Androids will be launching new products later this year. The blog isn’t being updated at this time so we can focus time and energy on new projects. You may find a blog post from time to time, so keep checking back.
Marketing is still about the consumer, not your ego. Give the customers what they’re asking for, mmmk? Thanks.
Microsoft’s Bing will fail at trying to beat Google. You can’t beat the strongest player at his own game. Microsoft should stick to Surface and their new magic video game interface.
McDonald’s coffee is still good, but the service sucks. Buy Starbucks, or better yet, support your local cafe. It’s a recession, and your neighbors need the money more than some faceless corporation.
Facebook and Twitter (and other social media fads) will be supplanted soon by good old fashioned back to basics networking. If you want to market to the people, then be where the people are. Only a small fraction of social media users care about your ads. They’re using social media to talk with their friends, not to view your ads. Get involved, and get real.
That’s all for now…maybe I’ll blog more, maybe not. But expect some new direction and products from Androids in 2009 and beyond.
Hey all! Sorry for the hiatus on the Android blog. We’re busy working on some new products for 2009, so been slacking a bit on the blog. It happens from time to time…
After months of hearing about how great McDonald’s new gourmet coffee was, I gave it a go. Sure enough, the coffee was cheaper and tastier than Starbucks, who McDonald’s is trying to go toe to toe with. In this example, I’ll stick to comparing Starbucks to McDonald’s…also, despite the criticism about Starbucks, they still use the highest quality beans on the market. Nuff said.
Despite McDonald’s seemingly superior product, I will not buy it again. Why? Although it tastes better than Starbucks (and most other coffees, frankly), buying a cup of coffee has become a process greater than the coffee itself. For me, buying a cup of coffee is also about the employees and the vibe. McDonald’s is obviously clueless about creating an experience around coffee, which is something Starbucks nails every time. I’m willing to pay a bit extra for the experience of getting a good cup of coffee.
What does this mean to you? Forget about your product quality, and how superior you believe it to be compared with the competition. Of course you need a quality product. But your customers want much more. They also want an enjoyable buying experience. Create a positive vibe around your transaction, and you’ll win customers every time.
First, I’m a longtime Apple user. I love Apple’s simple, intuitive, and stable products. However, when I saw this week’s new iPod Shuffle, I began rethinking my allegiance. Why? In order to control the volme or play settings, the new iPod shuffle forces the user to wear their crappy tinnitus inducing earbuds, which double as the remote control. This is the dumbest product “integration” I’ve seen in ages. For people such as myself who shun earbuds, I’m now left with no other choice than to either continue using the old iPod shuffle, or switch to a competitor that doesn’t force me into something against my will.
Apple should know better than to force substandard earbuds onto their consumers. What can you learn from Apple’s mistake? Never assume you can force consumer behavior. Once loyal customers will suddenly either love or hate you. Instead, make things as easy as possible for your customers, preferably allowing customization. The world is open source now. Force feeding is so 20th century.
The tsunami-size fluctuations in the stock market fascinate me to no end. In a perturbing way, its beautiful and random, although the fluctuations have a real-life impact (usually negative) on peoples’ net worth. Perhaps the only thing that fascinates me more is when people try to predict a number for the stock market. Nowadays, I can’t help but constantly hear predictions for the Dow’s next move: “Going to 5,000 for sure!”…”I’ll bet it closes below 6,000 by week’s end”…etc.
The same predictive “abilities” are used everyday in marketing too. People bank on catching waves or riding trends, instead of creating real value. What is real value? Real value means going above and beyond your customers’ expectations. Its about creating new trends and innovations, as opposed to riding somebody else’s wave. And most importantly, it’s about long term perspective. Not the day to day fluctuations of the market…or marketing. I know this probably sounds overly simplistic, but real value often gets lost in today’s micro-trend driven environment. It’s about creating a long term and trusting relationship with the consumer.
Your website ain’t so special. Just because you have a website does not guarantee instant sales, fame, or a flock of eager customers. You’ve got to always work harder than the next guy to market and expand your footprint in the right way. There are over 162 million websites…what are you doing to stand out?
Expect the rules of marketing to change. In the realm of the 4 P’s (Promotion, price, product, placement), PRICE is king. Marketers who are intelligent and innovative with price will survive. Those who ignore price do so at their own peril.
Google is exiting from its print and radio operations, amid poor results in both industries. In case you’re not aware, Google basically acted as an ad placement agency, mostly for remnant inventory in radio and print. Needless to say, things didn’t work out for Google. According to Ad Age, “The idea behind Google Audio Ads, as it was with Print Ads, was to make buying ad inventory much more efficient for the smaller advertisers that have been instrumental in growing Google’s search-ads business and find new ways to match relevant ads to audio content. But one big problem? It was easy to trace return on investment on the click-based web — not so much in radio or print.”
The biggest takeaway for me is that Google’s efficiencies usually turn anything it touches to gold. Google’s got the closest thing to alchemy imaginable, so the company’s departure from print and radio really leaves me wondering about the future of both industries. As companies turn to more accountable and measurable forms of media (as they always should!), print and radio are very obviously vulnerable to near-extinction. They’ll continue in a smaller form, but nothing as profitable as they once were. Anybody considering advertising in print or radio should really think twice - there are several other ways to reach consumers cheaper and more efficiently. The days of shotgun advertising are dying…but you already know this.
