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StymiedThe Innovative Guide to Marketing....or vice-versa....
December 25 Year in MusicI've been reading a lot of year-end recaps and looks ahead in the music world recently and thought it was time to add my own two-cents.
10 Best Albums of 2006 (too tough to rank them):
Top 10 Best Songs of 2006 (Again, no particular order):
Top 10 Most Anticipated Albums of 2007 (Once again, no order...we'll let them define themselves)
I think 2006 has been a great year in music, and I think 2007 is looking pretty darn good in its own right! November 01 testiMONEYalsThe hottest trend in marketing right now is testimonials. With the popularity of Wikipedia and YouTube and other user-driven websites, companies have found the best sales results come from customers who have been referred by other satisfied customers. These references can come from either friends and family, or from general "buzz" online or around town.
But can you fake it? Some companies want to think so. Nissaan's latest ad campaign puts a "customer" in his new Sentra to live for a week. They document his week and pick highlights for ads (one being a date, most including places he showers). Other companies have simple customer testimonials with snazzy camera work that makes the commercial more exciting to the eye than just a normal person standing and talking, and usually opening or closing with "I'm Mark Smith and this is my [whatever they're selling]." This sort of campaign could potentially work. However, it could also backfire very easily. If the customer believes (even if they already know) for even just a second that the testimonial isn't legitimate, they immediately distrust the company as a whole.
Dove had a very successful campaign a year or two ago with a group of "normal" women (meaning not models). Showing people who truly are from all walks of life being happy and beautiful (despite not necessarily adhering to societal norms of beauty) created a positive link between Dove and positive self-image. The emotional connection Dove created to their own product helped bolster sales. But the key thing to remember before using customer testimonials or other emotional appeals is that people are fickle, and emotions can change dramatically with one false move. Be careful. August 10 Bandwagoning to the future!It seems like everyone these days is trying to come up with the next myspace or youtube. Sites like Panjea and GoTuIt have superior stream times (using flash players) and use advertising dollars to give back to the uploaders on a per-view basis. They also offer more original content (from established record labels and such). So why aren't they having success? Because in this glorious Web 2.0 world we're living in, beauty is not a factor. Myspace and youtube are both hideous, from a design perspective. But nobody really cares. It's all about the user and how much they can do. Take Wikipedia for example: not a beautiful site, either; no design team; still just the two guys running it who started it. But users feel involved and feel like they gain something from using the site. Web 2.0 is about community. Uers are drawn to myspace and youtube because they can interact with other users.
So here comes the next big thing: Viddler. It takes all the things that people like about youtube and adds functionality and more opportunity to interact. With Viddler, you'll be able to tag certain segments of videos (whether you're the original uploader or not), search those internal tags, and post comments to those tags. Not only that, but there won't be internal advertising (WHAT?! I thought everything on the web was ad supported!). Instead, Viddler takes a page from Google Programs' success book and offers free and ready access to anyone and everyone, while offering even MORE features to premium subscribers.
So what's today's lesson, kids? Worry first about giving your users a ton of options (well organized, naturally), a sense of community, and stay out of their way. Once you get their trust and interest in using your site on a regular basis, then you can worry about making money off of it. The fact of the matter is, if you're out simply to make a buck on the web these days, you're going to fail. Just as the customer is always right, the user always comes first. July 19 coming up next: the microsoft ipod with sirius radio and napster!There's a good bit of buzz these days going on around the Microsoft iPod killer: Zune. Frankly, it looks a lot like an iPod. Which might be a good thing, as long as they improve upon the iPod more than the next generation of iPod will. (And maybe make it cheaper? pretty please?)
So here's my idea for an iPod killer. And I'm clearly just throwing this out there so I can say "I told you so.":
So you know how on a lot of radios (even non-sattelite) display song titles and artists and whatnot these days? Well that information is bundled with this signal and is called an ID3 tag. It's the same information that you see in iTunes or whatever you use to listen to music on your computer. Anyway, my iPod killer, which i'll call QT for now (because of course, it'll be beautiful), will capture those ID3 tags (from the options of the low-end FM tuner version or the high-end sattelite radio version) and allow the user to mark those songs for download. From there, the user has the option of downloading the songs immediately (if they're on a WiFi connection), tag the songs for download once they are on a WiFi connection, or create a running list of songs to be downloaded the next time they plug their QT into the computer. The songs may either be downloaded as part of a subscription service (say, $15/month or whatever is competetive with napster, etc) or on a song-by-song basis (the standard 99 cents/song). Naturally the QT will have a good bit of storage and will be able to connect (via WiFi) to a searchable iTunes-store-esque service directly. Bluetooth will also be integrated, so you don't have to fumble with any wires (including the wireless earbuds that come standard and clip conveniently to the QT when not in use). The video version of the QT (QTV, if you will) will follow shortly, allowing you to rent movies through the store (much like iTunes will begin offering towards the end of summer).
So all I need is some of the top engineers in the world, a few million in R&D money, and some partnerships with sattelite radio providers and record companies. Any takers?
photo courtesy: Orbicast July 13 be your own record store!So to follow up last week's discussion of the trouble that major labels are in, here's another stick in their spokes (and those of record stores this time too!). Shawn Fanning (of Napster fame) is back with his company SNOCAP and has come up with MyStore, a way for anyone with webspace to allow and encourage other people to buy the music they reccomend without having to leave their site. Specifically, a box with the songs from the album or artist that the site owner reccomends contains song titles and check boxes. The user checks the boxes of the songs they want, buy them as if they were in the iTunes or similar store, and download the mp3s. I'm happy to say that the first band to join in on this new service is the ever-forward-thinking The Format. (I've tried to add their SNOCAP box below, but am not sure msn spaces allows such things to be embeded. Just go to myspace.com/theformat to see it in action.) For just $.79/song (an honest steal), you can download their new AMAZING album Dog Problems from anywhere that embeds the little box! The album has been playing virtually nonstop in my car and computer for the past month, so naturally I suggest all of you pick it up as well. This technology helps small bands avoid the need to be in record stores altogether. Most people don't realize how costly distribution is. Not only do you have to print, ship, and promote tons of discs, but you have to pay the record stores a good chunk of change to get your name on one of those pretty little dividers in the racks. Score one for the little bands with only enough money to pay for their instruments and the gas to tour! And maybe, just maybe, this will knock off a few more of those outdated places like Sam Goody and FYE. Pretty please? <param name="movie" value=" <http://store.snocap.com/a/s/T3-31324-LYTCN323PR-5.swf>http://store.snocap.com/a/s/T3-31324-LYTCN323PR-5.swf" /> <embed src="http://store.snocap.com/a/s/T3-31324-LYTCN323PR-5.swf" width="425" height="300" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/>
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