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    Technology Marketing

    Solutions for a Smarter Planet. Not.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Solutions for a smarter planet is IBM’s ad campaign and has been for couple of years. If you watch the TV the message is clear: Look at data more closely, do something smart with it and we will see a better planet. The TV ads suggest (methinks) more efficient energy consumption in cities, better food prices thanks to global climate monitoring, etc.

    The print, on the other hand, gets much more granular with lots of tech copy with promises of improvements in healthcare, manufacturing, blah, blah.  Half pretty to look at, with buried datapoints to prove the stories, the campaign’s real goal is to seed the “solutions for a smarter planet” idea.

    Earnings Reports

    So (the digerati all start their sentences with “so”), I’m reading the business section today and notice that Oracle and Accenture sales and profits are up. Oracle shares are near a 10-year high. Businesses are spending again the article proclaims. Then I read another story suggesting General Mills profits are down. The culprit?  Higher commodity prices and aggressive discounting. Are those not things a smarter planet is supposed to address? 

    So what’s what? Machines are selling again. Database software is selling again. We are ensconced in datapalooza yet not really affecting the supply chain the way we might. In other words, we’re not doing “something smart” with the data yet. Similarly, Radian6 has built a great business allowing companies to monitor conversations in the ether. But unless listeners do something smart with that info, they won’t have smarter companies. That’s the way to a smarter planet. Even hunter gatherers know to eat what they gather (something smart).  Dial up the machines, dial up the software but let’s invest in some people smarts ya’ll!  Peace!

    My Spanking by David Poque.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    David Poque, a technology columnist for The New York Times, is a very interesting character.  He’s a thoughtful, important and market-moving purveyor of what’s hot and what’s not.  Sometimes his columns are a bit like a PC Mag review, but mostly they’re a fun Anthony Bourdain-like travelogue through the tasty streets of technology.

    I have seen Mr. Poque on public television and he has a subtle nervousness about him on camera that doesn’t come across in print… so if I were my mother and in an advice-giving mood I suggest he stay in print.  Interestingly, Mr. Poque’s public and private personas are a tad different.  I posted about one of his columns once with a differing point of view and it really rubbed him. (I advocated not providing in-box instructions with new products to save paper.) His angry and personal comment on my blog surprised — telling me there is a bit more to Mr. Pogue than meets the eye.  (A side that might be fun to read outside of the NYT guardrails.)

    My prediction:  Mr. Poque will either leave The New York Times within the next 3 years and create his own branded site or AOL will make him an offer he can’t refuse.  Yahoo could, but they have a lazy eye.  Peace.

    Smarter Planet?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    IBM keeps selling solutions for a smarter planet.  Watson, the computer that won Jeopardy, they say, is the way to a smarter planet. I’m not so sure. Is a kid who breaks his front teeth stumbling over a fire hydrant texting “K” a denizen of a smarter planet? Is a gardener who uses the Web to find out Dawn and vinegar gets rid of mites smarter than someone who figures it out on his/her own?

    Is the massive computing power in our pockets and backpacks and on our laps and desktops making us smarter?  “Mom, how long do you boil an egg?” Are social networks forming our “likes” for us?  Is this fingertip world making our bones weak and our sinew stingy? Let’s ask Quora.

    Dude, I’m not going all Ted on you. Ted K, that is.  I’m just pointing out a trend we will all be seeing a lot more of as we leap forward in Moore’s Law chunks of time. It’s called roots. Etsy.com is a good example of the roots phenomenon; people making stuff with their hands.  Gardening. Cooking. Traditional music and art. DIY home improvements. These are all examples of the roots phenomenon.  Any neurologist or physical anthropologist will tell you that the way to exercise the brain is to use it. The way to a smarter planet is not to rely on computers for everything.  That’s a way to sell more computers. Peace.

    Microsoft Brand Diaspora

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    One of the fun things about having a blog is in predicting things that eventually come true. I predicted Google’s trivestiture a couple of years ago and that hasn’t happened. Yet. You can’t win them all. But my posts about Microsoft’s brand diaspora – the unfettered and uncontrolled creep of its brands, highlighted by use of the word “Live,” I’m excited to say, looks to be accurate.  Microsoft is retiring the word “Live.” Readers know I’m behind Microsoft making a flash-cut away from the word “Windows,” as in Windows 8, in favor of the word “Tiles,” but that’s not likely to happen soon. That’s because Windows is a repository for all other creeping sub-brands.  Windows is okay to keep alive for archiving purposes, but Windows 8 should be named Tiles as should the new mobile OS.  Tiles suggests the user paradigm shift much the way Windows did in the 90s.

    A new CMO tasked with making things more efficient from a messaging standpoint might walk into Microsoft and on day one fire a bunch of brand names.  It would be hard medicine but the creep (verb) has really gotten out of hand. Retiring Live is a good move. Peace! 

    Fishing With Hooks and No Line.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    After reading a Sony Vaio laptop ad this morning I clicked on the QR code.  These little goodies are the rage, and rightly so, but many marketers haven’t quite figured them out yet.  The worst attempts send people to the company homepage or a Facebook page.  The best provide a trail of proof for the ad claim that moves the consumer closer to purchase – taking the ad logic and selling premise and extending it.  Somewhere in the middle are marketers who provide lists of additional information, either in text or clickables.  Sony’s effort fell in the middle. Their QR code mobile landing site offers a video that is still loading, some nice product specs, price variations, special offers, way under the fold a smart showcase of the illuminated key board feature, a claim about flying from NY to Rome on one charge, powered by Microsoft Windows 7, and something about a kitchen sink.

    Ad agencies all complain that their business models and profitability have changed.  The fact is, the things they sell have changed and they’ve been slow to adapt.  This QR code exercise points out how many new things agencies get to make – beyond ads – to enhance the client selling experience and make more money. Happy, happy.

    Using a fishing metaphor, ad agencies are focused on the hook — lo, they celebrate the hook — but they forget the line, pole, boat, and fish keeper. (The Vaio video is still loading.)

    In my posts about Twitch Point Planning I write of the need to use transmedia or cross media twitches to move customers closer to purchase. That is the absolute best purpose of a QR code. Yet many are lazily using the code simply to move consumers closer to information. Disorganized information at that.  Still loading.  Peace!

    FUE. webOS. Lessons from Zude.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    I worked for two years at an amazing Web start-up.  The technology had a hink or two but was truly transformational. Imagine being able to go to a website and move the pictures, text and video around, simply by dragging them.  Not your website, someone else’s. Imagine right clicking on just about any object on the web copying and pasting it to your site.  Then, having the ability to move, resize and add text to it.

    It’s what the Gods imagined before an earthling invented HTML; a drag and drop, copy and paste web publishing world.  That world was called Zude.com.

    I was reading about the new HP webOS (via Rachel King at ZDNet) today and one tester of the cool interface on the Touchpad tablet found closing apps by dragging them to the top of the screen not intuitive.  (Close the window perhaps?) The person said he would not have figured it out on his own.

    This brings up something very important in market these days, especially in the area of innovative web technology.  First User Experience.  For Zude, there were 3 unintuitive user behaviors that needed to be taught for first-timers to get the awesomeness:  Drag and Drop From Anywhere, Everything Moves, and When in Doubt Right Click.  Simple tutorials would have launched this product into the stratosphere.  The product was complicated and revolutionary. The promise was “the fastest easiest way to build a website.” The promise laid their like a lox without the proof.

    When webOS launches, if it is as revolutionary as HP says, they need to not publish a 60-page manual. And they don’t need to offer 6 tabs of intuitive help.  HP should find the 3 most exciting, transfixing features and celebrate them. If they are big enough, we will find the rest. 3 and out. Peace.

    PS.  By the way, Micorosoft Windows 7 or Mango, or whatever it is going to be called, should be named Tiles.

    Hewlett Packard. To Whit.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Raise your hand if you think computers are going away? Raise your hand if you think the design form of computers will continue to change? Now quick, name 4 computer brands.

    If HP wasn’t among those listed, I’d be surprised.

    Where the R&D at?

    If I were to count every word of every story about Hewlett Packard over the last 5 years, I’m betting the words research and development doesn’t appear in 1% of the search. Why is that? I’m sure they’re doing some R&D, but they can’t be investing in it in a big way. In the PC and computer businesses, I’ve yet to read about any of their design or form breakthroughs. So what are they doing. They’re playing business Monopoly. Moving pieces around, marketing old stuff, managing loss and going to dinners.

    There is a huge, huge pot of money in computing. The design form is changing and is certainly not yet done. And HP is busy lounging around with the world’s second leading computer brand.

    Next year at CES, HP should quietly in stealth mode launch something big. With all the other big guys not playing in the CES sandbox it would be a highlight moment. But only if they were to launch something out of their R&D garage that mattered. (Como se Make it Matter.) Come on Ms. Whitman. Peace.

    HP. Where’s your tagline?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    “Make it matter” is the new tagline for HP.  I posted about it in June when the line broke.  Creating value in a commodity market is tricky. It can’t be done haphazardly.  Finding hard and fast value planks are the key – then they must be banged home.  Not with just one ad, with many.  Over long periods of time and for the foreseeable future.  It’s easy to go off piste with a value program, however.

    HP’s Make it Matter campaign appears to be a create value campaign, yet today I read a promotional ad “Buy 2 ink cartridges get one free” and that is not a great expression of making it matter.  Not that saving money isn’t important.  The ad does not include the new tagline.  It does have a highlighted call to action with the URL hp.com/getmore.

    Retail and image together are hard to do well. Retail is about how many sales hit the ledge on a given day. It’s shark time.  Image on the other hand is about changing attitudes that predispose people to buy. Done well, and image ad can create action, though it tends to be long haul stuff.

    HP has enough money to have two campaigns. But I’m just not feeling it. I’m feeling uncertainty here. Once the snow globe gets a good shake – there are lots of things new at HP and its agency – all will settle down. Knock-knock. Peace!  

     

     

     

     

    Ballmer’s Next Laugh.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    I don’t know what’s more exciting, the democratization of much of the Muslim world or the technology end game about to be played by Microsoft, Skype and Google. Exciting times, these. Telecom minutes have always been a discrete part of the technology business but if Microsoft buys Skype – not so much.  We always knew voice calls were data calls…ones and zeros flying over T1s, Cat 5 and through the stanky air we breathe, but Microsoft is about to make a bold move by merging these different revenue streams and it ‘s going to change the leader board.  Welcome back Larry Page. Dive. Dive. Dive.

    I would love to hear what the shmarty pants Gillmor Gang has to say about this one. (Go ahead, pick a side.)

    Here’s what it looks like from the sun porch in Babylon.  Google, already suffering from a “culture of technological obesity,” will now want to get more involved in the minutes of use (telephone) game.  They won’t want to cede it to MSFT.  Google has the algorithms, the servers, money and brain power to do it. They will probably want to continue to build rather than buy. And this effort will take their eye off the search ball.  Microsoft, with its SharePoint software, server farms and communications server experience will have a head start after the purchase of Skype. And let’s not forget the Nokia deal. (Ooh, I can’t stand up.) When the Nokia deal kicks in and Windows for Mobile starts spreading (especially at the lower end of the market), we are going to see a mad redistribution of wealth in tech.

    I have occasionally thought that Steve Ballmer’s fits and start with various devices and side businesses – the ones that failed – were just a learning game preparing him for a huge move against Apple and/or Google. He got some stink on him, no doubt, for that bold game but are we beginning to see a little smirk emerge on his knowing face?  Stay atuned. Peace!

    Phones, Tabs and Pads.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    Whoever coined the term “on-size-fits-all” got a lot of mileage out of that phrase.  Must have been an ad guy.  In this age of specialization, one size does not fit all, has actually gotten a lot more traction.  And as I read about Apple’s decision to come out with a smaller version of the iPad – a 7 inch version – it makes me wonder when the form factor of the tablet is going to settle down.  What will be the most useful and used size?  The Samsung Galaxy family is certainly larger than most mobile phones, but not a business-ready typing device.  Even the iPad, who just about every tech-forward person owns, is not the right size for vigorous typing.  Many iPad users tote along spiral notebooks to meetings.

    The Microsoft Surface when released will goes bigger (but not too big), yet its felt-like typing surface seems to be an interesting breakthrough and may be a market changer. Especially for those who want to retire the pen and pencil.  

    The ergonomics of the tablets, pads and large format phones have not yet found their level. Must they fit in a woman’s bag? A man’s back or front product?  It’s not the wild west, it’s just the wide open west. And most companies in the space are trying to find the right place to settle.  Apple, it seems, is continuing to experiment. Should be interesting to watch. Peace.

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