Tag Archive for 'Consumer Trends'

Sneaker Vending Machine

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ron
on April 17, 2008
in High Tech & Media
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Onitsuka Tiger, the Japanese sports brand, launched a sneaker vending machine on Carnaby Street today. Sneaker vending isn’t entirely new-it’s been done in Japan, off course, by Reebok. Onitsuka Tiger, on the other hand, put some effort into custom-building their machine, which can sell 24 pairs of shoes at a time, in 6 sizes.

Following its London debut, the machine will travel across the UK to bring convenience-buying to the rest of Britain. Fun bit of brand promotion; “What, these shoes? I just got them from a vending machine down the street.” Nevertheless, other unconventional vending machines have been reported in the past such as machines that vend umbrellas and hair straighteners.

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Politics 2.0

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ron
on April 16, 2008
in Social Media
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Twitter NetworkWhen I first saw that Barack Obama “followed” more than 23.000 people’s Twitters and Hillary Clinton followed 0, I thought it was simply bad PR on Hillary’s part. Like Obama, she probably should pretend she’s listening to all those people, even though neither has the time for it.

Now I was left wondering if Obama’s thousands followers could be valuable data? Perhaps analytics companies could rake through those tweets and give the candidates charts about shifting attitudes and responses to speeches. Costly? Not much in comparison to TV ads at state television I assume. Is it worth it for candidates to mine Twitter?

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Another way with web video

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ron
on April 3, 2008
in Social Media
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Blinkx Broadband TVWeb video. Some believe it’s all about low quality, edgy clips which you can graze on at your laptop - others see the internet as simply a way of delivering quality content in high definition to your plasma screen. Or perhaps you want to be able to click onscreen and get a wealth of information from the web about what you’re watching? That’s what Blinkx, a company launching a new online video service, is betting can make it stand out from an increasingly desperate crowd.

Its BBTV application promises to take a ragbag of content, from news clips to documentaries to independent films, and present it to you online with Blinkx’s added ingredient - clickability. The idea is that you are watching a news item about monks in Tibet, you click and get the entire commentary on screen, use that to navigate to the section which interests you, and then click again to draw down all that rich information that the web can provide.

While watching blinkx BBTV, viewers can access transcripts of a program’s audio track and background information on everything from actors and personalities to reviews and locations shown within the video (MediaPost, 2008)

But isn’t it too late for another video wannabe to enter this market? As far as I can see, the audience has decided that it wants either YouTube or mainstream television - and the likes of Blinkx may fall through the gap in the middle.

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Social Media Rush….

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ron
on April 1, 2008
in Social Media
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Look past the yakkers, hobbyists, and political mobs. Your customers and rivals are figuring blogs out. Our advice: Catch up…or catch you later (Social Media Will Change Your Business, BusinessWeek Online)

“Blogs werethe heart of the story in 2005. But they’re just one of the tools millions can use today to lift their voices in electronic communities and create their own media. Social networks like Facebook and MySpace, video sites like YouTube, mini blog engines like Twitter—they’ve all emerged in the last three years, and all are nourished by users. “

A good primer for business executives that are just starting out in social media initiatives. We’re just standing at the beginning of the social media revolution. In the next three to five years the entire media world will be turned upside down and advertising, communications/PR, market research, etc will be performed in ways never seen before.

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Spotted Consumer Trends for 2008!

Published
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ron
on January 15, 2008
in Global Strategy
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Consumer Trends 2008

Curious about what consumer trends will emerge this year? Trendwatching.com made again a fair attempt in predicting them for you. The full report can be found here (PDF).

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(Still) made here!

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admin
on July 25, 2007
in Emerging Markets and Global Strategy
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Still made here(STILL) MADE HERE encompasses new and enduring manufacturers & purveyors of the local. In a world seemingly ruled by globalisation, mass production and ‘Cheapest of the Cheapest’, a growing number of consumers are seeking out the local, and thus the authentic, the storied, the eco-friendly, and/or the obscure…Read full report here Source: TrendWatching.com

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Apple releases iPhone! Jobs’ next flick?

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on June 29, 2007
in High Tech & Media
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iPhone Banner Top

Will iPhone trigger a next revolution as iTunes and iPod did to the digital music world?

Will iPhone be the killer device of the 21st century that enables the next wave of ultimate and ubiquitous personal mobility at large? Browsing the web, listening music while navigating your way around the world, taking snapshots, and calling your friends, truly at any time and anywhere in an utmost consumer friendly integrated device?

Watch the iPod promotion video at this page. A more comprehensive analyses is published by The Economist.

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Globalisation meets Web 2.0

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on June 26, 2007
in Emerging Markets, International Business and Social Media
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Globalisation meets Web 2.0We’re now at the busy crossroads where globalisation meets Web 2.0.

This presents both a challenge to the old ways of doing business and an opportunity to gain tremendous leverage via the right goods and services.

To thrive in this era, companies will have to figure out how to engage young people from all over the world when they conceive of products and services. Businesses need their help in turning concepts into finished products and, especially, in marketing them.

Another angle: Companies can follow the trail of blogs and social networking sites to find and recruit young employees all over the world. (Source: BusinessWeek cover story “Children of the web”)

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Language Learning 2.0

Published
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on June 14, 2007
in Social Media
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Chinese Podcast
Are you eager to learn a new language from a native speaker but don’t want to pay for it? The new wave of so called web 2.0 technologies can provide you this opportunity by giving you access to numerous native speakers. With only a broadband connection, podcast, and Skype.

For example, the company Praxis offers free Chinese lessons delivered straight to your computer every day. The latest dialogue is delivered as a podcast on your iPod along with the Chinese characters of that day. To move even beyond this, your Skype phone is ringing and someone at the other side of the line says Ni hao to begin the lesson.

Another musing on technology: last week Google and Salesforces (delivers software through a browser) announced a partnership to bundle their powers and blend their software products. Salesforces is one of the leading companies in offering software as a service, one of the most promising technology concepts for the future. Software as a service envisions the ultimate form of delivering on demand services in order to gain business agility.

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Blogspotting

Published
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admin
on May 5, 2007
in Social Media
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BusinessWeekLogo


Businessweek started a blog two weeks ago: Blogspotting. Blogspotting is “where the worlds of business, media and blogs collide”, and during the two first weeks they have been blogging about blogging. From their latest entry:

It was almost embarrassing. At the BDI conference on blogging that’s going on a couple blocks from here, someone asked if blogs were a big deal outside the U.S. The panelists barely seemed to know. PubSub founder Bob Wyman had to grab the mike and set the record straight.

He said that there were more bloggers in Korea, China and Japan combined than in the rest of the world

That is truly interesting, considering both the different political environments and current/historical relationship towards each other that those countries have. Perhaps the best and most powerful way to increase long-term stability and security in the area would be to make a serious upgrade to Altavista’s Babelfish, so that people from those countries could read each others blogs and discuss. Or am i being naïve? ;)

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