Google recently released its social media platform, Goolge+ to a select number of people. I, unfortunately, was not one of them. So I’m posting a link to an article written by Canada’s own online guru, Amber MacArthur.
For the most part, Ms. MacArthur likes what she sees, both in terms of layout, current features and its future potential. See the article here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/digital-culture/trending-tech/google-hits-and-misses/article2089495/
Yesterday, the PlayBook went on sale to the general public.
Analysts set the expected sales figures low, but RIM managed to do a little better. An RBC Capital Markets analyst, Mike Abramsky, who keeps his ear close to RIM estimated 50,000 units sold on the first day. That number is comparatively low compared to the iPad and iPad 2 launch.
Why so low? Poor execution.
In terms of hardware, I’ve heard its top notch. In terms of software, it seems to be incomplete. BlackBerry Bridge, which is required to get e-mail on the PlayBook, has yet to be approved by AT&T. That doesn’s make sense since the target market of the PlayBook is business users who currently have BlackBerrys tethered to their side. As well, there are quote a few applications missing from the launch version of the tablet. It seems RIM was too rushed and was not able to release a finished version of the product. They promise to have an updated software released in the coming weeks. Too little too late?
But not only did it have poor production execution, it had poor launch execution. I didn’t hear much hype from friends about it. I didn’t see much hype online about it. The only hype I saw was because I’m subscribed to a few BlackBerry Twitter accounts who continuously filled my stream with “How to update XX on your PlayBook” and “Desktop Manager for BlackBerry PlayBook coming this summer”. Wow, people don’t own a PlayBook yet, so why tell us how to update it already? And why tell us we have to wait months before an integral part of the PlayBook experience is available.
What do you think they could have done better? More Facebook/Twitter hype? More print ads in newspapers, billboards, magazines?
I read a great article about “Five Signs You Need a Marketing Makeover”. Susan Gunelius at Entrepreneur has a few warning signs that it’s time to take your company’s approach in to the shop for a complete overhaul.
1. Nothing matches.
Strong brands consistently deliver on their promises to consumers in every brand interaction. Inconsistent messages and visual imagery can confuse consumers, forcing them to turn away from your brand in search of one that does continually meet their expectations. If your website, signage, ads and marketing materials look like they come from multiple companies, then you need to redesign them so you communicate a consistent brand at all times.
2. You don’t know what you want.
If you haven’t mapped out your one-year and five-year goals, then your marketing efforts might not be helping your business. Take some time to determine your business objectives and then revamp your brand and marketing efforts to help you reach those goals.
3. You don’t know who your consumers are or how to connect with them.
If you don’t know who you need to connect with and where to find them, then you could waste a lot of time building relationships with people and spending time in places that won’t drive the business results you need. Instead, define your target audience and determine what benefits and messages matter to them. Only then can you find where your target audience spends time (for example, watching television, listening to the radio, on social media, reading blogs, and so on), so you can connect with them and deliver the kind of valuable information and conversations they want and need.
Read the rest of the article: Five Signs You Need a Marketing Makeover
Below is a fake letter I would send to RIM on the news about their play in the tablet market. I feel they are not making a valid attempt at positioning their product in the market properly. Maybe its because their product is inferior to Apple’s.
RIM (Research in Motion), what are you thinking? Releasing the PlayBook, not only, very late in the timeline for tablet market innovators, but also with a price tag that’s no advantage against your competitor. You may argue, The iPad is in a different submarket – the consumer tablet market – but as you’ve seen in the past, the consumer smartphone marketing is larger and more vocal. Much more money to be made there. Will the PlayBook sell anywhere near as many as the iPad. No.
RIM, you’re gong after small fish. When will you try for the consumer market? You say the Torch is? Well, how are you doing there?
I realize I sound like an Apple fanboy, but I’m not. I’m a realist. I own a Blackberry, I’ve never owned an Apple device. I currently own a Nook Color which is an ereader device, but when “rooted” becomes a near-fully functional tablet (minus a camera, GPS, and mic).
For small businesses and SOHOs, its very important to think about Internet marketing. Even though it’s true that traditional marketing works for most businesses, those delve into online activities normally expertise a boom in their business dealings. Hundreds of billions of individuals are surfing the web every day, so if your company is visible on the internet, it can reach a wide range of clients across the globe. You ask, why would I want to reach someone across the globe? Well, its not necessarily those people you care about, its the local people, and they can be reached just as easily by targeting them.
The way you want to market your organization online are very different from traditional ways of advertising. But you can underestimate the Internet’s capability in offering your business with a bigger consumer base. It will also help you reach your target customers with a lot ease and less expense. You can also use a lot of tools and resources that are extremely powerful in helping you advertise your small business without sweating.
Here some guidelines that will make your online marketing a rewarding encounter:
As soon as you have a website, Search engine optimization must come next. You will need to make sure every single method involved in it is completed properly. Just before you determine to promote your organization or items on the internet, make certain you already have an optimized website. Search engine optimization (SEO) does play a massive role in online marketing. It entails different tactics that are to be carried out correctly. Among these are:
In doing online marketing, you will understand that in each step you take, you have to determine your target audience. Of course, you will pick those keywords or key phrases that are typically searched by your target audience. But you should never forget that all the strategies you are employing are search engine friendly.
As you attempt to reach your target audience, you must also seek to be indexed and get the highest position in the search engine results page. The top search engines are Google, Bing and Yahoo! in Canada and the USA.
Nowadays, online marketing for small business is mostly accomplished by way of social networking because of the ever growing popularity and traffic these websites receive. Aside from marketing through blogs and forums, social networking websites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, Yelp, and others are becoming extremely popular. Marketing and advertising on these websites are extremely efficient because millions of folks are visiting them each and every day so you are assured that your business will not be left unnoticed. By creating keyword-rich and quality content on your blog or website, you’ll be able to communicate well with your customers and get their trust.
I’m sure you know by now, the iPad 2 has been announced and will be released in early March (late March for us Canadians and other places around the world). But why are they launching this product so soon after the iPad’s first release? Especially with its short list of minuscule upgrades. Faster processor, thinner shape, and new OS is hardly a warranty to put out a new piece of hardware.
It’s all to do with squashing the competition. RIM’s PlayBook isnt said to ship until April, as well as HP’s TouchPad and anything in the form of a Windows tablets are not even close to being ready. Apple wants to dominate the market before anyone else has a chance to make a footprint. Quite honestly, its an excellent more on their part but at the cost of a lackluster product launch that underwhelmed the general population. I’m sure there’s some Apple fanboys out there who have bought the iPad 1 and are set to buy the iPad 2 the first days its available. From a marketing prospective, its great PR to have a new product. From a product marketing/management prospective, it seems like they’re prematurely releasing a product before its ready. It’s probably not the case and the plan all along was to release an upgrade that features the equivalent of adding icing sugar to the top of a brownie.
A new ruling came into play that allowed large Internet service providers such as Shaw Communications and Bell Canada to charge third-party providers of their service for bandwidth usage. It effectively kills “unlimited” plans and raises the price for anyone who uses more than “average”. But what else does it do? It could potentially kill the third-party providers because the ruling also states that the charge for the bandwidth allowed is 85% below selling price. That leaves 15% wiggle room for the third-party providers to opertate and make their profit. As well, it will hurt content providers such as NetFlix which recently entered the Canadian market. Watching high definition videos uses approx 1GB per hour, while the base bandwidth included for most new rate plans will be 25GB, thus making you limited to watching 25 hours per month, not including regular web surfing. Canadians are a top user of video online services, but after this, a lot of people will be watching their bandwidth limits (no pun intented).
As mentioned in the Report on Business article:
Large companies such as Bell, which argued for the right to levy an even more expensive charge to small providers, say their networks are expensive to maintain and that Internet service is a business with slow return on investment.
Liberal industry critic Marc Garneau, who said he will pressure Mr. Clement to throw the decision back to the regulator, said he doesn’t buy the large providers’ arguments about Internet network traffic and congestion.
Thankfully, the Canadian Government has decided to review the recent ruling. While normally they don’t speak out about CRTC rulings, this one has created a large backlash amongst the Canadian population and it was hard for them not to take notice.
While this isn’t an “Internet marketing” post, I feel this is an important topic for the entire Internet community in Canada.
While riding on the TTC subway the last few months, I’ve noticed the vast emptiness of advertising spaces which lead me to think they’re doing a bad job of signing up companies to post their ads.
Hey TTC, here’s something you can do to find out why companies aren’t buying your ad space. It’s called Win/Loss Analysis. Firstly, though, I’m making a big assumption that the TTC is – a) calling companies, or b) companies are calling you up to inquire about advertising. As long as there’s interest in it, you can perform Win/Loss Analysis.
What does this entail? It’s the act of finding out why companies are or are not buying ad space after their decision to do so or not. You need to ask questions. Was it too expensive/cheap? Is it not your target market? Were you not interested after the sales pitch, was there something wrong in the message? Was a competitor’s offering more compelling? What was it? You’re probably thinking, the sale is dead, why would I bother calling them back and asking them these questions? Yes, the sale might be dead (sometimes not), but you’d be surprised at how many are willing to take 10 minutes explaining why they didn’t choose you. And don’t forget about the first part of the title, “Win”. Yes, you should be calling them back after winning bids. Ask them the same questions but on the flip side.
For more information on this, see Pragmatic Marketing’s website.
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