Source: BusinessWeek via Reveries

Consumer generated content may be all the rage, but one company, electronics maker Bang & Olufsen, doesn't pay one bit of attention to consumers. Hey, they don't even listen to engineers. BusinessWeek says they're a "throwback to an earlier time when CEOs worked closely with gifted designers to differentiate their products in the marketplace." This "business-by-genius" method is scattershot and "fragile." Sometimes it works, other times? Not so much. If you have the (considerable) cash, their CD players are works of art. But B&O’s BeoSound 2, was meant to compete against the iPod. Priced at $460, it holds just 50 songs and has no screen. Ooops.

Source: AdAge

The band Radiohead has offered their new album "In Rainbows" exclusively online for an optional fee and they aren't the only ones experimenting with new business models. 5-year-old music magazine Paste has adopted a "pay-what-you-want model for its yearly subscriptions for the next two weeks, with minimum payments starting at $1." The usual price is $19.95 per year for 11 issues and 11 CD samplers. When asked why they're trying it, the company president replied that it's "a great way for us to know how much our product means to people." The music biz is at the tipping point. Rock on.

Source:
The voluntary payment cafe
Musicians revolt
Power to the musicians
Music stock exchange

Source: BBC

Fewer than four out of 100 Africans currently use the internet, and broadband penetration is below 1 percent, but by 2012 the goal is to drive dramatic change. The World Bank, the World Health Organization and United Nations, as well as companies like Intel and Microsoft are supporting an initiative called Connect Africa, aimed at getting one third of Africa's citizens on broadband. Africa now has the highest growth in mobile use globally - twice the global average over the past three years and for the first time, economic indicators for the continent are positive. Positive momentum is building.

Related:
African entrepreneurial hubs

Source: Washington Post

Goodwill has "launched a campaign to recast itself as a source of vintage and high-end fashion in an attempt to expand its customer base to young, professional women." The Washington DC chapter of the Goodwill is leading the effort. They've hired blogger Em Hall to blog great tips about stylish items found in the stores. They've even uploaded a video of Goodwill's annual fund-raiser fashion show to YouTube. While the "average shopper is a 35- to 49-year-old woman with a household income of less than $70,000," Goodwill is hoping to attract more affluent shoppers who are after vintage or designer items. Goodwill was founded to educate and employ people who are disadvantaged or have disabilities. Get your fashion and do good too.

Source: Marketing Daily

This morning we enjoyed our breakfast with the knowledge that the Red Sox are world champions. And for most of us, cold cereal was what we munched on as we read the headlines and watched the recaps. A new study shows that while the brands may differ over time, what your Grandmother served your Mom and Dad as kids is the same thing you eat now. Cold cereal has topped the list for breakfast, and it has for more than 20 years. The study may seem simple, but for food and beverage marketers it has strong implications. The patterns established in your childhood are the key to keeping you as a customer for life. As for the Sox? So good, so good.

Frustration and fatigue
Illustration: James F. Kraus

Teen-made ad
Macs on fire
Taco-ization
Broadcast your run
Tryvertising
CDs down, music up

Source: Mashable

This video clip created by 18 year-old Nick Haley from Warwick, England "will soon be the inspiration for a new television commercial that Apple will be using to promote its new iPod Touch." Apple is flying Haley out to Apple headquarters in Cupertino to produce the commercial that will be shown nationwide on television. TV spots are already planned for commercial breaks during NFL games and Desperate Housewives. Haley, who has never visited the U.S., has just broken into the ad business through YouTube.

Source: Mercury News

In January Apple dropped "Computer" from its name and something funny happened...the Mac became Apples hottest seller. iPod sales have slowed as the market for them has matured, but Apple's computer business is smoking. This past year "Apple's computer business grew 39.9 percent to $10 billion, marking a record sales year for the Mac - and a pace that was more than twice that of the overall PC market." I think it's that trance you enter into when you go into an Apple store. You can't help yourself. You think: I. Must. Have. This. Stuff.

Source: Blogspotting

The superbowl isn't the only major championship that has uber-commercialization. Last night Taco Bell awarded a free taco to everyone in the US when Jacoby Ellsbury stole a base. But it didn't stop there. Fox interviewed a Taco Bell exec in the stands. And the topper? When Royce Clayton "wearing a Fox mike, "happened" to go up to the guy who stole the base and tell him about the promotion, and what his stolen base meant." It was enough to make commentator Tim McCarver welcome everyone back to the game by saying, "From shilling to Schilling." The whole thing left BusinessWeek's Stephen Baker wondering if Clayton "is being paid by Fox to promote Taco Bell, and if the Red Sox and Major League Baseball are on board with that."

Thanks to Peter Kim for the link.

Source: Grant McCracken's blog

The genius of the sneaker-iPod product Nike+ is that you can share the data. Huh? OK, Nike+ tracks your run but it also makes solo exercise social. With Nike+ your iPod uploads your run/walk info to the Nike website where it is aggregated with everyone else's runs/walks. Then it's possible to see who else is exercising at your level. Grant McCracken says this creates a "public/private value" and wonders if it will lead to frequent flyer Nike+ miles or maybe Nike matching you mile for mile to benefit a cause. In his mind Nike doesn't just make sneakers, they changed the way he participates in exercise. "They have "found a way to amplify my accomplishments...and then broadcast them."

Related:
Can Nike do it?
Nike + iPod = lust

Source: Wired

Today I sent my son a birthday cake…on facebook. It cost me a buck. 20 million virtual gifts have been exchanged on facebook to date, "making them one of the site's most successful revenue streams." Susan Kare, the designer of the Mac interface, is the designer behind the virtual goods. She develops "a new design each day, often incorporating suggestions from users." Kind of ironic that most graphic-design software still uses uncredited icons Kare designed (spray can, lasso, hand) and now she "uses one of those programs, Adobe Illustrator, to create virtual tchotchkes for Facebook."

Source: Springwise

Food and beverage companies know that the best way to sell product is to give away samples, but it's prohibitively expensive to sample widely. Enter First Flavor, a company which "converts flavors into Peel 'n Taste strips that can be mass-distributed." Last month CBS placed a two-page ad in Rolling Stone for its new TV series "Cane" about a family run business. The highlight? A taste strip flavored like a rum mojito. The strips are safe and cost between 7 and 40 cents a piece. You can bet you'll see them in your junk mail and on product packs soon.

Source: Search Engine Land

A recent poll aimed at automobile shoppers that interact with search engines found that 7 out of 10 Americans experience what's called "search engine fatigue." 65.4 percent of Americans "say they’ve spent two or more hours in a single sitting searching for specific information on search engines," and 75.1 percent report leaving their computers without the information they seek. The biggest complaints? 25 percent blame the deluge of results, 24 percent blame commercial listings, and 18.8 percent blame the search engine for not understanding their keywords. Get this - 78 percent wished that Google could read their mind. Now, people, do we really want that?

Source: The Long Tail

With the rise of digital music and artists going independent you'd think the music business would be in rough shape. And it is, for those that aren't coping with the changeover. But Chris Anderson points out that "every single part of the music industry, except the sale of compact discs, is up." CDs are down by 18 percent, but concerts and merchandise are up by 4 percent, digital tracks are up 46 percent, ringtones were up by 86 percent last year (probably moving to single digit percent this year) and even vinyl singles (think DJs) are up. With music trending to free, Anderson predicts artists will give away their music "as marketing for their performances and licensing."

Source: Network World

In the spirit of the Halloween season Network World has created a slide show called The IT Graveyard. Namely, what's died this year. Some of the recently deceased items include: DRM (digital rights management), municipal wifi and Bill Gates for President. The nerdier among us will appreciate the full list.

- Thanks to Bob Brown

Source: Don Dodge's blog

When Don Dodge met Bob and Jonathan Kraft recently at DEMO 2007, he got an up-close view of the Kraft's storied family values approach to business.The Krafts were at DEMO in support of MatchMine a Needham-based media recommendation service, one of their investments. Dodge, a Director of Business Development for Microsoft's Emerging Business Group, was talking with MatchMine and was introduced to the Krafts. The topic of how tough it is to get tickets to a game came up. Little did Dodge know that the New England Patriots were in litigation against StubHub, cracking down on ticket scalpers. Kraft invited Dodge to a game. Soon after, Dodge was surprised and delighted when Kraft went out of his way to deliver tickets to a game. Business is all about relationships.

Smell like you're rich
Illustration: James F. Kraus

Key early hires
Deciphering acronyms
Armchair critics
Chunks of Jon Stewart
Free sells
Gobs of earth data

Source: Genuine VC

David Beisel notes that founders are one of the keys to success for startups, but don't overlook another key part of the team - the earliest hires. "Those first five to ten non-management hires in a startup help set the tone for how things get done and how people behave while they’re doing it. Being an early hire at a startup gives an individual the ability to make tremendous impact on an organization as it grows - and both the founders and those hires should know it." Very true. They can be both a force for good or bad. Hire well.

Source: Innovation Zen

Ever get the idea that people are speaking another language? They are. Acronyms. Business is full of them. Daniel Scocco weighs in with a crib sheet. Here's a sample: NDA (non-disclosure agreement), OEM (original equipment manufacturer), SOHO (small office/home office), FIFO (first in, first out), LIFO (last in, first out), ASP (application service provider). I suggested KPI (key performance indicator) - those numbers you have to track no matter what. Another good suggestion? The all-important CYA (cover your, er, butt).

Source: Between the Lines

Larry Dignan notes that "Google hired 2,130 people in the third quarter and now employs almost 16,000," which means that "41 percent of the company has been hired in the last 12 months." That's raising a lot of second-guessing in the industry. Is Google addicted to hiring? But Dignan notes that in the same period Yahoo! hired "1,200 people in the third quarter for a total of 13,600." But look, in the Q3 Google revenue was up 57 percent from last year. And it's "operating expenses in the third quarter fell to 30 percent of revenue from 31 percent." Dignan tells the HR armchair critics to chill. Google's oddness certainly has worked so far.

Source: Technology Review

How do they create Google Maps and Google Earth? Technology Review digs in to find out. A Colorado company called DigitalGlobe provides all the satellite photos which they take via a satellite in orbit that takes "snapshots" of strips of the earth. The snapshots are downloaded from the satellite ground stations in Norway or Alaska. From there they go to Colorado to have their photographic angles corrected and to recast them onto a 3-D digital elevation model. (Word of the day: This process is called orthorectification.) High-interest areas, like Boston and San Francisco, are also photographed by aircraft in more detail. All of this is stored in a massive "database arranged by latitude and longitude." Fascinating.

Source: The Social blog

Viacom seems to be getting with the new media distribution mode. Later today it appears that "13,000 video clips comprising the entirety of Comedy Central's fake news show The Daily Show With Jon Stewart will be hitting the program's official Web site." Comedy Central is apparently not launching the whole show, instead they're chopping it up into micro-chunks…all the better to insert more ads and monetize it. Comedy Central is owned by Viacom which "famously sued YouTube over copyright infringement on the video sharing site."

Source: PSFK

Accessible luxury is a trend we've been living for some time. Doubt it? Check out the Coach handbags most teens carry around. In a related development, perfume, which used to have entry level luxury pricing, has seen prices rocket over the past few years. But now Estee Lauder is taking it to a new level with their new Private Collection fragrance called Tuberose Gardenia which will retail only at Harrods, and cost "a whopping $400 for 30ml." Why do they think there is a market? The company responds, "The modern consumer wants something fast and easy and cheap, then she’s mixing that with something very high-end and luxurious." So, want to smell like money? Go to Harrods, but wear that $15.00 dress you got at Target.

Source: Compete blog

It's been nearly a month since the New York Times shut down TimesSelect, the subscription service for premium content on NYTimes.com. Take a look at what free can do. Popular columnists like "Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd [are]drawing thousands of curious readers and fans, the Opinion section has more than doubled unique visitors, while the overall NYTimes.com site has grown by roughly 10% in the same period."

Related:
The Freemium business model
Microchunk and monetize
Free is the new discount

Source: BuzzMachine

…or if they're smart, listen. Jeff Jarvis points us to Bob Garfield (Co-host of NPR's On the Media) who has started a blog called Comcast must die. His aim? To get Comcast customers to vent their issues and frustrations openly with the hope that Comcast will listen, clean up their act and create an oxymoron - a good cable company. In fact, Garfield invites people to include their customer number when they post. Jeff Jarvis posts his wishlist for a great cable company and two of them top my list as well: "Let me choose what channels I get," and "offer wi-fi all over my town and to come to roaming agreements that let me get wi-fi anywhere I travel."

Source: A VC

Fred Wilson and Jeff Pulver talk about the concept of a Social Media Living Room. For Fred's kids Facebook is their social media living room. The same is true for my teenager. But for us adults our social media living rooms are more complex. Fred says his contains his "blog and about a hundred others," Techmeme, Twitter, Hypemachine, last.fm, Flickr and delicious. Mine would include The Writer's Almanac and Slate. As Fred says,

"Stitching together our social media living rooms is not only necessary, it's fun. And when your social media living room is filled with your friends, it's almost as good as when they are in your real living room."

In fact, in my house we just moved a computer into our real living room. I don't think we'll ever not have one there any more.

Musicians revolt
Illustration: James F. Kraus

Vanity ZIP codes
Teleport update
Couch multitasking
Video v. search
Small is beautiful
Bottled water economics

Source: MIT Advertising Lab

And no, I'm not talking 90210 or 02138. I'm talking about the U.S. Postal Service doling out a vanity zip code to the flagship Saks Fifth Avenue in New York. And the zip is not for an area of Manhattan. It's for the 8th floor of Saks which is now dubbed "10022-SHOE." The idea is that the Saks uber-shoe boutique is so large and important it has its own zip code. "Saks is the first entity to receive such a customized code" and the USPS claims they are not planning on doing any more. Hmm. That seems unlikely.

Source: CNN

If you've flown a few too many red-eyes to San Francisco, London or Japan (or sat in traffic on 128), you've thought about it. When will the world's geniuses crack the concept of teleportation? Turns out that "over the last couple of years physicists have "achieved a rudimentary form of teleportation, albeit at the quantum level of atoms and photons rather than the macro level of objects and actual people." Hey, it's a start. But here's the rub. You wouldn't be transported. You'd basically fax a copy of yourself. That could be a bit problematic. I'll pass for now.

Source: Time

Bill Tancer calls it couch multitasking. Come on, we all do it. Well, at least I do. More and more we write emails, chat, facebook or Google while watching TV. In fact, a U.S. study reveals that about 37 percent of us over the age of 12 do it. So far TV has measured success based on passive viewership, but Tancer says that method is outdated. Just take a look at the action on the Deal or No Deal and Dancing with the Stars sites (the two most popular TV site destinations) to see what happens when you create active viewing opportunities - voting and entering to win gets us couch potatoes clicking.

Related:
TV-Computer, Computer-TV
45% of Europeans watch TV online
Watch Current TV
TV is so last generation
We want YouTube on TV
TV out, Web video in

Source: NewTeeVee

Over 16 billion online searches were performed in North America in August, 61 percent on sites like Google and Yahoo. Compare that to online video views - 9.1 billion in July, which is up from 7 billion in March. Video advertising startup BrightRoll trends that data and says that "U.S. video impressions will pass U.S. searches on core search engines in the next three months, and surpass total search in the next year." BrightRoll and others are trying to do what Google AdSense has done for search advertising - namely, Mint. Money.

Source: Hub Magazine

Bryan Gildenberg writes a great white paper about how British retailer Tesco's plans to capitalize on key trends in U.S. retail today. As consumers are fragmenting their shopping destinations to meet their diverse needs (Trader Joes, Whole Foods, BJs, CVS, stores that cater to local ethnic tastes etc.), mega grocery stores aren't always on the errand list. And consumers are looking for "natural foods, energy efficient processes and an environmental message." Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market takes a "small is beautiful" approach may have the secret ingredients for success. Tesco's U.S. stores will be rolling out this fall.

Source: Ars Technica

The list of bands is starting to add up - Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and, it's rumored, Jamiroquai and Oasis are next. What are they revolting against? Their traditional record labels and DRM. Instead, these bands are going it alone, without record companies - sending a collective chill down the necks of record industry execs. Yahoo is now joining Amazon in providing unencumbered MP3 sales - saying they "will refuse to sign any new distribution deals that make it hard for his users to get and use the content they want." Are we reaching the tipping point?

Source: Fast Company

The often lavish cafeterias at high tech companies are now beginning to launch meals more in keeping with the needs and tastes of their workforce. When Cisco noticed that 30 percent of their nearly 50,000 workers had health problems due to being overweight, eating unhealthy meals or leading sedentary lifestyles they launched a program called "HealthConnections that incorporates fitness centers, diet and exercise coaches, and meal-planning help." Cisco estimates the program will save the company $160 million in health care costs by 2010. Other companies are adding Asian and Indian foods to suit their diverse workforce or making their cafeterias waste-free and carbon neutral.

Source: Ad Age

The $16 billion bottled water industry is under siege. Why? This summer the media (myself included) grabbed hold of the idea that it makes no sense to pay Coke to put water in plastic bottles and ship them all over the world when we get water (nearly) free and clean from our own taps. The bottled industry feels unfairly targeted and complain that environmental concerns led to a 7% decline in plastic water bottle growth from last year. Meanwhile Nalgene, a reusable water bottle company, is readying a big marketing push. I'd say that's good market and green economics at work.

Related:
The new snob appeal of tap water
Pure water, toxic bottles?
The anti-plastic bag movement
Death to Stryofoam

Your company divorce rate
Illustration: James F. Kraus

Cars divorcing oil
Skype's bad marriage
Geeks exposed
Grade your site
Viral blockbuster
Are MBAs obsolete?

Source: BusinessWeek

Speaking of divorce, Vijay Vaitheeswaran's new book "Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future" says that cars and oil are "headed for a divorce." Cars need to abandon dirty fuels like gasoline - a disruptive innovation that, like the computing revolution, will likely cause a convergence of the energy and car industries. Look for "a smart, sophisticated, software-rich car of the future" to arrive soon and longer term, watch the line between car plants and power plants blur as these new cars plug into the wall to get electricity from the grid and also…feed it back.

Source: CBC News

A recent undercover investigation shows that when you hire a rent-a-geek, you might not get the expert you hope for. It's rather stunning to see how little basic knowledge some geeks have about the problems you're paying them to fix. They may misdiagnose your problem and while doing so, they may overcharge you or snag your personal data. Investigating national and local repair services including Best Buy's Geek Squad and Staples they found that only 3 out of the 10 geeks accurately assess a problem, and when they do, one of them is likely to gouge you on price for parts. Consumer beware.

Source: Guy Kawasaki's blog

Guy Kawasaki points us to Website Grader. Go there and type in your site's URL and it runs a test to gauge how effective it is in terms of search engine optimization (SEO). I ran a report for a few company websites and found it to be very informative. Find out things like your Google page rank and how your web page structure helps or hinders your search results. They also provide advice on things you might want to do and compare how you rate against competitors. Nice!

Source: Brazen Careerist

An MBA used to lead to "prestige and riches," but that seems to be changing. Penelope Trunk says that the quality of the degree is being compromised by lack of female applicants. Harvard Business School is so concerned that they've "changed the admission process to accommodate the biological clock" meaning that "students will have less work experience coming into the program." Additionally "hotshots don’t go to business school anymore" and many people get MBAs for the wrong reasons. "If you’re not a star performer before b-school, you probably won’t be one after you graduate."

Related:
Biz grads have no biz sense

Source: Ad Age

About a year ago Dove launched it's Real Beauty campaign with a provocative viral video. It has received "more than 12 million views on YouTube alone." Now Dove is furthering it's campaign with a new and equally stunning video. The call to action? "Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does." Now there's a message that's dying to get heard. The company has established the Dove Self-Esteem Fund aimed at reaching 5 million girls globally with programs by 2010 and they have totally reinvented their brand on the message of self esteem. Brilliant.

Source: A VC

Fred Wilson says that the failure of Skype comes down to one thing..."wrong guy married wrong gal." Saying that "Skype is a great business that is owned by the wrong company," Wilson says he never saw the synergy between eBay and Skype. "Imagine if Nokia had bought them or even Verizon or even Google." At $2bn to $3bn Wilson sees Skype as a bargain and says the right company should grab what could become the "ultimate phone company of the 21st century."

Source: FC Expert blogs

Did you know that the American divorce rate has been dropping for 25 years? "It's now one-third lower than it was in 1981." But to balance that out, the divorce rate in corporate America is on the rise. Loyalty has "become a quaint old notion," and our average time in a job has dropped by 6 percent in the past twenty years. Brand loyalty has also plummeted for items seen as commodities and even investors now hold public stock for only 1 year - down from 6 years not long ago. Chip Conley writes that "the workplace seems to have become a "rent-a-relationship" kind of world." True enough. And the currency of the individual has never been higher.

Concierge moves for Mom and Dad
Illustration: James F. Kraus

Smooch and snooze
LinkedIn photos
Web start-up games
Green teens
You are a story machine
LittleMissMatched