Category Archives: Mobile

by | February 10, 2013 · 10:31 am

New UI approach needed for cars

By Trevor Daughney

A new article by @deantak: Steve Jobs wanted to make a car to take on Detroit http://t.co/famA84m5 , reminds me of how out of date the information consoles are in cars. On a recent car search I encountered clunky dials and calculator-like button pads to control the screens. I almost felt peer pressure to wear acid-wash jeans to fit in with the 80s software interface.

A better option would be to leave the console to consumer electronics makers. The root of the problem is that cars are designed on 5 year cycles, where consumer electronics change in less than a year. Instead car companies should design dashboards to hold tablets, much like they design the roofs to interface with racks for bikes, skiis and the like. They could add software APIs for added integration.

One catch for car companies is that they will no longer be able to sell their console packages for $1000s. Still, it makes sense for them to seize this opportunity before new players (apple?) emerge to profit from their inefficiency. No matter who ends up selling the services, its not much of a leap to imagine downloading a Camry app to your connected iPad.

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Filed under Automotive, Change, Mobile

by | August 19, 2012 · 9:41 am

Creative marketing at the San Francisco Street Food Festival

By Trevor Daughney

How many times have you gone to an event and given the sponsors a cold shoulder? The San Francisco Street Food Festival brings local food vendors together every summer to celebrate food and the entrepreneurs behind their creations. It supports La Cocina, “a non-profit incubator kitchen that provides affordable commercial kitchen space and industry-specific technical assistance to low-income and immigrant entrepreneurs who are launching, growing and formalizing food businesses.” Several corporate sponsors got entrepreneurial and found novel ways to connect.

Samsung

Easily my favorite example, Samsung had a booth to promote its Galaxy mobile phone. How many of you iPhone users have actually tried using another vendor’s smart phone? Using ice cream to tempt the attendant foodies, Samsung got folks hands on by making them attend a quick demo and use the phone to select their flavor. (Mango was delicious)

At Samsung mobile, the “i” phone stands for ice cream

Zagat

Google’s Zagat team took their product to the streets, and set up a booth where festival goers could upload their reviews on the spot. It was a great way to build relationships with these self-declared food experts and “influence the influencers.”

A taste of Zagat’s booth

WholeFoods

Meanwhile, WholeFoods drove home its message that it is a part of local communities. They were off to a god start simply by being at the event, and then sponsoring the attendance of a handful of local entrepreneurs. WholeFoods then engaged their neighbors in a number of activities including taking their photos and having them pin the pics to their neighborhood on a large map of the city.

The 1000 faces of WholeFoods

p.s. The La Cocina folks did a great job putting on the event and fundraising.

La Cocina volunteers raising funds

However, they missed a great marketing opportunity to showcase their headquarters and reinforce their presence in the community, instead using it as a staging ground for festival trash collection.

La Cocina HQ

p.p.s: A quick shout out to the ladies of Peas of Mind. Great brand support using the classic car to get people’s attention and support their slogan “reinventing the classics.”

Peas of Mind “Reinventing the classics”

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Filed under Branding, Food, Marketing, Mobile, San Francisco, Social Media

by | June 19, 2012 · 9:41 pm

Embracing a harsh reality

By Trevor Daughney

Gord put me onto this hilarious marketing video (caution, contains foul language) for the Church Street Gym in New York. In it, trainer Eric Kelly dogs his pitiable clients to their face, “I bet someone gave you a wedgy on your way here.” He says what I’m sure every gym trainer in the world having a bad day dreams of saying to their clients. He lands verbal punches fast and furious: “you look like all the nerds just had a convention on your body.” As a marketing asset, it is even more contrarian when you find out his clients are wall street bankers, some of the world’s wealthiest and powerful people, a class of folks used to pampering and deference. Is this crazy or genius marketing?!

Some of my favorite recent marketing campaigns prove that this strategy of embracing a harsh reality can be a real winner.  Take Chrysler. Detroit rose and fell with the US car industry. And for the past several decades as US-based car makers have lost market share, Detroit has seen over a 1 million denizens pick up and leave. It became the butt end of jokes, and synonymous with decay. Chrysler, however, embraced its rugged image and quickly differentiated its brand in a cluttered market. As Eminem says in this commercial, “this is the motor city, and this is what we do.” With over 15 million views for this video to date, the numbers attest to the campaign’s success.

Likewise, Domino created the turnaround campaign to respond to negative feedback about the taste of its product. Rather than hide from the problem, their marketing campaign addresses the issue head on. Along the way the campaign makes taste a buying criteria in the value segment of the market where price is king.

So yeah, maybe Church Street gym is onto something. Their wall street banker clients are looking for something rugged and authentic. They go to the gym looking to take a few hits; in and out of the ring. The typical gym pampering is exactly what they are seeking to avoid.

Done well this type of marketing strategy can intentionally create a chasm between a company’s out of touch past and a promising future. Who else needs a shake up?

Things are not going well for RIM’s Blackberry brand. They are losing the battle for consumer dollars. Its time to step away from trying to be everything to everyone and get back to their roots as an enterprise solution.  Today’s CIOs need technology that allows them to take control of all the data on their employees’ mobile devices. I see a security hardened mobile solution and a new campaign: “We’re all business.”

Who do you see running a campaign embracing a harsh reality? Yahoo! anyone?

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Filed under Advertising, Automotive, Branding, Change, Food, Funny, Marketing, Mobile, Sports

by | May 30, 2012 · 9:24 am

The penny is dead, long live the penny: mobile money is here

By Trevor Daughney

Canada is doing away with the penny, stamping its last one-cent coin in May. It costs considerably more to make than it’s worth. If you are like me, its demise fits with your plans. When I can, I use plastic instead of cash. Increasingly, I use my phone instead of plastic.

For example, I recently made a last minute stop into Le Beau, my San Francisco corner store, and used LevelUp to buy grapefruit juice and lunch supplies. A wallet is one less thing to carry.

A digital wallet also has conveniences that money can’t buy.  I used PayByPhone the other day to pay my parking meter. The mobile app notified me that the meter was running out and allowed me to top it up without stepping away from brunch and my flight of maple-glazed bacon. The city of Vancouver has a similar phone-based system, though you are required to call a number.

Dialing for dollars to park in Vancouver.

Mobile payments also make it convenient (and affordable for the government) to continue breaking down prices by the cent, nickel, dime or quarter. Long live the penny.

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Filed under Mobile, San Francisco, Vancouver

by | December 25, 2011 · 8:49 am

Your new business model may be waiting for you on main street

By Trevor Daughney

The mattress industry has a secret they aren’t hiding under the bed.

Manufacturers like Sealy, Serta and others provide retail chains with unique product lines. As a result, retailers like Sleep Train, Mattress Discounters, Mancini’s Sleepworld, and department stores can sidestep low price seeking consumers who want to compare prices for a specific model across sellers. This is standard practice in the mattress world. What is surprising to me is how uncommon this practice is in other segments of retail. That may be about to change.

Mobile phone apps like Amazon’s Price Check and eBay’s RedLaser applications now allow consumers to easily scan a barcode while shopping and compare prices with online vendors. The popularity of these apps – over 16 million people have downloaded RedLaser – and the resultant increase in pricing transparency may finally cause other segments of retail to start selling more exclusive products … and stop hiding under the covers.

There is a broader lesson here too. Big and small business owners alike can learn a lot from looking beyond their immediate competitors, and even their industry. Here are a few more examples.

For cart-based restaurants, no congestion ahead

I was eating my shrimp dumplings the other day and got to wondering why dim sum is the only cuisine where wait staff use carts to bring most of the food to your table. There are a few exceptions. Meat is brought to tables on skewers at Brazilian churrascarias, and restaurants occasionally have a special dish they make in front of their customers, like Caesar salads, crepes Suzette and bananas flambé. However, there is clearly room for further innovation. Converting a buffet to a cart-based dinner strikes me as particularly low hanging fruit.

Rug stores, on the other hand, are always having “going out of business” sales that last for years, and maybe indefinitely? Surely other segments of retail would benefit from instilling a sense of urgency in their customers.

To experience a successful example of innovation as a result of looking across main street jump on Twitter and find your nearest food truck. The business model of the lowly taco truck has inspired a rapidly growing industry. Food trucks now proffer all of the world’s cuisines, and many of them have gone up market engendering a much broader customer base.

Imitation is said to be the highest form of flattery, but it may also be lucrative.

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Filed under Change, Food, Marketing, Mobile, Social Media