Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts

Monday, November 19, 2007

Understanding your web presence's presence…

In today’s Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 migration, companies should become cognizant not only of their web presence, but also of the users who find their site relevant. I’m not actually talking about expensive web-monitoring software or Google’s ad-click data, but rather free information available to anyone at anytime.....del.icio.us.

Del.icio.us offers a unique marketing analysis and reflection tool to ensure that your site is getting the right information to the right type of viewers. Although Delicious users are a subset of the entire market, they are an active subset. If your page is saved to Delicious, you know you have an active browser (someone who has taken the time to view your site and save it as RELEVANT). Add to that, users will place tags to categorize web-pages which in and of themselves serve as mini-reviews of their interpretation of your site, content, and most importantly, products.

I recommend taking a look at who’s looking at you and what they are saying. From this, delve a litter deeper and find what sites (companies) they are comparing to you. What tags do they use for your organization and who else is receiving similar marks?

By the way, this is also a good way to read into your competition and discover new trends in the marketplace. But you already knew that…

Friday, January 12, 2007

Apple has Chutzpah?

Apple Inc., the official new title for the company formerly known as Apple Computers, is trying to beat Microsoft at its own game. No, I’m not talking about their OS-X software or a new line of office products. Nope, I am referring to the title of a most brazen, disregarding company. Apple is now so big they don’t have to worry about trifling items like trademarks or patent law.

Of course I am referring to the iPhone and the blatant trademark infringement upon Cisco. It is amazing to me that anticipated sales would be so large they assume they could handle such a clear-cut lawsuit from a player like Cisco. Hey, that takes some Chutzpah, Cojones, Bigones.

Yes, I think the iPhone looks cool. A full touch screen with an embedded Mac OS-X and the ability to make calls and the special feature called visual voice mail (really neat). Sounds great. However, they made a few assumptions that could cause a lot of problems for the electronics giant. First, they partnered with AT&T’s Cingular Wireless exclusively. While it was probably a good move not to sub-lease airtime, it may not be wise to become beholden to one service provider for the next 2 years. Secondly, Apple is coming to market with a $499-$599 price tag (depending on hard drive size). While the cellular market is huge, only 5% is spent on phones over $300. Mr. Jobs is quoted as saying they are targeting 1% of the market or 10 million phones through the end of 2008. That is a huge target when analyzing the type of consumers who purchase “high-end” smart phones are not traditionally swayed by Apple’s style-over-substance approach.

All of this risk and a legitimate claim against the title by Cisco could mean another phone disaster for Apple. Even if they do get some traction with the iPhone, they risk losing their marketing progress when the courts award the claim to Cisco. Cisco obtained the iPhone trademark in 2000 after acquiring Infogear. Linksys (a subsidiary of Cisco) launched plans for an iPhone of their own last summer. The idea differs from a cellphone (as is Apple’s iPhone), but rather a device to integrate home, mobile, and work phones as one.

Long and short, big risk for Apple, all to make waves at the CES tradeshow this week.