If you have a vendetta, think twice before posting on a social network

Posted on January 25, 2012 by markkolier

The old saying that ‘information is power’ is true, except when it’s the wrong information. Among other things social networking allows communication to large numbers of people by one single individual. A very cool feature indeed but with that comes a responsibility (at least as far as I am concerned) that the personal information posted about other people is correct.

Last week I received a message from a friend noting that there was some less than flattering buzz going around on Facebook regarding something my wife was being accused of doing (she didn’t). Apparently someone we do not know had been ‘wronged’ and tracked the wrongdoer to a physical address – in fact the address where we used to live, having moved out three months ago. The affronted party got the home address from the police and checked it in a reverse lookup. Of course we were still listed as living at our old address as records are not always updated promptly – no surprise there. It went downhill from
there.

Thinking that the offending party had been found out this person went on a social network and began to post a vitriolic rant on how my wife was a terrible and horrible person and that the police were involved. Naturally my wonderful wife was shocked and had no idea what was going on – at least not at first. By piecing things together she was finally able to figure out what took place.

My wife tracked down and contacted the person who had been posting the incorrect information. She received a lukewarm apology but without any or at least enough contrition.
You’d think that a person would be horrified at erroneously accusing an innocent person of wrongdoing in a public forum like a social network. But the idea of going public in the first place to embarrass someone due to a personal grudge is unfortunately not all that uncommon these days.

What I am suggesting is that if you are going to go the route of publicly calling out someone for wrongdoing in a social network or other public forum – AT LEAST GET IT RIGHT! But in my opinion better if you don’t do it at all and approach the person one to one first. If then you are not satisfied and want to go public – do it at your own risk.

Posted in Living in the World Today, Personal Privacy, Social Media | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

People have no time to be idle

Posted on January 23, 2012 by markkolier

I saw it again last Saturday night. At the restaurant where my wife and I were sharing a nice dinner on a snowy Saturday night there was a couple at the next table who spent a good part of the time reading/typing on their mobile devices. They were not talking, nor glancing at one another. The really sad thing (at least as far as I am concerned) is that is not all that unusual.

Now this is going to make me sound old – maybe older than I am, but I remember when there were no mobile devices and you actually had to have a conversation with the person with whom you were sharing a meal. You couldn’t fake a call from someone in order to get out of a bad ‘blind’ date or any kind of date for that matter which just made it much more challenging BTW.

Look around any restaurant for someone sitting by themselves. Perhaps they are waiting for someone(s). Maybe they are eating alone. But how often do you see a single person just sitting there looking out and around, not on their mobile device? Of course many people read a book or magazine (electronic or not) when dining alone but I recall from black and white movies a time where someone would sit in a restaurant and not read anything and simply just sit there and wait, and think. Could you imagine?

How often during your waking hours do you not engage in some sort of stimulus? That is, how often do you just sit, stand, or run, and think without any other stimulus (think iPod)? I think for many people this is happening to an increasing degree (in the U.S. at least) and is inexorably changing not only the way people interact but even more significantly people’s ability to spend idle time simply thinking about whatever crosses one’s mind. It’s even more prevalent for people under 30 who appear to me to never stop interacting with technology when not in the presence of others. Is there any time that they just sit and do nothing but think or day dream?

It goes way beyond the seeming inability of people to spend any idle time. Answering an email or phone call when in the presence of others when 99% of those contacts are not emergencies is not multi-tasking in my opinion. How can you make the person you are with feel that you care about them or what they are saying when you stop to answer a phone call, text or email? But somehow that’s become the norm rather than the exception. People not only have difficulty being idle, they feel the need to manage two interactions simultaneously.

How about you? Do you spend quiet time just thinking? No music or electronics of any kind. Quiet. Can you? Will you?

Posted in Communication, Customer Experiences, Living in the World Today, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

My recent Amtrak ‘experience’

Posted on January 20, 2012 by markkolier

I am far from unique in looking at train travel as an option to air, bus, and car travel. Having ridden trains in a number of countries (most recently in China) I am favorably inclined to ride a train since I can get work done, it is less stressful, often less expensive, AND greener.

Yesterday I attended a meeting in Washington D.C. and decided to take the Amtrak Northeast Regional – it was $ 98.00 round trip. Taking Acela would have saved me less than one hour and was substantially more expensive. Driving made no sense and flying would have not saved much time at all if any. Amtrak offers ‘free’ Wi-Fi and some limited food service on board. Since I spend a great deal of time working on my computer and talking on the phone it ended up being a sort of mobile office. They also have a frequent traveler program with rewards – and yes I enrolled just to see how they might market to me and they have been doing an ok job of sending emails – not too many thank goodness.

The first thing that was good was that the train did not derail. I am not certain as to what percentage of Amtrak trains derail but it seems that it happens with some frequency.

Overall my impressions are that it was better than flying and car or bus travel. Perhaps it took a bit longer than flying, (3:20 from Penn Station to Union Station) but the low stress and ability to be productive was a plus but I was not nearly as productive as I could have been. Why? The main reason is because the free Wi-Fi service is spotty at best. There was not any option to upgrade to better service. I kept in mind that when I rode the regional train in China this past November the condition of the trains were similar (the Chinese trains were newer but get more use so appeared somewhat worn just like Amtrak) and there was no Wi-Fi service available. In fact aside from that my experience in riding the train from Guangzhou (formerly known by Westerners as Canton) to Hong Kong was remarkably similar – except for the price which was less about half in China and I made no advance reservation. That should come as no surprise to anyone.

The Chinese rail does move faster although there are a similar amount of stops. That is primarily due to the fact that the rail lines have been laid more recently and do not limit speeds for fear of derailment on the ancient tracks as is the case in the Northeastern U.S.

I had made a reservation to return to New York City at 7:10PM but arrived early at the Union Station at 5:45 and noticed there was a 6:05PM Northeast regional train. I inquired as to if I could get on that train and was told yes, but it would cost an additional $113.00! More than what I paid for the round trip in the first place. I will go out on a limb and surmise the reason was not that the train was overbooked. Managing to suppress my outrage I simply said no thanks and went and had a nice dinner and a beverage and took the 7:10. But really – how insane is that? I was not going to travel any less time on the train (the same 3:20) and there was room for me to sit without question. Just to be clear had I originally booked the earlier train the roundtrip price would have been … $98.00.

Amtrak is a viable alternative and I will ride it again but it still has a long way to go. From a marketing perspective Amtrak does not do much advertising but the messaging they do is ok. However to have a customer experience what I did in terms of attempted fleecing to move up my time by one hour undoes whatever good marketing Amtrak might put out. What happened to me should be easy to fix (but will they?) and the fact that they allow it to happen tells me there are many other problems that have to be repaired in order for Amtrak to continue to present itself as a truly worthwhile means of transportation.

Have you ridden Amtrak lately? Regional or Acela? I’d love to

Posted in Customer Experiences, Living in the World Today, Travel | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Aren’t you ready to leave Spaghetti city?

Posted on January 18, 2012 by markkolier

As Apple readies the release of its Apple TV, iTV is its likely name.

From what Steve Jobs reputedly averred on his deathbed, Apple has finally ‘solved it’ – it being the marriage of internet and television. It’s about time since we’ve all been waiting for such a product for a long, long time and when it finally does occur, perhaps the days of having a rat’s nest of cords all over the place will finally be ending.

More than twenty years ago a brilliant creative mind and very good friend of mine referred to the tangle of cords that sometimes looks like a rat’s nest as ‘Spaghetti City’. I admit that I’ve been living in Spaghetti City at home and in the office ever since.

Like so many people there are ties holding some of the cords together but there are always a few that are scattered about loosely and get caught on everything. Going behind the television and audio system is a scary prospect.

Leaving Spaghetti City goes way beyond cutting the cord. The ability to have your home (and office) technology devices communicate with one another without the tethering of a maze of power, Cat-5 and other various cords will have our children’s children snickering about the old days where people had wires and cables all over the place.

But leaving Spaghetti City has much greater implications than the elimination of cords. The world is heading for a level of technology interconnectivity that is the stuff of science fiction lore. And it appears that at the core of it all is the iPad itself and its ability to control a multitude of devices with a swipe of your finger. Other tablets are also going to be designed to offer wireless manipulation of any number of home appliances and devices but Apple (as usual) has a substantial lead.

As I noted it’s been far too long in development but finally I can see a day when we won’t have tape and color coded labels on cords going every which way. And that day cannot come soon enough.
How about you – have you a replica of Spaghetti City at home or in your office (or both)?

Posted in Living in the World Today | Leave a comment

Is your office open on Martin Luther King Jr. Day?

Posted on January 16, 2012 by markkolier

Until this year we’ve never been closed on MLK day. There are a number of reasons none of which are all that compelling. From years past we have traditionally offered ten official ‘company’ holidays. At the beginning of each year we determine which ones will be observed. New Year’s Day, President’s Day, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and the following Friday, and Christmas Day are somewhat fixed. That’s eight. Often we like to give Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. A number of years ago we offered Columbus Day (and he was not even an American) but have not in many years.

When I have worked on MLK day in recent years I have noticed an increasing amount of companies that are closed. Of course MLK day is a Federal Holiday, no banks, post offices and even the financial markets are closed. New York area commuter trains runs on a Saturday schedule.

So what took me so long? I really don’t have a good answer. I have great respect for the work done by Dr. King and his importance and significance in American history is in my view underappreciated. But from this point forward, as long as I am running a company MLK day will be an official company holiday.

Of course I write this from my desk at work on the morning of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. But that’s my choice to get a things accomplished on an unusually quiet Monday morning. I think it’s no problem to work on a holiday like MLK day – as long as the choice is yours. Please pardon that it took me an inordinately long time to figure that out.

Is your company open today and if not are you working anyway?

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How far the mighty have fallen – American Airlines is now an acquisition target

Posted on January 13, 2012 by markkolier

The last of the major airlines to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy, American Airlines is reportedly http://nyti.ms/yKLPAc on Delta Air Lines/TPG Capital’s radar for acquisition. In case you are not aware Delta Airlines is now the world’s largest airline. US Airways is also considering a bid. What I first thought was ‘how far the mighty have fallen’.

I was never a huge fan of American Airlines but that’s mainly because I had a few bad experiences a number of years ago that made my shy away from them whenever possible. Today that’s an impractical approach to air travel as trying to avoid an airline only serves to offer the customer fewer options and likely higher prices.

Flying commercial airlines in the U.S. today is akin to getting on a bus or train. Few airlines distinguish themselves and if you are flying economy they all appear to be the same to me. Remember Jet Blue and their original appeal? Leather seats, individual Direct TV in your seat and snacks that were a bit different than other airlines. Jet Blue also tried to be fun with glib flight attendants and pilots. Today Jet Blue (to me) is pretty much just another airline. The leather seats are nice but wearing a bit. The Direct TV thing is pretty good but I’ve been on flights where my individual screen did not work.

Is there any domestic airline that distinguishes itself? Virgin America has made a concerted effort although their fares are notably higher than the competition. Since the airlines have decided to make air travel akin to mass transit it’s a game where the lowest fare wins and damn everything else. In fact I don’t know about you but I’ve noticed that most (not all) flight attendants seem to just be going through the motions and look like they’d rather be someplace else. The airlines constant labor disputes and troubles have taken away flight attendant’s smiles.

There are a host of well-known and not so well-known aggregators and an article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal highlighted the craziness when it comes to fare shopping – http://on.wsj.com/xJ9qdQ. Also this week in a response to sites like Kayak, Priceline and Travelocity, the several airlines introduced a collective fare buying platform of their own that will launch later this year. This is in response to the airlines dissatisfaction with the aggregators taking too large a portion of the airfares for the airlines’ liking.

The race to offer the lowest price with the least amount of service appears sure to continue.
If you have a favorite airline is it only because of the ability to stockpile miles and rewards? Or do you really have a favorite airline because you perceive that airline to be better?

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Burger King is poised to fall to #3

Posted on January 11, 2012 by markkolier

With McDonald’s continuing to reign as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world when it comes to burgers/QSR’s, the contest between Burger King and Wendy’s for second place has suddenly become more interesting. Wendy’s is about to surpass Burger King as the #2 burger chain.

Wendy’s has had its own struggles since the passing of its founder Dave Thomas. Recent improvements in product quality, product presentation (i.e. paper wrapped hamburgers) and in-store offerings have all contributed to recent growth and as marketing professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management Tim Calkins notes it’s “a classic marketing story about brands that stumble and then get their footing back. This is about really understanding your brand, and being true to it.” http://bit.ly/Ar3mWW.

But I think it’s just as likely that the change in order is a situation created more by what Burger King is not doing as opposed to what Wendy’s is doing. After all – what is Burger King’s brand and how is BK being ‘true to it’? There has been much discussion on how Burger King’s desire to focus on young men has backfired and hurt its position. The bizarre ‘King’ campaign was just that – bizarre. The ‘Whopper Freakout’ ads were interesting and showed a little promise (at least I thought so) but they were abandoned as well.

Burger King seems to have forgotten its own USP (unique selling proposition) and POD (point of differentiation). Of the three, only Burger King broils its burgers. When’s the last time you heard anything about that? Of course BK’s problems are substantially more complicated than not having a USP or POD. Just walk into a Burger King restaurant and you will realize what I mean instantly. To me the few restaurants I’ve been in lately are dark, somewhat less than spotlessly clean and bereft of a variety of healthy choices as opposed to McDonald’s and Wendy’s.

As the Ad-Age article concluded ‘Indeed, Wendy’s has benefited from the woes at Burger King, much like Diet Coke benefited from Pepsi’s issues to become the No. 2 soda brand.

Burger King has struggled with management and ownership changes, and analysts have said the chain faltered by focusing too much of its marketing on young men, a demographic hit hard by the recession. Wendy’s seized the moment, made the right changes and zipped into the No. 2 spot.

However, Burger King is determined to rebound. Last year it hired Global CMO Flavia Faugeres (Wendy’s has been sans CMO since June), brought on McGarry-Bowen , and, “to appeal to a broader audience, traded in its King character in favor of food as the star of its advertising. A new brand campaign is also expected this year.’

McGarryBowen is a top notch shop but I think Burger King has quality perception problem that supersedes its identity problem. It won’t be an easy fix but Wendy’s has shown that good comeback stories still exist in the ultra-competitive QSR burger category.

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The debate on advertising-supported public schools is heating up

Posted on January 9, 2012 by markkolier

Let me start by acknowledging that we have a client who has signed up some prominent school districts around the United States who have agreed to allow outlets like in-school video screens with ads and scoreboard sponsorships (among others) to be displayed at their schools. More than 500,000 students already have been reached via these outlets and the number is growing rapidly.

There’s no mystery as to why a school district would sign up to participate in programs like these. With increased pressure on school budgets showing no sign of abating, new sources of revenue to fund a wide range of educational programs are essential.

Last week my local paper printed an article in which one town had agreed to allow the sponsorship of an outdoor scoreboard. That practice has been going on for quite some time. The superintendent of schools in a neighborhood town chimed in by noting that his board would not allow any advertising in the schools at all. When people think about advertising in public schools traditionalists gasp in mock horror thinking that before long the school will look like the outfield fence at a minor league baseball park. While that is unlikely to happen it does offer reason for debate and perhaps even concern. The idea of having advertising supported in-school TV monitors that would broadcast information on behalf of the school and district horrifies those same traditionalists to an even greater degree. I believe that the ends more than justify the means.

Many (most?) students in public schools today have mobile phones with an increasing number having smartphones. While school districts attempt to limit the usage of those devices while the students are in school, at the least students use the phones between classes, on breaks and during lunch hours. Since the phones often have full web access, there are shows broadcast with ads, ad supported websites and all kinds of ad supported content. How is having a monitor broadcasting information (and yes some ads) any different? It’s not as if the school is going to broadcast the latest episode of iCarly, Twilight or Jersey Shore.

Public school education in the U.S. is facing a host of challenges – underpaid teachers (and there are overpaid tenured ones in droves), increasing special education needs and requirements as well as decreasing local tax revenues. Finding new sources of revenue to help close the gaps and support good school programs has never been more important.

What do you think? Should there be ad supported content platforms within public schools?

Posted in Advertising, Marketing stuff | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Why didn’t I think of that?

Posted on January 6, 2012 by markkolier

Does that ever happen to you? It happens to me all the time. Yesterday I read about the idea of having a ‘Guest’ application on a mobile phone such that you could offer your phone to someone else to use (temporarily) and they would log in as a guest and make a call or do whatever they needed to on their own account and not be able to get into your account. I realize that it won’t be long before everyone has a smartphone but sometimes batteries die, phones get lost or don’t work so having this as an option in the form of an application is a great idea. It seems so obvious to me and caused me to wonder why I didn’t think of that?

Several years ago I wrote a post on how I thought there should be an iPhone EZ pass application – http://wp.me/pJX7l-9L – and BTW I didn’t and still don’t have an iPhone. I would now add that it should be a smartphone application for all platforms (Android, Blackberry if they last). Good idea but I’ve lately been trying to find a way to make it happen and have been stymied every step of the way when it comes to contacting people at EZ Pass – which has been nearly impossible. If it was easy it already would have been done right?

So my conclusion is that the answer to ‘why didn’t I think of that’ can sometimes be answered in realizing that the idea is only part of the process and successfully implementing an idea is most often more difficult than thinking it up in the first place.

If I have learned anything from creating http://www.yourcover.com is that good ideas don’t always translate into good businesses – at least not right away – and even if they do it will take time as it has with YourCover which I am happy to say is now a very successful business. And even if they do translate into good businesses the road to success is will be long and filled with potholes that we do our best to avoid. However I find myself on the side of the road from time to time fixing the damage done when the pothole cannot be avoided.

But I strongly encourage people to not answer the question ‘why hasn’t it been done already? Before they’ve tried actually doing it. Even if other people thought of it, putting an idea into action and making it happen requires more than ingenuity. The idea is only the beginning and the hard work then follows. What happens to me is that I think – someone has undoubtedly already thought of this and there’s a reason it has not been done. I realize that is a pretty poor excuse for not at least exploring an idea to a greater degree.

Some time ago I had an idea for a smartphone mirror application – something that would look like a compact-type mirror. Sure enough when I looked I found one on the Android system (but not for Blackberry as far as I have been able to determine) http://bit.ly/wrPbwp. The question I should ask myself (and you should think about asking yourself) is – ‘Why didn’t I think of making it happen?’

Posted in Best business practices, Innovation, Living in the World Today | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Verizon’s convenience fee back off – was it all part of their strategy?

Posted on January 4, 2012 by markkolier

Mobile communications companies share the collective animosity of their customers. It does not matter if you are an AT & T subscriber, T-Mobile, Verizon or any other provider. The customers that stay with you are choosing you for one of two reasons – 1) it’s the only option they have, 2) they have not found a better option.

For those people who are unaware, Verizon decided to cancel its policy http://bit.ly/uTG2Fw of charging a $2 “convenience fee” for bill payments made over the phone and online. The policy had been intended to go into effect as of January 15, 2012. Within 24 hours of announcing the new rule, Verizon did an about-face and completely squelched the idea.

It’s score one for the little guys right? Let’s face it – it’s altogether too rare for a company to actually listen to its customers (well the customers were yelling pretty loudly) and then act by rescinding a new rule based on the collective outcry of their customers. Of course critics note that Verizon’s 4G LTE network went down last week for the third time in a month which also served to infuriate its customers.

I am wondering about the meeting that occurred at Verizon where the concept of a $2 customer “convenience fee” was not only unveiled, but voted on positively by the powers that be. Perhaps there wasn’t a meeting or a vote after all? I mean, who could sit there and listen to this plan and not think that Verizon’s customers would do a total freak-out?

What if Verizon intended on floating this idea out there with the distinct knowledge that they would pull back once the customer outcry reached fever pitch (this took less than 24 hours BTW)? I know that’s cynical but it is possible right? And if that were to have been the case Verizon would have been able to close out 2011 on a somewhat positive note as a company that listened to its customers concerns (outrage?) and acted upon it.

The alternative is that the brass at Verizon is so clueless that they put out a rule change that stands out as being one of the dumbest business moves of 2011.

I don’t think Verizon reached a market cap of more than $113 billion because they do dumb things do you?

Posted in Best business practices, Communication, Mobile Communication | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments