I’m an App Store junkie. Every day I check out the latest apps to hit different App Stores to see what apps give me new ways to use my smartphone.
Recently Apple’s App Store curators have put a large focus on “microreview” apps that use photo sharing, character limits, and location-based services to help people discover new products, services, and venues nearby. A wide range of entrants into this field: Oink, TinyReview, andStamped are all apps that make it easy for users to review companies quickly and easily through images and extremely short writeups.
From a digital marketing perspective, these apps are a great indicator of how smartphones are changing the way that people discover, discuss and connect with different brands. They truly embody the convergence of multiple trends we’ve seen unfolding online for the past few years.
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Mitt Romney has a problem. In his quest for the Presidency, no one is quite sure what he believes. In politics, that’s a no-no. A leader without strong beliefs doesn’t inspire much confidence.
However, his opponents seem to run into a bigger problem. They are sure in their beliefs, but often don’t think them through, leading to embarrassing gaffs. One by one, they have fallen by the wayside.
I, for one, appreciate the political theater. There’s nothing more entertaining than watching a stuffed shirt deflated on national television. However, the 2012 Presidential race is about more than shits and giggles and the rhetoric to this point opens up a very important question: Where do we draw the line between belief and thought?
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Besides his impressive array of trysts, Captain Kirk had very little on today’s average Joe. Personal communicators are now old hat, tricorders are right around the corner and even teleportation no longer seems completely out of reach.
In fact, in many ways, the technology we carry around today is more impressive than what he had in Star Trek. After all, he and his crew always seemed to be tapping away at keyboards.
And that, mark my words, will be the big thing for the next year. We are about to enter a technological lull, with very little happening of note in the way of new standards or breakaway functionality for a while. In truth, we haven’t really begun to utilize what we already have. The next wave of innovation will change that.
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Are innovators born or made? Surely, those who spawn ideas that change the world are special – different then the rest of us.
Take one look at an Einstein, a Henry Ford or a Steve Jobs and it seems that they were bequeathed with something unique. They have a flair and a surety about themselves that borders on the sublime.
Yet many others also have flair and surety and never accomplish anything of note. Moreover, as I’ve written before, stories of great innovators often contain struggle and privation. Given a deeper look, innovation seems more learned than innate and there is surprising consistency about what drives it. Here are 5 principles to guide you.
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Clearly, psychology and marketing are deeply related. What we buy is a function of how we think and what we think is a product of the way our minds work.
Yet, what doesn’t seem to be clear is that our scientific understanding of how people think and how they make decisions has changed drastically over the last decade or so. Unfortunately, marketing practice has not kept pace.
While it was once believed that people could be expected to behave rationally, the truth has been found to be far different. In both neurological studies and behavior experiments people have been shown to act, to borrow a phrase, in ways that are predictably irrational. It’s time we start applying what science already knows.
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Prognostication is a multi-billion dollar industry. We have weathermen, Wall Street Analysts, political pundits and futurologists. They all claim some expertise.
These people exist because there is strong demand for their services. Businesses need to create budgets. People have to decide what to wear. Politicians are expected to anticipate issues that will matter to society. Without predictions, there can be no plans.
Yet as Philip Tetlock discovered in his 20 year long study, experts are little better at predicting the future than flipping a coin. Moreover, the more specialized the expertise, the worse the predictive performance tends to be. In other words, the people who get paid to know the most, do the worst. How can this be?
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In the old days, you knew what you were. Publishers printed. Broadcasters transmitted over the airwaves. Advertising agencies advised clients and developed 30 second ads. There was some trash talking, but generally everybody stayed in their lanes.
Not anymore. Old categories are becoming defunct, while the new ones are still being defined, changing the basis of competition throughout the business world, especially in the marketing arena.
That’s the essence of what Rishad Tobaccowala calls digital leakage. A pervasive, often unnerving trend that renders past definitions impotent. Further, because the new reality doesn’t fit into old containers, some of the most important implications go unnoticed by conventional metrics, making them easy to miss.
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“I waste half of my marketing money, I just don’t know which half,” is an often repeated, mostly untrue, quote attributed to a number of people. Nevertheless, it’s cute, so it resonates.
That’s common in marketing. We’re good at making catchy soundbites and passing them on. After all, we sell sizzle, not steak. Why ruin a good story by being true to pesky little facts that just get in the way. Boring!
Unfortunately, truth has a way of sticking around and rearing its ugly head at the most inconvenient of times, like when businesses actually expect results rather than just fast talk and snazzy PowerPoint decks. So here’s a guide to some of the most prevalent marketing myths. They, as well, are often repeated yet untrue.
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If I was unemployed, I’d be spending my time looking for a job.
I guess not everyone thinks like me, because over a thousand New York City residents have been arrested protesting under the Occupy Wall Street banner in the past few months. Many more are camping out in Zuccotti Park, part of the Wall Street financial district. The movement is catching on in other cities as well.
Regardless of which side you come down on from a political perspective, we can all agree that they’ve garnered tons of press over the past few months. How did they do it? There are a few lessons marketers can learn from them when it comes to crafting a public image and capturing attention.
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Over the years I’ve done a lot of things. I’ve lived in a bunch of countries, run a number of businesses and even spent some years as an independent strategic consultant. Clients would come to me to solve their problems and, inevitably, they always traced them back to strategy.
They wanted to hire me, therefore, to give them the right one and that, they felt, would set things right. I had built a strong track record of success and they were sure that I would find the elusive, magical answer.
However, once the project started, I would find that strategy was the least of their problems. Lousy products, nasty people and inherently poor management were at the crux of the issue. Successful companies, on the other hand, excel at those things. Nevertheless, it is strategy that tends to get the credit or blame. It’s time to tell the truth about strategy.
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