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    Global Shopping

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

     Apple was recently sued in Britain for selling songs in iTunes at an inflated price to that of the rest of Europe. (A song in the U.K. cost the equivalent of US$1.57.) 

     
    I ask you, in the digital age when purchasing digital assets, what is to keep a person in the U.K. from paying $.99 for a song in America if it costs more then half again that price in England? The currency.
     
    This flattening of the world when it comes to purchasing digital assets is going to create great demand for some sort of global currency exchange or, perhaps, even a new global currency (the world-o?.)  
     
    If Pay-Pal figures this out, or some smart bank, we’ll be shopping all over the world easier than shopping in our own town – and saving world-os. (Let’s save the tax discussion for a future blog.)
     

    Welcome back Schultz

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0
    I love Starbucks. I go there every morning for my grande non-fat latte. Howard Schultz is putting himself back in charge of Starbucks because the business has started to show signs of underperformance. It is seeing its first “dings” after many years of astonishing – Harvard business case — growth. The slowing of sales is generally attributed to overbuilding of stores and McDonalds coffee product (new and planned.)  
     
    Starbucks store build out has probably been too fast, (remember Krispy Kreme?) so Mr. Shultz plan to slow store growth is a good one. And cutting underperforming stores is also a smart move. Either the demographics and geographics support the Starbuck’s experience or not. But McDonalds? And its new espresso bar? I think not. The Starbuck’s core customer doesn’t want to smell Egg McMuffins and canola oil potatoes thingies while waiting for their Ethiopian blends. Not a competitor. Please.
     
    Starbucks might consider offering a “value” coffee-of-the-day to staunch the migration of people on a weekly budget, but please don’t be worried about Mickey Dees.
     
    Mr. Schultz will do just fine. Welcome back.
     

    Detroit, anyone home?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0
    Is everyone in America as excited as I am about the Chevy Tahoe being demoed at the Consumer Electronics Show that drives itself? Without a person in it? It is expected to be ready for commercial release within 10 years. I’m so excited I could wet myself.
     
    Good old US automotive ingenuity — hard at work. And aren’t you glad General Motors decided to showcase this important technology with the gas-guzzling Tahoe rather than, say, a more energy conscious car that would encourage Americans to drive more efficient vehicles?
     
    I don’t know where you live, but regular gas in NY is about $3.30 a gallon and rising. And it’s going to go way higher as a new generation of people from China and India buy $2,000 cars and start demanding more gas in Asia. But at least we’ll be able to look forward to cars that drive themselves in the next decade. Whoo hooo. 
     
    Detroit, pardon me, but would you please pull you head out of your collective trunk and start building some more energy efficient cars. Doofuses!
     

    Meep Meep!

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

     

    When I drive my Prius into a gas station and start pumping behind a big American car that is already pumping, I get a look of acknowledgement. Not positive or negative, just a look. When I pull away before they’ve finished fueling the look turns a hint envious.  They get. And some of these big car people aren’t even filling up…they’re just getting $20 worth.
     
    Remember how you could always tell a European movie by the size of the cars in the street and the high pitch of their horns? Meep meep! Well we are getting very close to that environment here in the States. The tipping point is here. The day of the huge car is really over. Pickup truck sales are down, SUVs are down and new cars are getting smaller and smaller. It has taken a while, but most of the size queens are starting to realize they look a silly driving around in big, gluttonous vehicles.
     
    The energy and resource consumption of the average American is 30-times that of a person in an emerging country. Marketers who recognize the future before consumers will be the winners. Toyota did. 
     

    Happy New Year!

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0
    I can’t think of a more exciting way to start the new year than with the Iowa Caucuses. As a student of brands, I have always paid close attention to the marketing of political candidates and/or the lack thereof. It seems as if many candidate handlers try to sell the person, not the person’s views. It’s therefore hard today to compare candidates and see notable differences. There are some grays, but no real policy differences.  (Edwards today, declared he would have us out of Iraq in 10 months. That’s a difference, but it is one of a fading candidate.)
     
    If all candidates have similar views on healthcare, global warming, conservation, immigration and Iraq, then on what are we to judge them?   
     
    In brand building you create a single position or promise for the brand and then array beneath it key supports. In candidate building, few want to stand for one thing — they want to stand for everything. What’s left on the table for the people to judge is then solely the candidate’s TV persona. That’s what many in America vote for. Who in the debates made the most sense and looked most comfortable? Who acted presidential?  Who seemed the smartest? It becomes about the person, not the policy. 
     
    If one managed a brand the way candidates are managed the whole store would be filled with generics. The best candidates stand for something. Let’s see if anyone steps up?
     

    Strike Two

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    I think the Writer’s Guild of America strike is going to end very shortly. Why? Because a number of shows like Colbert, Letterman, Leno and The Daily Show are going back on the air without writers. And when these show do well and media companies realize that, economically, less can be more, things will start to change and snowball fast.
     
    Do you really believe the aforementioned talk show hosts can’t pull off 60 or 90 minutes of interviewing without a bullpen of writers feeding them jokes? I’m betting between the entertainers’ smarts and the smarts of the people they interview we’ll see some fine television. Who knows, maybe some of the drama producers and actors will pick up pens and bang out a vamp or two. 
     
    We are close to the end of the strike. Happy holidays all!
     

    f

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0

     

    “Free Professor Lewin”
     
    There is an MIT physics professor by the name of Walter H.G. Lewin who broadcasts his classes to the masses over the internet. The videos are available on iTunes U and http://ocw.mit.edu
     
    Professor Lewin is a “one percenter.” That is, he is in the top one percent of his craft. Because Mr. Lewins courses are so powerful, well-crafted and thoroughly demonstrative, his kids learn physics with ease. Check out the article in today’s NYT at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/education/19physics.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
     
    This presents a dilemma for MIT. Right now the online lectures are free. But once they become in such great demand (they are currently being viewed in India and China) and student prefer professor Lewin over their own college professor, MIT may find itself educating everybody. Unrestricted, kids could use the internet to find the best college professors in the country and just simply learn from them. What would that do to all the professors who are only mediocre, tired, and/or waiting on their pensions?
     
    Sadly, MIT and other courseware providers of this ilk are soon going to have to restrict this type of free education. So get this stuff while you can. 
     
    Walter H.G. Lewin, MIT, whats the idea, New York Times, iTunes U
     

    “Free Professor Lewin”

    By
    Steve Poppe
    -
    0
     
    There is an MIT physics professor by the name of Walter H.G. Lewin who broadcasts his classes to the masses over the internet. The videos are available on iTunes U and http://ocw.mit.edu
     
    Professor Lewin is a “one percenter.” That is, he is in the top one percent of his craft. Because Mr. Lewins courses are so powerful, well-crafted and thoroughly demonstrative, his kids learn physics with ease. Check out the article in today’s NYT at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/education/19physics.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
     
    This presents a dilemma for MIT. Right now the online lectures are free. But once they become in such great demand (they are currently being viewed in India and China) and student prefer professor Lewin to their own college professor, MIT may find itself educating everybody. Unrestricted, kids could use the internet to find the best college professors in the world and choose to learn from them. What would that do to all the professors who are mediocre, tired and/or simply awaiting pensions?
     
    Sadly, MIT and other courseware providers of this ilk are soon going to have to restrict this type of free education. So get this stuff while you can. 
     

    Egg On Your Book. Again

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0
     
    As fast as Facebook is growing and as many smart decisions as it has made technologically, I am amazed by some of its miscues. The latest is to passively allow a research study of an unnamed East Coast college over Facebook. Conducted by Harvard and UCLA, this study will report on users’ social networking values, behaviors and attitudes. 
     
    I work for a social computing property called Zude. Our reason for being is to promote user freedom, so internally we often find ourselves in discussions about what we should allow users to do on the site. We most always decide in favor of freedom. So, were this research project to take place on Zude, you would think I’d be okay with it. Wrong.
     
    In my view the project should be allowed, but the users should be alerted they are being studied. Let them decide whether or not to participate. As far as I can tell from the press the Facebook study has received, the unsuspecting college students don’t know they are being monitored and that is an invasion of their privacy. 
     
    Shopping malls let research people in to conduct research but you see them coming a mile away. Would they allow researchers in with surveillance cameras? I think not.
     
    Facebook, college kids are your franchise. You have just found another way to piss them off.
     

    Cap This!

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0
     
    CapGemini is a very good IT Consulting company. A large chunk of its revenue is tied to outsourcing. I have had the pleasure of working for Cap as a marketing agent and they have always had a good product and a good strategic angle but their communications strategy, especially in the U.S., has faltered. It is nowhere more evident than in their latest outsourcing print ad campaign.
     
    This stuff is “we’re here” advertising at it very worst. “We’re here” advertising explains what business you’re in and gives customers a way to get in touch. No selling. No art. No emotion.
     
    In today’s ad, adjacent to a cartoon of a hotel employee dressed in desert fatigues collecting car keys from a couple getting out of a car is the headline “In our hands, your system will never get out of hand.” The metaphor, apparently, is “your car is in good hands, while in the hotel.”  OMG! The copy prattles on about outsourcing giving you the freedom to do what you do best, or some such nonsense.
     
    I did some planning for the outsourcing group at Cap and they are way smarter than this. The top bosses may not be, but the line general certainly was. This is a disgrace. Who would want to outsource their business to a company who can’t communicate clearly.
     
    In case anyone is reading the business press: Capgemini is in the outsourcing business. Woo hoo!
     
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