps the best option and probably the most affordable is the International CCD versions available from Airstream itself. I like the smallest 16' version. With interior similar to this in the 22' version. There is a large lifestyle marketing opportunity here. Auto makers are going after the GenYers with active outdoors lifestyles with vehicles like the Honda Element. These small SUVs should be enough to tow a 16' Airstream on expeditions to the beach, the woods, the slopes, the concert, the NASCAR track or even the skate park. A lot of 20 somethings have grown up traveling in their parents or grandparents "uncool" RVs. They would be a ripe market for decidedly cool RVs. They may not yet have the money to purchase an Airstream like these but they would rent one for a weekend outing. What if a Snowboarding company offered branded rental "snow bullets" in ski country? What if a mountain bike company offered branded "riders roosts" to take with to the woods for a weekend of trail riding? An MP3 compatible stereo, a flat screen satellite TV system, a DVD player and a WiFi Internet connection and who wouldn't want to spend a weekend in one of these. It's all about image. If the RV manufacturers hope to develop a younger customer base high style interiors are a must. Designs to appeal to both the 20 something GenY crowd and the aging very healthy Baby Boomers who want to stay young are the hope of profits for the RV industry. They need to get about marketing and let people outside the RV subculture know that they have some cool offerings. It's gonna be a great future.

Digital Shoplifting

Yesterday, Smartmobs pointed to a BBC story noting a practice shop owners are calling "digital shoplifting." The story comments on young Japanese girls who send camera phone pictures of new dresses or hairstyles they are seeing in magazines to their friends for their opinions. The Japanese magazine publishers are complaining that this is costing them sales. Does this sound familiar? Yes and no. The magazine publishers fear the napsterization of their content. They see this as individuals "republishing" or "copying" their copyrighted content. They see what is going on with the music industry and file sharing and they are scared. As this micro content sharing proliferates in this form, and the capturing of video, audio and text, content producers will instinctively and reflexively react by tightening the control over their content. Magazine publishers will want to "shrink wrap" their magazines to avoid people stealing the content with camera phones or portable hand held scanners. (I often carry a pen scanner to capture text to my PDA) The result is predictable. Without being able to browse through a magazine people will be less likely to buy it. The "solution" would be far worse than the "problem." This I think is completely the wrong approach. Just as the music industry is making a mistake by seeking to prosecute it's own (former) customers, print publishers who misunderstand the potentials of new digital communication technologies may just cut their own necks by holding too firmly to their precious content. What's needed is a deeper understanding of the social dynamics that are behind this type of micro content sharing. What's really happening here is buzz marketing. When someone sends a camera phone snap of a picture from a magazine seeking to inform and solicit an opinion from another person they are directly or indirectly creating buzz for that magazine. The first question the recipient will ask is where did you see this picture. They will discover that the place to see cool new content or content they might be interested in is in xyz magazine. This is peer to peer marketing. Something I think the magazines should welcome. It's gonna be a great future.

Away and Back

I have been away visiting family. I thought that I would have the opportunity to post while I was away but it wasn't workable. Some observations from my travels: Ten Years - Ten years since I used a paper ticket for air travel. The e-ticket revolution has been a great thing. The addition of self check-in kiosks at the ticket counters has further enhanced the traveling experience. Paper tickets have gone the way of pay telephones in airports. You can find a few but why use them. Searching for Cats - The security people used to paw through everybody's checked bags now with the fancy 1 ton CT scanner machines they scan all the bags before they choose to paw through my bag. Shoes - Security screening checks every passengers shoes. Have they found anything? I've not heard one report of menacing shoes since the notorious shoe bomber. I hope that technology will be developed to alleviate the need to remove your shoes in the airport. Ice Cream - I was surprised to see how many people eat ice cream in airports. Even at 11:15am people are eating ice cream before boarding even short flights. I wonder what the research shows about food sales in airports. Fast Food Restaurants - Fast food establishments are run poorly everywhere. Perhaps it is rocket science after all. Here's a thought. In a place where it rains as much as 4 inches a day in the rainy season you might put a roof over the drive through window so your employees and your customers don't get drenched during transactions. It's an easy one. Take Out - Since it's raining you might want to go get take out food. Here's a thought. If you go to the trouble of printing a take out menu don't forget to put your phone number on it so people can call in their order. And this from a restaurant called "Friendly." The Wireless Life - My 21 year old niece uses her cell phone for an alarm clock. So attuned is she to the ringing thereof. The Folks at Pixar are Geniuses - "Finding Nemo" is a masterpiece. I could go on and on. Suffice it to say that I enjoyed my time away and found many observations about travels and family life.

Your Favorite Biohazard Updates

Monkeypox Doctors announce today that the Monkeypox Virus can be spread from person to person by direct contact with lesions and surfaces around an infected person. West Nile Virus Update Illinois has announced a new $1.50/per tax on new tires to help fund mosquito abatement. West Nile Virus is spread by blood sucking mosquitoes. Illinois leads the nation in cases of West Nile.

Bio-Fear Creates Opportunities

Anybody really concerned with all of the germs and viruses buzzing around these days? While the actual threat is debatable the media attention is creating some very real fear and concern. Bugs like SARS, West Nile Virus and the new Monkeypox Virus which has raised the profile of the lowly prairie dog are perhaps precursors of much more serious threats yet to come. Combine these new natural threats, bio-hazard precursors like Ebola, AIDS, Malaria and the threat of terrorist use of chemical and or biological weapons (like Smallpox) and there is the very real effect of creating a culture of Bio-Fear. Akin to the then new threat of nuclear bombs in the 1950s, Bio-Fear will change the lifestyle of Americans in the 21st century. Products and services are comeing to market that will both provide protection and fan the flames of Bio-Fear. Casinos are advertising their efforts to provide excellent air quality to offset the image and reality of their smoke filled establishments. Airlines are going to need to create and advertise bio-safety on their airplanes if they are going to compete. A recent TV report denouncing the quality of airplane tap water has me vowing to carry my own bottled water on future flights. Turns out airlines don't clean the on-board water tanks very often. No wide spread reports of sickness yet. But that's the point and the opportunity here. Witness the recent cruise ship sickness that swept through the already struggling cruise industry. Part of it all is the PR aspect where the media picks up on an outbreak and amplifies awareness of a story that may have previously gone unnoticed. Businesses, services or experiences that suffer a real or perceived biohazard incident need specialists who can remedy the situation. Companies will need medical specialists to treat victims, cleaning and decontamination experts to remedy the environment and PR specialists to communicate what has happened and what the business is doing to restore it's offerings. Even if you are not a player in those fields or related to them (i.e. advertising agency for such specialists) you may see opportunities here. Personal bio-protection products are a growing field. Gas masks at one extreme to soap at the other end all have a role to play in supporting a bio-safe lifestyle that will be a necessity in the 21st century. The key is education. Just as manufacturers took the lead with PR and educational advertising to make it "cool" for kids to wear helmets when they ride their bicycles, companies have an opportunity to create, educate and shape bio-safety practices in everyday lives. In Japan people wear masks when they themselves are sick to protect others. Of course there is the common benefit of controlling the spread of sickness but there also is a benefit to the marketers of all those masks. It's a win win situation. Practices like those need to be promoted in this country. Marketers and advertisers have the opportunity to identify potential biohazards and educate people on how their products/services can help people remain safe. For example: You eat out at a restaurant. Do you was your hands before you eat? Some people do but even they touch all sorts of surfaces between the bathroom and the table. The opportunity is for the makers of hand sanitizing fluid to show people using their product at the table before the food arrives. In this "buy/use this get this" world the challenge is making the outcome (sustained good health) a "buy/use this don't get this" result have real value to people over the long term. It's the same challenge the increased security measures have after months of nothing happening. Is it unnecessary or is it keeping bad things from happening? Be safe, wash your hands.

Freedom Paradise Resort Picks a Target Market

A unique differentiated experience is to be had in Mexico for people of size. Smart marketers have seen an opportunity and an under served market segment. The Freedom Paradise resort has been receiving a lot of press about their "size friendly" beach and resort. There are references to some of the details that make can make a difference to people of size. Details like comfortable sturdy chairs in the restaurants and pool areas, reinforced beds in the rooms, first floor rooms to eliminate the need to climb stairs and other small accommodations are important to the target market. Will people choose to stay at this resort over other resorts that do not cater to people of size? You bet they will. If the management is serious about catering to this market segment they stand to profit significantly. The lesson is simple. Define, design, execute and profit. Define an Under Served Market Segment - In this case, all inclusive vacations for people of size. In America people of size are an ever increasing demographic. Businesses would do well to train their staff to create a welcoming environment for people of size. It's not just about not discriminating it's about profiting by creating a loyal customer base. Design an Offering/Experience - This is a matter of getting the details right. People of size don't go to restaurants that have mostly booth seating or plastic chairs. Should a resort advertise their chairs? Absolutely, for people of size it's beyond an issue of comfort. The issue is dignity and fear of embarrassment. The possibility of a chair breaking and sending a person to the floor terrifies a person of size so much that they aren't coming near a business until they know for sure that that isn't going to happen. Find out what is important to the market segment that you have defined and design in from the start details that are important to them. This is so important in a society with an aging population. Execute - It's one thing to Define and Design a service, product of experience correctly it's another thing to make it all happen. Train your staff, but if they don't execute with excellence the whole offering is lost. Consistency is critical. If it works the first time it had better work the next time or the customers are gone forever. If a person of size doesn't fit in your chairs or worse one breaks even a little. They will most likely never be back to your restaurant and they won't bring their family or friends with them. Opportunity lost. Profit - If a business gets it just right a loyal following is in the making. A loyal customer base is of course the basis for ongoing profits. In a crowded travel industry money is to be made by defining, designing and executing unique, differentiated experiences for all different market segments. It's gonna be a great future.

Things Have Changed at the Mall

It has been awhile since I was at the mall. Wow, things have changed. Times are tough. Several restaurants are closed and some of my favorite stores are gone. Other stores are busy doing whatever they can to hang on. Fossil, the trendy watch company, realizing that people can't afford to buy as many watches, wallets and handbags as the used to is now selling t-shirts. If they can successfully bring the neo-retro design excellence from their collectible watch packaging to their t-shirts it might work for the short term but they best not dilute the brand by offering too much apparel. People go to Fossil for cool watches and accessories. They already have other places to go for jeans. More generally the trend seems to be to clog the entrance to stores with clearance racks stuffed with merchandise. In an attempt to entice shoppers to come into the store. It seems obvious to me that these tactics are desperation. Stores need traffic but a clearance clog seems self-defeating. One or two shoppers browsing the clearance racks block entry to the store. Of course if there is a stroller involved it only takes one. Other potential customers can't easily enter the store and therefore are likely to give it a miss. If it's not easy and comfortable to enter the store I am not coming in. I'll just move on to the next store. Once again it's about the fundamentals of knowing what business you are really in and providing compelling customer experience and service. Discounters like Target are siphoning off the design and fashion conscious shoppers that mall retailers covet. It has to be about the experience.

Oh, Martha

Martha, Martha, Martha, Martha Martha Stewart has finally hit the wall. She was indicted and she has resigned as CEO of her company. If she's guilty convict her and punish her. The interesting part of the story is what her company does to survive. Their Guru is gone but their expertise is not. Once again it is knowing what business they are in. If they feel they are in the Martha Stewart business they are doomed. Simple as that. If, however, they realize they are in the personality branding business they can survive. MSO needs to develop a stable of brands based on personalities other than Martha. They have already begun the process with the pet "keeping" guy. They know how to build people into empires and they are learning lessons about character flaws and crisis mismanagement that are very valuable. Here's hoping they learn the lessons well.

The Catlow

I had a nice night at a very special movie theater. The 76 year-old Catlow Theater is a beautiful historic building on Main St. in Barrington, IL, a prosperous suburb of Chicago. Unfortunately, this 700 seat theatre has been struggling financially. As a second run theatre charging just $4 a ticket this gem has had a tough go the last several years. Just a few miles away a 30 screen multiplex has siphoned off most of the customer base. Still this gem designed in the 1920s remains largely unchanged from it's original construction. Compare 2002 view left with 1930s view right.

The theater has many fine decorative details designed by the famous sculptor and painter Alfonso Iannelli. I've been to this theater a couple of times and I have to work hard to stay focused on the movie as marketing plans for this theater run through my mind. Some Thoughts: Grown Up Films - "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" was a huge hit for this theater. It played for 19 straight weeks! Focusing on adults over 21 will distinguish the movie going experience at the Catlow. In a nod to the movie going experience of days past, show cartoons and even old newsreals before the screenings. Avoid pre show advertising. Staying away from teen focused "blockbusters" and offering interesting films both mainstream and independent will draw grown up patrons tired of the multiplex crush of teenagers and four dollar candybars. Go Luxury - This gem of a theater is located in a very affluent community that loves this theater. The area multiplex theaters are over run with teenagers and huge crowds. I think an excellent 21+ movie going experience can be crafted that would carry a $15-$20 ticket price. A comfortable seat, a free bag of popcorn and a soft drink, a cartoon that makes you smile, a good movie, the availability of food and drink and a ride home. Sounds like a great date night. Doesn't it.

Reduce Capacity - Replace the old 700 seats with perhaps 250 luxury leather reclining seats. Comfortable seats with plenty of legroom. Tables between seats for foodservice. Leather Recliner Seats Event Space - Surely a space with projection facilities, luxury seats, food service and a cool bus(see transportation below) would be a great place for corporate meetings and training events. Rental revenue could be significant. Upgrade - Significant infrastructure upgrades are necessary. Bathrooms need to be upgraded and code compliance issues abound. Reduced capacity will lighten the loads here. (Fewer people = smaller need for bathrooms, etc.) Food Service - The theater owners operate a sandwich shop adjacent to the theater lobby. The lobby space is used for restaurant seating during the day. At show time patrons may take their sandwiches into the theatre. I would close the retail shop and refocus the foodservice facilities to provide food and beverage service for the theater. A simple dinner menu of high quality food with "seat" service would be significant to the whole experience. Free popcorn and soft drinks would add to the movie-going experience.

Transportation - Parking is in short supply for this theater. A grocery store parking lot provides needed overflow parking. I would craft two elements to add to the theater experience. First, valet parking and a red carpet to make the arrival process more like attending a movie premiere. Hire photographers to play paparazzi snapping pictures as patrons arrive. Award the best-dressed patron an award. This is a time to dress like a star to be seen. Second, lease or purchase an old refurbished double-decker bus. Establish bus routes through the community with stops at set locations where parking is plentiful. (i.e. office buildings with idle parking lots in the evenings, etc.) On senior evenings plan bus service to and from local retirement communities. Seniors like movies but many do not want to drive after dark. Swing by a hotel or two. Craft the bus ride into the whole experience. Have ushers to seat you, popcorn for the ride, movie trivia games, show tunes on the sound system, etc. Serve ice cream bars on the way home. Make it easy, fun and memorable. Partner with Area Hotels - Create dinner and a movie packages with area hotels. Use the bus for service from and to the hotel. Business travelers may want an easy way to fill an evening. Get on the bus, see a movie, have dinner and take the bus back is easy and fun. Traveling tour bus groups could be accommodated. "Movie Cats" Friends of the Catlow - Start a non-profit group to support the theater. Offer memberships that include special screenings (premieres), discounted movie passes. Raise money for the upkeep of the historic elements of the facility. Host fundraisers for local charities. Join with other preservation groups supporting other historic theaters. It all builds cache for the movie going experience.

Some fun creative ideas can save this theater and make a cultural impact on the surrounding communities. In a homogenized multiplex world fewer and fewer authentically differentiated experiences exist. It's the small innovative experience crafters that prevail. Just look at the movie that provided a saving influx of revenue for the Catlow. My Big Fat Greek Wedding came out of nowhere and wildly exceeded all expectations. The Catlow could be just the little theater that wildly exceeds all expectations. Owners that understand that the Catlow is in the entertainment experience business is the key. If they continue to be in the movie exhibition business they will lose. Others simply have technical advantage. They don't have a 76 year old gem of a theatre. The great building, like leather seats, a bus and food service, is an element to crafting the entertainment experience. Skillfully using all the elements together can create magic. Oh, and don't forget to sell the soundtrack CDs in the lobby after the show. Catlow photos copyright 1995-2003 Boloney's, Inc. More PeterThink on movies and marketing: What Business are Theaters In? Theaters Missing Opportunities.

Something to Think About

I've put together a list of books I'd recommend to stimulate thinking. I may not be the first person to recommend some of these titles to you but my recommendation may cause your pile of recommendations for a given title to tip over and land on the order button. Think what would happen if you resolved to read one new book each week? You'd have something to think about and some fresh thinking to apply to your life and career. Something to Think About Besides, the affiliate love keeps PeterThink a float. If you don't see anything you like on my list go ahead and browse awhile. Thanks for your support.

Reebok Signs A Three Year Old

A lot of media attention has been paid to Nike's $100 million dollar endorsement deal with Lebron James an 18 year old high school basketball star who hasn't even played in the NBA. Word is that he's the next Michael Jordan. If that's true he may be worth the money we'll see. Can an 18 year old live the role model life that he will be thrust into? Now comes a story from USA today about Reebok signing a three-year-old! Yes a three-year-old! They have signed him up to do ads and promotional TV programming. Reebok hopes to use young Mark Walker Jr. as the centerpiece for a gifted youth contest that may lead to a TV show. The payday for Mark: a college trust fund that may threaten his amateur status in the eyes of the NCAA in 15 years. No word on whether or not he can dunk. What if Nike sponsored teachers? I wonder.

Something to Think About

I've put together a list of books I'd recommend to stimulate thinking. I may not be the first person to recommend some of these titles to you but my recommendation may cause your pile of recommendations for a given title to tip over and land on the order button. Think what would happen if you resolved to read one new book each week? You'd have something to think about and some fresh thinking to apply to your life and career. Something to Think About Besides, the affiliate love keeps PeterThink a float. If you don't see anything you like on my list go ahead and browse awhile. Thanks for your support.

The Next Big Thing - Go to Your Room!

Turns out teenagers and preteens have rooms of their own and lots of money to spend decorating them. According to Fast Company magazine, teens spend $125 billion of their own money and influence another $245 billion in household spending. Marketers already have teens going to movies and buying the latest fashions. Now they're out to make decorating cool. At the epicenter of this new trend is the new TV show Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls that airs on NBC on Saturday mornings. A spin off of the incredibly popular cable show, Trading Spaces: Boys vs. Girls teams 12yo girls to redecorate a 12yo boys room and vice versa. The results are trendy flop down and hang out teen friendly spaces that appear to be fast and easy to create. You can imagine product placement heaven for marketers. Waiting in the wings looking to receive some of those billions at stake are stores like Target with their trendy designer wares and Wal-mart with their cheap stuff. A new entry into the arena and destined to be a heavy weight as far as capturing and shaping trends is PBteen from William-Sonoma's successful Pottery Barn. Like the parent company and the successful Pottery Barn Kids, PBteen is said to focus on basics that can bring some order to the perceived chaos of teen rooms while providing some fashion forward and trendy goods to flesh out the look. The point is to appeal to the credit card holder (parent) who wants clean and order while the teen wants hip and fashionable. Sounds like a good formula. Time will tell.

Flip Flops, Bras and iPods: the Crowd Goes Wild

Attention members of the Oprah Swarm you're gonna be flocked today. Take a break from selling off your Martha Stewart Omnidirectional stock holdings and tune in. Oprah is presenting another installment of her "Favorite Things" show. In this spring edition Oprah presents some of her "personal" favorite things. Most are recommendations from her circle of celebrity friends and some are clearly the efforts of marketers to get their products showcased on this all powerful promotional vehicle. Oprah presents the Apple iPod as her favorite tech item for spring although clearly she doesn't know how to operate it or how it works. The promotional value of an Oprah endorsement and showcase like this is huge. Small obscure companies can be overnight successes based on an Oprah appearance. This is classic personality brand marketing. Millions of people love Oprah and are ready to love things that Oprah loves. They also want to be seen as in the know amongst their fellow Oprah fans. Oprah handles this promotion with real subtlety. Too hard a "sell" and people will be turned off seeing through it as pure marketing. A personal story about each item and an audience give away which generates huge energy keeps the show from feeling too much like infomercial. The magic here is the true personal story of the celebrity who is making the endorsement. Marketing savvy consumers can see through paid endorsements by celebrities. The ability of people to co-opt the story and make it their own adds to the effectiveness of the marketing. "I saw this applesauce on Oprah the other day. Her neighbor makes it. The lilac is supposed to help elderly who have Alzheimer's." By being in the know about the product and the story the consumer feels connected to their friends by connecting them to their (aspirational) friend Oprah. This only works as well as it does because people feel they know Oprah. People have become familiar with her because she has been in their homes via television everyday for years. The mix has to be just right: the personality brand, their swarm, the product and the story all must align for the magic to happen. For more on Personality Brands Personality Brands and Community For More on Personality Swarm Marketing Everyone in the Audience Gets One

Toyota Tweaks the Prius

After overcoming the ambiguity of the name Prius for it's hybrid gas/electric powered vehicle (Ask four people how to pronounce Prius and you'll likely get at least three different responses.) Toyota has realized that it's time to revise the incredibly bland design of Prius ver. 1.0. While a lot better, I don't think that this version will be good enough to become the next Mini Cooper or Volkswagen Beetle in design appeal. I suspect that the designers and engineers on the project are focused on developing the new technology to the expense of creating an automotive experience for a chosen customer base. Who is the customer for the Toyota Prius? Is this a car for men or women? Is it cool or cute? Do people who drive this car have children? Where do Prius drivers shop for groceries, go for vacations, park their cars? Are there clues in the design of the car? The message I get is that there is no clear target customer. It's mass market design but the mass market isn't ready to buy yet. Toyota is selling their other cars to the mass market. They need to target, design, market and sell the Prius to greater and greater depths of the fringe market. People who live environmentally conscious lives are the obvious market here. They connect the dots of higher fuel mileage/ less dependency on non-renewable fossil fuels sources/ fewer emissions/etc. They car pool, ride bicycles, go hiking, recycle, visit national parks, shop farmers markets, buy in bulk from warehouse stores and plant vegetable gardens. Is their anything about the design of the Prius that supports any of these lifestyle attributes? Be ready for a barrage of advertising and PR for the new Prius. The product isn't focused enough to sell itself within existing consumer communities so they're gonna have to push it hard.

Line Extension Folly of the Year

Vehicle brands are lending their brands to footwear manufacturers. This is going to be a disaster unless the marketers can orchestrate the "Hushpuppy Tip" as described by Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point. Unless the fashion industry picks up on these and makes it hyper cool to be seen in them they are doomed. If you own the vehicle you'll be seen as a geek. "They wear those to remember what kind of car they drive." Worse, if you don't own the brand of vehicle you're shouting: Wannabe! "He can't afford to drive a Hummer so he wears Hummer shoes." (A shoe that could truly benefit from the notorious "Puma" ads. Wink Wink) What is Jeep thinking calling their line "Explorer Footwear?" That's good use the name of your competitor in your new product name. The one company that has a chance at making this work is Honda. They are licensing a line of boots and shoes aimed at customers of their successful motorcycle line. This is a well established fashion sensitive hive that just may adopt these boots as must have riding gear. I'll be watching for Nike and Harley-Davidson like marketing mojo here but I won't be holding my breath. For more thinking about shoes read Shoes Glorious Shoes from the PeterThink archives.

One Happy Customer for McDonald's Today

If I am to be critical I also should offer up praise where praise is due. As a treat for myself I went out to get breakfast at my local McDonald's restaurant. McDonald's has been bashed recently, I think deservedly so, for their poor service and customer experience. In my neighborhood they have recently replaced the entire McDonald's restaurant. The new building is clean and pleasant to look at. On this occasion I went through the drive-thru. There were several cars in front of me, however, the line moved quickly. The menu was visible and the monitor that displays the order was in working condition. A clear pleasant voice greeted me and asked for my order. The salesperson heard and understood me without having to ask me to repeat my order. This is a major accomplishment in my experience. The salesperson repeated my order verbally in addition to it being displayed visually on the display screen built into the menu. It was simple and correct. The cashier at the first window was pleasant and spoke clear English. My food and drink were ready with an acceptable wait time. Furthermore, plenty of parking spaces were available as my preference is to park and eat in my car where I can listen to my car radio. Finally, a drive up trash can was positioned where it was easy to pull up and dispose of the trash on the way out of the parking lot. This seemingly small detail is so often overlooked by drive through restaurants but I think it's an important detail to the customer experience. It eliminates the accumulation of trash in one's car. At least one of the millions of customers served each day is a happy customer. Thanks McDonald's. Oh, and if I were the manager at this McDonald's I'd consider some retail anthropology. Done some gloves and pick carefully through the drive up trash can to see what I might learn about my customers. I'd probably find some bags from competing restaurants. Examining the receipts in these bags would indicate what my customers are ordering at the competition.

Walgreens and Adjustable Pricing

I was marveling at the broad array of stuff available in a local Walgreens store this past weekend. Walgreens is trying to be the corner Wal-Mart. Offering a little bit of everything and a lot of some things I have to wonder who would ever buy. What Walgreens is really about is convenience and availability. While Walgreens is busy building stores every mile or so, in suburban areas, more and more of them are open 24 hours. So whether you need a prescription filled, an emergency pack of diapers or even Liquid Plumber Walgreens will be there. For a price. Nobody said Walgreens is a discounter. Walgreens is positioned to take the greatest advantage of RFID tags and digital store shelves. The prospect of real-time sales and inventory data combined with the ability to change prices in real time will be a huge benefit to retailers like Walgreens. On many products retail prices have long disappeared in favor of shelf pricing tags and UPC bar codes. Imagine when the humble shelf price tag gets wired. What if price tags on store shelves were display screens wirelessly linked to the same computers that handle inventory, pricing and cash registers? Then store managers have the ability to do some innovative pricing. Killer App Alert for the makers of digital paper. Companies like E-ink that make paper-thin flexible display material are looking to commercialize their technology ASAP. Simple black and white four or five line text displays are all that's needed. Smart display tags would click into power supply tracks running along the front edge of store shelves. These same tracks could contain sensors that could detect the quantities and type of RFID tagged products on the shelves. Adjustable Prices During the day Walgreens is certainly not the only place to buy diapers, cough medicine, or Liquid Plumber. So competitive pricing is critical. However, at 3am the story is different. Sure demand is lower but so too is supply. Walgreens may, in fact, be the only place to buy these and other emergency needs. Costs are also different. Overhead costs are greater at night as stores pay expenses with far fewer shoppers to support those costs. What if the computers could adjust the price of products in the store during different times? Prices could be higher at night and lower during the day. With digital shelf tags combined with RFID tags on products and sensors on shelves companion products could be marketed in new ways. A shopper selects a particular brand of shaving cream and instantly the price of that brand, or a competing brand, of disposable razors changes. Too much candy is on the shelves as Halloween approaches. No problem the computer can adjust prices on the fly. The value of a Mother's day card changes as the day comes and goes. The highest value and, consequently price, is between 6am and 10 am on Mother's day itself. Same value proposition for batteries on Christmas day. PR is Critical to Selling Variable Pricing Price fluctuation based on market demand is classic capitalism. However, as the technology that facilitates this kind of control and adjustment becomes available, PR becomes critical. Remember the PR flack that killed the Coke machines that could raise the price when the ambient temperature went up? People found that to be opportunistic and unsavory. If only the headline read: Coke Machine Can Lower Prices When Temps are Cool. Fluctuating prices have to be perceived as an opportunity for people to save money by shopping when market forces dictate competitive prices rather than spending more when market forces dictate higher prices. Even our local Jiffy Lube stores are offering a discount if you bring your car in for an oil change before 10am on weekdays. Notice they're not saying we're going to charge more during peak hours. The bottom line is that in this world of increasing competition and mind blowing technology retailers need every tool they can get to stay competitive. Fluctuating prices facilitated by technology seems a natural progression. It's gonna be a great future.

Common Sense Should Shape Shopping Experience

What makes a good shopping experience? There are a lot of "experts" and studies that claim to hold the keys to what makes a compelling shopping experience. I think the place to start is simply a large dose of common sense and a view through the eyes of customers. Clean the Bathrooms! - How many people make shopping decisions based on the quality of the bathrooms in a given store? I suspect it's enough to make it well worth paying a lot of attention to clean well-appointed bathrooms. If a shopper has to go do you want them to come into your store because they know you have good bathrooms or leave the store (or drive to a competitor) to find a better bathroom? Keep the Space Fresh - Please keep your store interesting and fresh but don't sacrifice wayfinding. If people can't find what they're looking for they can't buy it. Simultaneously, if people can't browse, explore and make new discoveries the unique experience of your shop will be lost. Hire People People - Beyond hiring friendly outgoing people, hire people who can read customers and know who they can and should interact with and how. It's an art form but it will pay off in customer experience. Sometimes I want to be friendly and conversant and sometimes not. Train Your People - Much has been made about The Container Store and how well they train their people. It pays off in customer experience and increased sales. From the customer point of view it's a refreshing experience to ask for something and be taken right to it by someone who is knowledgeable. Customers assume employees know what the store carries, has in stock and where it is located. Is this so difficult? Employees should be required to know these things. Keep the Merchandise in Order - If you are having people over to your home you clean and pick-up after yourself. Your home reflects on you and you want to make a good impression on people. It's the same with a store. Shelves in disarray and merchandise left all over the floor make for a bad impression, a bad experience and a lasting bad memory that can keep people away from your store for a long time to come. There is a lot that goes into crafting a unique and compelling customer experience. There's no better place to start than simply experiencing your store or business through the eyes of a customer. These points should be obvious and not worth mentioning but clearly they are not. If you manage a store log off and go check the bathroom. Chances are it's not the cleanest one in town.

What to Do With Kmart

Kmart emerged from bankruptcy today. Anyone care? ÖAnyone? I didn't think so. I don't know any of the details of their situation. I do know that I don't know a single person who shops at any of the remaining Kmarts. If they don't come back with a radical new format and offering they simply won't make it. Half their market seems headed for Target and the other half is headed for Wal-Mart. What Kmart should do: Name Change - The Kmart name has failed. In the customers mind Kmart=bankruptcy. The must change their name as soon as possible. They must, however, develop their new persona before doing so. Become the Merchandising Mechanism for Personality Brands - The new company should craft a new retailing concept that is tied to personalities. Building on their relationship with Martha Stewart, the company should develop marketing and merchandising strategies that are based upon successful personality brands. Martha Stewart, Oprah, Dr. Phil, Dr. Atkins, B. Smith, Suzy Orman, Ralph Loren and a host of others are building personality brands that all speak to some aspect of the American lifestyle. These brands use traditional and new media to communicate their messages. They also incorporate some degree of merchandising. Create Community - Create a retail environment that is more than a traditional store. Create a club atmosphere where the swarms of the various personality brands can connect face to face with like minded individuals and lifestyle consultants(sales associates) through consultations, demonstrations, seminars, screenings, book clubs, lunch dates, birthday parties, and community group functions like PTA meetings, etc. Create a "Third Place" - The concept of a third place that isn't home and it isn't work is prevalent in Asia where it often takes the form of an Internet cafÈ. Millions of young Asians utilize these third places to hang out and connect in person and virtually with others. The new company has the opportunity to become the chosen hangout for their customers. Provide cafes, restaurants, theatres, classrooms and lounges as part of the retail environment. Throughout it all provide computers and wi-fi connection to the Internet. Charge a Membership - In order to create the impression of value, support the facilities, and command respectful conduct the company should charge an admission fee and offer annual memberships. In order for customers to understand the value of the experience offered by the company there should be a direct cost for them to have the experience. This is a concept between a health club membership and a CostCo or Sam's Club Card. Partner Up - Don't go it alone. Partner with existing players to provide services outside your retailing background. Outsource the cafÈ, restaurant, bank, beauty salon, etc. Embed in Local Communities - Leverage your new facilities to become the 21st century community center. Provide meeting space and support for local organizations and causes. Value community support across the country but act locally based on input from local members. Billy's cub scout meeting takes place at the same time Suzy's dance class meets giving Mom time to catch up on her E-mail, watch today's Martha Stewart Living and purchase the baking pans she saw on the show. Too bad it'll never happen. The old dog is too old and set in their ways to make a run at such a radical forward thinking concept. Let's just sit back and watch as they close more and more stores. Maybe Target can woo Martha away and run with things. It's gonna be a great future.

Go Ahead Advertise Your Bad Seats

Now what is ATA (American Trans Air) doing with their advertising? They show three of their awful cramped airplane seats against a white background. Superimposed on those seats they show images showing images of different travel related experiences or sights. Pictures of cities, mountains, rubber rafting etc. Unfortunately, the message I get from these ads is: In order to have good experiances like these you have to endure these seats. Now admittedly, I am a big guy and so coach plane seats are never comfortable. I think few people see plane seats as a compelling image. Unless your plane seats are something special and better than the competition, keep them out of your adds.

In Search of Masculine Fresh Air

We interrupt Airline week for the following idea. While in the grocery store today I wanted to buy an air freshener for my apartment. An abundance of options presented themselves. Unfortunately they were all floral scents in pastel packages. I know that women buy most of these things but I am not a woman and I don't want my apartment to smell like flowers, meadows, lavender mist or any such thing. I don't even want Vanilla or Fresh rain shower that seem to be the only non-floral options. Can't Proctor & Gamble or Johnson Wax see that there are men who want air fresheners that aren't feminine? Certainly women have much more sensitive noses than men do but there are enough men to create a market. Let's not have Harley-Davidson air fresheners. It doesn't need to be a male brand extension just a decent fresh smell in a decent masculine form factor.

So How Should They Advertise?

So how should airlines advertise? You have read my criticism of American Airlines advertising that focuses on low fares. (Yesterday) The obvious question is how should they advertise. Regular readers of PeterThink will know my answer. Airlines should "sell" person to person connection. Tell stories of people traveling to connect with one another face to face. Just like Kodak focused (no pun intended) on "Kodak moments" airlines should create emotional stories about face to face connections made possible by their brand. Show and tell the story of how somebody decides to travel, easily buys the tickets, enjoys what better be a good airport and plane experience and finally makes the connection with the friends, family or business associates. May I suggest "Click, Fly, Be There! A moment made possible by American Airlines" Take a page from the pharmaceutical companies that "sell" increased quality of lifestyle in their advertising. They don't sell the features or even mention the costs of their products. They show and tell stories of how their drugs help people to live their lives the way they want to. This is an obvious choice for airlines. Only the low cost carriers can advertise low cost travel. And only those with a superior differentiated experience can promote the features of their service. (Virgin Atlantic did this in print ads) So, ironically, the best way to advertise an airline is to tell the story of the passengers not the airline. It's like a long distance phone call. It's who are you going to call not what kind of wire and switches does the phone company use.

Misguided Advertising

Have you seen the American Airline TV commercials where they have real passengers say how much money they spent to fly on American Airlines? I think that this is misguided. American is not a low cost carrier. They can't have the cheapest flights. Why oh why are they trying to set themselves up as a cost competitor? American has been successful with their campaign advertising their increased legroom in coach class. I know that I for one have switched to American because of it. I have four or five airlines to choose from on one of my frequent routes. I switched to American for the legroom. It's a short flight so it's probably worth about $20 in fare premium to me. If the flight were longer say more than two hours I would pay even more over competing carriers. The point is that increasing the quality of the experience - comfort, speed, convenience even delight increases the bottom line. All flying experiences being the same, crappy, people will race to the lowest cost provider. Those airlines who can consistently raise the quality of the traveling experience can quickly raise the bottom line. The key is thinking big and making radical paradigm shifting changes that truly differentiate one airline experience from another. It's gonna be a great future.

Time Travel

Flying United Airlines in 2006 April 29, 2006 - I flew United last week. When I bought my ticket online the web site offered me a discount to use their new parking lot at the airport. The lot looked like one of those express pick up rental car places. You back in to the spaces. There is a roof over the back of the car. A luggage cart was waiting. Good thing, too because I did have a bag to check. United's baggage handling is becoming legendary fast, careful and secure. Turns out I could check my bag right at the passenger center at the parking lot. Cool. The counter clerk was most helpful. Even asked me which rental car company I was using in my destination city. Turns out they can have my bag for me right at the rental car place. Skipping the baggage claim will save a lot of time. The electric shuttle bus to the terminal was quick, quiet and no smelly fumes. Dropped us right at the door to the United terminal. Walked right in to the security checkpoint. Good thing too. The lines at the ticket counters were filling up. The new security scanners are great. Remember when we had to take our computers out of your carry-on bag? Not any more. Zips right through the chemical scanner and the CT scanner. No more taking your shoes off either. The magnetometers are so much better now. My gate was pretty far out on the concourse. Not a problem, there were two of those electric passenger trams. The seats were full so I just stood on the back platform. Those things are great. I am getting a little older so it's nice to save steps where I can. All these improvements save a lot of time. I had a few extra minutes at the gate. Logged on the Internet to check my email. Even the video mail downloaded quickly. They've had wifi networks in airports for years now but the new United network is great. Full coverage from parking lot to plane to parking lot. That's great since I wanted to send a video mail to my wife from the shuttle bus this morning. My phone works much faster on the Wifi network rather than the cell network. So much for 3G. The biggest difference with United these days are the planes. This one had just been retrofitted. The seats are much wider with great legroom. The entertainment system in the seatback was great. Lots of stuff I like. No video games or that so-called music the kids are listening to these days. Music from the 70s to the 90s, and some current stuff. I guess I didn't need to bring my player with me. Of course there's satellite TV. Half way through the flight I realized I had forgotten to leave a FedEx envelope out for pick up. I had it all ready to go but left it on the kitchen table. I knew my wife wasn't home so I couldn't ask her to put it out for the pick up. This was a job for Rosie, our new home robot. Yes, I'm an early adopter, but it's just a cool technology. Especially when you need to get those documents in the FedEx. So I decided to test the in-flight bandwidth. Normally, I'd hope to have enough juice left in my laptop batteries. (Still waiting for fuel cells prices to come down.) This plane had regular power outlets. Great! I was able to robot in with out much difficulty. It worked! I could supervise Rosie from my browser at 30,000 ft. It took about 30 minutes but I was able to get Rosie to put the envelope outside the front door. Whew! I'll make the 2pm pickup. The plane landed on time. United even emails your rental car company to tell them your plane has landed. If you are being picked up they'll email, page or IM your driver also. Walked right out of the terminal to the car rental garage. By the time I got there my checked bag was there. They popped it on a luggage cart and I was off to my car. The return trip was equally hassle free. I don't mind paying a little more these days. The experience is so much better than the old cattle days. Besides, the productivity I can achieve in route more than makes up the difference in cost. Sure it's fiction now but things have got to change in a big way if United is going to survive. They'll be smaller and if they don't find a way to increase the quality of the experience they'll be gone.

You Could Pay for What You Get

A brief break from Airline Week here at PeterThink: The recent story about fans suing the band Creed for a bad performance points to an opportunity to capitalize on the value of a performance experience. Up until now the pricing and profit potential of a performance offering has been based on fixed prices. Theatre, concert or movie tickets have been priced in advance at levels set by the producers. If the actual experience called for a different price it hasn't been possible to make adjustments on the fly. Sure people have been able to demand and receive refunds when things go wrong, but what about increasing prices if things go really right? If you have a really good experience at a concert what do you do? You buy a T-shirt and a CD on the way out. Concert promoters know that the increased revenue opportunity for exceeding audience expectations is in the increase in souvenir sales. Often there are complex revenue sharing arrangements between vendors and promoters. Do you think the Creed fans who felt they didn't receive a concert experience worth what they paid (to the extent that they are suing to get their $54 back) were quick to get in line to buy T-shirts and CDs? What is needed is a system of pricing performances that reflects the quality of the performance itself. Some time ago Coca-Cola had a PR blunder when they introduced a vending machine that increased the price of a coke when the machine sensed an increase in ambient temperature. People felt this was opportunistic capitalism at it's ugliest. Never mind that children do it at a young age with their first lemonade stand. At first glance a system that can increase the price of a performance based on the quality of the experience can be seen as opportunistic capitalism. However, the system would be a win-win situation. Producers and performers would be highly motivated to produce the highest quality experience for their audience. Ticket buyers would feel the got a say in what their experience cost them. How would it work? Staying with our example of a concert. Ticket buyers would via a website nominate critics to attend the concert. These critics would be evaluated and selected by their online profiles and criticisms of the performers past offerings. Quality would be mediated by a trust and reputation management system. (like ebay, Amazon.com, Slashdot, etc.) A range of potential ticket costs would be determined. Say $50 to $150. The performers would be motivated to deliver a $150 experience. Concert audiences would agree in advance to pay what the critics determine. The critics, kept honest by the reputation system, would evaluate the performance and determine the ticket price. Credit cards would be charged sometime after the show. The prime benefit of a system like this is that peripheral issues important to the audience experience can affect the revenue picture. If the promoter doesn't provide adequate security, toilets, or parking this can be reflected in ticket revenue. Fair for the audience and highly motivating for the promoters and performers. With all of the variables in staging quality experiences variable pricing structures are necessary to provide the best value to audiences and fair rewards to performers and producers. Riddle me this: Why does it cost the same to see an Oscar winning film and a film that critics hate? Why do movie theatres respond to increased demand for tickets to popular movies with increased supply(more screens and seats) rather than increased ticket prices? Broadway doesn't work this way. Just try to get tickets to the Lion King or The Producers.

The Picnic Has Moved

Now is probably a real good time to start an airline. You saw that right. Now is a good time to start an airline. Available planes are sitting in the desert, thousands of skilled airline workers are available, and potential customers are ready to support the right offering. On top of that the big airlines are struggling. The challenge is financing. It's a difficult environment to raise the necessary capital these days. Still, the environment is ripe. As the economy recovers watch for a new large airline. So with this much opportunity what's a newly bankrupt airline to do? Toss out the business plan and play like a start-up. Realize the world has changed for good. Blame terrorists or the dot-com bust or whatever. The fact is that the changes we're seeing in the airline business are real. You cannot renegotiate or reorganize your way back to the way things were. You can't go back to eat the lunch you once ate. The picnic has moved. It is time the airlines reconfigured themselves to be something different. Think outside the boxÖer tube. The day of the universal global airline serving anyone and everyone is over. That model was based on the efficiencies of mass production. Now in the era of mass customization and experience it's differentiate or die. No longer is it about shaving costs and prices to win a greater share of a shrinking market. It's about designing a product offering that will command (earn) a premium. To do that you must narrow your focus and broadly appeal to a narrow targeted customer base. My previous posts (below) include some suggestions of specific ways that airlines can do this.

What United Airlines Should Do Now

I am not an expert on airlines or an employee of an airline. I am just a marketing guy who has some ideas on what the future of the airline business can be. Here's what I think United Airlines should do. United is positioned to appeal to what is left of the baby boomer business and leisure travel market. Airlines can no longer be all things for all people and hope to compete on price. There was a time when airlines could go head to head on the same routes with the same schedules and compete on crowds and price. United and American both flew from Chicago to New York every hour all day long. Business travelers took choice for granted. These days that kind of competition is just adding up to excess capacity - too much "sameness." There just aren't enough customers to go around. What's needed is a narrowing of focus. United needs to concentrate on a specific category of travelers and strive for excellence within that segment of the market. I would suggest baby boomer business and leisure travelers. I would combine these two groups because passengers who travel on business will use their frequent flyer miles for leisure travel. Like hotels, United can use their weekday business traveler capacity to offer leisure travelers good deals on weekend travel. The adjustments: Humanize the Planes - More legroom, wider seats, bigger bathrooms. The whole plane becomes Business class. Maintain First Class for those who want the status and/or pampering. Realize and accommodate the reality of the real dimensions of the average to large American 45 year-old. Three seats become two. Provide Communications Technology - Provide broadband Internet access, cellular service and 110v AC power to all seats. Appropriate Entertainment - Program entertainment systems to appeal to boomers. Don't provide kids programming or video games so as to discourage younger travelers that can be distracting and disruptive to the target market. Sensible Food and Beverages - Provide decent beverage service and optional meal service. Charge extra for meals if you need to but make it worth the extra cost. $10 for the current airline meal. Oh please! Invest in Ground Facilities - As you restructure invest in ticket counters/systems and baggage screening/checking/claim areas and systems to make them as streamlined and efficient as possible. Both business and leisure travelers value time and hassle savings. Minutes saved at the airport mean more time on the ground. It's a valuable (profitable) exchange. Reality Check Frequent Flyer Program - Revise the system to be more realistic. Don't provide miles for sneezing. Give out fewer miles thereby making it easier to use the miles that are earned. Start a two tiered system for miles granting programs like credit cards and hotels. Let them award upgrade points that travelers can use to upgrade to the posh First Class. It should cost a lot of points to do so. Continue to use Internet - As this segment is already wired in the office and at home, rely more and more on web based ticketing, reservations and customer service. Staff Accordingly - If your market is baby boomers, staff planes and public contact positions with baby boomers. Strive to build trust and rapport with customers. Common values among people of the same generation will make United a comfortable place to be. Sure, steps like these are going to disconnect many of the existing customers from the United brand. Conversely, United could gain huge numbers of customers in this target segment that are fed up with airlines that don't cater to their specific needs. People who are uncomfortable in cramped seats, irritated by screaming kids or chattering teens and 20-somethings and in dire need to check their e-mail in flight are probably willing to pay a reasonable premium for a ticket on United. Is it hard to make these changes in such a large organization? Yes, but they have no choice but to change. It's only a matter of what they change into. It's gonna be a great future.

What Should Southwest Airlines Do Now

A major problem facing airlines is oversupply. The problem is broader than too many flights/seats on any given route. The problem is a lack of differentiated experience in air travel. Flying on American, United or Delta is basically the exact same experience. They all use the same airports, gates, counters, baggage claim, etc. Even their frequent flier clubs are similar. Granted much of that is outside their individual control. One differentiated experience in the airline world is Southwest. Why has Southwest garnered so much publicity over the years? They are newsworthy because they have differentiated their customer experience. They have designed their experience to be cost efficient, fun and entertaining. Southwest is successful because they broke the mold. Their no frills low cost service was a distinction when other airlines were providing perks and extras. Now that other airlines are being forced to cut their costs to survive Southwest will face competition within its category of cheap point to point service. All the airlines are beginning to look like Southwest. What should Southwest do now? Stay the cheapest point to point provider. That's what the Southwest brand name stands for. This is their brand equity. How should they do this? Continue to streamline service by: Eliminate Checked Baggage - This would save huge amounts of time and money by eliminating baggage handling crews and equipment. Baggage compartments can be modified to hold additional fuel tanks. Less refueling and no baggage handling saves ground time thereby increasing flying(paying) time per plane. Standardize Carry-on Bags - You want to fly Southwest, you better bring a Southwest brand carry-on bag. Special carry-on bags designed to fit tightly with maximum efficiency in modified overhead bins. Quick in, quick out. Further Streamline in Air Service - Eliminate any beverage/peanut service on flights less than three hours. On longer flights just beverages in cans. No cups, napkins or ice. Less trash, less labor, lower costs. Seat People to Optimize Boarding and Deplaning Times - On multi leg flights seat people in sections by destination to speed deplaning and subsequent boarding. Reduction in ground time increases flying time per plane. Steps like these would definitely define the customer base. Baggage free, short hop, ultra low cost airline service like this would appeal to cost conscious business travelers making day trips, weekend tripers, college, people traveling between homes and other circumstances where people need fast low cost travel with little or no luggage. Would Southwest loose customers? Yes they would initially. However, cost and time savings would allow an increase in the number of flights possible with the same amount of equipment. Increased schedules and reduced flying related hassles would win the right customers in droves. The new Southwest would again be a differentiated offering continuing to serve customers who expect Southwest to be a no frills provider.

Answers for Airlines

I flew this past weekend. The whole experience is pretty awful and we considered it a successful trip. We have such low expectations. Is it any wonder that airlines are struggling and blaming economics and security for their pain? What is really happening is a needed restructuring of the whole system. Because the hardware is big and expensive this restructuring is very costly. Some of the biggest players are going down. The fundamental issue at the heart of all things flying is the value proposition. What is coming under examination and reconsideration these days is what are people buying when we contract for air travel. It's often said that the railroads lost out to air travel because the railroads failed to understand that they were in the transportation business. Transportation was what their customers wanted and when there becomes a more efficient way to get from point A to point B people switched from rails to wings. The airline business offered faster transportation. Faster transportation spawned a market for commerce based on face to face communication. Business travelers built businesses by traveling for face to face meetings. Now as business are switching to new technologies and business paradigms that rely less on costly travel the airlines have found the sand their business's are built on have radically shifted. This shift was accelerated by the security issues spawned by September 11th attacks and the subsequent war on terrorism. Being unable to fly for a few days and too scared to fly for several more days, weeks or months caused all business travelers to reconsider their traveling practices. New technologies and ways of doing business have increased since September 11. Internet meetings, video conferencing, Instant Messaging, E-mail, SMS, Web enabled wireless picture phones and soon video-telephones and remote presence robots all reduce the need for business people to travel. Time for airlines to rethink what business they are in. People want experiences in their lives. They want or need to spend time with friends, family and meaningful individuals in their lives. They want to visit interesting places. They want pampering or adventure in their lives. Transportation is an ingredient of these experiences but it's not the most important ingredient. It really is the destination not the journey (most of the time.) Airlines need to understand that the traveler will have the power or the choice. Either you cater to them or they will make other choices. Streamline the process and experience of Grandma getting to visit her grandchildren or she will stay home. The airline that makes it easiest for families with small kids to travel to Disney World will win. Not because they are better at flying, but because people want to follow the path of least resistance to the experience of Disney World. Airlines compete on price. Why don't they compete on features like everyone else? Delta, you take families. United, you take baby boomers. American, you take seniors. Southwest, Jet Blue, Midwest Express, you take niche markets. We know what an airline for seniors looks like (see Geezer Air post below.) What does an airline for families look like? Some thoughts: -Clean Strollers and luggage carts everywhere. (Parents leave yours at home-move faster) -Booster "car" seats built-in to plane seats. (Parents leave yours at home-move faster) -Baby/child friendly bathrooms on planes and at gates. (Kids gotta go) -In flight entertainment systems designed for kids and parents. (Something to do) -Edutainment materials/exhibits about flying at gates. (Channel curiosity and fear to excitement) -Special services designed to cater to children traveling alone. (Divorce is a fact. Lots of kids need to travel alone safely) -A schedule that goes where families go when they go there. (Disney, Yellowstone, Ski-slopes, Europe, etc.) This isn't difficult. Just watch families in airports and wonder if features like these would be enough incentive for them to pick a family friendly airline over a generic price based airline. People will pay for ease and convenience. Cruise ships have designed their experiences to attract a particular market. Time for airlines to do the same. It's gonna be a great future.

More on Travel Concepts

From the PeterThink Archive There has been good response to my post Travels and Travails about ideas for the travel industry. I was reminded of my mock radio ads for the tongue 'n cheek airline concept: Geezer Air "Geezer Air. Safe secure and not even memorable. Geezer Air. When you need offsite climate enhanced storage for an elderly loved one. Why not drug, stuff and ship them using Geezer Air. Geezer Air, the leader in sedated air shipment. Geezer Air. So simple so excellent and yet so utterly forgettable. Uniformed professionals arrive to you home with one of our new state of the art stainless steel canisters. Once the drugs take effect, your beloved gezzer is carefully and skillfully readied for shipment. After less than a 24 hour ride on our almost new Geezer Air transport trucks. You precious securely packaged Geezer is loaded onto one of our surplus military cargo planes. After a slow bumpy flight to the climate enhanced storage location of your choice and a brutley hard landing, your securely canistered Geezer will be available for pick up at baggage claim. Once awakened and released from their canister your beloved Geezer will exclaim "Where am I?" and "How did I get here." Ahhh another barely satisfied customer. Geezer AirÖ"How did I get here." How indeed. Thatís Geezer Air. Ask about our cathiterzation discount special. Sure itís uncomfortable but it eliminates the cranky preshipment fasting period." My apologies for any potential Geezer Air customers. I do think there is a serious opportunity for a smart charter air service to serve the assisted travel market. There are a lot of ageing baby boomers and their parents out there.

Travels and Travails

From the PeterThink Archives I think I do a pretty good job of surrendering control and privacy at the airport. I give it up at the curb in my departing city and I pick it up again at the curb in my arrival city. Itís always been necessary to give up control when you get on an airplane. Unless youíre wearing wings and holding the stick youíre not in control. Now add a guy x-raying your shoes, checking the q-tips in your carry-on for knives (twice) and pawing through your dirty underwear looking for bombs and you can see why I am beginning to get fed up with air travel. The quality of the travel experience is going down steadily as security protocols add hours to even the shortest flights. I only fly a few times a year but I can see that we are on the brink of something big in the travel industry. There exists huge opportunity for those who can reinvent travel in these uncertain times. Where are the bus companies? What if busses were less like airplanes with wheels and more like rolling corporate jets offering premium travel amenities like leather seating, fine food, Internet access, etc? What if a bus was like a home theatre with stadium seating, surround sound, and movies. Maybe that six-hour drive wouldnít be so bad. Where are the tour companies? If you have aging parents or you have tried to travel to Florida in the winter time you know about the "snowbird" migration that happens every spring and fall as senior citizens move south for the winter. Where are companies operating special services catering to these special travelers? Companies that can successfully combine car/goods shipment with assisted travel by air, train or bus stand to capitalize significantly as the population ages. The lives of seniors would be greatly enhanced if there were just one airline or charter service that could accommodate wheelchair-using seniors with dignity, ease and comfort. Sure it would be more expensive but enabling people to continue living their desired lifestyle of seasonal mobility would be of value to many people. Where are the Experience Crafters? Disney decided that existing cruise ships didnít provide adequate "Disney magic" so they built their own ships. What if they find that bad flying experiences are keeping people away from their park properties? Can Air Disney be far away? What would check-in and boarding be like at Air Disney? Air Taxi Service If you have been reading the business press recently you know about the Eclipse, a new airplane that promises to be affordable enough to provide individualized air service using municipal airports. Six passenger jets will fly from point to point for the cost of a first class ticket. While this is a very complex undertaking, it has the potential to bring about fundamental changes to the airline business. Market Niche players The travel market will undoubtedly continue to fragment as special operators come in to serve up-market segments and highly efficient discount providers continue to flourish. Cost savings await those who can tolerate the cattle treatment. (Southwest, ATA, Jet Blue) Pampering awaits those who can afford it. (Virgin Atlantic, Midwest Express) Differentiated experiences await in the middle. There is coming a day when humane legroom wonít be enough to truly differentiate one airline from another. (American Airlines) As people continue to be frustrated by the increasing difficulties of the travel experience the winning providers will be those who can provide a meaningful brand experience that meets peoples needs, exceeds their expectations and delights their sensibilities. Itís gonna be a great future.

Digital Cluephone: Regarding Copyrights

From the PeterThink archives: Do you ever wonder what all the stink is about copyright protection? The major creativity factories are very concerned as new digital technologies allow the proliferation of copyrighted materials with no loss in quality and no limits on the quantity of copies. Movie studios worry about copies of movies being exchanged over the Internet. Music labels worry about MP3s cutting into the sale of CDs. Oh, wait, is that the digital cluephone ringing? Why, yes, of course it is. We are seeing the waves of technological, cultural and economic change. Some companies, organizations and individuals are learning how to surf these waves. A few bands are waking up to the fact that free exchange of their music online builds community among their fans and leads to higher revenues from concerts where the musicians make greater profit. Movie studios are beginning to catch on to the potentials of DVD distribution. Do you realize that the movie ñPearl Harbor- made more money in the first day of DVD sales than it did in itís three day holiday weekend theatrical opening. $67.5 million vs. $59.1 million (source: Business 2.0 vol. 3 no. 5 pg.34) All that for a movie that the critics panned. Could it be said that the theatrical release of a film is designed as part of a promotional campaign to sell DVDs? What these happenings are pointing to is a shift from reliance upon a single manifestation of a set of ideas for revenue generation to a broader approach that incorporates and coordinates efforts ranging from media buzz to community building to merchandising. Many movies and TV vehicles already are mastering these techniques and paving the way for the rest of us to follow. I was watching a few minutes of Oprah today she was hosting Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg promoting their newest movie. Included were clips of highlights of Cruiseís world tour to promote ñVanilla Sky- his last film. These highlights were from the Vanilla Sky DVD. Hereís a smart movie company expanding the desirability of their intellectual property by giving special inside information to DVD buyers. Of course, Oprah is late to the dance here. These same clips have already been on the entertainment news shows. Somebody is on the ball promoting this DVD. Of course, enticing people to buy DVDs of movies they liked in the theatre by loading the disc with insider goodies is itself a intermediate step. As digital sharing technologies like distributed P2P software and broadband connected hard drive based video recorders make it possible for people to share this content as well. Is the solution to use laws to try and slam the barn door on the horseís tail or foster creative next steps in the world of content development and promotion?

Parts of the Story

Here is a story about the amazing Honda ad that I linked to yesterday. I had assumed they used CGI to create such a wonderous sequence. Turns out it was real. Over six hundred takes....increadible. Lights! Camera! Retake!

The Front Edge of the LED Revolution

Chances are you've been stopped more than once by an LED. Have you noticed them? Have you looked closely and noticed the change in stoplights. The regular incandescent light bulbs are being replaced by super efficient LEDs (light emitting diodes.) The stoplights look like a cluster of small dots of colored light. This is the front edge of a coming revolution that looks to replace familiar light bulbs with long lasting high efficiency LEDs. The colored LEDs that are the main ingredients of white-light sources have already made a dramatic impact. Take the ordinary red stoplight. In a conventional setup, one big, inefficient incandescent light bulb sits behind a red filter; the bulb guzzles about 150 watts of electricity and lasts about a year before it burns out, sometimes snarling traffic until the local highway department rushes out with a bucket truck to change it. In a growing number of traffic lights, though, a dozen or so red LEDs sit behind a clear lens, consume about 15 watts, and control traffic for five or more years before requiring replacement. According to the California Department of Transportation, replacement of conventional traffic-light bulbs with LEDs (red, yellow, and most recently, green) has trimmed at least $10 million from the state's annual electric bill. And nationwide, according to Strategies Unlimited, a market research firm in Mountain View, CA, LED traffic lights are becoming commonplace: as of 2002, 39 percent of red lights and 29 percent of green lights used LEDs. (source) More years of research will be needed before we will be lighting our homes and offices with LED based light sources. This is, however, the start. What we will see are creative new designs and applications for LED lighting products that will realize huge maintenance and energy savings. This promises to be yet another disruptive technology. Just as wireless phones are disrupting wired landlines, e-mail is disrupting snail mail, air travel has disrupted train travel, LED lighting will eventually disrupt Thomas Edison's light bulb. If you are making or selling light bulbs look over your shoulder. That chunk of glowing plastic and crystallized chemicals is going to change the world. Exhibit A: Artemide: Sui It's gonna be a great future.

Honda's New Accord

This is the most creative car ad I have ever seen! Worth the download and the Flash upgrade. Wow! Honda's New Accord

Five Notes to Retail Clerks

It's hard to find good talent these days but it's also the case that employers have many applicants to choose from. Here are some basic skills, traits and abilities that I would look for and train on if I were hiring and managing retail sales help. This list applies to restaurant employees as well. Offer eye contact! The customer may not return or initiate eye contact but your lack of offering it indicates a lack of your interest and presence in serving the customer and doing an effective job. Listen! Listen to the customer. No, I mean literally listen to the customer. Many errors in sales and service are the result of sales people simply not hearing the customer. If you cannot hear normal speech in your work/sales environment call it to the attention of your management. If the music is too loud, the sound system not adequate, background noise too loud or distracting suggest ways to change or improve your listening environment. If the customers feel they can't be heard they will go and buy where they feel they can be heard. (Note to management: for telephone and listening dependant roles (i.e. drive through windows) please ensure that sales people speak and understand English (in the US) clearly.) Understand the difference between urgent and important. A ringing phone is urgent but answering a caller's question is seldom more important then serving the customer and the sale present before you. In businesses where telephone sales are important sales staff and systems should be set up to serve both efficiently and separately. Develop an authentic presence. Understand that your entire demeanor reflects both positively and negatively on the business. Be neither grumpy nor overly perky. Develop a persona that presents you and the business you represent in the best light. Intelligent, knowledgeable, capable, friendly, helpful, etc. these are the most desirable qualities in a retail clerk. Know your product and your store. Take time to know what products you are carrying, where they are in the store, and enough about them to be knowledgeable and helpful when customers ask questions. If you don't know the answers know who does and get the answer for your customer.

IRS Stamps USPS

Riddle me this. Tomorrow is tax day (here in the US.) Did you buy stamps and wait in line at the post office or did you e-file? The US government has a goal. They want 80% of all returns filed electronically by 2008. Great for the efficiency of the IRS, fewer data entry people, fewer errors, less paper and checks to process and mail. But what about the lowly postage stamps that mail all those tax returns and checks? Is the post office ready to lose tens of millions of dollars in lost postage sales? Are we going to defend and prop up the USPS or are we as a country going to let the natural progression of marketplace forces kill it off and replace it with more efficient operations like UPS and FedEx. I imagine the USPS will use e-filing as yet another reason why they will need a rate increase. In what other business does dropping sales result in higher prices? Seems backwards to me. I'd write more about that but I have to send some email and pay some bills online.

What do you Think?

With this post PeterThink welcomes comments! Feel free to comment on what you read here and let me know what you are thinking.

Welcome a Search Box to PeterThink

Today we have added a search box to PeterThink. Also we have revamped the archives to better facilitate searching. This should help those of you arriving from a search engine. I apologize that it's an add supported search host but it needs to be a free service. We at PeterThink need you support. If you'd like to make a donation please click the link at left and donate using paypal. Thank you.

I Can't Resist Posting This

OK, gross or very funny. I can't resist posting this link. Pull my Finger or more accurately...click my finger. (thanks rhapsodic)

Trying Too Hard

Evidently beef interests are aware that they need to appeal to young girls to establish beef eating habits and patterns. However, did anyone think that media/marketing savvy young girls are going to fall for this? Surely this site is a parody of what not to do when trying to create an online community of interest. While I am not a young girl, I think I can tell the difference between a popular site that grows organically over time and a canned "insta-site" that appears overnight. What if the creators of this site got a new client who wanted to promote say the eating of rutabagas? All they'd have to do is swap out steak, beef and hamburgers in favor of rutabagas. It wouldn't take long, cost much or be effective. Don't marketers understand that thinly disguised or blatant sites designed to promote products or services aren't as successful as organic meme driven marketing? Haven't they read Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point? Cool-2B-Real

Swiffer Bandwagon

OK so I am getting on the bandwagon. I am a new user of the Swiffer. I doubted the marketing efforts for a long time. The obvious criticism is that the Swiffer just pushes the dirt around. It's true some of the dirt sticks to the cloth (more if you use the Swiffer Wet cloths) and some is pushed aroundÖLIKE A BROOM! It's amazing how well the Swiffer Wet cloths scrub the floor. I like them a lot. The Swiffer has become such a successful product that it has spawned a multitude of imitator products. This new market is a huge. More importantly it's caught the attention of pop culture. Witness the spoof ad on Saturday Night Live. Kids were asked to wear pajamas made of Swiffer cloth and roll around on the floor thereby cleaning it. Very funny. It made me think that if ever there was a company with a huge interest in developing cleaning robots Proctor & Gamble is it! How long until we see swarms of mesh network coordinated micro cleaning robots each dragging a small piece of Swiffer cloth across the floor. We don't need Rosie from the Jetsons to clean our floors. What we need are 20 or 30 solar powered micro robots that randomly crisscross the floor like a swarm cleaning as they go. I'd certainly want the base station that automatically exchanges soiled cloths for fresh ones. Sure the system might take all day(or night) to clean the kitchen floor but if it did it once or twice a week without the need for human attention wouldn't that be a truly useful labor savings? It's gonna be a great future.

What Will They Think of Next Department.

The BBC reports that british planes can be equiped with bombs shaped out of concrete. These non-explosive bombs are guided ordinance and impact with enough force to destroy tanks without added explosive power. I deal for use in tight quarters to minimize collatoral damage and civilian casualties. Cool. 'concrete bombs'

Some words about PeterThink's Recommended Reading

Anyone who knows me knows I love to read. Here are some recommendations from the stack of books next to my reading chair. For your conveience I've included links to purchase the titles from Amazon. A portion of your purchase helps to support the Think here at PeterThink. Marketing to Women: How to Understand, Reach and Increase your Share of the World's Largest Market Segment by Martha Barletta While I have not finished reading this book I can already recommend it as a must read for marketers. I especially like the early chapters aimed at first making the case for marketing to women and then helping to understand their point of view and the differences of culture and communication between men and women. Smart Mobs by Howard Reingold is a must read for anyone interested in the evolving state of wireless communications technology and the changes in social behavior and cooperation that it now facilitates. If you are at all interested the development of Internet capable wireless phones, services like SMS (short message service), wireless computer networks (Wi-Fi) or social concepts like the need for online reputation management systems (like ebay, slashdot, etc.) then Smart Mobs is definitely an important book for you. Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years by Bruce Sterling This book is an interesting look at the future as foreseen by the famous science fiction writer. Sterling takes his cue from one of Shakespeare's soliloquies and forms his book around the seven stages of humanity. This clever device organizes Sterling's insights into different chapters, each focused on potential scenarios for one aspect of the future. A fascinating read. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell This classic read for anyone who wants to understand how ideas spread throughout social networks in organic and lighting fast ways. Ignore the insights in The Tipping Point at the risk of your own success. I hope these books will be a great source of fresh ideas and insights to help you in your efforts to market products, services or even yourself. Keep an eye on the Recommended Reading section here at PeterThink for new titles coming soon.

You know that fine line between edgy and stupid? Why is it just so hard not to blow right over it? OK, here's a strategy. We have people who don't have cars so they have to ride the bus. Let's insult them by calling them Creeps and Weirdos. Certainly that will motivate them to buy cars from us. What are the Canadian Chevy dealers thinking? via posted by Peter @ 4/02/2003 05:40:00 PM  

Where are the Supplies?

I just read a nice piece over at Smart Mobs about the military using radio frequency identification tags (RFID) to identify vehicles and shipping containers throughout the war zone. In simple terms this is like having thousands of cans of food without labels. How would anyone know what's in them without opening each can. This is the dilemma the military faced in the first Gulf War. Platoons of troops spent days searching through containers looking for the supplies they needed. Now imagine if you just had a bar code on each of those label-less cans? Like a grocery store you could know what was in each can by scanning it. That's what the RFID tags are doing for military shipping containers. The difference is RFID tags can be scanned at short distances by both hand-held and fixed readers. This enables single soldiers to inventory hundreds of containers in a single hour. Additionally, fixed readers can keep track of what containers and supplies pass a single fixed point without even having to slow the convoys down. You can imagine the increase in quality of information and material flow. I think that this has the potential to be as important to the war effort as the GPS systems that are facilitating precision targeting. In war logistics are everything. I just hope civilian companies like UPS and FedEx are watching. I am sure they are. link

Seen Around the Net

Here's a visual commentary on the state of advertising as it relates to the war. Some have joked that broadcast news operations need to go with product placements when their commercial revenues drop. Newscasters eating pizzas on air, drinking branded soft drinks and correspondents wearing branded camouflage have been parodied on late night television. I think that the deeper comment here is just how huge the "gap of understanding" is between western culture and ideas and those of the Arab/Islamic Middle East. This puts a point on the feeling of the Iraqi people who feel that they are being invaded rather than liberated. First invaded by the forces of the military and then by the forces of marketing and capitalism. Are American companies licking their chops at the prospect of a democratic free market gateway to the Arab world through a "liberated" Iraq? You bet they are. I saw an interesting piece on TV yesterday. A 12 year old Iraqi boy was asked "Are American people richer than Iraqi people?" His reply "We are richer because our land is fertile and full of oil." If he only knew what he is in for in his lifetime. I pray for understanding and respect to bridge the "gap of understanding" that divides our people and our cultures.

Waiting to Inhale

Is anybody else waiting for the next big technology thing to come along? These economic times seem to have put and kept a lid on innovation. Sure we're seeing new products everyday but we haven't seen a technology breakout. Most of what we see are new models and incremental improvement. We continually march towards feature glut and ever smaller form factors. Anybody over the age of 18 ever try to dial their cell phone in the dark while driving? Where is the next Palm, Segway, Macintosh, or Nokia? Sure, wartime not only limits the availability of capital for innovation it also limits the PR and advertising bandwidth for product introduction. With the media fixated on war coverage and advertisers reticent to be associated with said coverage, marketers are finding these difficult days to introduce new life altering products. Hopefully, what's happening is that innovation is waiting to spring upon a post war America and a post-Saddam Iraq. If American business hopes to prosper and have an economic role in rebuilding Iraq it has to develop sensitivity and understanding of the people of Iraq. There will be huge opportunities and equally huge challenges in adapting to this new society and culture. Regardless of your opinions on the war, the fact is that regime change is happening, rebuilding will be necessary and above all else understanding will be essential. It's gonna be a great future. (Hopefully)

This Just in... UPS goes Poofy with New Logo

UPS has just updated their logo. Don't they know that the poofy logo thing is so last year now.

Mobile Digital Assistants

I've been reading the press and comments on the Toshiba announcement of their personal robot or what I am calling a Mobile Digital Assistant. (MDA) Incredibly people are wondering what these devices can do. Are people missing the point of MDAs? We are seeing the very front edge of the next revolution in personal technology. The first wave came with the personal computer that brought computational power to the masses. Then came the Internet and the network effect demonstrated the power of linked computational power. Now mobile computational power is combining with mobile wireless communications power to transform the way we live our lives. Everyday new devices and services are developed to enhance both business and personal life. The intense proliferation of device manufacturers has lead to an arms race of sorts. Increasing power and expanding feature sets both in ever shrinking form factors has thus far been the response to the desire people have for portable comp./comm. power. However, there is only so much people can/will carry. Additionally, the distraction factor of people using multiple small form factor devices while walking, Segwaying, and driving is beginning to be a real problem. Some see an answer in the form of wearable computers. These are usually combinations of head mounted displays combined with belt mounted computer modules. While these devices may one day be a workable solution to the needs and opportunities for mobile comp./comm. power, I think they will add to device clutter and techno distraction for the foreseeable future. There has been a great deal of talk about convergence. Increasingly, on the small scale, this is taking the form of feature packed devices. Manufacturers are pumping more and more features and power into their devices. PDAs are becoming wireless phones, email terminals and web browsers. Wireless phones are becoming PDAs. Both are adding MP3 players, digital cameras and video capabilities. At some point, soon, the limits of usability will be surpassed. Buttons are already too small on many phones, cameras, computers and PDAs. On the larger scale we are beginning to see true benefits and potential in the convergence of entertainment gear, PCs and even home appliances. This calls for even greater comp./comm. power both hardware and software to command and control all these devices in our lives. The solution to the growing need for computational and communication capability in this growing digital world is the Mobile Digital Assistant. Conceived as a modular device that alleviates the need to carry a multitude of devices by being a powered intelligent wheeled platform. MDAs could accommodate a great deal of comp./comm. power. Imagine a powerful mini tower computer that could follow you around. All that and so much more. Watch for more commentary on the coming revolution of Mobile Digital Assistants. It's gonna be a great future.

Urgent Oprah Loves and Markets Celine Update

Monday on the Oprah show we saw the opening salvo of the marketing efforts to launch Celine Dion's new Las Vegas show "A New Day." Oprah has flocked her swarm in Celine's direction before. Realizing the incredible overlap in their target demos Oprah was ready to create a 60-minute lovefest of an infomercial for Celine's new show. First came the lifestyle spin. In an effort to broaden her appeal to the everywoman (and man) Celine and Mr. Celine have "downsized" to a "simple" three-bedroom house to live like a "Suburban Mom." (That would be Suburban Soccer Mom but the child isn't old enough to play soccer) So, billionaire Oprah leaves her huge suite at Caesar's to go visit her Suburban Mom friend. Pulling up in her giant chauffeur driven black SUV to the $1.4 million "simple three bedroom suburban home" the first thing Oprah does is greet the suit clad security guard at the gate in the wall that surrounds the house. After a product placement shot of the (not yet in production) Chrysler Pacifica in the driveway Oprah greets Celine and Mr. Celine inside the "simple three bedroom house." A tour of the house includes introductions of the four person household staff and views of the flat screen TV monitors in every room. (Showing the baby sleeping) Sure we're living like a normal suburban mom. After a ride in the Pacifica (turns out Chrysler is sponsoring Dion's show) we arrive at Caesar's $95 million Coliseum Theatre. Celine's 2400sq. ft. dressing room complex clearly inspires Oprah. Will renovations be coming at Harpo? Backstage views of rehearsal rooms and dancers working out clearly show the huge production machinery behind the show. I can't help but think the show PR people don't mind if it helps make a supporting case for the high ticket prices. ($87.50-$200 face) Hyperbole flies as Celine fires up and does a couple of concert like numbers from the show. Admittedly the 120' curved LED screen and the flying piano are cool but the show definitely smacks of 'Circ' background of it's creator/director. Bottom line: Dion fans will eat it up buy tickets, CDs, videos, whatever. Dion haters will go merrily on their way ripping at her. It's truly a successful marketing machine. What's most interesting is the spin that she is like a normal mom just going to work everyday. Clearly she is posturing and a true diva reigning over her kingdom. It is Vegas after all.

Welcome the MDA- Mobile Digital Assistant

Ok, here we go. Now we're talking robots. Or more specifically what I will call a MDA a mobile digital assistant. Toshiba seems to be on to something with this new device that they are introducing next month. The ApriAlpha is a bluetooth/Wi-Fi enabled device combines voice recognition, video camera and monitor and facial recognition software. The unit is said to recognize up to 100 faces. All this in a mobile package powered by a fuel cell. For some time I have seen the coming convergence of a personal computer, webserver, digital video processing/cameras, mobile communication (both voice and data), GPS, entertainment sever (satellite radio, TV, DVD, MP3, etc.), home management functions(food inventories, appliance/system interface and control, etc.)and enhanced PDA functions into a mobile robotic assistant. Imagine a device the size of a canister vacuum cleaner that follows it's master around providing all manner of digital support services and interfacing with the physical and digital environments on behalf of it's master. Imagine a modular platform that could adapt and grow with the master. Features and devices would be added and subtracted as needed. Wireless display screens, keyboards, LCD projectors, RFID readers, satellite phones, scanners, printers, etc. could be attached or linked by bluetooth or Wi-Fi as needed. Segway, irobot, Intel, Microsoft, Palm and Dell where are you. Intel seems to be making a start but Toshiba seems to be ahead at the moment. It's gonna be a great future.

Have you gotten your Nickel?

Have you been to Amazon for your nickel yet? Amazon is looking to have an interaction with you their customer. They are using a quiz format with the reward of a nickel for each correct answer. By keeping track of those who participate Amazon is building a permission asset of people who self select to "talk" about Amazon with Amazon. Very interesting. While we are talking about Amazon let's look at their Gold Box feature. This program was launched and received some acclaim in marketing circles as being innovative. I disagree. If this feature used the recommendation engine to provide customized personalized offers that were truly good deals to the person viewing them then I'd say it's a great innovation. However, it seems that this is nothing more than a sale table for slow selling merchandise. Why, when they know what I have and have not purchased from Amazon and they even have my wish list (See link at left!) do they fill my box with offers for things I do not buy and do not want. Waste enough of my time, Amazon, and I'll just ignore your dumb efforts.

I Love Robots!

We are on the cusp of great times for the birth and growth of robots. Some have said and I agree that robots will be to the next twenty years what computers have been for the last twenty years. I am not talking about robots that mimic human behavior, movement or thought; these I believe are still some years off. I am talking about personal robots that handle simple repetitive tasks that free up human time and energy for other uses. We are already seeing robotic lawnmowers and vacuum cleaners and I believe we will see additional cleaning robots in the near future. It should not be difficult to develop robots that clean residential windows. What's most interesting about robots that do tasks like these is the shift in how time is viewed. When rechargeable batteries meet a kind of independent intelligence tasks morph from transactions to maintenance. Rather than a person taking two or three minutes or more to clean a window why not have a small robot that takes an hour or two to clean a window every week without need for human supervision. This would be a small crawling type robot that slowly moves across the surface of the window cleaning as it goes. It's the grass cutting trade. Rather than one big machine that cuts many blades of grass making several passes over an area, many many tiny machines make a single pass across an area each cutting a few blades. With wireless mesh networking combined with low cost electronics, motors and rechargeable batteries it is increasingly practical to see small armies of devices employed to do simple repetitive tasks both in the home and in the marketplace. How long until the Swifter people make a robot that will clean hard floors? It's gonna be a great future. Seiko Epson Develops Power-Saving, Bluetooth-Controlled Micro Robot in Palmtop Size

A Fantastic Site

LA2JAX - A 9 year old boy and his dad cross the USA by bicycle I don't plug a lot of sites directly on this blog but occasionally one deserves a mention. This site telling the story of a boy and his dad on an adventure shows a lot of promise to develop into a great browse.

NASCAR

Ok, so I am a NASCAR fan. I like to watch the races on TV. When I tell people I watched a race they ask me if my favorite driver won. I tell them that I donít have a favorite driver. For me it's not at all about the personalities involved. In fact, most of the custom English language employed by the southern good old boy drivers and commentators grates on my Yankee ears. What I do like is the kinetic nature of the race and the TV coverage. Constant movement and switching of camera angles combined with the huge amount of technology, telemetry and old-fashioned strategy makes for a fascinating watch. Plus, who doesn't love to drive fast? All of this is wrapped in a compelling marketing frenzy of sponsors as millions of dollars are spent to get brand messages into the race. Ultimately, the bottom line has to be the carnage. Who doesn't like to see a quality crash? Fortunately, safety technology has advanced to the point where more and more drivers are walking away from the most intense crashes. Makes you feel better wanting to see the cars burst into flames.

Great People Service

I've unexpectedly been away from the blog for some time. I had hoped to be able to post this past week but things did not work out that way. What has been the focus of my attention this past week is "Great People Service" Some would call it customer service but I think that only captures part of the picture. Not every relationship is a customer/business relationship. Often people are pre-customers or they are volunteers or just plain members of the same community. The challenge in all relationships is that satisfaction is invisible. Only when service is extreme is it noteworthy. Extremely poor service often gets more attention then extremely good service; however, good service can still be the foundation of a successful organization. Competition is a key. Organizations that have direct competitors are motivated to provide quality service. Restaurants are the obvious example. They rise and fall on the quality of their service. Utilities are an obvious example of poor service. Does it matter if the cable company or the phone company gives good customer service? No, not really. If you want these services you have to put up with monumentally poor customer service. I will comment and I will tip when I receive great service. It must be great, though. Not just adequate or satisfactory service must be exceptional to catch my attention. If one more drive-thru clerk asks me to repeat my order because they can't hear me or fails to have reasonable patience while I determine my order I am parking my car and going inside to have a little face to face chat with the manager. We'll talk about why they have lost me as a customer and how I am going to tell as many people as possible about my experience with their restaurant. On the other hand, the first company to deploy a successful solution to complete order accuracy will win my loyalty and my good word of mouth. Companies have tried with letter boards that show your order as the clerk is ringing it up. This just allows you to realize their screw ups earlier. It's some help but not quite there yet.

Mr. Rogers has Left the Neighborhood

Mr. Rogers died today. A cliche is being created today. People are calling it a "sad day in the neighborhood." After so many beautiful days in the neighborhood today is, in fact, a very sad day. What has left us today is the embodiment of youthful innocence and security. For people less than 38 years old Mr. Rogers represents a world as unchanging as his set and as comforting as a grandpa's canvas sneakers and sweater. For 32 years tuning in to see the show instantly transported you back to the innocence of childhood. The producers purposefully never changed the set and dyed Fred's hair black as he grayed to provide continuity to young viewers. Whether watching a newly taped episode or a years old rerun consistency of tone, pace and values marked this man and his television neighborhood. These qualities are rare in this increasingly chaotic and fast paced world. I think the loss we feel today is a loss of a world that values teaching children through television rather than marketing to them. Thirty-two years on television and, thankfully, no action figures or trading cards. Mr. Rogers, you will be missed in this world.

Batteries

Today I have been thinking about batteries. Yesterday I posted about RFID tags, the exploding presence of Wi-Fi networks and personal area networks with 10s to 100s of devices. The brake on the growth of all of this is really the quality and availability of batteries. Bruce Sterling mentions it in his interesting new book Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years (see PeterThink Recommended Reading at left.) As computational power becomes smaller and smaller, long-lasting batteries need to be made smaller as well. Conventional battery manufacturers are working hard I'm sure. Do you know that Gillette (a great experimenter in RFID implementation) has owned Duracell batteries since 1996? Now I read in Forbes that Energizer is about to buy Schick. Even Forbes questions the wisdom of synergy here. Wouldn't you think that the major electronics makers would own the major battery brands? What's Next The interesting technological development in the micro-mobile power arena is going to be fuel cells. The technology is in its infancy and there are major issues and hurdles to be overcome but the upside is huge. The possibility of having a stable long lasting power source for portable and mobile electronic devices is captivating. These fuel cells that most likely will take the form of cartridges with stored chemicals that are user activated when needed will provide extended power for laptops, pdas and wireless phones. Personally, I'd like to use them to power my personal robot. More on the idea of personal robots latter. It's gonna be a great future.

A Little Thing Called RFID is Going to Change the World

The world is perched on the front edge of another overwhelming technology driven revolution. You thought computers have been a big deal? Now, it's the Internet? Wait until you see what happens when everything has/is a computer and it's all networked and connected. A little thing called RFID tags are to thank for this. Radio Frequency Identification Tags are already in use in many ways and in many places. From shopping malls to libraries to toll booths to gas pumps to Wal-Marts, people have experience with smart tags of one sort or another. Shopkeepers are looking to smart tags to help them keep their supply chains in order. Wal- Mart is famous for back of the house RFID system implementation. Gillette is experimenting with smart shelves that know what's stocked on them and can automatically keep track and notify store employees and suppliers when re-supply is needed. Now the GAP is working on a similar system to follow their stocks. Finally something intelligent will know what's actually in the store. Smart tags will keep track of both inventory and sales making it easier for store managers to keep hot sellers in stock and know when to mark down slow sellers. What drives technologies like these are wireless computer networks. Called Wi-Fi or 802.11b or 802.11g these networks use a politically available chunk of the radio spectrum similar to 3.2ghz cordless phones. These fast spreading networks provide Internet connectivity to a wide variety of devices on an ad-hoc basis. Devices enter, interact and leave the network environment based on their geography and configuration. Oh, and did I mention these devices can be as small as a 1mm cube. Yup, the size of a poppy seed they're virtually invisible. There are a lot of privacy concerns that are peppering the discussions on these technologies but I think market forces will moderate some of the more sinister predictions. Long term people and markets will not broadly support technology that is seen to have too much surveillance possibility. Feel free to agree or disagree. Sure some day soon the store will know they sold you the milk. More importantly, when you are driving past the store wondering if you have tomatoes to make your dinner salad your car can e-mail the house to find out. People will each be at the center of personal area networks. These networks will be overlapping collections of devices all communicating with each other and the greater Internet at the direction of the individual. As these networks grow to 10s and 100s of devices significant omnipresent computational power will profoundly change the way we do everything in our lives. It's gonna be a great future.

Calling all Matrix Fans

Samsung looks to score a reverse product placement. The Matrix phone appears to be the must have geeksesory of the spring. Tying in with the coming movie sequel, this phone while looking cool will be a short shelf life item. In this age when cell phones have become truly disposable and service providers are more interested in a profitable relationship with users over time, when will providers allow you to easily switch phones/use multiple phones without changing your plan or phone number. Maybe itís that way in some places but companies donít promote it that way. Who wouldnít want to coordinate their phone to their outfit? Or, better yet, their tasks for the day. Wouldnít you use a different phone on weekends than weekdays? Itís gonna be a great future.

What is Needed in the World Today is...

Tonight is another spectacular night for reality TV. Escape! Escape! Thankfully last night we had the Grammys which have spawned their usual cloud of escapist entertainment reporting to fill up the American "news" bandwidth today. I wonder how many Americans know what happened at the UN today versus how many know who won the most self congratulatory Grammys last night (Norah Jones if you must know.) Is it any wonder why there is a huge gulf in view points between public opinion in western countries? I donít think we have any idea what or how the news media is reporting in Europe. I know that I donít know enough about it. I am not a person who focuses on politics nor is that the purpose of this blog. However, it seems obvious to me that in the biggest of the big pictures what is needed in the world these days is a forum where civilizations can come together for the purposes of working out how different civilizations can coexist on this one and only planet. How ever the divisions are drawn, the east and the west or Islam and the Judeo/Christian or oil and industrialization, the fact is that there needs to be a mediating body of some sort that is able to defuse frustrations and misunderstandings that are escalating to terrorism and war. We have no choice but to share this planet. Can we respectfully agree to disagree? The question is not whether the United Nations is relevant? The question is can it moderate conflict between global civilizations.

Celebrity Fever

Have you got "Iím a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!" fever? This is one of the latest reality TV offerings on ABC. This one has ten has-been "celebrities" camping out in the Australian forest. I think the first episode of all these reality shows should be unedited hidden video of the pitch meetings where the executives bought into these ideas. "Itís Celebrity Fear Factor meets Survivor meets American Idol." Oh, pleeasee. The "celebrities" are having to survive a 15 day campout while the producers pour bugs and rats in their pants, make them swim with the crocodiles and close them in coffins for (gasp) ten minutes in the dark. I think perhaps the hardest part for the "celebrity" was not being seen by America for 10 whole minutes (She went four and a half minutes.) The best part has to be the psychological effects on the "celebrities." Being used to some measure of creature comforts; they are forced to deal with things like washing dishes, cleaning the latrine, sweeping the campsite, etc. Stress leads to cat fights. Itís fascinating stuff. I think the final episode should be a viewing party where the "celebrities" are forced to watch themselves freak out on camera and then mourn the final death of their careers. One serious interesting thing about the show is the interactive portion. Borrowed from American Idol the audience is encouraged to call in and vote on which "celebrity" should participate in the next challenge for food. Evidently, theyíre getting 100,000s of votes. American Idol has received millions of votes. Does this mean that interactive television is finally with us? Surely, there are higher and better uses for such caller voting determined programming. What's Next Eventually, America will grow tired of reality programming. Right now our huge hunger for celebrity minutia and our love for reality TV are escapes from a world perched on the brink of war. People are so frightened and bewildered by the coming clash of civilizations that theyíd rather bury their heads in the sands of escapist TV. Everyone is wondering what comes next for TV. When the shooting starts I think America will drop reality TV like a stone. Who can possibly care about the exploits of people looking for relationships when there are the atrocities of large-scale war in the world. First, TV will carry live coverage of the war 24/7. Second, people will look to TV for meaning in life. They will look for information, drama and stories that make sense out of such a conflicted world. Who will bring us creative and compelling programming that helps us understand how to live in the new reality of our fractured world. One thing is for sure; communications technology (i.e. telephones, Internet, wireless communications, etc.) is changing the way the world operates. It will change the way we fight a war and it will change the face of television. If you havenít read Howard Rheingoldís book Smart Mobs I recommend it highly. Click the Amazon.com link at left and check it out.

Crossover Vehicles

The auto manufacturers are all introducing a crossover vehicle of some sort. These vehicles are a cross between a station wagon and an SUV. These designs seem to be combining some functionality and I think trends appearing in these vehicles. Midsize ñ Theyíre taller than a car, smaller than an SUV. Looking to enhance car like handling while reducing rollover risk. Three Rows of Seats ñ Seating capacities of 6 to 7 passengers mirror SUVs and minivan capacities. While the third row seats are almost always unusable by adults they will accommodate kids and teens. I think the capacity is designed to appeal to boomers and their teenagers and/or grandchildren. Feature Rich ñ These platforms are feature rich with navigation systems, premium audio and video systems. Can rear seat computers and Internet access be far away? All features that are on-roading necessities these days. Chair Height Seating ñ These vehicles, being higher than cars and lower than SUVs, are easier to enter and exit for our aging drivers 40+. Some might say itís a part of the retro trend recalling a time when cars were taller. I think itís a purely functional response. Illusionary Fuel Economy ñ Some might say that these vehicles being smaller and perhaps lighter will have greater fuel economy. Iíll believe it when I see it. I think people might save on sheet metal and opt for more power(V6 or V8) or all wheel drive which will negate any perceived economies over full size SUVs. That being said the results are an array of vehicles that look very similar. Design innovation is being left to high-end import brands. Like anything else there will be market tests to see what consumers like and donít like in these vehicles. The bottom line is that millions of mini-vans have been sold to parents of young children. As those children grow the parents are looking for a different kind of vehicle. Another vehicle type that seems to be gaining in the market is the roadster/coupe. These cars built on the success foundation of the Mazda Miata and the BMW Z series, are clearly targeted at successful mid-life males who are looking for a sporty alternative to those years spent driving a mini-van. The marketing genius of the show was displaying these cars with a se of golf clubs in the small rear cargo area. Infinitiís version even comes with a diagram showing how to load your clubs. And now for my surprise pick of the show. Those who have met me know that I am not a small man. I am over 6í tall and well into three digits on the scale. I wouldnít have even tried to fit in this car had one of our group not tried it and encouraged me to try it. I was amazed by the amount of space in the Mini Cooper. While I have not test driven the car, I am confident that I would enjoy it. This car has everything going for it. Design, nostalgia, anti SUV sentiment and changing consumer demographics all add up to huge popularity and sales if BMW can keep them in stock. The only hesitation might be concern over safety as Mini drivers share the road with trucks and SUVs. I havenít seen nearly as any Minis on the road in the winter months. Perhaps traction and ground clearance are issues as well. I enjoyed the 2003 Chicago Auto Show. Is it the most important thing going on these days? No, but innovation and design are two of the most important stepping stones in the path of economic growth for this country so anything that highlights good design and product innovation is of great value these days.

Super Luxury Cars

Letís talk cars. There are so many cars at the 2003 Chicago Auto Show that I cannot possibly touch on them all. There are some big trends, a constant march of refinement and a lot of minutiae. I am just going to touch on some favorites. First up: Super Luxury Cars. The Cadillac 16 Wow, this thing is huge and in a word ñ Glamorous. This in my opinion is a 21st Century classic car. Hints of the past with a definite flavor of the future. A long sleek hood reminiscent of the cars of the thirties. A slick study in modern aerodynamics. A gull-wing hood a practical memory of long powerful hoods of days gone by. Ultra luxurious passenger compartment worthy of the title "cabin." A 1000hp engine! While this isnít yet a production vehicle I think that the design conscious celebrity super rich would prefer this car over the much-hyped Maybach and certainly over the new tank like Rolls Royce. This is the car to be seen in arriving to the Oscars. This is the movie star car. While they did incorporate designer crystal, I am surprised that Cadillac didnít hire a fashion designer to brand the silk carpeted interior. Perhaps they will in the production model. If I was Cadillac I would get this car seen on the Oscar pre-show and then in the movies. The car would be the talk of the country just like the fashions of the stars. The Maybach for all itís luxury features (which are cool) is low key in appearance. Easily mistaken for a Mercedes or an Infiniti the car is one for the invisible rich. Appealing more to the bussiness set rather than celebrities. The amazing irony is that in the media attention that the Maybach is receiving the reports never fail to focus on of all things ñ the cup holders! Granted they are champagne flute holders, but they are basically cup holders. What happens if you arenít drinking champagne? Even the supper rich drink the occasional latte. Next up, something a little more realistic ñ Crossover Vehicles: What Boomers will be Driving?

One More Cool Observation about the Show

One more: Online Experience ñ If you visit the website of the show you can access live user controlable web cams. Obviously , not everyone can attend the show in person, but thanks to this kind of technology we can all be there virtually. Check it out.

Experience the Show

Yesterday I visited the Chicago Auto Show. I have some observations to share in no particular order. Online Ticket Purchase a Must! ñ I bought our tickets online the night before attending the show. This proved to be a huge time saver. We planned well and arrived just minutes after the opening of the show at 10 am. The ticket purchase line was at least 30 minutes long. We walked right in through a special gate where handheld computer/scanner equipped dudes scanned the barcodes on our home printed tickets. Nice Smooth Easy. Very Little Security ñ I expected metal detectors and bag x-ray but none were evident. One of the gate dudes did glance briefly in one of our bags but that was it. There were security people on the show floor but no more than what would be considered normal just 2 years ago. I am sure there was video surveillance but it wasnít obvious. Information Feeding Frenzy ñ Significant to the experience of the show has always been about the brochure grab. Smart exhibitors provide plastic tote bags for people to collect their booty in. (This year Toyota(good), GM(ok) and Scion(cool but poor design) Some nice moves were made with print brochures and some bad moves. What is Audi thinking supplying big unrolled posters with no means for people to carry them around the show? They didnít even fit in the bags when rolled up. Interesting to observe the different techniques different exhibitors use to engage brochure hunters. The most common is the desk/counter approach. Reps man desks or counters where brochures are stocked. I think the goal here is two-fold. First, people are less likely to grab multiple copies if they are being watched. Second, The right reps can answer questions and engage people in conversation about the cars. We encountered two good ones but most seemed aloof, jaded, disconnected or bored. The second technique is to have reps (sales people from area dealerships) hold and pass out brochures. This seemed uncomfortable as the reps seemed on the prowl for sales leads. Why No Kids Brochures? -ñ We were there purposely on a weekday to avoid excessive crowds but we did see a lot of children and Iím sure that there are a lot of kids and pre-teens attending the show with their parents. Iím curious why manufacturers (for better or worse) are not beginning a brand relationship with future buyers by providing fun and educational brochures designed especially for kids. Info Grab Goes High Tech -ñ Fun to see in a B2C context the availability of the e-grab. Two manufacturers that I noticed had devices available where product information could be downloaded by IF beaming to PDAs. Since I didnít expect this, and in an effort to travel light, I didnít have mine with me. Some manufacturers had reps with hand helds who would take your information and email you product information. Too spam adverse, I didnít even give out my address I use for spam. Screen Me ñ Lots of cool flat screens at the show. I am especially liking the LED based screens that are bright if not high-res. They also have the ability to be curved. Light Me Up ñ So much of this show depends on putting the product in itís best light. Lots of lighting making those cars look good. Special mention to Mercedes who (while shouting with their signage that they have cheap cars "Four models under $40,000") put additional lighting inside their vehicles. Very nice. Itís About Cars not Food. ñ Captive audience = $8.50 for a hot dog, cookie & a diet coke. Eat before you go. So what about the cars? You ask. Well more on that on Friday. Wait until you hear my surprise car of the show! Youíd never guess. Click Auto Show for more info or to purchase your tickets. Let me know what you Think. Drop me an email at peterthink

Adrants: Where have all the Good TV Commercials Gone?

OK, so where have all the good ads gone? Iíve commented on Super bowl ads like the Rebok Terry Tate ads and the Budweiser ads. Iíve mentioned the Mastercard priceless roller coaster ad and the Rebok spoof with Terry Tate taking out the Nike Streaker. Curiously, Iíve stopped seeing these ads on the networks. Maybe itís just me. Weíre doomed to Auto Show ads these days. Why isnít there any new creative promotion being done in conjunction with our local Auto Show? Same old ads same old ëspecialí rebates/cash back offers. Perhaps we will see something at the show when we go on Tuesday. I am especially looking forward to see just how the new crossover vehicles are being marketed. I want to stand in front of new luxury cross over vehicles and exclaim "Looks like a station wagon!" in a loud voice. Drives the car execs crazy. Thatís not the image theyíre going for. I also hear that there are serious efforts to market pickup trucks to women. Iíll be looking for signs of that as well. Wonder what vehicles Americans will be buying when gas goes to $2.75 a gallon during the coming war? Maybe that will help the Segway HT sales. Something to Think About!

Everyone in the Audience Gets One

"Iíve got to have it because Oprah thinks itís ëSo Coolí or Martha thinks itís a ëGood Thing." I am fascinated by the growing phenomenon of personality brands becoming marketingís latest hot advertising and promotion method. Yesterday, it was Dr. Phil doing what he learned as a self proclaimed graduate of "Oprah University" and presenting his favorite things show. Together with his wife Robin (the next Joy Philbin?) they presented their favorite products complete with giveaways to the audience. Today, Oprah presented a showcase of the "best" things. Interestingly there was a major segment and giveaway from Tivo. Tivo is hugely savvy about how they market their product. The device, which allows people to skip commercials while watching TV, is said to be a major force in changing how advertisers approach television advertising. As a result of PVRs (personal video recorders) like Tivo, companies are moving towards product placements and endorsements that are embedded in the programs themselves. (i.e. Coke and Ford on American Idol) Not surprisingly this is how Tivo promotes itself. Tivo has skillfully cultivated cultural influencers and their personality swarms to boost the visibility of their product. By being "personally recommended byÖ" Tivo has embedded their marketing message deep in the programs themselves where they are less vulnerable to commercial zapping products like Tivo itself. The cost of admission: A compelling product that does appeal to the personality and audience giveaways (singles and blanket) Skillful marketers and PR people who successfully seed personality swarms achieve something more valuable than mere advertising. They are receiving strong personal endorsements from personalities with swarms of people who trust and follow their advice. This is far more valuable than TV commercials or even in store giveaways. I suspect that giving 300 Tivos to a single Oprah audience results in more sales to friends, family and coworkers than 600 Tivos given away in stores. Oprah audience members will enthusiastically associate their cool experience of being in the live audience and receiving free stuff with the product they received. In-store free-bee recipients will talk about the store where they received the item. Good for the store no so much for the product. There is a caution here for the personalities. The channel is fragile. Too much or too often and their media efforts become infomercials. If the quality isnít consistent the endorsements will backfire and thin the swarm. Martha Stewart is a master of content as promotion. Almost everything that appears in Martha content is a product placement. While her shows and magazines have had some success her product line at Kmart has been criticized as over priced and lacking in quality. Add to that a bankrupt provider and a personal scandal and all is in jeopardy. Something to Think about.

Disrupted Again

from the PeterThink archives Telephones did it. Overnight delivery did it. Fax machines did it. Email did it. Instant Messaging did it. And nowÖ Vocera will again disrupt personal communication. In a good way. Are you frustrated by constantly playing phone tag with your wandering coworkers? What if people could communicate one to one irrespective of their physical locations? Technologies like Vocera are bringing the Star Trek communicator badge to life. Users simply push a button on the small wearable device and ask a computer to locate the person they want to talk to. "Vocera, find Joe." The computer uses voice recognition software to interpret commands and connect users to each other. Superior to walkie-talkies by providing one to one connection and superior to wireless phones with the simplicity of one touch operation and voice recognition. No extension numbers to remember. The system also interfaces with telephone systems for routing incoming calls to individuals not just telephones. Refine this with a triangulating geo-locating system that can know when and where someone is within the Wi-Fi network area but unavailable to communicate (i.e. auditoriums, meeting rooms, bathrooms, etc.) and you have the makings of a ubiquitous transparent technologyÖlike, say, the telephone. Vocera like any communication technology has the potential to increase productivity. By using a computer based technology to enable live synchronous voice communication between mobile individuals saves time and speeds decision making. However, this is also a slide down the slippery slope of the stressful always "on" world of todayís info culture. With rapid fire communication coming at people from all directions time for thought and reflection can be hard to come by. I once worked for a man who refused to get a wireless phone despite significant daily road time. He insisted on protecting his in car time for thinking. Today, we can not only take and make phone calls in the car we can send and receive faxes, email and instant messages. When thereís no one to communicate with or you are "out of service area" just take time to turn down the satellite radio check the refrigerator for a cold or hot beverage to enjoy while you spin a DVD on the video system. If you have any attention left you canÖ.letís seeÖtalk to the kids?Ö.or, humm, DRIVE? Vocera

The Invisible Man

'The Invisible Man'? It looks like as if three men walking behind are seen through the body of graduate student Kazutoshi Obana during a demonstration of optical camouflage technology at Tokyo University, Feb. 5, 2003. This photo was taken through a viewfinder that provides a combined image of moving images taken behind Obana and him wearing a luminous jacket. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)source It's gonna be a great future.

Rebok is Brilliant!

OK, so now the advertising aftermath has shaken out in the wake of the Superbowl. Seems that Nike has a hit with their "Streaker" ad and competing Rebok has a hit with ads featuring their Terry Tate character. Now Rebok plans a spoof where their man Tate takes out the Nike streaker. While this is not the first time competitors have spoofed each others adds, it has the potential to be really successful. Watch for the ad premiering tonight during American Idol on Fox.

Media Feeding Frenzy

Anybody else bothered by the media treatment of the Columbia disaster? They havenít learned anything from Challenger or September 11th.They show the video footage over and over despite the past and present objections of the families involved. Now itís a race to grab ratings with "experts" and speculation. It is sweeps after all. No time for grief, loss or contemplation of what it all means. Maybe itís not gonna be a great future.

Technical Problems keep Peterthink from Publishing

I've had technical difficulties with my software provider since last week Monday. They appear to have been resolved. Yea!

What Super Bowl Ads are not Doing

Some thoughts: Storytelling ñ People respond to stories. Whether itís spot to spot throughout the game or even year to year storytelling can be a powerful communication and draw to a brand message. Anyone remember the Maxwell house saga? Characters ñ OK we saw the old friendly guy from last year in the Bud ads but there seems to be no focus on building and using compelling characters over time. I think this went out with the animal craze of the bud lizards and frogs. Aspiration ñ With a few exceptions the power of appealing to peoples aspirations is not present in Super Bowl advertising. Inappropriate humor seemed to rule the day. Why has Budweiser decided that the multi-million dollar way to sell beer and build their brand is to make fun of women? Increasingly women are watching the Super Bowl. Does Budweiser not know that? What if they made ads that showed men appropriately cherishing, respecting and honoring the women in their lives? Wouldnít that send a better message that wouldnít create brand drag from women? Which ads will be remembered in a month and which brands will be remembered in a week?

Laser Beam Me Up

For those who still are wondering about how much and how quickly technology is changing our lives consider this. 1. How many years ago did you first learn about lasers? 2. How many are in your home right now? The answer to the second question will be the total of CD players + CD-ROM drives + DVD players + game consoles plus the miscellaneous lasers found in things like laser pointers. Itís gonna be a great future.

More on Travel Concepts

There has been good response to my post Travels and Travails (see below) about ideas for the travel industry. I was reminded of my mock radio ads for the tongue 'n cheek airline concept: Geezer Air "Geezer Air. Safe secure and not even memorable. Geezer Air. When you need offsite climate enhanced storage for an elderly loved one. Why not drug, stuff and ship them using Geezer Air. Geezer Air, the leader in sedated air shipment. Geezer Air. So simple so excellent and yet so utterly forgettable. Uniformed professionals arrive to you home with one of our new state of the art stainless steel canisters. Once the drugs take effect, your beloved gezzer is carefully and skillfully readied for shipment. After less than a 24 hour ride on our almost new Geezer Air transport trucks. You precious securely packaged Geezer is loaded onto one of our surplus military cargo planes. After a slow bumpy flight to the climate enhanced storage location of your choice and a brutley hard landing, your securely canistered Geezer will be available for pick up at baggage claim. Once awakened and released from their canister your beloved Geezer will exclaim "Where am I?" and "How did I get here." Ahhh another barely satisfied customer. Geezer AirÖ"How did I get here." How indeed. Thatís Geezer Air. Ask about our cathiterzation discount special. Sure itís uncomfortable but it eliminates the cranky preshipment fasting period." My apologies for any potential Geezer Air customers. I do think there is a serious opportunity for a smart charter air service to serve the assisted travel market. There are a lot of ageing baby boomers and their parents out there.

Financial Services Looking to be an Experience

The latest Mastercard "ÖPriceless" ad is a classic example of a financial service looking to cast their service as an experience. Riding an amusement park roller coaster and "Hearing your dad scream like your little sisterÖpriceless" is trying to connect the use of their service with a desirable experience. You may not like roller coasters, but you can appreciate the humor of hearing your dad scream like a frady-cat. Elevating everyday purchase transactions to the level of experience is truly a valuable differentiation in the crowded credit card market. Doing it through aspirational story telling is a plus when communicating to post-moderns. People want to be able to insert themselves into the story and the experience. People donít want to be dictated to. Remember "Donít leave home without it." Thereís a company(American Express) telling you what to do with itís product. People donít want their credit card company being parental and telling them what to do. There are already enough rules and regulations to using a credit card. Contrast the successful priceless ads to what American Express does with their travelers check ads. Why do they show ads where people are victimized and made to look stupid by not carrying AmEx travelerís checks? Why donít they show smart people who are glad they carry AmEx travelerís checks feeling good about the features of the product. While weíre talking advertising. Have you seen whatís happening in pharmaceutical advertising. Theyíve got some outstanding aspirational story-telling going on in 30-60 second chunks. Drug companies are spending millions of dollars on advertising the aspirational lifestyle benefits of their products. They also are funding an advertising lesson for the 21st century. People respond to aspirational experiences and story telling.

Travels and Travails

I think I do a pretty good job of surrendering control and privacy at the airport. I give it up at the curb in my departing city and I pick it up again at the curb in my arrival city. Itís always been necessary to give up control when you get on an airplane. Unless youíre wearing wings and holding the stick youíre not in control. Now add a guy x-raying your shoes, checking the q-tips in your carry-on for knives (twice) and pawing through your dirty underwear looking for bombs and you can see why I am beginning to get fed up with air travel. The quality of the travel experience is going down steadily as security protocols add hours to even the shortest flights. I only fly a few times a year but I can see that we are on the brink of something big in the travel industry. There exists huge opportunity for those who can reinvent travel in these uncertain times. Where are the bus companies? What if busses were less like airplanes with wheels and more like rolling corporate jets offering premium travel amenities like leather seating, fine food, Internet access, etc? What if a bus was like a home theatre with stadium seating, surround sound, and movies. Maybe that six-hour drive wouldnít be so bad. Where are the tour companies? If you have aging parents or you have tried to travel to Florida in the winter time you know about the "snowbird" migration that happens every spring and fall as senior citizens move south for the winter. Where are companies operating special services catering to these special travelers? Companies that can successfully combine car/goods shipment with assisted travel by air, train or bus stand to capitalize significantly as the population ages. The lives of seniors would be greatly enhanced if there were just one airline or charter service that could accommodate wheelchair-using seniors with dignity, ease and comfort. Sure it would be more expensive but enabling people to continue living their desired lifestyle of seasonal mobility would be of value to many people. Where are the Experience Crafters? Disney decided that existing cruise ships didnít provide adequate "Disney magic" so they built their own ships. What if they find that bad flying experiences are keeping people away from their park properties? Can Air Disney be far away? What would check-in and boarding be like at Air Disney? Air Taxi Service If you have been reading the business press recently you know about the Eclipse, a new airplane that promises to be affordable enough to provide individualized air service using municipal airports. Six passenger jets will fly from point to point for the cost of a first class ticket. While this is a very complex undertaking, it has the potential to bring about fundamental changes to the airline business. Market Niche players The travel market will undoubtedly continue to fragment as special operators come in to serve up-market segments and highly efficient discount providers continue to flourish. Cost savings await those who can tolerate the cattle treatment. (Southwest, ATA, Jet Blue) Pampering awaits those who can afford it. (Virgin Atlantic, Midwest Express) Differentiated experiences await in the middle. There is coming a day when humane legroom wonít be enough to truly differentiate one airline from another. (American Airlines) As people continue to be frustrated by the increasing difficulties of the travel experience the winning providers will be those who can provide a meaningful brand experience that meets peoples needs, exceeds their expectations and delights their sensibilities. Itís gonna be a great future.

Mercedes, What are You Thinking?

I canít believe what Mercedes is doing with their advertising. After years successfully building brand cache and an air of exclusivity around owning a Mercedes Benz automobile they have decided to throw it all away. Have you seen the vending machine ad? A man receives car keys from a vending machine and is surprised to discover that they are for a Mercedes parked across the parking lot. The voice over at the end says "It may never be this easy to get into a Mercedes, but weíre working on it." It should never be that easy! Now Mercedes wants you to believe that itís easy to buy a Mercedes? Times are tough and sales are slumping for lots of car manufacturers, but to counter years of advertising and marketing? It just makes no sense. This strikes me as an attempt to broaden the Mercedes market share. What are they thinking? Sure, weíre going to portray ourselves as a mass market car available in vending machines everywhere we just wonít mention the fact that the cars can cost as much as $100,000. Incredible! Mercedes invented the automobile havenít they been paying attention to the business of selling them? The first lesson a car company learns is that it is incredibly hard to be all things for all people. Look what General Motors has done. Realizing the broad range of car buyers they develop several brands to appeal to different aspects of the market. Unfortunately, through bad management and organization choices they lost their focus and fell for the myths of efficiency gained through sharing parts and platforms across lines. The result was a confusing duplicity of product offerings that has resulted in the consolidation of their brands (killing Oldsmobile, a slow death like the party guest that doesnít know when to leave.) Other lessons here include Ford and the Japanese car companies Toyota and Nissan. Ford has assembled a federation of luxury car companies like Volvo, Jaguar and Austin Martin and for the moment is running them completely independently. Toyota, having seen up-market opportunities, rightfully recognized that their existing brand cache was among small economy cars. Instead of trying to build and sell luxury Toyotas they created Lexus. Similarly, Nissan created Infinity. The success of these new brands has become legendary. Despite parts and platform sharing, design quality seems to be sustaining them. So, what should Mercedes do? If broadening their market share is more than a short-term strategy they should start a new separate brand. Different name but capitalizing on the design excellence and experience of Mercedes. If they canít bring themselves to do that, then bring some real visual differentiation to their product line. Why should the most expensive Mercedes look just like the least expensive? Is size the best way to differentiate? Maybe the less expensive models should only hint at the design of the more expensive models. Regardless of their long term plans, Mercedes should stop advertising that counters their brand cache.

Just Who is Raising Money Here.

Saw an interesting happening yesterday. I was sitting in the cafÈ at a local bookstore. After I finished looking around for any sign of a Wi-Fi hotspot. None found. I noticed a gift-wrapping table. A common program at the big box bookstores during the holiday shopping season is to invite charitable organizations to staff a "free" gift wrapping table. The situation I observed was the poorly placed table(out of the traffic pattern from the checkout counter to the door) was being staffed by the student council of a local high school raising funds for a childrenís hospital. In the 1.5 hours that I observed them they wrapped exactly one book resulting in a few coins being deposited in their collection can.(I heard the coins hit the bottom of the metal can.) While the charity received a few cents, all four of the student council reps purchased large beverages from the cafÈ. I wonder if the subsequent hour raised more than $14 for the charity? I also wonder if the students grasp the irony.

Mobile Communication is Changing Us

Muslims and Christians are rioting over an ill-conceived beauty contest in Nigeria and 100+ have been killed. Whatís new here? Civil unrest is becoming wired. Muslims were reportedly forwarding text messages on their wireless phones alerting others and fueling the unrest. Muslims were calling for the beheading of the writer of a controversial newspaper article. (source) This is just another example of social groups using mobile communications technology to coordinate their activities. Protesters, rioters, political activists, business teams, conference attendees, even family groups are equipping themselves with radios, pagers, web-enabled devices and wireless phones to locate and communicate with each other. Disney has partnered with Motorola to offer character themed two-way radios intended for families to use to communicate and coordinate during visits to Disney theme parks. I attend a large church and itís not uncommon for people to call friends and family to locate them in the same building. Business people all know how common it is to reach co-located colleagues using pagers, cell phones, radios, etc. Weíre on the front edge of a global revolution brought on by advancing communication technology. Do you realize that in the very near present it will be possible to know where friends and family members are at all times? Location aware GPS equipped wireless phones are rushing to market pushed by government requirements. You think youíre multitasking now? Have you seen teenagers rapid attention shift through conversations, entertainment, video games and text messaging? Do you have a DVD player in your car? Navigation system? On-Star? Social interaction is changing right before our eyes. Hang on. Itís all gonna change. Just like that.

How about a Double-Wide?

Xentex Technologies makes a whopper. A 12lb. portable computer! The thing actually folds in half and then in half again. Definitely for the use/transport/use crowd. I'm a Mac laptop guy but this certainly would make the shortcomings of the PC platform tolerable. I think I'll add this to my Christmas list right after the yellow H2 and the Segway HT. Cool!

A New Technology I Like

Have you been to the grocery store lately? What a great place to see evolving technology. WIWAK(When I was a kid) cashiers did just that they handled cash. They read the price tag stickers on each item and manually punched the price into the cash register. Then came the widespread adoption of bar codes(UPC) and bar code scanners. Bits were associated with atoms. The codes donít really have the price embedded in them like the ink on the little adhesive price tag, instead they merely tell the register (now a computer) what the item is. The computer runs a database that associates item codes (UPCs) with prices. WIWAK stock clerks had to manually re-price items when they were on sale. Now the price can simply be changed in the database and the shelf label. Labor savings. Then along come loyalty cards. These cards allow stores to reward loyal shoppers by reducing prices on select items when people use their loyalty cards. We all know that the system is tracking every purchase for marketing purposes. The store knows how many times a month or a year you buy milk. What you have for breakfast. Probably, the store knows a lot about your lifestyle. You recently started to buy diapers and baby formula = new baby in the house. You started buying larger diapers and baby food vs. formula = junior is growing up. Generally, people accept this info fog being emitted when they visit the store for the return they receive in the form of cost savings. Now another tradeoff is being offered. A local store is testing a new system from Symbol Technologies. The Portable Shopping System offers users a basic trade. For the ability to send users targeted marketing messages while they shop suggesting companion products, competing products, special sale items, etc. the user realizes some time savings in the form of streamlined checkouts. Notice itís a checkout not a cashier. The way it works is that users scan their loyalty card upon entering the store to release a handheld scanner from a rack. The game begins. Shoppers select, scan and bag their groceries as they move through the store. The device keeps track of scanned items and provides a running total of purchases. Periodically, messages appear on the screen. Scan cereal and the device reads "Need Milk?" When shopping is complete a special checkout aisle allows users to scan a final end of trip barcode. The device then communicates with the server associating the final bill with the loyalty card. The "checker" scans the card and the computer pulls up the order. Payment is made and the shopper exits the store with their self-bagged groceries. Probably, the store now knows how long you spent in the store and possibly your route through the store and how long you spent in front of each shelf area. Yes, it is possible for the wireless technology that powers this system to triangulate the location of the handheld scanners. Itís not clear that the system includes these features at this time, however, future versions may include these features. The Bottom Line. This is a continuation of the development of sentient environments where information is attached, gathered and broadcast by physical items in our environment. In the next few years the technology will only become stronger and disappear into the walls, floors and ceilings around us. Manufacturers are close to being able to literally print RFID (radio frequency identity tags) tags on the packaging of their products. When this happens the "scanner" will be built into the handle of the shopping cart. Items will be added to your bill when they are placed in the cart. "Check out" that is totally invisible and transparent to the shopper. The cart gets your payment card info from the chip in your watch. The larger point is that the cloud of information surrounding the individual of the near future will be ever present and ever expanding. Your environment will know and tell your secrets. Oh, and your kitchen computer will know what you brought home from the grocery store. It will hear it from your car that red all those RFID tags on the drive home. But itís OK because the computer knows that you bought everything you need to make your favorite recipe for dinner tonight. Itís gonna be a great future!

More on DVD Marketing

This weekend is the showdown for the power of DVD marketing. Both Star Wars Episode II and The Lord of the Rings are being released on DVD and video. This in the shadow of the second installment of the Harry Potter saga in theatrical release this weekend. Those who have followed PeterThink for the last few months will recall previous pieces on DVD movie marketing.(click Archives link at left) These offerings are classic examples of the current practices in DVD marketing. Both are chuck full of extra scenes and documentary pieces on the making of these epic sci-fi tales. The Lord of the Rings reportedly even includes a coupon for one ticket to the theatrical release of the next installment of the trilogy due out this December. This also has become a staple of DVD marketing. Discs of films with impending releases of sequels include movie passes. Is the inclusion of a single ticket with the Lord of the Rings offering, while others include two tickets, a social comment on the reportedly geekish appeal of the famous sci-fi tales penned by J.R.R. Tolkien? I usually take a date to the movies. Hmmm. So What Business are Theatres in? Seeing the studios relying heavily on the inclusion of extra footage or deleted scenes as enticements to purchase the movie makes me wonder how long it will be until the theatrical release of a film is more blatantly shaped as a "commercial" promoting the DVD. Will there be a crawl or a pop up at the bottom of the screen saying "Find out more about the making of this scene on the DVD." or will there be cliff-hangers at the end of the movie that will be resolved by added footage in the DVD? Moves like these seem inevitable given the huge revenues generated by DVD sales. Increasingly, movies are generating more revenue in DVD sales then theatrical releases. So, movie theatres, what business are you really in? Are you in the business of renting seats and air-conditioning in 90-120 minute increments or are you in the movie entertainment business? Why do you not sell DVDs? Why donít you partner with Netflix to offer "also like" DVDs to moviegoers in theatre lobbies? Why not collect $20 from moviegoers who just saw the latest blockbuster and send them home with 5 DVDs (and postage paid return envelopes) featuring similar movies, other movies by the same director or featured actors, or the original of remakes. Netflix would increase their customer base and moviegoers would have an expanded entertainment experience. Netflix be nimble, Netflix be slick Blockbuster and Walmart.com are coming on quick. How long until the DVD of the movie you just saw is available for purchase on your way out of the theatre? That would cut down the wait to find out the resolution to that cliff hanger the movie ended with. Paging Ford Motor Company and my local Ford dealer Please tell me that we are going to see Thunderbirds parked in front of theatres showing the new James Bond movie. Test drives in the parking lot would be too much to ask, wouldnít it? An Experiment at Toys R Us Toys R Us is offering coupons when you attend a Harry Potter screening. These coupons can be scanned at local Toys R Us stores for discounts on Harry Potter toys. An interesting marketing tie in. I'm not a supporter of the Harry Potter scene but Toys R Us is figuring out how to get close to moviegoers.

Shoes, Glorious Shoes!

Recently I accompanied a friend on a shopping excursion. The mission: boots to be worn when visiting construction sites. The destination: a shoe warehouse store. What an experience, stores like these. Low prices and overwhelming selection. WINAK(When I Was A Kid) you got to choose between three or four ugly styles. The sweater clad lifelong shoe salesman chatted up your mother while buckling up your latest ugly pair of brown leather shoes. If you behaved yourself you went home with a balloon on an elastic string. Moms knew the shoe salesman and the shoe salesman watched the kids grow up marking their annual school shoe fittings. You still have to wait until you get home to wear your new shoes. Wear them on the carpet to protect them while you decide if the really do fit. How much experience can you suck out of the process of shoe shopping. Enter a banal white warehouse space filled not with leather chairs and sweater wearing shoe salesman but rows and rows of cardboard boxes each with a sample shoe sitting on top. Total self-service has replaced customer service. Brands? Sure there are a couple that Iíve heard of but mostly rows and rows of shoe brands Iíve never heard of. The prices are low and the selection so broad that the selection process is purely one of esthetics. Cheap, Cute, Fashionable. On this recent mission we observed a lone woman slip on a pair of boots and ask no one in particular "Are these cute?ÖanyoneÖanyone?" Looking for a stranger to validate her selection. While we looked for suitable boots I realized that boots in a world where they are commodities are like SUVs some are boots in name and style only and some are truly designed and built for off-roading. Sure there are stores where salespeople help you select suitable shoes but in todayís cynical world do you trust what they say about the merits of one brand over another? Are they just walking advertisements with a shoehorn looking to put you in the most expensive shoe they can? Isnít it a question of credibility? Where do you find out about shoes? Advertising? Media? Word of mouth? Social networks? Personality Swarms?(As seen on Oprah) It really is about good and bad PR. Nike rises (and falls) on the popularity of one Michael Jordan. That is until itís reported that Air Jordans are made in third world sweatshops. PR moves a brand up or down. Whatís more valuable to a gardening clog maker a full page ad in Fine Gardening magazine or being labeled a "Good Thing" by a pre-scandal Martha Stewart?

Roadtrip

I recently returned from a ten day trip to Florida with my brother. We drove down and flew back. My brother has always loved people to take pictures of his hands in front of his face. Here is a collection of a few from our trip.

Personality Brands and Community

So Iíve been thinking a lot lately about the promotion of a "lifestyle." Specifically the marketing and promotion efforts of "lifestyle gurus" like Martha, Dr. Phil, Oprah, Rosie, B. Smith, Suze Orman and several others who look to expand their offerings to espouse a philosophy for living. These individuals, "brands" if you will, use multiple forms of media in sophisticated ways to reach a broad spectrum of consumers. No longer just television, books, websites, magazines, product endorsements, charity fundraisers and awards the savvy brands are on the verge of something big. Community! Enter O Groups This is an online community building tool on Oprahís website. This is a place for people to come together in community to discuss topics and ideas of their own choosing. These groups can be either public and open to any and all registered Oprahcomers or private by invitation only groups. There are book clubs, support groups, inspirational groups and other groups as permitted by the management. These groups, while not necessarily built around Oprahís content, are a valuable brand extension. Oprah is supporting and, theoretically, enriching their lives by providing a place for people to connect with other like minded people. Participants naturally connect the insights, ideas or irritations they receive with the "space provider"- Oprah.com. "Sally, on my O Group saidÖ" Bottom-line-Oprah is influencing her swarm directly and indirectly through the creation of community opportunities. Of course, there is the added permission marketing opportunity since all the users are registered members of Oprah.com with their email addresses on file. Future Itís a short distance these days from cyberspace to mobilespace to meatspace. Itís only a matter of time before community groups like these centered around brands form localized swarms using mobile connected devices. If you are in the Oprah swarm you may sign up to have your wireless phone receive a message when you are within 3 minutes of a "O Zone" a public place (i.e. Starbucks or other registered place) showing her show as a way to draw people to their location. If you are in Marthaís swarm you might meet for a decorating seminar at your local Kmart with other Marthacomers. Perhaps Suze Orman will offer a debit card that will let members of her swarm manage their spending better. Maybe even send messages to your connected PDA in real time when you use the card. "Did you really need that new pair of pants you just bought?" Guilt for those who need it. One wonders, given Marthaís recent fall and Rosieís transformation, does it make sense long term to build brands so closely focused on a specific personality. Stay bloged in for more PeterThink on this topic.

Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics

Intuitor Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics OK, here's a site for the uber nerd. If you need the details they're here but a brief scan should sufice and educate.

You Gotta Love a Mini

I love the Mini. I would never fit in one but from a design and technology standpoint you gotta love a mini. BMW has made so many great moves in resurecting this great car. Global nostalgia apeal. Midlife crisis sports car apeal. SUV backlash apeal. The works. All this and an elegant website to boot. MINIUSA.COM This is the perfect car to drive on your date to My Big Fat Greek Wedding!

Checkout Martha's Trouble

A great duo from Canada! Martha's Trouble Check them out at CDBabySleeping Dogs You can check out their music by listening to MP3s. Their working on a Christmas album and a new recording with Zoomtone Records --Seth Godin's new record label.

More Deck Photos

Notice the attention to detail. The circular geometries and the way the copper pipes line up with the siding joints. Very Nice!

A Personal Note:

This past weekend I had the opportunity to visit with my college roommate and his wife at their home in north central Indiana. He has spent a great deal of time designing and building a small deck on the back of their home. I really liked it and thought Iíd share some photos of it.

In addition to the deck he has added a privacy screen built from recycled doors. He plans to use glass etching cream to frost a unifying pattern across all three doors.

Disrupted Again

Telephones did it. Overnight delivery did it. Fax machines did it. Email did it. Instant Messaging did it. And nowÖ Vocera will again disrupt personal communication. In a good way. Are you frustrated by constantly playing phone tag with your wandering coworkers? What if people could communicate one to one irrespective of their physical locations? Technologies like Vocera are bringing the Star Trek communicator badge to life. Users simply push a button on the small wearable device and ask a computer to locate the person they want to talk to. "Vocera, find Joe." The computer uses voice recognition software to interpret commands and connect users to each other. Superior to walkie-talkies by providing one to one connection and superior to wireless phones with the simplicity of one touch operation and voice recognition. No extension numbers to remember. The system also interfaces with telephone systems for routing incoming calls to individuals not just telephones. Refine this with a triangulating geo-locating system that can know when and where someone is within the Wi-Fi network area but unavailable to communicate (i.e. auditoriums, meeting rooms, bathrooms, etc.) and you have the makings of a ubiquitous transparent technologyÖlike, say, the telephone. Vocera like any communication technology has the potential to increase productivity. By using a computer based technology to enable live synchronous voice communication between mobile individuals saves time and speeds decision making. However, this is also a slide down the slippery slope of the stressful always "on" world of todayís info culture. With rapid fire communication coming at people from all directions time for thought and reflection can be hard to come by. I once worked for a man who refused to get a wireless phone despite significant daily road time. He insisted on protecting his in car time for thinking. Today, we can not only take and make phone calls in the car we can send and receive faxes, email and instant messages. When thereís no one to communicate with or you are "out of service area" just take time to turn down the satellite radio check the refrigerator for a cold or hot beverage to enjoy while you spin a DVD on the video system. If you have any attention left you canÖ.letís seeÖtalk to the kids?Ö.or, humm, DRIVE? Let me know your thoughts and your favorite in car technology. YouThink

A Weekend Away

I am away for the weekend. Be sure to check back Monday for an exciting look at a new communication technology that can change the way we relate to one another in the workplace.

Let's Talk Monsters

Have you been watching to see whatís happening with the movie Monsters Inc.? Now, after a hugely successful theatrical release and merchandising campaign. (Iím still wondering why the theatres arenít partnering with the toy people and selling the toys at the movie theatres.) the video and DVD were just released. Hereís another fine example of "Goodie" inclusion. The release was delayed while Pixar developed the new short film included on the DVD. The strategy worked. First day sales toped $85 million. (source) Keep the energy alive by adding new content surrounding the core offering. Pixar did this with the theatre release as well. After a few weeks in the theatres they added "outtakes" to the end of the movie ala Cannonball Run to encourage people to go back and see the movie again. This is a practice they began with Toy Story2. The irony is, of course, that these being animated films the outtakes are scripted and animated as send ups of classic movie bloopers. To my knowledge, despite global earnings reported to be $504 million, so far (source) Pixar has not planned a sequel. An entire company could be built to build the Monsters Inc. empire. Pixar, however, seems to be moving on to new creative properties. Maybe itís for the best since successful sequels require as much or more creative talent. The point is masterful creative minds combined with creative promotion win big!

Cool Site Iím delighted to see how the Web disrupts and democratizes promotion, sales and distribution. I think itís great to see successes like Amazon.com come along and change the way the world shops. Now hereís a site that is revolutionizing the "indie" music scene. For $35 and 5 copies of your CD CDBaby will handle warehousing, order taking, web page development (with MP3s and cover images) and order fulfillment. Now anybody can be a record label. The revenue picture is great. The site allows the artist to set their own sale prices. They keep just $4 per disk. They pay when you want them to and they never de-list your discs. Kudos

PeterThink Gets a New Look Computer problems and problems with Blogger have kept me from updating for three months. Wow! Look for some exciting things coming up shortly. It's been a great Summer and I have a lot to share with you all. I'll be posting again on a regular basis.

Right IdeañWrong Movie OK so I thought weíd see a lot of product placement in The Bourne Identity. but there wasnít much. We had to wait a week until Minority Report came out. Lots of placement in this great movie! It might be a bit much to have Lexus in the parking lot offering test drives in the sports car that was featured in the movie but we can hope for MercedesBenz in Men in Black 2 Cool Stuff! I was shopping for stuff at Target today and I found some cool stuff designed by Philip Starck it appears that he is doing what Michael Graves has done in making a line of consumer product designs available. It appears that he has baby products and office/desk accessories. I like the stuff a lot and I hope heís successful.

Anticipation I have a date tonight to see the movie The Bourne Identity. I haven't accessed any reviews of the movie so I won't have any preconceived ideas about the film. I have read about half of the first book so I know the premise of the story. I know the author wrote a trilogy so thereís a built in sequel/franchise opportunity if this first one does well. What I tend to do after seeing movies like this is think about the partnering opportunities that the theatres are missing. I have never understood why big multiplex theatres donít have sit down restaurants as part of their complexes. Iím not a restaurant expert but there are thousands of potential customers every weekend at our local multiplex. Itís a classic dinner and a movie. Why doesnít that simply lead to a partnership of theatre owners and restaurateurs? Going further I know Iím not alone in wondering why there are not kiosks or full fledged retail stores offering movie merchandise right in the multiplex. What a great opportunity! Everything from cars to fashions and toys are being promoted through product placements in our favorite films. Why not expand the experience right in the theatre lobby. I fully expect to see a cool watch or PDA in use by Matt Damon, the star of the movie, tonight. Iíd also consider purchasing one right after the movie. The same goes for fashions and shoes. And donít even get me started on toys and music. When I went to see the latest Star Wars film I couldnít imagine why the local Toys R Us didnít have at least a tent set up in the parking lot to sell all those toys that the movie so obviously promoted. There probably are some local regulations about such things but money talks. There are plenty of revenues and taxes to go around. This seems like such a win win opportunity. If merchandising works so well for museums why canít it work for theatres as well.

More on Movie Federations OK so there are some efforts in this area. Movie critics publish lists of their top ten films but people tend to use them like score cards not a play list. People compare these lists to what they have seen and liked. Major critics don't cultivate a following demographic and make recommendations to their following. The system works as a promotion machine for the studios not necessarily in the best interests of the consumers. There are, of course, exceptions to any rule.

I just read an article by Seth Godin in the July issue of Fast Company magazine. I like Seth. I think heís right on the mark with a lot of things. Heís a little whacked on the evolution thing but a lot of his views on marketing and the future of business are right on the money. Anyway, in this piece he talks about the media giants and their monopolies. He makes a good argument/explanation for the changes that are happening within the entertainment arena. Things related to copyright issues and file sharing/swapping. He makes a strong case for the fact that the enabling technology is out there and the center of gravity has shifted away from studios and producers of creativity based products. I especially like his discussions about the role of scarcity in establishing the revenue generation for the studios in the pre-digital era. He also predicts the end of the $100+ million Hollywood blockbuster. While thatís interesting I donít know that itís accurate. I think major revenue generating releases are still possible but the promotion and marketing of these vehicles will look quite different. Movies will continue to be outgrowths of communities of thought and lifestyle. (i.e. Star Wars, Martha Stewart, Star Trek, Ya Ya Sisterhood, Oprah, Mission Impossible, etc.) There will probably develop federations of unrelated movies looking to reach a common market segment. Something more than just 14 yo boys. After all, Oprah (and Martha) is just one small step from starting a movie club much like she did for books.

Itís so rare I thought I would commemorate it. I actually wrote two letters by hand and I am on my way out to mail them. Of course I am out of stamps so I have to go buy stamps and then mail them. Who did I write to? Daughters of friends who are at summer camp. Call it nostalgic but I remember the thrill of getting mail at camp. It made you feel connected. Of course, I asked them to send me a email about their experiences when they get home. Times have changed afterall.

Digital Cluephone: Regarding Copyrights

From the PeterThink archives: Do you ever wonder what all the stink is about copyright protection is? The major creativity factories are very concerned as new digital technologies allow the proliferation of copyrighted materials with no loss in quality and no limits on the quantity of copies. Movie studios worry about copies of movies being exchanged over the Internet. Music labels worry about MP3s cutting into the sale of CDs. Oh, wait, is that the digital cluephone ringing? Why, yes, of course it is. We are seeing the waves of technological, cultural and economic change. Some companies, organizations and individuals are learning how to surf these waves. A few bands are waking up to the fact that free exchange of their music online builds community among their fans and leads to higher revenues from concerts where the musicians make greater profit. Movie studios are beginning to catch on to the potentials of DVD distribution. Do you realize that the movie ñPearl Harbor- made more money in the first day of DVD sales than it did in itís three day holiday weekend theatrical opening. $67.5 million vs. $59.1 million (source: Business 2.0 vol. 3 no. 5 pg.34) All that for a movie that the critics panned. Could it be said that the theatrical release of a film is designed as part of a promotional campaign to sell DVDs? What these happenings are pointing to is a shift from reliance upon a single manifestation of a set of ideas for revenue generation to a broader approach that incorporates and coordinates efforts ranging from media buzz to community building to merchandising. Many movies and TV vehicles already are mastering these techniques and paving the way for the rest of us to follow. I was watching a few minutes of Oprah today she was hosting Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg promoting their newest movie. Included were clips of highlights of Cruiseís world tour to promote ñVanilla Sky- his last film. These highlights were from the Vanilla Sky DVD. Hereís a smart movie company expanding the desirability of their intellectual property by giving special inside information to DVD buyers. Of course, Oprah is late to the dance here. These same clips have already been on the entertainment news shows. Somebody is on the ball promoting this DVD. Of course, enticing people to buy DVDs of movies they liked in the theatre by loading the disc with insider goodies is itself a intermediate step. As digital sharing technologies like distributed P2P software and broadband connected hard drive based video recorders make it possible for people to share this content as well. Is the solution to use laws to try and slam the barn door on the horseís tail or foster creative next steps in the world of content development and promotion?

Things that are great in the Internet Days

If you're like me you have taken to checking the radar before you head out to do errands. I like to know if it's going to rain on me or not. The link I use weather radar

Things we have Learned from the Movies

Thanks to a friend for this amusing list. 1. Every pair of identical twins has one twin who was born evil. 2. Should you decide to defuse a bomb, don't worry which wire to cut. You will always choose the right one. 3. Most laptop computers are powerful enough to override alien society. 4. It does not matter if you are heavily outnumbered in a fight involving martial arts. Your enemies will wait patiently to attack you one by one by dancing around in a threatening manner until you have knocked out the predecessor. 5. When you turn off the light to go to bed, everything in your bedroom will be clearly visible, just slightly bluish. 6. If you are blonde and pretty, it is possible to become a world expert on nuclear fission at the age of 22. 7. All beds have special L-shaped cover sheets that reach the armpit level on a woman but only to waist level on the man lying beside her. 8. All grocery shopping bags contain at least one stick of French bread. 9. It is easy for anyone to land a plane providing there is someone in the control tower to talk to you down. 10. Once applied, lipstick will never rub off, even while scuba diving. 11. You're very likely to survive any battle in any war unless you make the mistake of showing someone a picture of your sweetheart back home. 12. Should you wish to pass yourself off as a German or Russian officer, it will not be necessary to speak the language. A German or Russian accent will do. 13. The Eiffel Tower can be seen from any window in Paris. 14. A man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating, but will wince when a woman tries to clean his wounds. 15. If a large pane of glass is visible, someone will be thrown through it before long. 16. If staying in a haunted house, women should investigate any strange noise in their most revealing underwear. 17. Even when driving on a perfectly straight road, it is necessary to turn the steering wheel vigorously from left to right every few moments. 18. All bombs are fitted with electronic timing devices with large red readouts so you know exactly when they're going to go off. 19. A detective can solve a case only after he has been suspended from duty. 20. If you decide to start dancing in the street, everyone you meet will know all the steps.

BookNotes

I just picked up the paperback version of Leonard Sweet's Soul Tsunami I have wanted to read it for some time and now that it's in paperback I couldn't resist. I've read enough of Sweet's work to know that he speakes well to the cultural shifts as we enter the 21st Century. I am also reading several books on marketing and the change that is taking place in today's workplace. Stay tuned for future BookNotes addressing favorite books in depth.

"A sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." -Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law

Power Outage

Ever been out and about when the the weather turns? Ever wonder if the thunderstorm has knocked the power out at home? Oh, no the Sump Pump! Sure some people are so wired that they have webcams observing such things. They can browse in and check things out. For the rest of us the solution is even easier. Simply call your home phone. If your answering machine picks up chances are the power is on. If not, the power is out and the tides may be a rising. Of course, this only works if you don't have a battery backup in your answering machine.

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