Iphone App. Idea

NOTE: I RECENTLY FOUND THAT THIS IDEA HAS ACTUALLY ALREADY BEEN MADE. IT IS CALLED BACKUP ASSISTANT: http://tinyurl.com/ctflra

 

The amount of invitations I get to groups for people who lost or broke their phone and want numbers is quite numerous. I find it hilarious that most of these come with a disclaimer: “I hate these groups, but I lost my phone and need your numbers.” What exactly do you hate about the groups if you are currently making one? Everyone has this same problem.

However, it strikes me as being a particularly silly one considering what phones are capable of these days. All you need is an app that takes your list of contacts and backs it up online.  I can’t say I know any programming, but I can’t imagine this would be a very hard thing to do for the Iphone or Blackberry. It should also have the capability of uploading your contact list to your phone, so you don’t have to pay the phone company the 50 bucks it costs to transfer contact lists at the store.

Soon, all phones are going to be like Iphones and Blackberries, so eventually everyone will be able to do this. There is almost no reason to not use this app, so it should be pretty popular.  Therefore, someone should design it. If there is a programmer interested in doing this, I have some other ideas related to the Iphone, and I’d be interested in forming a partnership of some kind. Either comment here or DM me on Twitter.

Hulu: Embracing A Changing World

Hulu is a site I want to talk about for two reasons. The first will be its recently aired superbowl commercial, and the second will be its role as a site in general, and how it should be used as a template for the music industry.

This year I found myself quite disappointed with the superbowl commercials, as I found many to be continuations of past campaigns, or a lot of the same old advertisements that I’ve grown accustom to. However, Hulu’s commercials we different, and I definitely think it was the best commercial I saw.

            The commercial went for absurdity and comedy as the main drive of the commercial. However, it was made very clear what the company does, while not making it the central focus of the commercial. What I mean is, Hulu didn’t talk about all the different shows it has, or constantly say all the great features it has. It concentrated instead on making the commercial funny, and it worked.  This commercial shows great knowledge on the company’s part of their customer base. I know, because as a 22-year-old college student, I am their customer base. I also know this commercial was good, because all my friends thought it was and they use Hulu.  Commercials do not have to make you want the product, though I think this one does in a subtle way. Commercials just need to make you aware of the product and remember it, but in a positive way, and comedy is a great way to do that.

            The more important aspect to discuss regarding Hulu in relation to the music industry. For those of you who don’t know what Hulu is, it’s a site where you can watch T.V. shows and Movies for free online. However, not all movies and T.V. shows are available all the time, they seem to rotate them, which leads to customers coming back to check out what’s new. In relation to T.V I’m sure the hope if to get people into certain shows that are currently airing, and get them to start watching them on T.V. They have links to the T.V. shows websites, as well as information regarding when the show next airs. Individual networks have been doing this for their shows for a while, letting people get caught up online so they start watching the shows when they actually air, which I think is a good strategy. It currently worked for me using NBC.com to get me into the Office, a show I am now obsessed with. However, this is a way more complex problem in relation to music.

            While we have sites like Pandora that let us listen stream music that we like based on our favorite artists that we can program in, this has not stopped people from downloading music. As the economy gets worse, illegal downloading will only become more and more prominent. Why pay for something when you can get it for free? There are now too many ways to get music online, we can never police it, and we can’t control it. I personally stick to buying CD’s, as I collect them, but when it comes to music I don’t love, I’m ok with taking music off someone external hard drive and putting songs and CDs on my computer.  For many people, music has become a free commodity without the music industry’s permission, but music is still a sought after thing. Music will be listened to forever, regardless of it being regulated by huge industries or if it’s made in band’s basements. What the music industry needs to do is embrace it, and start offering quality downloads to people for free, if only to get control of the web traffic that is going to all these pirating sites. Even offering a Radiohead type of pay what you want offer would be better.  The true music fans will still buy CDs, because they will want to pay for them. I for example bought the Radiohead album both online and in CD form, and I was not the only on to do this. Also, as much as people use these illegal sites, if a legal option becomes available, as long as it’s as good, people will always chose the legal option. They could use a rotating library as well, like Hulu, but it would have to offer full CD’s at a time, or people would go elsewhere. Either that or they need to start offering something when you buy a real CD that you can’t download online.

            Hulu is a good step in the right direction for how to deal with downloading and pirating, embrace it. Web traffic is an underestimated commodity, and will become more and more important as the Internet becomes a more and more important medium. Its important to gain control of your customer base, so even if this isn’t the best solution to the music problem, its important to do something before you have no money, which is the direction most major labels are heading towards.

            

An Untapped Marketing Goldmine

T.V. commercials are a dying industry. Not in the sense that they will be eliminated altogether any time in the near future, but they are certainly not the focus of any good companies marketing strategy. The T.V. commercial is being overtaken by online marketing. This is due to things like TIVO, On Demand, DVR, and other programs that make it easy for customers to simply skip the commercials and go straight to the program they are watching. There are also many websites that offer T.V. shows for free, straight on your computer, which even though they contain commercials, have much less of them, and I would personally consider it a web commercial anyways.

However, commercials do not have to be something that people want to avoid like the plague. There is one time of year that many people watch a show solely for the commercials, and that is the Superbowl.  This is because Superbowl commercials have a reputation of being really good. I have found this to only be somewhat true, as a lot of companies launch new ad campaigns for the Superbowl, which can be hit or miss. The important aspect to this is the fact that people actually want to watch commercials. This is the only instance I know of where this is true. For me, this is a marketing goldmine; however, it also leaves some questions. Why is this the only time that people want to watch commercials?

Most people view commercials as a hindrance. This includes ads, billboards, etc, but I think commercials have the worst reputation of all because they actually pause programming. In the case of the Superbowl, some people are actually watching for that pause in programming. I can only assume most of those people are hoping for a chance to laugh or to be entertained. This is not a new discovery, and this is not a new concept. Funny or entertaining commercials are the best ones, people point them out to other people, they watch them on YouTube, and people are told to quiet down when they are on. This should be the goal of every commercial.

Obviously not all commercials are going to be funny and/or entertaining. If they were, then all stand-up comedians would be funny, and all sitcoms would be as good as Seinfeld. The problem is, though many people can collectively find something funny, it is much harder to produce the thing that everyone finds funny, because people tend to overestimate their own work, and be much more critical of others work.

My proposal is this: A show or network becomes extremely selective in the ads they select to air. They could even charge more for ads to appear during that show or on that network. Only those they deem worthy would appear, and therefore people would watch the show or network specifically for the commercials, just like the Superbowl. The best ones could notoriously be in the middle of the show to optimize viewers. All they would have to do is a press release to advertise, because new marketing techniques are reported on pretty heavily. This would utilize the newspapers, and news sits, and blogs, to do all the promotion they need.

There is no reason for commercials to be viewed in such a negative light. We know for a fact that people will want watch commercials if they are good, so we just need to provide a way for them to do that. I think a show would be better, because a network has a lot of commercials play every day, and I don’t think enough good commercials are made in a year that can fill a day’s quota. But a popular show could definitely do it, and it would surely increase ratings, and therefore more companies will start developing commercials specifically for that show’s audience. A marketing goldmine.

Merging Markets

The electronics industry all seems to be going in the same direction. It seems like its one big race to the same destination, everyone is invited, and on the way they everyone  is trying to absorb everyone else.  Cell phones are turning into cameras, computers are turning into phones and visa versa. The Internet is becoming a TV, just with less commercials, and a million times the content as On Demand provides. Pretty soon we will own on electronics thing, that will encompass all of our electronic needs. And It will be awesome, and I can only assume it will be made by apple (as long as Steve Jobs stays with the company long enough).

The key aspect of all of this is of course the internet. This medium has completely changed the face of the business world, and it is not going anywhere. The information superhighway can be a blessing or a curse for any company, depending on how they choose, or choose not, to embrace it.

People use the internet for everything now, so unless you have a small group of clients that are eternally loyal and you have no ambition for expansion, you want to make sure you are a part of it. This doesn’t mean just making a website, even if its a really good one with many pages and great coding. It also goes beyond blogging and social networking. The important thing to realize is every single market at this point and time is unstable. As one industry crashes, they are bringing others down with them. Right now, everyone should do what they can to be like Walmart, without the whole evil aspect to them. But everyone needs to start thinking about providing products with low cost to the consumer. When Americans don’t have money, they still buy stuff, just not when they have to pay a lot for it. Free is best, low cost is fine, but expensive is just not in right now.

The airline industry is a perfect example of incorect tactics to improve sales. Insted of trying to get their customers to like them as a company, they are adding in extra costs that are discouraging customers to fly with them. No one wants to pay for water on an airplane, and even if they do, they will hate you for it. This will lead them to try another airline, even if it happens there too. The point is, they will view that airline in a negitive light, and find an alternative. Even though air travel is down significantly from a decade ago, commercial aviation is still a competitive industry.  Therefore it is important to have your company stand out from the rest. I can see the commercial now:

Remember when flights over 3 hours had food? Remember when drinks were free, and movies were shown on flights that were domestic and not just continental? We do. At American Airlines, we have decided to go back to they way things were, because sometimes, its good to think retro. American Airlines- Won’t you join us?

It is great to have so many flights going to so many places. But customer loyalty has completely gone out of the business. People are thinking of it as a downswing in air traffic, but an upswing isn’t in sight. When a company is doing well it expands, it seems only logical that a company should cut down its size when its too big for its own shoes. However, this may not be possible for a company like AA to do, costs may be too large for it to simply close down some of its hot spots. However, it could be a good opportunity for a new company, but good luck finding a loan right now from a bank to start an airline.

The point is, when money gets tight, client loyalty takes priority. This is because if someone with little money is going to spend it, they are going to be careful who and what they spend it on. So, either provide cheap goods, or get the consumer to decide you are worth it. If you don’t have either of these bases covered, good luck, your going to need it.

Cold Calling- An SEO Reasercher’s Personal Hell

I am currently interning at Carroll Enterprises in Worcester, MA. I spend most of my time learning about SEO, and researching SEO for websites of companies owned by Carroll Enterprises. However, I spent today cold calling companies in the area about a seminar we have coming up. For anyone that has done this, you are aware of how uncomfortable an experience it is to call someone you are aware will 95% of the time have no interest in what you have to say. You also know that about 50 % of them actually have negative feelings towards you for calling them. You know this because when you are sitting down to dinner and the phone rings and its someone asking you to donate to their charity for the 3rd time this week, you are one of those people.

It is also one of the only types of phone calls you can make where the person you are calling for can be dead, and it doesn’t upset you in the least. In fact, it’s a good thing, because it means you don’t have to talk to the person. Leaving a message doesn’t bother me, it’s the actual talking to the people you are cold calling that irks me. They say “uh-huh” after everything you say, and if you’re lucky they wait till after your done talking to say they aren’t interested. I think I cold called about 50 people today. One of them was actually interest. He was actually the last person I called, and I almost hung up on him out of habit.

I took down his info and said id send him an e-mail with more information. I got the e-mail returned to me, and assumed I had gotten the address wrong. Turns out the e-mail address was fine, his e-mail box was full. I’m sorry, but this just strikes me as an unforgiveable mistake for any business owner. How can you let you business e-mail box fill up? This shows me that this people doesn’t take e-mails seriously, and may not even read them, and if I wanted to do business with him, I would have seriously reconsidered. But for now, I’m an intern, and he will be attending the seminar, because I faxed the documents to him, so my job here is done.

Music

I’ve decided to make this first entry short and sweet.

My Top 5 Bands: Radiohead, Tool, Pink Floyd, Explosions in the Sky, Porcupine Tree.

Best Live Show I’ve Ever Been to: Radiohead at Bonnaroo

Instrument that I Play:  Drums

Instrument I would rather play:  Guitar

Concert I wish i could see live but can’t:  Jimi Hendrix

Favorite Album No One Knows About: Music to Make Love to your Old Lady By- Lovage