I gave a keynote presentation at the Rochester Professional Consultant’s Network last week. For those looking for my Powerpoint, you can find it here: DOWNLOAD PPT 2mbonline casino. (Please note that some may find the opening slides a bit risque.)
Notwithstanding the gimmicky and highly irritating slide-intro, here’s a video showing off Firefox Ubiquity — an interesting concept which continues to blur the lines between user needs and user actions. These types of services help users share online experiences — and that sort of shared participation is a key to branding today.
Take a look. This is edgy and futuristic, but it’s a great thought-starter: Ubiquity for Firefox on Vimeo
In a moment of convenience induced shame, I drove through Tim Horton’s this morning instead of drinking my own. Truth is, I wanted a bagel with Peanut Butter. Motoring away, I opened my bagel to find it un-peanut-buttered. Instead, there was a little tub of peanut butter in the bag. I drove back through and asked for a bit more attention. I was told that the “can’t spread peanut butter because of allergy concerns.”
So we’ve finally reached the level of restaurants being afraid to make peanut butter sandwiches.
While this is a good lesson in how our lawsuit-a-feared culture has gone overboard, it’s also a convenient lesson in how to match user behavior with product delivery. I don’t know about you, but I’m no good at spreading peanut butter while driving, so why would I want it from a drivethrough?
Understanding common customer behaviors and expectations are key. I would not commonly spread peanut butter while driving, and I expect a restaurant to be able to spread peanut butter for me! (I know, I’m demanding, ain’t I)
Which brings us to a nice little post over at Functioning Form where they talk about a mismatch between common consumer behaviors and site design. It details a poorly designed form on JetBlue.com which I have noticed often but never blogged about.
Enjoy.
I really enjoy analogies between online and offline shopping, since I think they simplify the (actually simple) role of technology in the process. It’s shopping!
I was, therefore, delighted by this excellent post from E-Consultancy, highlighting how merchandising and catalog-assortment decisions typically made by a grocer can have a thoughtful influence on even the least-grocer-like online retailer.
What in-store retailing can teach us about how to sell better online.
We were talked through this supermarket’s key categories: “Destination”, “Traffic”, “Routine Volume”, “Routine Assortment”, “Impulse”.
Have you ever really thought about the real value in selling milk if you’re a supermarket? Is this a destination, traffic or routine volume category? How many categories, or sub-categories do you need for wine to provide the optimal customer decision tree?
For every category there is a very clearly defined purpose and role, very clear guidelines for store managers on the in-store promotional strategy, tactics, placement and pricing for each category.
And this is all before even thinking about shelf and space planning etc.
IA TV: Google Video - The Future of Search?
This VERY interesting video was posted to the IA TV Blog and it shows some truly impactful new features in Google, but I have yet to see these features from Google in the wild. Has anyone else? Check it out: Google Video - The Future of Search?