Where is the Puck?Where is the Puck?Blog about new business trends. Exploring the future. How is business going to change? What new trends can be expected in our society? What new technologies or products are going to be available? How can you take advantage of those trends?
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Google Trends – Great Interactive Tool to Research Trends
2007-02-09 03:25:00 Check out one of the newest interactive tools for trend discovery and trend tracking. The tool is still in its development stage: it can be found on Google Labs (http://www.google.com/trends). The underlying assumption here is that the trends can be identified based on what people search for on the Internet. The more searches for particular product, the higher interest or even “demand”… The nice thing about this tool is that it also helps you compare trends.. Compare for example: “german cars” / “Japanese cars” or “HD DVD” / “Blue Ray Disc”… More About: Research , Trends , Interactive , Great
The Future of Marketing – As Published on American Marketing Association
2007-01-31 03:24:00 Gian Fulgoni, founder and chairman of comScore, did a survey specifically for the AMA and Mplanet 2006. Check out this article here. Some of the facts and predictions that caught my attention: - Broadband Internet users now spend $224 per month online - Consumer online spending should total $170 billion by the end of the year. $53 billion on travel - Internet ad revenues are up 36% over a year ago, and search is 40% of that total revenue - Google controls at least 45% of all searches - The revenge of the bricks-the-mortar retailers: their online growth far outpaces that of the pure-play Internet retailers - Social networking (youtube.com, myspace.com, craigslist.com) rapidly growing - Tremendous future for advertising on user-generated content sites More About: Marketing , Future , American , The Future , Published
iPhone – Great New Product with the Poor Brand Name
2007-01-31 03:23:00 I just can’t resist to comment Apple’s new Internet phone: this is just another example of fantastic marketing job by Apple. Great and exciting new product with great potential… No doubt people will LOVE iPhone. To me Apple and Mr. Jobs are probably the world champions of marketing today (although it is tied race with say Japanese Toyota). However, one piece of marketing puzzle is not done well! It’s the name : iPhone. I understand Apple’s intention to own the “i”. Yes, they probably were among the first ones to use “i” : iMac, iTunes, iPod… Yet, “i” has become too generic. It stands for the Internet and it never belonged to any particular company and it never will. In addition, the word “Phone” is too generic, too ordinary. It’s not exciting and it is not new. Apple’s product is way beyond an ordinary phone, and this message had to be communicated more clearly. Remember, Apple’s mp3 player was not called iPlayer, but iPod. New name and... More About: Iphone , Product , Brand , Poor
Have You Gone Virtual?
2007-01-12 03:21:00 More and more businesses are discovering the power of “virtual”. Fifteen years ago business magazines in North America started writing about “VIRTUAL COMPANY”. Virt ual company became reality and proven business model particularly in the Internet age. Today, we often refer to it as “networked” company: company that does not have the traditional structure and resources (employees, offices, manufacturing facilities) but it is rather outsourcing most of of its operations through network of partners. In fact, my own company (www.ipowerstrategy.com) is quite virtual: my contractors sit in four countries and we meet online only; my clients are both in Europe and in North America but I have not met quite a few of them in person yet. My web hosting is done through my strategic partner in Toronto and my office is also “virtual (shared) office”…But the model works: it gives me better efficiency, flexibility and freedom. In addition to “virtual company” today we have ... More About: Gone , Have
Executives Give Their Prognostications on Technology Innovations
2007-01-02 03:20:00 Four predictions regarding technology innovations as published in Fortune (December 29th issue, article “The Next Big Thing” by Lee Smith, underwritten by Nasdaq): 1) ALTERNATIVE ENERGY: with China leading the way 2) WEB will be even more central in people’s lives due to changes in consumer demand: consumer will demand information accessible everywhere, edited and personalized 3) Rapid CONNECTION of the physical and digital world: more and more devices connected to the Internet (from today’s 2.5 billion to 14 billions by 2015) 4) Changes in electronic consumer products , particularly expended MULTIMEDIA capabilities of the cell phones and its spread to broader segment of the population (note the trend of the doubling of the world’s middle class - the largest consumers of such devices - in the near future) More About: Technology , Innovations , Prog , Executive , Give
Top 7 Marketing Trends in 2007 According to Rohit Bhargava
2006-12-30 03:17:00 Great overview of Mark eting , or I should say Internet Marketing Trend s for 2007. The 7 trends according to Rohit are: 1. Sharing a Corporate Personality 2. Widget Marketing 3. Social Media Optimization 4. AutoTagging and AutoSorting 5. Human Filtered Search 6. Contentcasting 7. Online Identity Shifting Note the trend #5 - “Human filtered search”. Another name for what I called “wiki-based” search in previous post. Great article. More About: Ends
The Future of Search (2): Wiki-Based Search
2006-12-27 03:16:00 The Future of Search : Part Two In my previous post dated Dec 22nd, I described the discovery engines as the future of web search. Another new important development has just been announced by Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wiki pedia (user edited online encyclopedia). Mr. Wales revealed his intentions to build “wiki” based search engine in 2007 (“Wiki” = user edited web content). The future search engine, called “WIKIA”, will allow users to create and influence search results. Wales promotes WIKIA as “a new kind of search engine, which relies on human intelligence to do what algorithms cannot”. Very interesting! And possibly challenging for Google. Wiki trend mustn’t be ignored. According to Garner group, half of all U.S. companies are expected to use wiki internally by 2009. No wonder both “wiki” and “wikipedia” were among the top ten most popular searches on Google in 2006. More About: The Future , Base
Google’s Top Searches Reveal New Trends
2006-12-26 03:15:00 Can you spot trends just by learning what people search? Yes, according to Googl e . Google processes all searches on its search engines worldwide and produces a report called “The Zeitgeist: general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era”: http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitg eist2006.html Here are four of the top ten most popular search terms that got my attention: * “MySpace” (social networking) * “video” * “radioblog” * “wiki” (user driven web content) FYI, Google performs just under 50% of all today’s web searches according to Nielsen / Netratings. More About: Trends , Ends , Trend
Trends and Hottest Ideas for 2007 – According to Entrepreneur Magazine
2006-12-25 03:13:00 Is your current or potential business considered “hot” for 2007? Maybe it is time to redefine your business to make it hotter? Remember, you need to reinvent your business every five years or so. Review these trends and ideas as published by Entrepreneur magazine: http://www.entrepreneur.com/hotcenter Enjoy! More About: Ideas , Magazine , Trends , Test
The Future of Search: Discovery Engines
2006-12-22 01:46:00 It all started with Amazon and its now famous recommendation engine: “Customers who bought items in your shopping cart also bought…”. It was so intelligent marketing strategy. But most importantly, customers loved it! Many other web sites have followed, for example: www.pandora.com: customized online radio station (“your personal DJ”) helps you discover music songs and artists that suit your music preferences. www.whattorent.com: a web site that helps you discover movies that fit your interests and personality type (based on personality test) According to Jeffrey M. O’Brien (Fortune, November 27, 2006) discovery or recommendation engines are “sprouting on the web like mushrooms after hard rain” and “the web is leaving the days of search and entering an era of discovery”. So it seems that the next Google is not going to be search engine at all! The main rationale for discovery engines is that we actually don’t always know what EXACTLY we are l... More About: Discovery , Future , Search , The Future , Engine
Advertising Just Changed: Advertainment and YouTube
2006-11-25 01:42:00 Advertising just changed thanks to the broadband Internet, particularly YouTube.com and similar video file sharing web sites. In addition to classic 30 seconds video (TV) commercials, advertising agencies are now creating new type of commercials for their clients. Here is how these commercials are different: They are created specially for web audience, and uploaded on free peer to peer social networking web sites (like YouTube) They last longer than TV ads: at least 3-5 minutes They are always entertaining (“Advertainment”) and sometimes viral They are often “hiding” their true advertising nature, at least at the beginning of the movie. They look like video files uploaded by “us” (regular web site visitors), and not by companies with huge advertising budgets Check out this GREAT ad about guy called Hal who is having all kind of problems with his server. Guess what, this funny video file is actually smart commercial, created by Symantec for YouTu... More About: Youtube , Advertising , Sing , Advert , Chang
Know-Wow! (2): Delighting is the Three Dimensional “Game” Based on THE
2006-11-11 01:38:00 …Part two of the story of KNOW-WOW, delighting and business success To really delight, you need to constantly have in mind and apply the golden rule: Treat others as you would like to be treated! Customers Do unto your customers as you would have them do unto you! Remember: always try to be nice to your customers. It will come back big time! Employees Do unto your employees too, as you would have them do unto you. Remember, only respected employees will be able to respect your customers. Happy employees are more likely to create happy customers. There is no magic way of making your customers happy through un-happy employees. Community Do unto your fellow citizens as you would have them do unto you. Remember, customers don’t make their purchase based on your last advertising campaign solely. They tend to favor products and services from those organizations that have been helping improve the life of the community they live in. More About: Game , Light , Know , Sion , Dimension
Know-Wow! (1): Your Future Depends on Your Ability to Delight!
More articles from this author:2006-10-30 01:35:00 KNOW-WOW: Part 1 In the extremely competitive business environment today meeting your customers’ expectations and needs is required; however it is no longer enough. In order to survive and win you have to go the EXTRA MILE. You have to go beyond people’s expectations: you have to be loved! You have to WOW them! MARKETING is great business philosophy. It instructs us how to discover and satisfy the needs of our customers. Unfortunately, however, marketing is too often manipulating rather than meeting customer’s wants and needs. At the same time, many new business theories and approaches such as e-CRM, e-business, ERP, web office or “wiki” intranet… are focused on leveraging technology (”hi-tech”) to improve productivity thus often creating more and more pressure and frustrations for everyone. Are we blinded by “hi-tech” and forgetting to focus on the “hi-touch”? Let’s stop this race for a moment. Let&r... More About: Future , Light , Know , Bili , Ends 1, 2 |
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