Posts Tagged ‘apple’

The iPhone Impact

Friday, March 27th, 2009

david-head-shotthumbnailIn my last blog post, I cited a factoid regarding 17 million iPhones having been sold to date. In fact, Apple’s App Store is downloading and/or selling approximately 3 million applications every day. Of course, this is America, and where would be without over-reactive pendulum swings? Some are asking if the App Store paradigm is the wave of the future and if the mobile web is dead? The answer, of course, is a resounding NO.

The App Store is not the future- it’s the present, and only with respect to the iPhone. The appeal of the iPhone is the App Store. To Apple’s credit, they were really smart when the copied their iPod and iTunes template when they launched the iPhone. Further, they were downright brilliant when they made each and every hardware component on that phone i.e. the microphone, speaker, screen, camera and GPS chip available to the developer community via open APIs and a well thought iPhone software development kit. Layer on Apple’s typically brilliant marketing and voila: two years later we have 17 million phones, tens of thousands of apps and another Apple success story.

Ok, so now let’s put this in context. First, while 17 million iPhones have been sold worldwide, there are more than 2 billion non-iPhones out there. Second, let’s be real, the App Store is a walled garden and walls are always salacious targets in the same way that buttons compel pushing. Think AOL… So, as we all think about developing our mobile applications, know that it is imperative to develop a WAP application first and foremost. I would of course, encourage the development of an iPhone app too as iPhone users are rabid consumers of applications and the mobile web. Also, cell phone manufacturers, take note: Start defining standards across your line of handsets. Publish APIs and SDKs that allow developers to write apps and/or mobile web applications. And watch the mobile web tsunami explode!

David Gould is CEO of mShopper.

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Posted in Direct Response, ERA, Marketer, Mobile, Online, Research, Retailer, Support Services, Video, e-commerce, technology | 2 Comments »

You Found Your Niche; Now Find Your Nano-niche.

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

ramachandran-photo.jpg The world of affiliate marketing is immense. Those who are already in the affiliate marketing space know that breaking into this world can be a challenge, especially if you’re trying to promote a product or service that thousands of others are already promoting.

Many successful affiliates have found that if you really try to promote your “niche,” you will have greater success in driving sales. However, now that many current and prospective affiliate marketers know this trick of the trade if you will, it’s time to take it one step further.

What we are talking about comes from the idea of nano-niche marketing. Just like the Apple Nano is the smaller version of the iPod, a nano-niche is a smaller, more specific version of your niche.

Everyone has a niche, whether it is a hobby, or a sport, or simply some topic you know a lot about. For example, common hobbies include crafts, art or music. A nano-niche is breaking the hobby down one step further — a craft could be knitting hats, art could be painting landscapes, music could be the clarinet for beginners, etc.

The point is, the smaller you can focus your niche, the more focused you can make all of your affiliate marketing efforts (i.e. your blog, your video, etc). By honing in on a specific audience group, you can tailor your efforts and really engage with your audience. And the fact of the matter is, the more targeted your niche can be, the more likely it is that there will be an audience out there that has yet been reached.

Ultimately, successful affiliate marketing relies on driving sales through promotion. Therefore, if you are able to target and drive very specific traffic to your website, your conversion rates will be higher than just marketing to a huge general audience – driving your sales up immensely.

Although many people new to the affiliate marketing industry think to go big right off the bat, it is in fact more likely you will find success in the nano-niche, in the targeted and specific areas that others have yet to discover. So instead of going big, take that one extra step to go small – right to the audience that really wants and needs your product or service.

Dush Ramachandran is vice president of sales and business development at ClickBank.

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Posted in Advertising, Branding, Direct Response, Marketer, Online, Research, Retailer, Social Networks, Web Analytics | 11 Comments »

Does Anyone Doubt That Mobile Has Arrived?

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

david-head-shot.jpg First, I’m honored that ERA asked me to blog about the mobile commerce space in advance of the upcoming eRetailer Summit. I promise to keep my blogs short. I will do my best to keep them pithy and relevant.

I know we have all heard so much about the mobile channel over the last few years. There has been a lot of hype. There have been several false starts. But, I can tell you in all honesty that mobile is here, now. A lot of research will be published over the next months that detail how important multichannel marketing has become in terms of customer retention, conversion rates and ROI. Best-of-breed retailers all have multichannel strategies in place and are myopically focused on how to expand the scope and efficacy of that strategy. Mobile has become a critical component of such a strategy.

I thought I might offers some great statistics, each released over the last few weeks, that can help as you think about your mobile strategy and allocation of marketing budgets. In these extraordinary times, cost/benefit analyses are a must. Every dollar spent will be scrutinized for ROI and necessity. Still, there seems to be little doubt that mobile has arrived in a big way. Retailers who do not incorporate a mobile solution as part of their multichannel strategy do so at their own peril.

• 17 million iPhones have been sold to date

• 500+ million apps have been downloaded from Apple’s App Store, with more than 200 million downloaded since December

• Visa is launches mobile payment solution using Google’s Android technology

• Mobile devices are expected by many to be the dominant method of connecting to the Internet

• Approximately 2.5 TRILLION text messages were sent in 2008 and this number is expected to grow 30 percent in 2009 (even in a down market)

• More than 270 million estimated cell phone subscribers in the United States

• Mobile is a trillion dollar business! Some context here… automobiles are a half trillion business, IT is a half billion dollar business, TV and radio combined, half a billion, advertising, half a billion

I could go on for a long time like this, but I hope we all get the picture.

You can meet with David Gould of mShopper live at the eRetailer Summit’s Solution Zone on Sunday, March 1, from 12:00 p.m.—3:00 p.m. Register here!

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Posted in Advertising, Direct Response, ERA, Marketer, Mobile, Online, Research, Retailer, Support Services | 6 Comments »

I Need a Hip Replacement

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

rickblog.JPG As I prepare for this year’s ERA Annual Awards Show under the call to arms “Retailers Rock,” I’ve been on an iTunes download binge worthy of Barry, Jack Black’s dogmatic record clerk character in the movie “High Fidelity.” A few classic gems from the Stones and The Who, a nice sprinkling of three-chord bliss from the likes of X and the Ramones, even a download of The Tubes’ first gem, which provided the soundtrack for my first job as a pump jockey at 16. Maybe this latter disc was prescient for what I would go on to do for a living for it contained the Zappa-esque, “What Do You Want From Life?” Sample lyrics:

“What do you want from life?
To get cable TV and watch it every night…
Well, you can’t have that, but if you’re an American citizen you are entitled to:
A heated kidney shaped pool,
A microwave oven—don’t watch the food cook,
A Dyna-Gym—I’ll personally demonstrate it in the privacy of your own home,
A king-size titanic unsinkable Molly Brown waterbed with polybendum,
A foolproof plan and an airtight alibi,
Real simulated Indian jewelry,
A Gucci shoetree,
A year’s supply of antibiotics…”

You get the idea. Yes, this was the ’70s and drugs were prevalent in the workplace. But it also points out how personal each person’s quest for nostalgia is and why, despite the best efforts to tap into a collective consciousness for the good ‘old days, advertisers so frequently fail in their attempts to reference music in television advertising.

Personally, I don’t care if I ever hear another cut from Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumors” in this lifetime. That “Now dare you go again, you say you want your freedom” thing has been warbling on the radio ad naseum since both Steve Nicks and I actually had abdominal muscles. Nor is Led Zeppelin going to make me ever buy a Cadillac. And please spare me the Ameriprise and Cialis ads with well-heeled, frisky Centrum Silver Surfer-types frolicking on the beach (Psst: they’re havin’ sex tonight!) I’m an American. I want something new. And shiny.

Nobody serves this up better than Apple that consistently introduces new candied-like objects of desire accompanied by fresh cuts that springboard out of their commercials to become the soundtrack of our lives—today. Whether it’s introducing U2’s “Vertigo” or breaking Yael Naim’s “New Soul, “ they’ve got it down. Heck, my mother—who is in her 70s—bought the new Coldplay as a result of their most recent ad.

I imagine the younger generation—the one I’m a guest speaker to annually who have informed me that the Geico caveman spots are the apex of good advertising—would site U2 and Coldplay as contemptible examples of sellout bands. Meanwhile, my son listens to Tom Petty, while I favor Snow Patrol. Bottom line: With easy access to an infinite catalogue, tidy generational generalities don’t work anymore. I lived through the Gerald Ford Presidency, disco and “Family Feud” once and it was enough, thank you. So, even though the juice in my gin may be of the joint variety, I need it to move to Amy Winehouse, not April Wine. Hit me.

Rick Petry is ERA’s interim-CEO

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Posted in Advertising, Branding, Direct Response, ERA, Just for fun..., Marketer, Retailer | 4 Comments »