brandautopsy.com
Mickey Drexler is a master merchandiser. First with The Gap and now with J. Crew. His run at The Gap ended in 2002 when Drexler admits he lost touch with his muse, the consumer. He’s since turned around J. Crew’s financials and brand cache because he listens and reacts to customers. The NY Times gives us interesting peek inside the mind of a master merchandiser. >> READ MORE
From KK.com click entire article
The cool idea is that ads can now be packaged as little widgets that you can drag and drop onto your blog or website, as easy as it is to embed a YouTube video. This ease of placing ads has rekindled speculation about a new form of advertising that ought to be. John Battelle calls it sell side advertising. I prefer the term "choice ads" because publishers (that's YOU these days, remember?) chose which ads they want.
The simple idea is that you can craft a publication, or a reading/viewing experience, primarily by choosing and sequencing ads. Selecting the right cool ads -- not merely cool content -- is the attraction. Not just tiny adsense text ad boxes, but full page ads, or even commercials inside widgets. When I was part of the team making Wired magazine a decade ago, half the battle at launch was landing the right cool ads. We had to convince the advertisers to join (and pay) us. But what if we could just choose the cool ads we wanted, without having to ask permission? What if we could simply harvest the the best ads (measured by any metric we choose) and were paid for the ones we ran according to the traffic we brought to them?
EBAY, NEIMAN MARCUS STRESS PERSONALIZED EXPERIENCES
By Andrew Gaffney,
Contributing Writer
From 1to1media.com
The predominant philosophy during the early days of e-commerce was eyeballs equal dollar signs. Get more consumers to visit your site and sales will climb. But that's not enough anymore. Now online merchants are turning to personalization strategies to help increase conversion rates as they serve a more demanding, multichannel shopper.
Personalization, user experience, and customer centricity were all recurring themes at the recent eTail 2007 Conference in Washington, D.C. Many leading e-commerce players attending the conference said that to make the shopping experience more relevant to a visitor's preferences, they are tailoring their customer strategies to address core customer "personas" or buyer segments.
-- eBay gets personal --
The most dramatic example of the personalization trend came from eBay,
which announced plans to change the way it serves up its home pages to
visitors. In his presentation, Jamie Iannone, eBay's vice president of buying experience, said the company will begin "over the next few weeks"
to customize the home page users see based on their past activity.
In addition to a graphic overhaul, Iannone explained that the new
home page is designed for easier access to My eBay pages, as well as
speedier access to favorite searches. "We have been testing dozens of
different configurations in terms of merchandising assortments and category structures. The goal is that each eBay home page will be as
unique as each member," Iannone said. He pointed out that customer personas
could be defined in a variety of ways, based on self-identification, past
purchases, or by using other behavioral data. For eBay's new home page
makeover, he said, the company has segmented "personas" into such categories
as "shopping- driven passionates," "convenience-driven enthusiasts" and "price-driven shoppers."
-- Tailored merchandise
--
Personalization is also a priority at Nieman Marcus Direct. The
upscale merchant is testing the use of specific home page designs based on a
user's past purchases or traffic patterns. "We are always trying to do
different things for different customers, and the online environment really allows you to experiment," Lindy Rawlinson, vice presidentof Web store
and new business, told the audience. "It is
inherently easier to do A/B
testing with an online store than in a physical store, so we are always
trying new things. We are trying to find optimal layouts and determine the
right placement for certain merchandise."
Since the company has a
limited number of brick-and- mortar locations to spotlight in its top
banners-38 Nieman Marcus stores and only two Bergdorf Goodman
locations- Rawlinson said the company is focused on mirroring the shopping experience across channels. "Our stores are legendary for the
excellent service of our associates, so a personalized experience on our
e-commerce site is a natural extension. We really want to bring our store
experience online," she said. "For us, personalization is not just about
recommending products, but really guiding the visitor through the store
experience. Our goal is to make
these changes very subtle so the users won't
really see any change, but their trip will be more productive and
enjoyable."
For those merchants that have grown out of a
brick-and-mortar base, the Web can provide customers with a personalized
menu of hard-to-find items. Maureen Daney, vice president of e-commerce at
Charming Shoppes, explained that the apparel retailer now offers an online ordering service for items customers can't find in the store."We are
starting to use that information for our demand
planning because we have a
better handle on what the store didn't have available and the demand they
may have missed out on," Daney said.
These retailers hope to advance the relationships they have with their customers online, and bring the intimacy of the in-store experience to the Web. And with today's competition as fierce as ever, these companies are From 1o1media.com click here for more... banking that a little personalization can go a long way.
Customer-First" businesses should be organized. Click on the play button below to watch/listen. Enjoy.
From John Moore Brand Autopsy
Click here for entire article...
My one year old is short on bibs. We threw them all away a few weeks ago when Toys "R" Us pulled about 160,000 vinyl bibs after high lead levels were found in two bibs from one supplier. As it turned out, our bibs weren't at risk. But they came from Toys "R" Us, and that was reason enough to get them out of the house. Fast.
Other parents' impressions of this retail giant have likely changed as a result of this PR nightmare. Toys "R" Us is not the only children's retailer viewed as culpable for exposing kids to a major health risk. September has already seen lead paint exposure recalls by toy makers Fisher-Price and Mattel, and June saw a similar recall by Thomas the Tank Engine maker RC2.
What's a multibillion-dollar corporation to do, aside from better regulating offshore production? Damage control. And these days, that must include the Web.
Format, the cover letter, the reply form, the premiums and/or freemiums … all key components of a direct mail package. But the most key component of all, most likely? The outer envelope. Here are six ways to make the language on that outer even more effective at achieving its end goal: getting the prospect to open the package. Read Full Story
Jott™ is a revolutionary new service that automatically converts your voice into e-mail and text messages—anytime, anywhere, with any cell phone. Jott™ makes you more productive and efficient by capturing your ideas, notes to self, tasks, and more without using your keypad.
Jott™ is a safer, hands-free way to send text and e-mail messages on the go. And it’s free, so sign up today.
Think it. Jott™ it. Get it done.
Jott™ is a
registered trademark of Jott Networks, Inc.
From Jott's Privacy Policy...
You can see in the above statement that Jott has the right to push ads to your cell phone inexchange for a consumer's use of their service. It also doesn't say how your data will be used or where it where it will wind up. It is surprising that this is not included in the Jott Privacy Policy. It is no wonder we as a society have simply lost the ability to control our data. Maybe...? Check out Run To Survive...Thegies...Revision.
I read an interesting article yesterday on Mediapost's Marketing Daily: 8 Of 10 Americans Know About Blogs; Half Visit Them Regularly. This is a publication read by marketers, both traditional and online, across all industries. And it reminded me, again, that this is a topic I've been meaning to blog about.
Okay, my headline above may be a bit sensational, and maybe not a prediction the article makes per se. But read between the lines, people. Sure, ads are already blaring at you everywhere on major blogs like Tech Crunch, Read/Write Web, and GigaOm, but they're really big media properties now. I'm talking long-tail blogs. Here's an excerpt from the article (by the way, Mediapost, I love you, but how about starting to put *links* within your stories? like to more details about the study itself?):
Ad spending on blogs is still in its infancy ... the eNation study, conducted in late July, shows there is real potential for ads on blogs. Among people who have visited a blog (485), 43.2% said they have noticed ads on blogs, and three out of 10 people in this group said they have clicked on ads while visiting a blog. Among the youngest consumers, a whopping 61.2% of 18- to 24-year-olds said they have noticed ads on blogs.
Some advertisers are trying to slip brand names in through the blogosphere's back door by recruiting bloggers to write favorably about their brands...
JG write the world circles back to potential blog affiliate programs..
I read an interesting article yesterday on Mediapost's Marketing Daily: 8 Of 10 Americans Know About Blogs; Half Visit Them Regularly. This is a publication read by marketers, both traditional and online, across all industries. And it reminded me, again, that this is a topic I've been meaning to blog about.
Okay, my headline above may be a bit sensational, and maybe not a prediction the article makes per se. But read between the lines, people. Sure, ads are already blaring at you everywhere on major blogs like Tech Crunch, Read/Write Web, and GigaOm, but they're really big media properties now. I'm talking long-tail blogs. Here's an excerpt from the article (by the way, Mediapost, I love you, but how about starting to put *links* within your stories? like to more details about the study itself?):
Ad spending on blogs is still in its infancy ... the eNation study, conducted in late July, shows there is real potential for ads on blogs. Among people who have visited a blog (485), 43.2% said they have noticed ads on blogs, and three out of 10 people in this group said they have clicked on ads while visiting a blog. Among the youngest consumers, a whopping 61.2% of 18- to 24-year-olds said they have noticed ads on blogs.
Some advertisers are trying to slip brand names in through the blogosphere's back door by recruiting bloggers to write favorably about their brands...
JG write the world circles back to potential blog affiliate programs..
Businesses are learning to communicate to the customer in the manner that they, the customer, want to be marketed. Not only does this alleviate a great deal of marketing waste; the customer is also happy to not receive spam, get another unwanted voicemail, or toss another direct mail piece into the recycle bin.
Retail marketing 
and e-commerce are rapidly
evolving via the exploding adaptation of Web 2.0 applications like blogs, wikis,
video, RSS (really simple syndication), widgets and podcasting into the
marketing and customer relationship management process. Labeled CRM 2.0, it has
become the essence of smart e-commerce.
Improving upon the classic customer relationship management platforms and
processes, many world-leading businesses, of all sizes and market types, are
actively mashing together best of breed Web 2.0 technologies, partnerships and
alliances in order to engage and involve their customer.
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