Check out this informative and succinct video. It gives a great introduction and overview of unified communications, an area with big development occurring almost everyday.
Archive for the 'Branding' Category
![[Ask]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/ask.png)
![[Bloglines]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/bloglines.png)
![[BlogMarks]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/blogmarks.png)
![[del.icio.us]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[Faves]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/faves.png)
![[Google]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[PlugIM]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/plugim.png)
![[Slashdot]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/slashdot.png)
![[Sphere]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/sphere.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Technorati]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
![[Email]](http://diversity.net.nz/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
A few years ago, Campbell Gower, CEO of phil&teds, visited Cactus with some potential European distributors for our gear. Since then p&t has risen meteorically, they’re now selling in 2000 stores across dozens of countries, turning over a reported USD90mil retail value of product (which says nothing about profitability but is still a good number) and winning export and design awards left, right and centre.
Miki pointed out their latest employment advertising campaign and you should check it out - it’s an example of why they’re taking on the world and coming out on top.
So well done Campbell and team - it’s been a lot of effort but now you’re enjoying the spoils of the war.
An excellent opinion piece here by Chris Bell on the power of word of mouth.
It seems there is a conflict in society at the momeent. Companies spend more and more money on marketing in order to sway consumers while at the same time consumers are less and less swayed by marketing in general.
As Chris points out, the killer app is word of mouth - both because it is neutral and respected, and also because it’s free (in some senses - I guess it costs to make a good product that will attract WOM cred but it’s a cost on the right side of the equation).
The big disconnect is that traditional marketing companies in part don;’t understand WOM marketing and also feel very threatened by it (it does, to a certain extent, render them irrelevant and unnecessary). The winning plays of the future will be based on finding ways to aggregate and disseminate WOM information in new and useful ways.
Mauricio pointed out the new Stella Artois website which does a good job of verticalised marketing and building the network effects.
Stella have identified the value in viral advertising, building a network and providing consistent offerings both on, and off, line.
I’m a little involved in a startup along the same lines and hopefully I’ll be able to report further in a month or two
Facebook announced its new advertising product the other day. Facebook CEO Marc Zuckerberg said;
“Facebook Ads represent a completely new way of advertising online, for the last hundred years media has been pushed out to people, but now marketers are going to be a part of the conversation. And they’re going to do this by using the social graph in the same way our users do.”
Sounds a little evangelical for me. For me Faceb
ook is about social networking and something like this really turns me off;
Interesting to see who has jumped into this - Blockbuster, CBS, Chase, The Coca-Cola Company, Microsoft, Sony Pictures Television and Verizon Wireless - mainly old world companies that are sufficiently scared of being left behind. The little creatives are already doing cutting edge marketing and Facebook Ads will possibly become a sad, irrelevant and annoying service (and intrusion upon Facebook users).
Or maybe not?
And the winner is…..
2007’s fastest growing New Zealand company is EnergyMad - the energy efficiency company that brought us eco-bulbs (and is now trying to bring them to the world)
With almost 3000% revenue growth between 2005 and 2007 they are a phenomenally hi-growth company
Well done guys!
Slingshot has just introduced their “Man in a Van” broadband connection service. As far as I can tell, the service is an end to end supply and deploy type deal for broadband to new customers. I’d assume that it’s targeting late adopters and is a one stop shop for connection, supply, set up and a bit of training thrown in.
This is the way of the future - packaging disparate offerings to provide a solution that fulfils the end-to-end requirements of the users. It’s something that the other ISP’s (and Telco’s generally) should have done years ago - bundle services, aggregate revenue.
My one criticism was that at a cursory glance I couldn’t find out about it on the slingshot website - if it’s pitched at late adopters it needs to be very very easy to find.
With a hat tip to Zoli for the mental stimulus, I thought I’d post about the new Lenovo Thinkpad Reserve Edition. Basically it’s a lovely Lenovo Thinkpad with increased loveliness (and elitist cred), by being encased in leather, being very limited in numbers, and having concierge service over the (estimated three year) life of the machine.
As Zoli points out, in six months time when Lenovos come with quad core processors, the Reserve Edition will be looking very backwards. Paris Hilton won’t be seen dead with it methinks.
A concept, to use SaaS concepts on hardware products and really get all Louis Vuitton over it, would be HaaS. Hardware as a Service.
People considering buying this sort of status proclaiming item want one thing - to be seen as cutting edge, elite and in possession of tomorrow’s hot number. Lenovo’s strategy won’t achieve that.
How about…….
Someone signs up to the Apple (’cos they’re more likely to do it than anyone else) Premium Concierge Edition. That entitles them to a hand written letter from Steve Jobs accompanying their new hardware. The new hardware itself is a pre-release model of whichever channel they prefer (desktop, laptop). The annual concierge fee also entitles them to replacement pre-release versions whenever they are available (probably on at least a twelve month rotation).
They also get free unlimited access to ITunes pro, where previously unreleased tracks are available. They are (of course) invited to all of the Apple presentations.
Software vendors have realised that punters don’t want tech, they want solutions. Hardware vendors need to do similarly…
Interesting article this morning stating that for the first time ever, it looks likely that wine export earnings will outstrip wool export earnings this year.
Leaving aside the earnings gained from adding value to wool (taking a raw material, and creating a top end fashion garment from it - a la Untouched World), it is clear that viticulture is an example of a model New Zealand should pursue.
Adding value to what is at essence a simple product, our winemakers have created an industry and a brand that is now known around the world as high quality with all the values and aspirational attributes that achieve higher value sales than otherwise.
Now if only our meat producers could find a model that achieved a similar brand……
I subscribe to the Idealog RSS feed. I do so because Idealog interests me and the topics they post about are close to my interests.
I’m not however looking for a job in the creative industry and that’s why my reader surprised and annoyed me a little this morning.
It seems Idealog have started a creative industry employment service - which is a smart and logical thing to do.
What is not smart and logical is to fill the readers of those interested in the magazine with posts about job openings - I subscribe to receive feeds from the magazine - not job adds.
I’m sure it’s an oversight and there will be no employment ad feeds in my reader tomorow - perhaps the team (who, don’t get me wrong, do a great job of writing a mag) should come forward and apologise fo the oversight.
Perhaps?
Loading ...