Author Archives: markkolier

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About markkolier

Futurist, entrepreneur, left lane driver, baseball lover

Why not a free Amazon Kindle?

As a sometime frustrated original Kindle owner (mainly due to the fact that they have never reached out to me since I paid the $ 399 for the now dinosaur-like 1st edition) ,the news this week http://on.wsj.com/i9NHe2 that Amazon has … Continue reading

Posted in Customer Experiences, Marketing stuff | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

How Citi Field’s Acela Club turned around a potentially terrible customer experience

Friday afternoon was opening day at CitiField for my beloved New York Mets or as Steve Somers of WFAN coined it – the Wilponzi’s. Ouch. It was a cold and dreary day like many days in early April at baseball … Continue reading

Posted in Best business practices, Customer Experiences | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Food coloring as marketing – would you eat a gray pickle?

</a First it was an article in the March 30th New York Times http://nyti.ms/e2p6Ry indicating that the F.D.A. Panel is going to consider warnings for artificial food colorings. There is some evidence that food coloring is linked to Attention Deficit … Continue reading

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Brand Advertising scores with Bud Light’s campaign ‘Here We Go’

One thing advertising and marketing folk seem to like to do is tear down other people’s work. At times I am no different. Often I find myself watching a television spot or see a print ad and think to myself … Continue reading

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Social Security – are you counting on it?

An article in this morning’s Wall Street Journal highlighted http://on.wsj.com/hW9aGd something I (and many people like me) have been thinking for a long time. Although we’ve been paying into the Social Security program for more than 30 years (hey we … Continue reading

Posted in Living in the World Today | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Trending on Twitter – do you ever actually look at the list?

When I view the home page on Twitter I always take a peek at what topics are ‘trending’. It’s often the quickest way to find out what people are talking about. Of course what people talk about can be amazingly … Continue reading

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Amazon’s music locker – a good idea that that record labels and publishers want to mess up

Yesterday Amazon.com introduced the concept of a ‘Music Locker’. As a longtime advocate of Amazon I have been following the development of this release and was excited about its practical nature and customer-centric approach. Amazon is trying (unlike its rivals) … Continue reading

Posted in Entertainment, Marketing stuff, Technology | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Will today’s teenagers be the last generation to type on a keyboard?

This thought has been popping up in my mind consistently over the past few years. With voice recognition technology continually improving (I admit it still has a way to go), the need to actually keystroke in words is possibly becoming … Continue reading

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College Textbooks getting it on with Inkling

A business associate of mine recently moved to an interesting new startup in Silicon Valley called Inkling. The more I learn about this iPad application the more I like it – and like Adam Lashinsky’s fine March 23rd article in … Continue reading

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At least digital tablets stop the magazine insert cards from falling out

Now that Motorola has its Xoom on the market, and RIM is ready to take orders for its new PlayBook tablet in April, Apple’s iPad will have to stand up to some competition after having the market all to itself … Continue reading

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