Category Archives: Business & Marketing

Mr. Company Computer Guy

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I can’t recall posting on the purchase of Anheuser-Busch by Belgian beverage giant, InBev. I’m a Bud fan but have been drinking Beck’s (made by InBev) for a year or two. New owners always tell you nothing is gonna change but it’s not true and nobody believes them anyway. But The Game is truly global now and we have to get used to it. Just as the rest of the world has had to deal with our military and economic superiority. Both of which are facing serious challenges. As Bob Dylan said, “How does it feeeel?”

I mark this moment with this musical tribute. One of my favorites.

AUDIO: Budweiser Men of Genius salute to computer guy

AppleCare passes first test

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Apple hardware and software are not perfect. A piece of gear can be defective or stop working… software is, after all, software. I’ve had very good experiences since getting my first Mac just over two years ago.

But a couple of things gacked up recently. A problem with my Airport (wireless router) and my new Mac Mini. Unrelated. And even His Macness, George, couldn’t put things right. So he called Apple support.

I purchased an extended service plan called AppleCare which is a bit pricey but often recommended for switchers.

We wound up calling Apple three times yesterday, speaking to three different people about the two problems. Each time there was zero wait. And each time we wound up speaking with someone that was very knowledgeable. None of those long waits while they try to read the support screens. These folks obviously knew their shit.

And they were all very friendly, but efficient. No time wasted.

But the big “ooh!” moment for me was when the lady helping with the Airport problem resolved the issue and then asked us to wait 5 minutes (until the MacBook went to sleep) to be certain everything was really working correctly.

She didn’t want us to have to call back…get a different agent…and go through the whole routine again.

I’m sure others have had different experiences with Apple and I might have a bad one down the road. But I was reminded of all the hellacious support calls I’ve endured over the years and this was a nice contrast.

“Scared to let our people blog”

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Kevin O’Keefe points to an excellent post by Liz Strauss, an expert in corporate online communications. Whether they say the words or not, many companies are afraid to let their employees blog. Liz wonders “is the blog the problem?”

“Look to the people. Isn’t the issue one of trust and control? The employer is concerned about what employees might write on the blog. We let employees talk to customers daily — answering email, answering phone call, answering questions at exhibits, and answering letters at the office. We trust what they write on behalf of our company. We once worried in the same way about the telephone and email.

It comes down to hiring and training employees who make good decisions. If we trust our ability to choose the right employees and to let them know the values that we hold for our company and our customers, the question of whether we should let them blog falls away as an issue. A blog is a powerful, customer-facing tool. Like a computer, it’s as strong as the people we choose to use it.”

Kevin was told recently of one senior lawyer who was told by the firm that they would not be permitted to blog. ‘The firm does not allow its lawyers to blog.’

The lawyer responded with a question. ‘Why am I working at a place that does not trust me to talk about what I do – about a niche in the law I am passionate about?’

What is it with the Apple logo on TV?

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Applelogo

"Sex and the City’s" Miranda, Cynthia Nixon, sat down with Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday night to promote her blockbuster chick flick. Jimmy brought out his laptop partway through the interview for an online multiple choice quiz, which decides which of the four main SATC characters the taker is most like."

I started noticing this after I turned in to a Mac fanboy. What’s the big deal about masking the Apple logo? I guess they’d mask any recognizable brand logo. The difference is how distinctive the MacBook is. But maybe that’s true only of Mac fans. To everyone else, it’s just a laptop.

So here’s today’s assignment: Name another product that is equally recognizable (without seeing the brand logo). Begin.

Minority Report Billboards

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“Billboards are, for the most part, still a relic of old-world media, and the best guesses about viewership numbers come from foot traffic counts or highway reports, neither of which guarantees that the people passing by were really looking at the billboard, or that they were the ones sought out.

Now, some entrepreneurs have introduced technology to solve that problem. They are equipping billboards with tiny cameras that gather details about passers-by — their gender, approximate age and how long they looked at the billboard. These details are transmitted to a central database.

Behind the technology are small start-ups that say they are not storing actual images of the passers-by, so privacy should not be a concern. The cameras, they say, use software to determine that a person is standing in front of a billboard, then analyze facial features (like cheekbone height and the distance between the nose and the chin) to judge the person’s gender and age. So far the companies are not using race as a parameter, but they say that they can and will soon.

The goal, these companies say, is to tailor a digital display to the person standing in front of it — to show one advertisement to a middle-aged white woman, for example, and a different one to a teenage Asian boy.” [New York Times]

The Digital Cottage Industry

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Agwired

I’ve posted frequently about my friend Chuck, who –with his wife Cindy and a SWAT team of free-lance bloggers– have built a thriving business providing blogging, podcasting and related services to a growing list of clients.

"Cindy and I have been going over calendars and we just realized that we have 23 events scheduled to blog in the next 3 months. Yeeow. Just the hotel reservations, credentialing, registering, airline reservations, etc. are a task. We’ve also got 5 website projects underway just to add to the fun."

Can you make money blogging? For most, the answer is "not likely." For the few, the proud, the Marines… yes. Booyah!

The results business

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Mark Ramsey points to a survey of marketing professionals that shows growing pressure on accountability:

“86% of marketers say pressure has increased on them to account for results; no one said that the pressure has decreased. Moreover, 68% of organizations are measuring the quantifiable contribution of marketing to the bottom line.

Message to radio: You’re no longer in the advertising business. You’re in the results business.
So which are you selling, advertising or results?”

I feel like I should have something to say about this… but I don’t know what it would be.

“Waning Days of the Road Warrior”

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I hate air travel. Not “white knuckle” hate, but “hassle hate.” Fortunately I don’t have to do much of it any more. But lots of people in our company do and I feel for them. I also wonder how much of it is really necessary. Usually while playing with iChat and live video streaming.

Latest issue of Business Week has an article titled, The Waning Days of the Road Warrior (Why the current slowdown in business travel may not end when the economy recovers).

“For years, Irv Rothman, CEO of Hewlett-Packard’s Financial Services division, traveled at least once a quarter—top three lieutenants in tow—from his New Jersey base to HP’s Silicon Valley headquarters. After enduring Newark airport hell and six-and-a-half hours of stale, germy air, the team would arrive, strung out, to meet with their boss. For one hour. Then they would turn around and do the whole thing all over again.

The super surge in oil prices and resulting spike in airfares is just one reason companies are ordering their road warriors home. Factor in, too, the misery of modern air travel, which has de-glamorized the business junket. HR types also have a new appreciation for how the frequent-flier lifestyle can wreck executives’ health and family lives. And they have come to realize that jetting off for a one-hour meeting, while instinctual for corporate strivers, is rarely productive.

So, if managers aren’t flying to meetings, what are they doing? Using newfangled technology that is finally delivering the kind of Star Trek-y, space- and time-shifting experiences that tech executives have blabbered on about forever. Videoconferencing, Web-enabled meetings, online collaboration tools—all are giving workers the ability to dart around the globe from their desk chairs.”

The article reminded me of driving from Jefferson City, MO, to Dubuque, IA (9 hours?) to call on a station manager who really didn’t want to see me. To get the appointment I said something like, “All I need is a minute of your time.”

When I walked into his office and started take a seat, he reminded me that I had said I only needed one minute and that’s all that I had. So I stood there with my little briefcase in hand and told him what our network could do for his station. (I didn’t sign him up) Today I might have just sent him a Quicktime file or made my “pitch” via iChat. No less effective and a lot less costly.

Videoconferencing and related technologies really only work when both parties want to hear what the other has to say. How many meetings take place because it was the only way the “prospect” could get the sales rep to leave her the fuck alone? (Wonder if there’s any data on that)

These days, most of the people I deal with in remote locations want to talk to me and I want to talk to them. And, increasingly, they have the tech skills to do a quick face-to-face.

And if I need to send them a url or an image or any other kind of file for that matter, it’s easy to do.

Old Schoolers will talk about body language and non-verbal communication and “pressing the flesh” and all the other arguments for being in the same room.

We’ll talk again when that airline ticket to the coast is $2,000.