Category Archives: Creative Destruction
Content marketing: Embrace the chaos
John Bethune recently interviewed Paul Conley for his B2B Memes blog, in which Conley laments the way in which content marketing has devolved into self-serving marcomm crap from brands, and much the same from publishers.
This mess is to be expected, because there are a lot of people who have devoted their professional lives to the ideas of traditional advertising and marcomm. Content marketing proceeds from the assumption that useful, engaging content will fill your sales pipeline more reliably than ads, and generate far more repeat sales in the bargain.
So while CMOs may want to do more content marketing, the marcomm folks tasked with execution are simply not equipped for the job. They then hire out of work journalists or a marketing services agency to create authentic content, but can’t resist the marcomm urge to control the message. Yes, copy and journalism can both generate business, but they are not the same thing.
Here are 3 possible paths to success for marketers who are serious about leveraging content marketing: Read the rest of this entry
Will mobile commerce steal Black Friday?
Online retailers like Amazon and Gilt Groupe are set to sneak behind enemy lines en masse on Black Friday this year, and there is little brick & mortar retailers can do to defend themselves. Bored shoppers waiting in long lines for a chance to pay will naturally pass the time by playing with their smartphones. Online only retailers are looking to exploit that opportunity, offering the same products for less in mobile-only deals targeted to the times people are expected to be in those long lines. Result? Frustrated shoppers put their purchases back on the shelf, having ordered the same thing for less on their smartphones.
While this may not have a huge impact on share this shopping season, it does begin training consumers that maybe camping out for 2 nights in the Best Buy parking lot is a stupid idea. That will not be good for traditional retailers who count on the amped-up bargain hunting frenzy they’ve managed to create over the years.
If traditional retailers want to survive long-term against companies like Amazon, they’d better crack the code on an in-person shopping experience that trumps the convenience and low prices of online retailers. If Nordstrom can’t do it, I don’t hold out a lot of hope for Best Buy. As for me, I think I’ll bargain hunt from bed next Friday morning. My iPhone is always close by.
No, iPads are not displacing motorcycles
The noted American poet Frederick Seidel published an opinion piece in the NY Times today that asks “Is The Era of The Motorcycle Over?” He bemoans the fact that few young men now lust after delicious, dangerous sportbikes like his beloved Ducati.
I was prepared to dismiss this along with nearly everything that’s written about cars and motorcycles in the Times. Manhattanites writing for the Times are not credible mouthpieces for modern moto-culture. They ride subways. Seidel is different though. He is a 70-something poet who actually owns and rides hardcore modern Ducati superbikes. So I read carefully and with an open mind. I sought out some of his poetry, and an excellent interview with him, and came away with respect for the man.
Nevertheless, he’s wrong. Read the rest of this entry
Gatekeepers: Your days are numbered
Amazon, for all that it seems to be riddled with inefficiencies and discontented employees from the inside, is turning industries upside down. Book publishers are terrified of the online retailer, and with good reason. Amazon already makes it easy for authors to self-publish Kindle editions of their books and sell them through Amazon, while earning a bigger share of any revenue generated. Now Amazon is acting like a traditional publisher, giving advances and handling editing, production and marketing for authors. Read the rest of this entry
Don’t build 50 products, build one platform
eBay's Xcommerce platform
If you haven’t read Steve Yegge’s eye-opening rant about the power of platforms vs. products, you should. He rambles and gets a bit technical (he is a Google engineer after all) but he brilliantly explains the value of building platforms that can be extended by others vs. building stand-alone products. This matters to much smaller companies as well, even publishers. Taking a platform approach to infrastructure you already need (like a customized web CMS) will at minimum save money, and could turn into a business in its own right for you. Read the rest of this entry
Amazon’s brilliant power play: Kindle Fire
The new Kindle Fire, with the Silk browser.
Jeff Bezos, quoted in the NY Times, said about Amazon’s new tablet “Part of the Kindle Fire is of course the hardware, but really, it’s the software, the content, it’s the seamless integration of those things.”
Well, actually, it’s about Amazon’s new lightweight Silk browser, which is about to give them amazingly complete, detailed information about users. Privacy concerns? You betcha. Actionable consumer insights? Billions of dollars worth if this takes off the way other Kindle products have. Read the rest of this entry
Apple ends the UDID free ride
Apple has caused mobile ad and game networks some heartburn with the phasing out of something called “Universal Device Identifier” (UDID) in iOS5.
The public reason for Apple’s planned shift is privacy. UDID allows tracking of an individual iOS user across several applications, This allows anyone who plugs into UDID to quickly assemble a detailed behavioral profile for each user. Applications for the web that offer similar levels of consumer profiling are generally called spyware. Read the rest of this entry
Five keys to uncovering a profitable data business
Many B2B publishers are sitting on a gold mine of rich data disguised as dusty old directories, sold to libraries and a dwindling population of industry customers who order more out of habit than need. Even when those directories are turned into an online application, they rarely deliver on their potential to be significant revenue drivers. Directories often get moved online in ways that make them hardly more useful than the printed product, with clunky interfaces that discourage users from digging into the information. That’s a shame, because even a moderately successful data product generates 50% margins.
I can’t tell you what your publication’s gold mine will look like, but I can help you find it. Here are five basic rules about turning a sleepy directory business into a serious data products business.
Read the rest of this entry
Getting value from a college education
What is the value of a university education in a world where we have free and comprehensive access to more knowledge than anyone could consume in a lifetime? Is it still worth it to go to college with no particular plan other than a general interest in a particular field of study? I’d say no.
