Social ‘What’ or Social ‘Who’?
admin at Jan.20, 2010, Kategorie News
The Power of Nomenclature
admin at Jan.18, 2010, Kategorie News
Marketing Budgets
admin at Jan.17, 2010, Kategorie News
Consumer Electronics
admin at Jan.16, 2010, Kategorie News
Consumer Electronics have certainly come a long way. It is fascinating to see what technology is capable of. We can receive hundreds of programs via satellite or cable on bigger and bigger screens. One of the latest examples is the 3D plasma TV presented at the CES. Often I ask myself, how much value this piece of technology really adds with the present state of TV programming. After all a 3D plasma TV doesn’t transform a lousy program into a fantastic program. However it is probably fantastic for aquarium, fish tank or fireplace DVD’s and some people would also consider it to be a beautiful modern design object. None of which are reasons to buy a TV, or are they?
Many broadcasting stations prefer to copy successful programs in order to maximize short term profits. I wish producers would invest more time and budget in quality content. Unfortunately technological overkill with a trivial storyline is becoming the norm, rather than being the exception. The regular excuse is that what is being aired is what people want to see (and what is being watched brings in the advertising revenues). I don’t buy that. There are those that stop watching TV. There are those that spend their time desperately zapping from one channel to the other. There are those that consume TV without enjoying what they are seeing. And there are some that actually like what they see.
Are public or private broadcasting stations still appropriate in today’s environment or isn’t it time to think about new business models in the age of the Internet? Look at what the iPod in combination with individualized quality content via iTunes did to the big record labels. Consider the success of the iPhone in combination with the individualized quality content via the App Store.
And yes, Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in B&W still is fantastic
Hermès, marketing and the importance of a name
achim at Jan.04, 2010, Kategorie News
Names are important. We like to hear our name. “Hey + name” sounds friendlier than “Hey you”. For premium brands it is even more important. As a matter of fact it is vital. “I bought a car” is not really helpful for the brand you bought it from.
A premium brand like Hermès should know that. Hermès was founded by Thierry Hermès back in 1837 – the brand name is therefore not just a pseudoword, it is a ‘real’ name – and is about as premium as it gets.
They have a store in Munich and I’ve been a customer for several years. I happen to like their ties, even though they are insanely expensive. Every January they invite me to a sale (if you can call it that at Hermès), which is nice.
What annoys me however is that they seem to be unable to get my last name right (see photo: no ‘Umlaut’, no ’s’ at the end).
All the fancy brochures and expensive advertising campaigns will ultimately fail, if you don’t know your customers and that includes their names.
Customer semantics
achim at Jan.04, 2010, Kategorie News
If you define your customer as a consumer and treat her like one, that’s exactly what she’ll be. At the most, she’ll consume your brand.
Opportunity missed!
Why don’t you define and treat your customer like an afficionado? Consider the potential endorsement “I enjoy this brand” as opposed to “I consume this brand”.
Words can make all the difference in the world and attitudes most certainly do. It’s worth the extra marketing effort.
Achtung! Google Analytics is illegal, say German government officials
achim at Nov.25, 2009, Kategorie News
bitte hinterlassen Sie einen Kommentar mehr...Wir werden immer älter + weniger
admin at Nov.18, 2009, Kategorie News
Laut einer aktuellen Prognose des Statistischen Bundesamtes – Details gibt es hier: http://bit.ly/3h2CR6 – wird Deutschland in 50 Jahren 17 Millionen weniger Bürger haben als heute, zudem wird jeder dritte Deutsche älter als 65 Jahre sein. 100 Erwerbstätige werden 67 Rentnern gegenüber stehen. Das bedeutet auch, dass die Produktivität der Erwerbstätigen erheblich gesteigert werden muss und das geht nur durch Bildung. Im Vergleich zu anderen führenden Industriestaaten hinkt Deutschland in den staatlichen Ausgaben für Bildung hinterher – es ist an der Zeit, dass sich das ändert.
The power of social gratification
admin at Nov.16, 2009, Kategorie News
In 'Consuming Life', the Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman describes how people are goods and practice marketing. They mutate into products capable of generating attention as well as demand, in order to obtain what he calls social gratification.
We see this happening every day in new media and in particular in social networks: Followers, friends, retweets, feedbacks etc. are just a few examples of social gratifications. The fact that these gratifications are often instant adds to their value. Whether we want to admit it or not, the majority of us is and always has been very receptive to social gratification. In my opinion this is another major reason for the popularity of new media. After all, how could the average human being obtain social gratification in old media?Spiders, brands and the web
admin at Nov.11, 2009, Kategorie News
Spiders have existed for much longer than brands. For over 140 Million years many species have been around building webs. Not all use webs to catch their prey, but for those that do, the web has the great advantage that the spider can catch the prey without having to hunt it down. The spider just needs to be patient and wait. When the prey gets trapped, the spider senses the impact by vibrations transmitted through the web. This behavior reminds me of many brands in the 'other' web – they build websites and wait for the consumer. If the typical prey of a spider would behave like today's consumer, the spider would starve to death while waiting. And brands?