spatially relevant

Human Intervention: markets in the making

So I spent some time understanding a little more the impact of social media over the holidays, basically in response to the online norm piece and a comment on art from gapingvoid guy, [tag]Hugh MacLeod[/tag].   People who interact online can impact online markets and untimately offline concerns as well.  O’Reilly had a [tag]Bill Janeway[/tag], from [tag]investment banking[/tag] firm [tag]Warburg Pincus[/tag], quote on the [tag]Money:Tech[/tag] conference which is fairly relevant in context of human interaction’s impact on financial activity:

The timeliness of this Conference is NOT only because “web 2.0″ technologies and business models have reached critical mass in the financial markets. It is also because, as driven by the web more generally, the frontier between human and machine-decision making has become radically problematic. First, quantitative approaches in trading, pricing, valuation, asset definition vastly expanded the domain for machine decision-making. But then the humans struck back, by refusing to act like the mindless molecules that the models driving machine decision-making required. The self-reflective, behavioral attributes of human market participants is now driving back that frontier, requiring innovations in every aspect of financial market processes, beginning with techniques of risk measurement and risk management. When price is an inverse function of [tag]liquidity[/tag] and liquidity is an inverse function of price certainty, the recursive loop can only be broken by human intervention and action

Wow - what a mouthful and insightful - people impact markets. The significant investment in optimized algorythm based business models online may have a challenger - human interaction as it relates to online advertising.

Changed search models, content availability and pervasive shared content may ultimately make Feedburner’s (Google) adverpublishing platform which best serves as a sliver markets to a high value market channel at some point in the future?   While not necessarily the mainstream population, active online human decision makers continue to collectively impact markets, one might say communities.   Facebook, Twitter or others represent segments of market influencers and makers. Most [tag]Facebook valuation[/tag] discussions all essentially acknowledge a significant market segmentation asset.

Communities as Market Makers

The current underpinnings of the global social media infrastructure (Xobni, [tag]Utterz[/tag], Twitter, [tag]Plaxo[/tag] [tag]LinkedIn[/tag], [tag]Flickr[/tag], [tag]Flock[/tag]…) are establishing market definitions, definitions of buyer classes in their highly attributed/user extended data model.   So that begets the question as to how does a collective commonality define a market? Are there bookmark markets? Blog markets? “Group” Markets?

It’s reasonable to infer this is in fact the case. Sites/Platforms such a Digg,  writing cabals creating content and individuals bring together friends and randoms around a common set of attributes which should they sustain overtime may in fact create micro-markets. Not a believer?  Go to Gizmodo - That IS a Gizmodo market.

Sure advertising is inherently audience biased and to that end the delivery vehicle has just changed, but can the vehicles actually begin to deliver value add services - access to branded public information, focusedcontent and web service community tools across an interoperable network.  Imagine it - share attributes (friends, content, services…) could be managed through a unified market based UI - the Facebook user who likes cooking, the Truemors reader who looks up his 401k balance on the truemors interface - there are all kinds of abstract concepts and extensions. Once the social media markets mature from their currently narrowly banded spiky reality, these may be the only advertising markets - community focused views of online commerce, communication and service consumption.

So now on to the the abstract thought to end the article.  Does an individual define the market or an individual’s relationships?  If it’s the latter, Facebook may be under valued and the usability race has begun!

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Things I have already learned in 2008: Check Out Blog

So I’m one of those odd ducks that actually looks forward those moments when I run into one of those “I don’t/didn’t know moments” - these are opportunities, not moments to dodge. I’ve doing a bunch of random research the past couple of weeks and had only modest time to do anything with the holiday’s thrown in, but I’ve already have some interesting things I have actually already realized or learned in the past couple of days, but mainly I thought I would talk about the Wal-Mart blog.

Check Out Blog is an amazingly well written blog with an interesting set of characters. ( Go Rand! [tag]Sustainability[/tag] is good, I’ve been [tag]compact fluorescent[/tag] for years and not recycling is essentially a crime in Ann Arbor, so I got real good at it.) Man I wish it wasn’t a Wal-Mart blog, because I got a little jaded and told myself “try to give it a chance”. So I decided to dig into the authors because the authors look so happy - not unlike the Wal-Mart greeter. I’m confident that there was some be a Wal-Mart blogger contest which was only extended to buyers and merchandisers after reading their profiles, but the lady who checked me out late night in Alpharetta probably shouldn’t be a blogger.

As I continued to dig through profiles, I quickly learned, there has to be a ghostwriter somewhere in the mix, but that is not a bad thing - take Alex Cook’s profile with the following statement:

In layman’s terms, I work with a group of professional buyers that are responsible for buying all the pc’s (and cool stuff that plugs into the PC’s) for the Wal-Mart stores in the U.S.

So as a technologist, I couldn’t think of keyboards and mice as cool things that plug into a computer, so I browsed walmart.com and indeed found “cool” things to plug into my PC, like the mouse below.

I agree, resting my hand on a picture of my family on holiday could be considered cool, providing I was put in a time machine and was able to plug it into my rad as hell 486 Hewlett Packard while scorching my way online at 14.4 with my new mouse resting on a mouse pad with a picture of my college dog Chumley. But the best bio is Tif’s.

Tifanie Van Laar

Author For Gaming

About Tifanie Van Laar

I am the [tag]video game software[/tag] buyer for Wal-Mart, but before starting this role, I did not own a single video game or [tag]video game platform[/tag]. Since that time, I have joined the legions of game players across the globe and proudly sit in the corner clicking away on my NDS while my boxer dogs, Makeda & Rohan, watch with disdain because I’m not paying attention to them. I have been a buyer with Wal-Mart for more than 8 years and have bought a vast array of items from movies to paint. I greatly enjoy my role with the company that harvested me out of the [tag]University of Arkansas[/tag] of which I am a very proud alumni….Woo Pig Sooie, Go Hogs!

Not only does she have an inner gamer, she likes football and was apparently harvested, like corn - ahh fall is such a fun time in Arkansas. All that is required for an all-in demographic win is a NASCAR reference, which oddly doesn’t exist on the blog - I searched. While the rules of blogging and the concept of transparency for corporate blogging might be fuzzy, outside of sustainability man, the personalities of the blog are just right. Kinda a Goldilocks approach to authors.

The Point of this Post

Wal-Mart has actually done a great job, despite my jabs at the authors. The team at Check Out have created a platform for collaboration, easily understood content and provides a human aspect to an otherwise less than human organization that used geographic information systems and analysis to destroy downtown Americana. As I read the profiles the other thing I notice was folks work their a long time - how many employers have folks with this type of tenure 7, 13, or 14 years? Can’t be a bad company when folks, like Danielle Pribbernow, “look forward to a long career” there and with a name like Pribbernow there has to be endless fun in meetings. “Ok now let’s plan for the next steps now, no I really mean now - like Pribbernow damn it!” Ok maybe there aren’t a bunch of things do with the name, but I like saying the name. Say it three times fast.

So kudo’s to WM for their efforts at Check Out, while I’m not sure I’m good with their assertion that all lanes are open, I’m definitely good with such a large company trying to engage their customers in a dialogue by understanding the following:

Know you audience - The most likely readers are the gamers, so produce content mainly for them. A great deal of folks who want to save the environment read blogs so put something out there for them. A targeted approach to extend the brand identity to be a more eco-friendly and Rand does that well, What is your PSP?

Don’t Overextend - They don’t try and be thought leaders, just factoid folks who don’t seem to sell that much, but provide information about the products. The type of stuff I might ask in a store from a Wal-Mart team member should I actually be able to locate one. IDEA: Put the blog on Kiosks in-store to help answer questions, locate products and take applications, multiple purposes will help prop up the ROI.

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Roadside Observations: Population moves and a sign of the times

So I was doing a little bit of travel over the holidays and got to see a good bit of the back roads country and survey roadside advertising. The quality, product mix and “vacancy rates” appeared to have changed from what I historically remember. Although I will say that promotional messaging for empty billboards is getting much better. The other interesting thing is the use of “shared space” appears to be up for billboards….

Billboards may be a bellwether for the state of the economy and represent a great part of the cultural landscape which I like to appreciate. I originally wrote myself a note on this topic last week, but was reminded of the concept by Vaguery on twitter, who in real life is Bill and blogs over @ Notional Slurry. Economic trends and perceptions of the economy impact individual, local and regional buying behaviors and how marketers appeal to buyers.

Vaguery’s tweet of “…considering the likelihood of any Michigander doing real five-figure cookery” seemed to align with billboards, data and articles I’ve been reading/seeing, such as the USA Today piece I read over my free continental breakfast the other day. So things are changing - spend patterns, the movement of people and general open market activities.

The USA article spoke of the current housing woes and how they impact population movement. “Michigan hard hit by cutbacks in the auto industry and other manufacturing sectors” has seen population decline and housing value declines ahead of the rest of the nation. This was unscientifically verified as I drove around and saw more for sale signs than I think I have ever seen.

At the most basic level, demographic changes impact market dynamics - specifically how people market and what they market.  With a more granular look at the population shift, by state, it becomes evident that Michigan and RI are seeing a different level of change than other markets.

With the change in the economy and population, the roadside marketing landscape has changed as well since general investment patterns change from all key constituents segments - government, national brands and local SMBs. This change appears to be visible in the current billboard mix being mainly casino oriented in Detroit - no longer automotive/manufacturing innovation related.   The overall billboard content also appears to be on a different level of creative quality as well, not just the type of advertiser. I was able to find the following billboard just outside Lansing in Portland, Michigan which is an example of the changing billboard landscape throughout Michigan.

I’m glad I’m not in billboard advertising with a weakening dollar, tempered consumer confidence and the apparent need for cheap pepper spray as a stocking stuffer.

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Lessons Learned: What is Value? Depends on how/when you look at it

So I spent a good deal of time thinking about value this weekend for a couple of reasons:

1. I had to spend way too much time in a vet hospital for my dog panic and cost/benefit never really entered my mind, but I did do some quick budget math out of financial diligence - couldn’t help it.

2. I need to find Guitar hero and I can’t.  But I did find out some guy paid $10,000 for one, not me though - cost/benefit entered my mind on this one.

3.  The dollar menu at McDonald’s - how are those items only worth $1?  I mean I like double cheeseburgers.

So I thought about it and realized that value is in the eye of the beholder or rather the coveter - but perhaps the marketer as well.   Not sure if value is ever the same or within banded limits at any point in time and this is the most confusing thing about value. Value is about the buyer, so as a marketer and product manager know how can you optimize the value or perceived value of your product.  Effective product placement can significantly change the value of something  - right channel, the right package, the right promotion….   Often the value of something is marketed and delivered to market based on a plan, so perhaps a double cheeseburger is only worth a $1, if [tag]share of wallet[/tag] is a key careabout.  Value is situational for both the buyer and seller.  So I’ve cut in a general overview from Wikipedia on Value for consideration:

The economic value of something is how much a desired object or condition is worth relative to other objects or conditions…

In [tag]neoclassical economics[/tag], the value of an object or service is often seen as nothing but the price it would bring in an open and competitive market. This is determined primarily by the demand for the object relative to supply. Many neoclassical economic theories equate the value of a commodity with its price, whether the market is competitive or not. As such, everything is seen as a commodity and if there is no market to set a price then there is no economic value.

In classical economics, the value of an object or condition is the amount of discomfort/labor saved through the consumption or use of an object or condition (Labor Theory of Value). Though exchange value is recognized, [tag]economic value[/tag] is not dependent on the existence of a market and price and value are not seen as equal.

In this tradition, to [tag]Steve Keen[/tag] “value” refers to “the innate worth of a commodity, which determines the normal (’equilibrium’) ratio at which two commodities exchange.” To Keen and the tradition of David Ricardo, this corresponds to the classical concept of long-run cost-determined prices, what Adam Smith called “[tag]natural prices[/tag]” and [tag]Karl Marx[/tag] called “[tag]prices of production[/tag].” It is part of a cost-of-production theory of value and price. Ricardo, but not Keen, used a “labor theory of price” in which a commodity’s “innate worth” was the amount of labor needed to produce it.

In another classical tradition, [tag]Marx[/tag] distinguished between the “[tag]value in use[/tag]” (use-value, what a commodity provides to its buyer), “value” (the socially-necessary labour time it embodies), and “exchange value” (how much labor-time the sale of the commodity can claim, Smith’s “[tag]labor commanded[/tag]” value). By most interpretations of his labor theory of value, Marx, like Ricardo, developed a “[tag]labor theory of price[/tag]” where the point of analyzing value was to allow the calculation of relative prices. …

Value in the most basic sense can be referred to as “Real Value” or “Actual Value.” This is the measure of worth that is based purely on the utility derived from the consumption of a product or service. Utility derived value allows products or services to be measure on outcome instead of demand or supply theories that have the inherent ability to be manipulated.

Alas, value is subjective and may or may not have any relationship to production effort ([tag]cost plus[/tag]) or value in use.  The ever changing marketplace makes understanding your products value an ongoing and continuous thread of activity.

Sounds like this value thing is a continuous loop caused by an if-then-goto statement in the business plan.

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Social Media requires a coordinated effort and understanding

So I continue to see more B2C and B2B companies deploying social computing technologies just want to be part of this whole web thing, which many don’t even recognize as social media only perceived as a necessity for success. Damn you Ad Age! The most recent reminder of this was a comment of “we gotta be on [tag]facebook[/tag]” from a friend about his business, but really didn’t know what he meant which is why he rang me up. Next he’s going to ask me about [tag]second life[/tag] or twitter. As an aside, Twitter was featured on a CSI show a couple of weeks ago and clearly was not explained well and this type of random reference will continue to drive a tactic oriented approach to online activity.

I spent some time asking my friend about his product, his target demographic and other buyer class attributes.   He explained the his demographic so far from over 2000 orders is typically a female suburbanite over 35 and their pre-launch demographics indicate they typically a master’s degree with a household income north of $150K. Not a typical facebook user, but what the heck - more people are joining everyday and the recent investment and gabillion dollar valuation is changing the mix everyday.
Based other research his team has done he indicated the product requires multiple touches and education.   After talking some more he did say and interesting thing is happening where a given instance of the product is sold, clusters are beginning to develop geographically.   He was clearly under the impression that “word of mouth” is driving the clustering, so after explaining groups, social networks and other general social media concepts he went back and out a plan for how to use facebook after he browsed around.

So what did he decide to do?  He created a group on facebook and invited his customers.     The group immediately received 6 customer friends and every day is gets at least 3 new randoms everyday.   After a month of Facebooking, his website analytics and sales are showing promise based on this effort.

This truly begs the question of how do you effectively use social media for a given company or product?   Here is an excerpt from a forrester report by [tag]Charlene Li[/tag] and [tag]Josh Bernoff[/tag] which I have been thinking about and collecting data on for a while, albeit anecdotal, but the recent post on travelers, reminded me to return to this concept and below is the excerpt from the original piece in April:

Many companies approach [tag]social computing[/tag] as a list of technologies to be deployed as needed – a blog here, a podcast there – to achieve a marketing goal. But a more coherent approach is to start with your target audience and determine what kind of relationship you want to build with them, based on what they are ready for. Forrester categorizes social computing behaviors into a ladder with six levels of participation; we use the term “Social Technographics” to describe analyzing a population according to its participation in these levels. Brands, Web sites, and any other company pursuing social technologies should analyze their customers’ [tag]Social Technographics[/tag] first, and then create a social strategy based on that profile.

Not only is effective delivery of a social media strategy based on metrics and knowing your customer, it needs to be one of relevant tactics which encourage community:

So if I think about survey above, this has a little “dewey win’s” feel to it, since it is a % of a % of a segment who buy online, which is minimally transferable to the general population and may not capture the REAL influence of social media effectively, but at least SOMEONE is trying to quantify in an objective way. The graph below is what drove me to the Dewey concept which indicates a significant segment of the popluation are apple users, or in the Dewey scenario, telephone users:

While there is a little dewy in this, it clearly validates that random social media tactics, such as just getting on Facebook or setting up a blog because you “have to” typically will not drive conversions for online sales and may in fact be a big time sink which causes frustration.

Back to my friend, his company has had a blog since launch, but the traffic was minimal which over time resulted in less posting and a near abandoment of the blog - not the case now, but this is what can happen if you look at it from a technology perspective and not a way to coordinate awareness, interest and demand. Now with the new multi-channel approach he has seen a growth in blog traffic, increased reader consumption of the RSS feed and online sales growth.

Somewhere I lost the point and this has become a “captain obvious” post, so I’ll close on the following sound bites:

• Online tactics do not equal an online strategy.
• A social computing platform deployment doesn’t mean you are doing what you should be doing.
• You have to link your business goals, social media efforts and strategy to planned out tactics

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Science - not that actually

Very often marketingt continues to be described as an [tag]art[/tag], as much as it is described a science — both have validity. True enough! Marketing is both a science and an art. So most folks market to themselves and that personal bias introduces a narrow cast which may not deliver an significant value, but you have to attempt to see if your experiences represent a meaningful buying driver. That is in fact is the only real [tag]normalized[/tag] reality - an understood moment and a cohort group, seems like a marketing opportunity.

Marketing is not a science or an art. Science and art - recognize your affinity and spin! This is the science. Don’t get me wrong - I have significant faith in analytics and models, but they evolve and moments in time represent an opportunity to tell a story and witness the story. There is no single model - to that end it is art.

Nevertheless, the ability to determine the response rates and conversions is science. Alas - Art and Science. Arrrgghhh!

I am for sure it will not be effective

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Relevant Quips: Technology Product Management

So I challenged myself to come up with a new slide theme and I unreasonably constrained myself to the “RQ” which I had already created as a category for my [tag]slideshare[/tag] quote [tag]project[/tag].

I just get a little nervous when I convert a category to a tag in [tag]wordpress[/tag].

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Marketing 3.0 isn’t about throwing away the basics

This is more of a think about it post. Was reading a blog on Marketing 3.0 that new marketing is on many levels not related to “old marketing”. Excerpt:

We need to somewhat abandon traditional methods of marketing and look for inventive ways to build brand, awareness and of course leads for the sales folks. [tag]Marketing 3.0[/tag] is knowing the marketplace, the technologies available: harnessing and executing on all of the above to win the end game.

It’s still about the basics - the 4 P’s. Promotion and placement have significantly changed, but it’s always about the product. A great example is Xobni, an outlook plug-in - GREAT online [tag]marketing[/tag], GREAT word of mouth and they have the social network thing working. Cool [tag]product[/tag], interesting concept, but not actionable and no productivity lift - still cool though. I just might not be the target users - try it.

Utterz on the other hand - GREAT [tag]moblog[/tag] product, good concept and mastery of using a network for growth. So Marketing 3.0 is still about the basics.

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Top 5 Email tips: Captain Obvious Content Around Effective Spamming

So here is some content I lifted from some site, but only for the purpose of writing against as a framework. My apologies, I didn’t source in my [tag]notepad[/tag] file. Regardless, I cut-n-pasted this mainly because of the KISS method, [tag]Keep it simple stupid[/tag].

While a methodology I embrace, this list is like DUH! Clearly Captain Obvious content. I have inline comments in italics. Maybe it’s a good idea I didn’t source this [tag]Top 5 Email Tips[/tag], which started as a [tag]Top 10[/tag] which I cut up.

1. Understand your readers

Like any media, make sure that you provide your readers with the information they want. This will improve the click-through rates and encourage people to read your next newsletter rather then select the “unsubscribe” link.

So knowing your target market, buyer and relevant content is normally a good idea.

2. Personalise

Practice shows that personalised content produces the best results, with better open- and read-rates compared with the one size fits all approach.

By personalise, they clearly mean something like using their first name from a data based. The bad news is the sales person spelled it wrong, your CS rep didn’t get the name or just put in the first initial,

I’m actually a generic fan unless you KNOW the data is right or owned by the user, then it’s their fault that Steven became Setvne.

3. Do not leave an empty Subject line

Most empty Subject lines get spammed so make sure you don’t leave it empty or your email won’t get past spam filters.

Typically you don’t write someone unless there is a subject for the note - right?

4. Do not use deceptive Subject lines

The Subject line should pertain to the email and be informative enough to encourage the reader to open it whilst not being too long. It should not be in capitals, or contain exclamation marks.

Deception is not a good idea on ANYTHING OK!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!

5. Clear From lines

The From line should clearly state your company’s name or your name. Avoid spam From lines such as “Message from a friend” that are being used quite a lot by spammers.

Who really ever sends a message from a friend?!?!?! Well I did get a note from the secretary of finance in Nigeria, who apparently had an urgent message as a friend.

So as a basic promotional framework, it’s always good to remember that honesty, urgency, relevance and a reason to read is a good idea… This whole [tag]SEO[/tag] and [tag]SEM[/tag] thing continues to create lightweight content which continues to clutter online search.

That’s why I’m more and more interested in human oriented/user generated content sources such as wikis for reference information, rather than blind search.

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