The Razor and Razor Blade Business Model

We love stories about moneziting innovation, and we extend kudos to Mickey Meece over at The NY Times for today's Small Business Case Study profiling a shaver that combines a mini shaving cream dispenser with a razor.

The product is made by L.P.I. Consumer Products under their ShaveMate line of products.

The fun part of this column (in the print edition only): the case study is complemented by opinions proffered by marketers and entrepreneurs i.e. the strategies implemented by the highlighted entrepreneur.

I'd actually purchase this product--and aside from the many peanut gallery recommendations submitted to the NYT, they all missed the most likely silo i.e. distribution channel.
To Pete & Louis Tomassetti (L.P.I. principals)--ping me if you'd like to know my thoughts!

 Courtesy of the NY Times, here's the article:
 (click on the title link to web page that includes a long list of comments submitted by readers).
THE CHALLENGE To crack the $2.6 billion United States razor and blade market, which is dominated by Gillette and Schick.
THE BACKGROUND Louis D. Tomassetti and Peter C. Tomassetti, known as “the inventor brothers” in Pompano Beach, Fla., created and sold a line of marine signaling devices under the Safety-Sport brand. More recently, they homed in on razors because they believed shaving was getting “complicated.” They concluded, Louis said, that “the common sense thing to do is to combine the shaving cream with the razor.”
After years of research and development, engineering and patent work, the brothers took their razors to the military in 2002 because they had heard that soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan were dry shaving. That first product was rugged and featured two blades, with the shaving cream in the handle. The military became a repeat customer.
Still, the Tomassettis found American retailers reluctant to take shelf space from Gillette and Schick. Store managers encouraged the brothers to improve their product — add more blades, they suggested. So the Tomassettis did. With six blades, ShaveMate offers one more in-line blade than its competitors, and it is the only all-in-one razor on the market with shaving cream in the handle.
When Titan 6 and Diva 6 were in prototype, the brothers took the razors to trade shows. While retailers were intrigued, they said that ShaveMate lacked brand awareness. It became clear that the brothers needed to stimulate demand by building name recognition and educating consumers on the benefits of their razors.
THE OPTIONS The brothers thought they had three options:
They could go head-to-head with Gillette and Schick with a national print, television and radio advertising campaign, supplemented by store promotions and coupons. Because the cost could easily exceed $150 million, the brothers dismissed this idea out of hand.
They could market ShaveMate on their own through shavemate.com and specialty retailers like hotels, airport stores and cruise ships, using their tagline, “The future of shaving is here.” This was the most affordable option, costing an estimated $100,000 to produce razors for the initial stock, displays and promotions, but it would take a while to build the brand and increase sales.
Finally, they could initiate a two-pronged marketing attack for about $1 million, looking for a big splash with a low-cost specific public relations effort to put ShaveMate in front of print editors and TV producers. Then they could begin a national, as-seen-on-TV campaign on cable channels to educate consumers via two-minute commercials on how their product could simplify shaving. The goal would be to have a well-known spokesman promote the razors.
THE DECISION The Tomassettis picked the two-pronged attack. All new revenue would feed the marketing beast, and the brothers hoped to build recognition quickly.
The blitz to send out samples and promotional material paid immediate dividends: ShaveMate Diva 6 appeared in the Love That section of O, the Oprah Magazine. Local news stations tested ShaveMate razors on the air. “Live With Regis and Kelly” featured Diva.
Producers of the Discovery Channel program “PitchMen,” heard about ShaveMate, and in February 2009, they invited the brothers to California to try out for the show. Billy Mays, the face of OxiClean, and Anthony Sullivan, also a pitchman, were the hosts who would decide which inventors had a marketable product.
“When we auditioned, they literally went crazy,” Louis recalled. “They said this is monster hit.” The brothers would be included on the show and Mr. Mays and Mr. Sullivan were both going to be spokesmen. Mr. Mays said, according to the Tomassettis, that he loved the product so much he was going to shave his beard with a ShaveMate on national TV. He would be the face of ShaveMate.
But last June, Mr. Mays died. His death knocked the Tomassettis off Season One of “PitchMen,” and, Peter said, “took the wind out of our sails.”
Several months went by. Mr. Sullivan assumed that “the avenue to market had expired with Billy.” Then, last fall, Mr. Sullivan said, the brothers called him back and asked if he would be their pitchman. He agreed, and his company produced the infomercials.
THE RESULTS The media attention and product exposure caught the eye of retailers like Walgreens.com, Target.com and Meijer Stores. On Feb. 1, Walgreens decided to sell ShaveMate in its stores nationally.
The first Anthony Sullivan two-minute commercial, which cost about $40,000 to produce, is scheduled to be shown on cable TV in test markets starting Monday. The Tomassetti brothers were added to Season Two of “PitchMen,” which will appear in August.
Meanwhile, Gillette and Schick are introducing their latest products: the Gillette Fusion ProGlide and the Schick Hydro, in what some analysts are calling “the razor wars.” The Fusion ProGlide, which features five blades and seven “high-precision advancements” (but no shaving cream in the handle) will be introduced June 6 in a manual version ($10.99) and a power version ($12.99). The Schick Hydro 5 ($8.99), which offers a hydrating gel reservoir (but, again, no shaving cream in the handle), hit store shelves April 6. The Hydro also sells a three-blade version ($7.99).
The Tomassettis hope their product, which costs $9.99 for a three-pack of all-in-one razors (and shower hook), will help win over customers who are paying more than that for replacement cartridges alone.
The direct marketing approach allows the brothers to pay as they go. If the test in May is successful, they expect to spend up to $100,000 a week on air time. The goal is to sell a few million of the three-packs in one year (sales are currently at about 250,000), Mr. Sullivan said, adding, “In the grand scheme of razor blades, that’s probably a drop in the ocean.”

Small Business Social Networking...and the Next Big Idea

Social Networking is necessarily the big buzz word for businesses. But, who/where can like-minded small, brick and mortar businesses owners go to for peer advice?

I'm talking about the type of advice that's centric to owners of small restaurants, car washes, dry cleaners, etc. etc. And ideally, a platform for forums, advice sharing that comes from peers within the same or nearby communities--the ones that share the same customers.

We've looked around the Web, and whether we haven't looked hard enough or deep enough, we actually haven't found anything that meets the above description.

We actually proferred this idea up to a web-based 'business broker' that specializes in bringing small business buyers and sellers together. They have a captive audience of more than 3000 "sellers", and 20,000+ qualified buyers seeking to buy an established business within their geographic area, and the value added this broker can provide by creating a forum for their audience will only make their business stickier...We'll let you know if they actually implement this idea..but its a good idea for any B2B facilitator...

Speaking of small business ideas...In a previous career, one that was considered to be a high-pressure pressure cooker (think Wall Street trading desk), several of us with glasses half empty would fantasize about a better quality of life career, and the idea that we kept coming up with was opening a franchise of bikini-waxing store fronts.

Of course, that type of idea is not surprising considering the testosterone-tainted trader mindset. And it should come as no surprise that several of us actually enrolled and became certified in the art of bikini-waxing.

But wait, before anyone lambastes us for being sexist, .now we've really hit on the next brilliant idea for brand marketers that like to baste ideas to the max: leveraging the new, and hottest trend in the bikini-waxing industry: Vajazzling.. 

Never heard of it?? Well, Jennifer Love Hewitt has recently become the unpaid spokesperson for a personal styling strategy that is, for lack of a better expression, re-purposing the most personal real estate.

Think about belly-rings in the navel, and move down a few inches. We've profiled shaving heads for advertising messages in this blog; and now...ta da!...Watch this video, and put on your brand marketing hat. Instead of simple Swarovski crystal, I'm thinking pre-packed crystal kits that are designed with corporate logos..Godiva, are you watching and paying attention?

See Me, Hear Me, Buy Me....

I'm violating rule #1; never blog more than once a day, at most. In fact, more than 2x a week is stretching the limits. Why? Your audience will be convinced that you are either (i) unemployed (at least 1 out of 10 are, so you're not alone) or (ii) under-employed (who isn't?) and/or (iii) a narcissist that craves attention and is suffering from the delusion that people want to actually tune in to your blog and read what you have to say.

But, when it comes to a topic that we're particularly passionate about, we find ourselves pontificating more frequently.

Web-based Video (for corporate application). How many times have we shouted out about this? You can search the blog archives, but I'd think you'll be seeing postings on this topic going back to the early 2000's, or thereabouts. In any case, we're compelled to point out a watershed moment from within the sometimes illiquid realm of financial services.

You see, banks and brokers haven't easily embraced web-video for several reasons. We'll overlook the issue i.e. network security, so perhaps the most relevant is that regulators that regulate the advertising of registered broker/dealers are pernicious when it comes to advertising collateral, and compliance departments at respective firms are sensitive when it comes to approving advertising content that don't have easy-to-understand rules to guide them.

To date, FINRA hasn't been able to come up with guidelines for brokers or for hedge funds when it comes to the approval process of web-video content..but now they apparently have...as illustrated by a press release put out yesterday by BarclayHedge...a media company that provides a range of services to the hedge fund world.   Here's the excerpt:


BarclayHedge, Ltd., announced the launch of BarclayHedge TV – a web-based capability that allow registered managers of hedge funds, fund of funds and managed futures funds to create and make available videotaped presentations online for current and prospective investors. BarclayHedge, which had begun accepting applications for its new BarclayHedge TV service, will arrange and oversee all aspects of its new video service, from scripting assistance to professional videotaping & editing to online hosting and updating.
“We believe this is an opportunity for funds to provide a higher level of transparency and interest among prospective institutional and high net worth investors.” Sol Waksman, founder and President of BarclayHedge, said, “We think regulators and investors alike will welcome a tool that allows them to see, hear and evaluate the people and the thinking that drives various alternative investment strategies.”


We don't know that much about Barclay's capability i.e. producing content, but we do know that NYC-based MediaPlace knows how to do this stuff better than most.

And while we're on the topic of video: today's NY Times Business section includes a half-page article profiling the evolution of Out-of-Home and In-Store Video:  "The Incidental Video Screen is Seen By More Viewers Than Prime Time," and asserting the fact that those little (and sometimes big) drop-down flat panels in doctor's office's, health clubs, lounges, and retail stores are capturing more valuable eyeballs than prime time TV--which makes that genre a superb channel for advertising to captive audiences.

Last: for those that missed the above points, sit back, watch and listen to this: 

Tweeting For Dollars...Blowback Mountain out of Molehill...

Even though Twitter announced its plan to push into paid-for-advertising back in November of last year...(we opined on that strategy on Nov 22..), according to one news media outlet, the blow back from the formal announcement yesterday illustrates that we tend to be slightly ahead of the curve..

"...Reactions to Twitter's plans to introduce adverts broke into two broad categories: relief that the site had announced a business model which might allow it to continue as a free service; and some doubts that they would be effective or popular..."

Since I'm not a shareholder in Twitter, nor do I have any investment stake courtesy of my multi-million dollar investments in private equity firms, I'm certainly not "relieved" that Twitter has finally gotten around to introducing a revenue scheme.  


For those (including myself) that remain dubious as to whether the strategy will prove effective for advertisers, or popular for those that eat tweets throughout the day, similar half-empty glasses that were around when Google introduced its advertising strategy were equally cynical when that plan was unfolded.  


Like it or not, for brand marketers, Google is to advertising what what oxygen is to breathing. You can't have one without the other. And that's what makes Sergei so happy.


Twitter says it will start with an impression-based rate card. I hate those. 


Aside from the fact nobody can actually audit impressions with any real integrity or credibility, if I wanted to pay for a mili-second's mind share, I'd buy a bill board on the FDR, on an I-95 section somewhere in between Westchester NY and Stamford CT, or similar, high-traffic stretches in LA, or maybe even Florida (The latter is a coin-toss idea unless targeting geriatrics, and unless you're smart enough to use 3 foot fonts for the shout out message). 


But for whatever reason, Twitter is following the lead of other high traffic web sites by introducing a CPM model to start, and at some point, they'll figure out how to introduce PPC; a model that smart advertisers will insist upon.


Which brings us to the topic of whether this new model will be embraced by advertisers. Of course it will. 


First of all, "social networking" is the marketing cats' pajamas. Sheep travel in packs, and those responsible for ad buying are frothing at the mouth in anticipation of sending out that memo to the EVP of Marketing to update them on the implementation of their Twitter ad campaign, and how they've already spent the first $50k allocated for Twitter ads. 


Do I think it will be an impactful way to promote a product or a service [from the consumer's perspective]? 
Nah. 
Everyone that I've canvassed has said they would never follow (click) a link to a product ad. Explaining why email marketing typically only makes money for the people that get paid to send out the messages. The ROI on email marketing has been dropping year after year for the past five years, partly because most people that have clicked on a link have found their identities lifted, or their PC's infected with malware.


I'd also argue that people that consume tweets are consuming upwards of 100 lbs of bytes a day. As a result, I'd insist their receptacles are overwhelmed, presuming their brains haven't already turned into mash potato.


That said, and as pointed out by a large audience of developers that create Twitter-compatible apps, The Kingdom of Twitter is rapidly moving away from open source to "Open-wide, it won't hurt a bit when we take it out..[for our proprietary use], and then you can close your mouth..[and fuhget about making a penny off of us..]" 


There is one Twitter ad strategy that I think is great; famous and infamous celebs are charging thousands to incorporate a product pitch into individual tweets. Brilliant idea! I know that my client will want to pay Paris Hilton $10k for tweeting about one of my favorite products

Marketing Makeover: You Change Your Shirt; You Should Change Your Web Presentation!

After noticing a NY Times story that profiled various companies in the midst of managing a PR crisis (can you spell Toyota?), it was interesting to note that the companies in question have made dunderhead updates to their respective websites, whether via downplaying widely-publicized recall notices, or inserting gratuitous comments that failed to fully accept responsibility for whatever it was their company did to inspire the respective PR crisis and the angst of their customers.

The article didn't intend to, but it did include subliminal observations about the importance of refreshing your corporate image, as displayed via your company website. Obvious? Of course. Another hit to the operating budget? Actually, it doesn't have to cost an arm, or a leg to make changes to your company website. If it does, you're doing something wrong.

Let's face it; we're in a makeover world. Our audiences wants to be refreshed, reminded, re-stimulated. After all, we get face lifts, body tucks, new hairdo's, we paint the house a different color every once in a while (forgive me for offending those that have been evicted after failing to pay their mortgage), we buy a new tie, we buy a new handbag, etc., etc. All with the objective of projecting a fresh, updated and uplifting message. And presumably, we're incorporating the current 'trend'.


This isn't to suggest you need to re-do your corporate logo, or your corporate corporate "tag line." Some tag lines are timeless. Case in point: ten years ago, we crafted the tag line for a global financial services company ("The Professional's Gateway to the World's Markets") and that tag line is still flying on the masthead of every single piece of the company's collateral (print, radio, tv, web, correspondences, etc.)


Makeovers don't need to be extreme. For example, installing an elegant video element within your website doesn't require rocket science, but its consistent with the current trend i.e. presentations. We love video. It captures the essence of our virtual/mental touch points.

Sight and Sound Sell. Its that simple.

There's no shortage of vendors--in NYC alone there are literally dozens of shops that can produce great stuff; my choice is MediaPlace, simply because I've worked with them for years, and they know how to re-purpose a corporate message better than most. 


Yes, we make it a point to introduce changes to our firm's website on a regular basis. Sometimes we incorporate a timely 'satisfied client story'. Sometimes we tweak the front page so as to incorporate the most current phrases within our value proposition; that shows visitors we're on top of our game, and at the same time, it gives a boost to our SEO objectives.  Sometimes we modify the layout and change the fonts.


Changing your presentation is good..just as long as you're not shaving your head or growing a mullet.

Marketing: Its All About Selling..I've got a great brick for sale!!

While this blog is necessarily focused on (among other things) "marketing" and related communication techniques, the fact of the matter is, its all about selling.  However entertaining it is to read about/hear about people that position themselves as "marketers", if you can't sell, then marketing is meaningless.

Its all about connecting the tag line to the bottom line, which means its all about sales.

So, it was equally entertaining to notice a contest searching for "the world's greatest salesperson," promoted by  OgilvyOne, a division of the icon ad agency WPP.

Contestants are being solicited to upload a video to a dedicated YouTube.com channel in which they demonstrate, explain, illustrate, or otherwise present the best way to sell a brick.

No, not the kind of brick that's slated to become legal in California as a means to increase the tax revenues; just a simple run of the mill brick.  Accordng Ogilvy, the most creative brick salesperson will win a trip to present in a live shark tank, and be hired for a 3 month internship.

Not a bad way to capture video resumes, although some will likely game the system and go back to research the history of Pet Rocks.
Here's my submission on the product value proposition, the video elements can be based on the following narrative:  
"We have It. You Want It! And it won't cost more than a handful of cement!"
Its all purpose, eco-friendly, non-destructible and here's just some of the things that  it can do:

• Open car doors if you've lost your key
• Gain entrance to back door if you've been locked out.
• Be used as weapon (no license required!!!)
• Decorative device/paper weight
• Door stop--or the Perfect Book End (for those that still buy books..)
• The first ingredient to building your $2 million mini-mansion!
• Anchor for your mini-yacht (anchor rope available for slight additional charge..)
• Tire stop for your golf-cart.
• Message carrier for industrial strength sling shots.

Ok..maybe those are silly ideas, maybe note...But, if you want to win the "best salesperson" prize from Ogilvy, they say that you should go to their channel on YouTube

Back to Business of B2B Web-Video Chat : Oovoo

Ok..so we've teased you in the recent updates by suggesting we could only locate (2) truly credible providers of low cost, high quality video broadcast/video chat applications...

We can't explain how/why we overlooked Oovoo.com, and we won't bother telling you how we tripped over this company...

The first glimpse of the application and the platform suggests that it looks good, its priced right (there's a free version and options i.e. enterprise version), but also reminds us that when it comes to B2B technology applications, the first-movers' disadvantage is the notorious obstacle that is increasingly prevalent: firewall.  

That said, we think this platform is a good one..notwithstanding the fact that for broadcasting, its powered by an executable that needs to be downloaded...and that element might introduce some hiccups..but we haven't kicked the tires hard enough or long enough to determine whether or not your computer might have a digestion problem....

Seeing (and Hearing) is Believing; How to Rise Above the Clutter

Video, video, video..we've been playing this harp and harping on the subject of businesses needing to leverage new media apps while their competitors are languishing in the world of traditional messaging techniques.

The proposal below was prepared by an agency that's been around the block more than a few times, and in our opinion, they hit the bulls eye when crisply condensing the client's already nicely configured value proposition. Equally appealing, the agency formulated a very cost-sensitive strategy that provides the client with an approach that will have extended shelf life, and can inserted in multiple applications.


Corporate Marketing Communications Proposal From Media Place & JLC Group to WallachBeth Capital

Social Network Advertising & LinkedIn.com Before You Buy In...Read the Warning Label

To: Steve Patrizi, VP of Advertising Sales

After establishing a PPC ad program via LinkedIn at beginning of week, it took less than two days to recognize that the campaign in question has been charged for noticeably more clicks/visitors than we have documented for the same period of time by two different site traffic applications that are installed on the destination website.

One of those meters is google analytics, the other is a tool provided by AMZN. 

After presenting this to LinkedIn advertising "online support", and requesting explanation or otherwise a credit, we were disheartened to receive a canned email reply indicating someone would eventually send another canned reply.   Surprising that you don't have a live chat staffed by people to service paying customers, but I suppose that would be a reach..In the mean time, it would be nice if someone were to actually reach out and address the issue. Would hate to instruct credit card company to dispute the charges...or to be the source of 'unhappy customer testimonial'

Thanks in advance for your reply.





To customer support:
This is the second attempt to contact support re: what definitely appears to be your double-charging us for clicks on recently-implemented PPC program.

After noticing that you have charged us for almost 2x the number of clicks than the number of actual LinkedIn referrals reported by two different traffic logs that we maintain,  we immediately reported this issue and we scaled back our program by half. Six hours later, we noticed you reported 2x the traffic than what our traffic logs reported for the remaining ads that were 'live".

Dear ,

Thank you for your quick response.

We do not provide support for third party web tracking or analytics software. Because of this, we are unable to supply information regarding possible differences.

We are confident in the information provided by reporting tools that monitor the clicks redirected to your site as well as our other reporting tools across the entire LinkedIn platform. At this time, we would encourage you to contact the third party vendor directly for questions related to their software or potential discrepancies in reporting.

Thank you for your continued use of our DirectAds product.

Regards,

Stephanie
LinkedIn Customer Support

Thank you Stephanie…

We didn’t suggest that you do support third party traffic log reporting software.

But the fact is, when two independent applications report exactly the same thing and completely contradict your reports and you respond to customers by insisting  that your charges are accurate, and that your reporting meter works better, or is more accurate than Google Analytics, or Amazon’s vendor tools, any reasonably experienced advertiser would take exception to your reply.

After noticing that you had charged us for almost 2x the number of clicks than the number of actual LinkedIn referrals reported by two different traffic logs that we maintain,  we immediately reported this issue and we scaled back our program by half. Six hours later, we noticed you reported 2x the traffic than what our traffic logs reported for the remaining ads that were 'live".

Needless to say, we will be terminating our ad program with LinkedIn immediately, disputing the charges with our credit card company, and we’ll look forward to sharing this experience within the various LinkedIn groups that we participate in, as well as the various industry blogs that we contribute to on a regular basis.

Best of luck in your career!

 

Video Ad Messages Now Playing on Your PDA--Duh!!

If you've been following this blog for more than the last 5 updates, you'll know that I've always been a big proponent of video-centric marketing and communication applications for corporate, B2B and small businesses.

We're not newbies when it comes to digital communication, as this writer was arguably among the first wave of pioneers that advocated internal corporate instant-messaging applications when most Fortune companies were still busy trying to figure out how to leverage enterprise email.

Then came blogs, next came Twitter, and while "Marcomm Guru's" imbedded in corporate cubicles are still trying to get their arms around what works and what doesn't work, the Rich Media train keeps on rolling over those that haven't figured out which "best practices" are best vs. those that make the bean counters barf when attempting to monitor how the EVP of Sales and/or EVP of Marketing are working to connect the tag line to the bottom line.

Click on the link to the title of this posting--and then read in between the lines. If you can't understand how this story underscores how to leverage existing technology with your "social media strategy", give us a call and we'll paint a connect-the-dots picture so that even your CEO will "get it".

Post script reminder: "Cutting Edge" initiatives often result in a little bit of bleeding at first.

Why KISS Makes So Much Sense

We don't typically re-print other people's work, but this makes for a good read if you're taking a long sit, or especially if you've got one of those new e-reader/tablets that look like Etch-O-Sketch devices and find yourself reading more on the porcelain porch..

Courtesy of Boston.com's Drake Bennet  (click on the title link for the full article):

This would probably not strike you as a great idea. But, if recent research is to be believed, it might just be brilliant.

One of the hottest topics in psychology today is something called “cognitive fluency.” Cognitive fluency is simply a measure of how easy it is to think about something, and it turns out that people prefer things that are easy to think about to those that are hard. On the face of it, it’s a rather intuitive idea. But psychologists are only beginning to uncover the surprising extent to which fluency guides our thinking, and in situations where we have no idea it is at work.

Psychologists have determined, for example, that shares in companies with easy-to-pronounce names do indeed significantly outperform those with hard-to-pronounce names. Other studies have shown that when presenting people with a factual statement, manipulations that make the statement easier to mentally process - even totally nonsubstantive changes like writing it in a cleaner font or making it rhyme or simply repeating it - can alter people’s judgment of the truth of the statement, along with their evaluation of the intelligence of the statement’s author and their confidence in their own judgments and abilities. Similar manipulations can get subjects to be more forgiving, more adventurous, and more open about their personal shortcomings.

Because it shapes our thinking in so many ways, fluency is implicated in decisions about everything from the products we buy to the people we find attractive to the candidates we vote for - in short, in any situation where we weigh information. It’s a key part of the puzzle of how feelings like attraction and belief and suspicion work, and what researchers are learning about fluency has ramifications for anyone interested in eliciting those emotions.

“Every purchase you make, every interaction you have, every judgment you make can be put along a continuum from fluent to disfluent,” says Adam Alter, a psychologist at the New York University Stern School who co-wrote the paper on fluency and stock prices. “If you can understand how fluency influences judgment, you can understand many, many, many different kinds of judgments better than we do at the moment.”

A handful of scholars have already started to explore the ways that advertisers, educators, political campaigners, or anyone else in the business of persuasion can use these findings. And some of the implications are surprising. For example, to get people to think through a question, it may be best to present it less clearly. And to boost your self-confidence, you may want to set out to write a dauntingly long list of all the reasons why you’re a failure.

Online Consultations: Get on the train or get run over by it!

Its only been 30 days since we last pounded the table about "now-generation" technology that delivers HDMI quality, live video consultations via the Internet.

In point of fact, we've been pounding the tables and screaming from the rafters on this very topic for more than three years.

Its only within the last year that the technology has finally evolved to the point where its top quality, low maintenance and efficiently priced for any small business, no less large business than never wanted to spend mid six figures for "enterprise video teleconferencing" solutions.

Lo and behold,  the NY Times must be following this blog, because today, contributor Catherine Saint Louis is credited with a column that focuses on the rapidly growing use of this exact technology within the health care arena.

The article is objective, insightful. The article title  "Should Surgeons Meet Patients Online?" is almost irrelevant; the debate about whether plastic surgeons should be consulting on line is tantamount to asking whether barn doors should be sealed like a crypt. 
The fact is, the genie is out of the bottle. 

And the technology that powers the technology that was once only imagined by The Jetsons is easily procured. We've promoted our friends at Montreal-based LCN Technologies on several occasions, as we think they've got the best for less..We've also tripped over a few other vendors...

Now all you need to do is research the questions that need to be asked of those vendors, and compare their answers and offerings.  

Opining About Twitter:

The NY Times' David Carr opines today that he's convinced Twitter will not only endure, but expand into every tiny intellectual crevice known to modern man.

We've talked, and even "tweeted" about this topic in the past. We've pointed out that a continuously growing universe of Branders, Marketers, and a slew of corporate communication gurus believe that Twitter is as important today as having a website was ten years ago.

Fifteen years ago, this pundit insisted to his clients and prospective clients, that if you were a business, and you didn't have a website, even a rudimentary single page that merely displayed who you were, then you really weren't in business. And you probably wouldn't stay in business for very long.

OK, a bit severe of a message perhaps, but pretty prescient nonetheless. 
In the course of celebrating this past Thankgiving, we opined about the benefits and usefulness of Twitting.  

And, in today's NYT, David Carr takes his own stab at it. Don't be shy--this is a topic that anybody should chime in about--so we invite you to post your own opinion!

Live Video Conferencing Comes to Healthcare Industry

Two years ago, we began profiling technologies that provided low cost, high-quality live video broadcasting that could be utilized by small and large businesses.

After all, combining real-time sight and sound has always proven to be exponentially more compelling when compared to static "WebEx" presentations.

Well, once again we're being proven prescient: according to a story in today's NY Times, the health care industry is beginning to embrace pay-per-chat with experts broadcasting live via the Internet. Live, private consultations for less than $50/hr-and allows partients to see the doctor, and ideally, for the doctor to see you (now). 

All the patient needs is a video-cam connected to his/her PC--and good devices can cost less than $75..

The cost to broadcast? It's come down to peanuts when compared to the legacy teleconferencing systems that companies such as Cisco have promoted for the past several years. For less than a few thousand dollars (see LCN Technologies offerings),  lawyers, accountants, "training gurus", or anyone else can have their own live broadcast studio, and communicate in HD-quality live conferencing.

Duh. 

Vlogging: Why this is the next "killer app"

Two weeks ago, I profiled LCN Technologies, a company that's on the 'cutting edge' by providing low-cost, high quality ("HD quality") technology for those that "get it" and recognize that live, internet broadcasting will prove to be what sets competitors apart.

For pundits, "pontificators", or simply corporate-arena presenters,  these tools are a must have. Its that simple.

For those that "vlog"--(which incorporates either canned or live video within a blog), the content becomes that much stickier, and real time, is well, real time.

Aside from LCN, there are actually few credible vendors within the space. Another is Silicon Valley-based Dyyno, which is sponsored by two leading Venture Capital firms--and my bet is that they'll be gobbled up by Google before they even bother to do a second round of venture funding.

Although Dynno's technology is somewhat different that LCN (Dynno requires broadcasters download an executable file while LCN does not), and its cost to implement and administer (licensing fees) is higher than LCN's, its presentation strikes at the heart of what we're talking about.

The real bet however is predicting the actual number of "celebrity" bloggers, corporations and media outlets that will leverage the technology in 2010. My conservative guess is that it should be in the tens of hundreds, if not thousands.

Cashing in on Twitter? Or Opting Out...One Man's Tweet is Another's Twit

Twitter, now almost as ubiquitous a name as Google, is apparently coming into its own (for those who own a slice of the private company), and has struck open source deals that will allow for advertising messages to be imbedded within all of those tweets that so many people are (purportedly) subscribing to.

I'll admit that I did sign up to follow the tweets of a few of my pundit friends, and I'm only glad that I turned off the "alert via txt msg" button, otherwise I'd have to cancel my cell phone service entirely.

Of course I believe in the concept of leveraging social networks to promote consumer products. And of course, I'm influenced by what my friends are buying in the course of making my own purchase decisions. Well, sort of.

But now that Ad.fly and others are making it easy for my 'friends' to insert advertising messages within their tweets, do I really buy into it? Do I really want to be cluttered with messages, knowing that my 'friends' are exploiting ther friendship in order to make money from me?  What does this say about the social contract, that we, as 'friends' have made with each other?

OK, I'm jealous;  unlike Ashton K., or Larry K., I don't have 1 million+ "followers". I only have a few hundred or so. Most of them prefer to go to this blog, or one of the others that I've become famous for.  How many of them are going to appreciate knowing that I'm getting paid to pitch my favorite toothpaste, or my favorite burger joint?

And what happens when the FTC decides to enforce their stupid new rules about blogger disclosures, and single me out for promoting a product on my tweets without including a disclaimer? I won't be happy. But its safe to bet that big time bloggers that have friends in Washington won't have to worry about this. Does Eliot Spitzer tweet?   

Live Web Broacasting: The Marketers Magic Elixir

We try not to harp incessantly on ideas that we think make sense—and even if I’ve always been a strong proponent of the power of live Web broadcasting for pundits, experts, consultants etc., whose respective audiences are bored to tears with "WebEx" presentations, canned videos, or other communication apps that can best be described as "Old Media" in the age of New Media application, I had to jump back into the blog to pound the table yet again.


In the past two days alone, the NY Times has profiled four unrelated stories that profile the rapid emergence of web-based video-conferencing/broadcasting, and in the past week, there have been two major acquisitions of makers of web-based video conferencing tools.


Below links provide 2 of those stories.


Given the fact that these ‘tools’ are coming into their own insofar as broadcast quality, pricing and flexibility, I’d respectfully suggest that Mark Prince at LCN Technologies (http://lcntechnologies.com) has been well ahead of the curve—and the most recent version of LCN’s “broadcast platform” is exactly the type of technology that should be leveraged by a wide variety of pundits, experts, media wizards, etc.



http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/business/media/11adco.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=tv%20news&st=cse



http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/logitech-breaks-into-videoconferencing/?scp=3&sq=logitech&st=cse

Big Brother Attacks Bloggers

At risk of subjecting this blog to an enforcement action by either the NY Times, or perhaps a government regulatory authority, below is a reprint from today's article in the NYT that points to yet another new layer of Big Brother's oversight over us all. and strikes at the heart of marketing messages.

This writer is far from being a Libertarian, and otherwise leans towards pragmatic forms of governmental regulation, regardless of the industry or the issue.

That said, the NYT points to yet another new government initiative to regulate freedom of speech that is potentially alarming. This new initiative targets of all people, bloggers.

The upshot, as interpreted by a select group of jailhouse lawyers, suggests that the FTC is aiming its cross hairs on all blogs that endorse or recommend products. According to this article, the FTC proposes to go after any blogger that fails to disclose whether they've received any type of compensation, even if limited to free samples, in exchange for mentioning any product.

Wow.

The ramifications of this new initiative would cause some to take out a calculator and try to analyze the actual cost to small and large businesses of conforming to yet another wave of government regulation in a business environment that has everyone struggling to make ends meet. The cost of complying with the proposed initiative is guestimmated to be in the tens of billions of dollars.

No doubt this is time to re-direct our children to pursuing careers in the legal industry, as this is a harbinger for that group.

Notice Those Ads on Blogs? Regulators Do, Too

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

BLOGGERS, be warned. Advertisers, you too.

Two of the National Advertising Review Council’s investigative units plan to announce Tuesday their first decisions involving blogs. Their recommendations call for clear disclosure when a company is sponsoring a site or paying for product reviews.

That’s nothing shocking, but it’s part of a sharper focus on the relationships between bloggers and advertisers. Attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission, which is about to expand its endorsement guidelines to include blogs, are investigating the area, along with the self-regulatory groups.

“It’s something everyone in the consumer protection area is newly focused on,” said C. Lee Peeler, the chief executive of the National Advertising Review Council, which sets policies for the advertising industries’ self-regulatory programs. “One of the issues of advertising in new media is, is it clear that it’s paid-for advertising, or does it look like something else?”

Paid-for advertising includes paid blogging, the programs’ recommendations make clear. One of the cases concerns Urban Nutrition , a company that sells supplements like MiracleBurn, an appetite suppressant. The Electronic Retailing Self-Regulation Program, an investigative unit of the National Advertising Review Council for the e-commerce industry, examined some of that company’s marketing after a competitor filed a complaint.

Urban Nutrition was running Web sites like WeKnowDiets.com, and GoogleDiets.com, which were “formatted as independent product-review blogs,” according to the investigative unit’s statement. The investigation found problems with the sites, including that Urban Nutrition didn’t disclose it was paying bloggers for the reviews, that it portrayed the sites as independent, and that the blogs featured accolades like “Customer Choice Awards” when “the marketer’s product appears to be permanently featured as the selected product,” the organization’s statement said.

“For paid-for statements about products, the traditional principles apply,” Mr. Peeler said, and here, the principle was that advertising needs to be marked as such. “That shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone,” he said.

•

The investigative unit asked Urban Nutrition to prominently disclose that it owned the Web sites and that it was sponsoring reviewers, along with adding contact information to the sites and changing some other claims. “The company is currently in the process of making all the changes recommended by E.R.S.P., as well as additional changes Urban Nutrition volunteered to make,” said Thomas Cohn, a lawyer at Venable, which represents Urban Nutrition.

The other decision concerns the marketer Herbal Groups, which makes the prostate supplement Prostalex Plus. The National Advertising Division, another unit of the review council, handled this case.

Herbal Groups had been running a “Prostate Health Blog,” which published items about prostate function with promotions for the Prostalex product. The entire blog constituted an advertisement, the N.A.D. said, and Herbal Groups took down the blog at the beginning of the N.A.D.’s inquiry.

“We came to a mutually agreeable solution,” said Scott Schalin, president of Herbal Groups, in an interview. The N.A.D. also recommended that the company stop making certain claims about the supplement in its ads, which Herbal Groups said it would do.

These self-regulatory programs are voluntary, but if companies refuse to participate or comply, the programs can refer complaints to the F.T.C. And the F.T.C. can sue those it sees as violating guidelines.

The F.T.C. is close to updating its guidelines on endorsements and testimonials for the first time since 1980. Its proposed guidelines go further than the self-regulatory bodies have, saying that bloggers must disclose not only when they are paid by a company, but also when they receive a free product.

As an example, the F.T.C. cited the fictional case of a video blogger who receives a free copy of a new video game system from its manufacturer for review. “The readers of his blog are unlikely to expect that he has received the video game system free of charge in exchange for his review of the product,” the commission wrote. As this fact would likely affect how credible consumers find the review, the blogger should disclose that he received the game free.

That’s something advertising and retailing groups have bristled at, arguing that this sort of promotion occurs all the time offline. Major industry associations including the Electronic Retailing Association, the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Association of National Advertisers, and the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, among others, all filed comments with the commission taking issue with the proposed guidelines.

“It’s an example of the F.T.C.’s failure to understand the medium and appreciate the nuances,” said Linda A. Goldstein, a partner at the law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, which represents several industry groups. “It’s not uncommon for marketers to provide the blogging community with samples of their product or service, but the company has no control over what the blogger writes.”

Besides, she said, companies regularly host free events or send samples to journalists in the hopes of attracting coverage.

“It’s analogous to a studio inviting critics to a free premiere. Taken to its logical conclusion, those critics would have to disclose in their review that they were allowed to see the movie for free,” she said.

The commission’s comment period is now closed, and it is expected to issue final guidelines soon.

Meanwhile, bloggers and advertisers are under pressure from state attorneys general. In June, Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York noted in a settlement with seven electronics retailers that in addition to illegal practices, “all of these companies obtained fake ‘consumer testimonials’ through Web sites that claim to be impartial consumer-based ‘rating’ Web sites” but were not.

In July, in what Mr. Cuomo’s office said it believed was the first such case in the nation, it settled with a cosmetic-surgery company called Lifestyle Lift, charging that company employees were posting fake positive reviews about its services on various message boards and sites, a practice known as “astroturfing.” Lifestyle Lift stopped the postings and paid $300,000 to the state.

“My office has and will continue to be on the forefront in protecting consumers against emerging fraud and deception, including ‘astroturfing,’ on the Internet,” he said in the statement

Man's Best Friend....

Maxx
August 1994-
August 2009

In a world in which crafty and creative people work to create messages and images to influence decisions, we can only pause to reflect on the age-old wisdom that a dog is really man's best friend.

In honor of Maxx.

Always reliable, always there to provide comfort and solace, and infallible in providing unrequited love and warmth to those around him.

Google: The Next Ponzi Scheme to Fail?

I've been a "Googler" since 1998; I've promoted its search tools to business associates and friends, and I've [cautiously] used Adwords and AdSense for a variety of client-related projects.

I use the word 'cautiously' because over time, I've repeatedly discovered that the Adwords program would charge me/my clients for clicks that didn't correspond to the actual web traffic statistics reported by two completely independent software applications that measure site visitor traffic.

The staff at Google explained this away by suggesting that ads that appear on the Google 'search network' might include ad placements on sites that are masked, or somehow can not be verified. That's when I thought of the account statements published by Bernie Madoff's "brokerage firm".

And then I noticed this article : http://seekingalpha.com/article/148238-google-the-next-ponzi-scheme-to-fail

My Social Network: Influencing Friends Purchase Decisions

My daughter is a choco-holic, so after reading a review about a new premium chocolate brand (Caoni Chocolate), I went online to their website and purchased a case. Its actually delicious. Perhaps because its made with 100% Arriba cacao, as opposed to 'blends' that almost all other premium chocolates are made with.

So I posted my happy experience on my Facebook page, then I tweeted about it. Then I made a comment about it on my LinkedIn profile. Why? I don't know, it seems to be the thing to do these days.

But, when I read about the interesting advertising applications promoted by Media6Degrees and 33Across, apps that installs cookies into a customer's computer, then "reads" the connections that I have when I log into my social network sites, and then magically and subliminally delivers ad messages to the people that are within my various social networks, I was intrigued.

Sounds phishy, right? Well, for one thing, I asked the people at Caoni if they use this type of stealth advertising, and they said they didn't. But they were as intrigued as I was by the idea.

I certainly don't mind sharing with friends, acquaintances, and friends of friends the product discoveries that I've made. I know lots of chocolate lovers, and this is actually a great find.

But, I don't like the idea that my social network connections are being exploited without my permission (and without my getting paid an introducer's fee!) in a manner by which 'connections' are being pitched on products that I bought (even though my friends don't necessarily know that I've bought it).

That said, the technology is interesting, and there's plenty of data to support the contention that people within my social network tend to share the same interests. Whether someone within a linkedin.com "hedge fund" group that I'm a member of would respond to an ad for Caoni, simply because another member of the same group purchased the product is an idea that I'm scratching my head about.

But, since the cost for this type of advertising is a fraction of traditional banner ads placed on publisher sites, I'd say its worth trying. And I'd definitely recommend the Caoni Chocolate!

Branding Good Will

Now that I've got your attention by using a headline that inspired you to read further.....

That's right..we consulted with our Matador of Marketing Messages and he assured us that those simple three key words would prove the perfect attention grabber.

Contrary to the Web2.o rules, which dictate that for a blog to generate a following and be "truly successful", the blogger needs to blabber every day. How does that dic-tate?

Not tasty for us. We'll blog when we want to, when we have the time to, and only when we're truly inspired by an idea or a story.

After reading a NY Times profile about Goodwill Industries' expanding strategy to 'brand itself' and to position itself as a provider of "antique luxury items"--and otherwise embrace a traditional retailer strategy---all I can ask is "Why is it taking you so long to carpe diem???"

What Goodwill is doing: recasting itself (via albeit low-cost branding campaign means) and working to exploit an economic environment that's prompting consumers of all types to downsize their expenditures.


When Park Avenue princesses, Hollywood Celebs, Darien debutantes, and corporate exec wives are all contributing to trend setting shopping habits that celebrate second hand shops and the value of buying 'pre-owned goods' (including 'antique clothing'), any half-wit that's owned the "thrift category" for three generations should know that this economic period presents a business opportunity that happens once in a life-time.

Bottom line? Goodwill has apparently been 'ramping' their 'new branding' approach since before the current 'recession' technically started (sometime in 2007)--and the cylinders are starting to turn more quickly.

And what better name than "Goodwill" to use in the course of a branding strategy? If there's anything that consumers want right now, it's having a feeling of good will! After having Keogh's and savings mini-ed budgets being micro-ed, and after being Madoff-ed by either Bernie himself or Ben Bernake, we could all "get it" when it comes to the appreciation for spending less on luxury.

We typically say "Do it right, not right away." But to the senior exec team at Goodwill we say "People!. Lets move that bus!! Before you know it, the window of opportunity will come sliding down on to your fingers!"

By the way--thanks to Hiroko Masuike's images courtesy of the NY Times.

Your Message Here

Storefront advertising isn't a new idea in the world of Out-Of-Home strategies, but as pointed out by journalist Stephanie Clifford, its become one of the more compelling strategies for advertisers--simply because there are plenty of empty storefronts in major cities and because the price is right.

What's next? Advertising billboards on the front lawns of all of those foreclosed houses spread across the country?

Maybe...but if SNL can hijack a copyrighted monicker we imprinted for CitiBank that we came up with six months ago ("ShittyBank")...no doubt some Ad agency is going to pitch the idea of billboard advertising or perhaps "wrapping houses with ads" --as they do with buses--to BofA..

Telepresence: Ahead of The Pack

We've been pontificating about video teleconferencing for a long time...most recently two months ago..when profiling a very interesting platform created by a Montreal-based company...

Lo and Behold...even Road Warrior Joe Sharkey, a columnist for the NY Times is 'getting it'...

Click on his picture to the right to read what he has to say...