Archive for Trends
Survey says most of us will shop online holiday deals
Thinking of skipping the mile-long lines this shopping season? You can get just as many deals online, without ever leaving your couch. Last year’s Black Friday saw shopping increase by 35% over the year before. And the following Monday, dubbed “Cyber Monday,” saw nearly $900 million internet sales.
Consulting firm Deloitte says a whopping 70 percent of us will shop online this holiday season, and 20 percent of us will use our mobile phones to buy. 12% said they would use social media sites such as Facebook to aid them in their purchasing decisions.
If you use geologation apps like Gowalla or Foursquare you’ll notice retailers vying for your dollars. Elsewhere online Facebook is hoping retailers buy ads on its 500 million member site. Starbucks, McDonalds, Starbucks, Gap and others are creating ads, and Gap has already given away 10,000 pair of jeans in stores across the nation thanks to Facebook.
Here’s what top retailers are doing this Black Friday to woo shoppers:
- Lowes is hosting a “Lowe’s Black Friday Sneak Peek Party on Facebook,” where fans get access to tremendous deals like 90% off products on their website.
- JC Penney is offering a shopping spree contest, plus launching an Angel Tree giving campaign through Salvation Army to help seniors in need.
- Kmart is promoting a Christmas trip sweepstakes in Twitter and Facebook.
- Social sites like LivingSocial and Groupon are offering visitors holiday shopping coupons.
Geofencing takes a stab at location-based apps
Imagine walking or driving through your local neighborhood and getting an instant message that alerts you to a home for sale that matches your needs, or a message that tells you your favorite hot wings are the deal of the day at a restaurant right around the corner. We are getting closer and closer to that kind of technology. Last week a new location platform was introduced that could be a stepping stone in that direction. Sparkle from Location Labs helps developers create better location-based applications, and will ultimately help businesses serve the wants and needs of consumers.
Using “geofencing,” Sparkle allows for the identification and location of any phone and supports voice control, SMS and a very intriguing feature: the ability to detect motion and velocity. Developers say that might be used to automatically disable your text while you drive. You can read more about geotechnology here.
For Android and iPhone owners, the new technology will someday be able to suggest deals or check-in points, and even set up location-based controls for your kids.
That’s just the start. From Location Labs’ website I found several fun apps that use geolocation technology:
- Mayor Maker – Automatically checks you into your favorite Foursquare places without actually opening Foursquare.
- Dine Out Cheap – Alerts you to a nearby dining deal.
- MobiQpons – Shows you when and where to redeem coupons as you walk by.
- Whatamap – Lets you roam a mall or other indoor shopping area to find great deals.
- Noel Group – For travelers wanting to know weather conditions and local events.
Research: Only 4% of U.S. adults use geosocial services
We’re hearing today that a very small percentage of adults in the U.S. use location-based applications like Foursquare. Pew Research has found that only four percent of adults use location-based services like Facebook Places or Foursquare.
The Pew Research center found it’s only four percent, and only one percent on any given day.
Geosocial services are enabled through your smart phone’s GPS, and sometimes just by checking in you can receive a coupon, discount or a free item. Check out the rest of the demographics and results here.
Yesterday Facebook announced it will begin allowing businesses to offer coupons. I wrote about Groupon earlier this week, and it is also announcing increased incentives to retailers.
I use these applications, but many from my generation do not yet feel comfortable using geosocial services, citing the need for privacy. How about you?
The Coupon Comeback
In this down economy we’re seeing one trend making a comeback: Coupons. Last year coupon-redemption gained 23 percent–the first gain in nearly two decades.
Before our current recession we saw many people dismissing the discounts, citing they were too much trouble. But the tough economic climate isn’t the only thing bringing them back into popularity. Internet coupons and discount codes that smartphone users can download are making deal-seeking hot again.
I just read an article over at Advertising Age about how many companies are copying the Groupon model for offering their fans and followers great deals. Groupon was launched just two years ago and quickly got 25 million subscribers.
The article cites two major brands, Wal-mart and Healthy Choice foods, offering incredible deals to their shoppers. Last week Wal-mart launched a Facebook app that offered a whopping 18 percent off of a plasma television set once 5,000 people “liked” the ad.
Healthy Choice offered a similar coupon on Facebook that increased in value the more people clicked “like.” A few weeks ago Healthy Choice launched a coupon that increased from 75 cents to $1.50 off a two-for-one deal as more people liked it on Facebook.
Groupon was the first to try this model based on likes, and of course it encourages people to share it with their friends in order to unlock the savings faster.
What I find fascinating is that unlike paper coupons, social media coupons greatly increase the brand’s fan base without costing much money. I think you’re going to see a lot more of this model in the future. Imagine how this type of internet marketing will impact the consumer spending habits on hotels, restaurants, toys, electronics and just about every industry you can think of.
Google TV and the network big three
This week we’re hearing more on the strife between Google and television’s major networks, ABC, CBS and NBC and Google.
The Big 3 are blocking some of their most-watched and beloved shows from being watched on Google’s new Web-TV service, Google TV.
Google TV was launched in May, and allows us to search for and watch television programs through the Internet.
Here’s a great explanation of what Google TV is, and how it works.
Check out this video from Google released at it’s launch this past May:
Worries of pirating or just getting lost in the vast Internet universe isn’t stopping HBO, MTV or TBS from maximizing Google TV. But you won’t be able to watch episodes of NBC’s “The Office,” CBS’s “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” or ABC’s “Modern Family.”
The station executives have said that the service will change forever the existing broadcasting business. I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing, or that the Big 3 will be able to stop the inevitable.
Tweet the front desk on your next visit
I travel quite a bit, and I always appreciate the extra mile hotel personnel will go to in order to make my stay excellent. So it’s no surprise to me the lengths the hotel industry goes to in the name of great customer service. These days hotels are looking to social media to improve service and connect with customers.
Remember when you had to call the front desk or wait in line for the concierge to ask a question? Consumers can simply tweet a question or a request to the hotel’s concierge even while they’re out exploring the city. They do this by using or searching on a hash tag term such as #frontdeskhotelname. There they would see a string of conversations, recommendations from other guests and even alerts to coupons and deals in the area.
One UK hotel chain Premier Inn is encouraging its customers to tweet questions about anything that interests them, to the delight of enthusiastic guests. And Hyatt reports having great success with Twitter Concierge launched last year.
Twitter is also a tool used for resolving complaints, as Marriott has learned. The chain has two full-time people working its Twitter feed, who scour Twitter looking for tweets from people posting frustrations they’ve experienced at Marriott hotels.
Location-based apps like Foursquare and Facerbook Places are also gaining popularity with hotel guests. When Foursquare users use their mobile phones at the Wynn Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, they unlock a coupon for a complimentary glass of champagne.
What else are hotels doing to reach their customers via social media? Creating guest communities online, posting last-minute deals to reduce inventory and rewarding frequent travelers club members for starters, but most of these ideas are in the experimental stage. For now.
Trend: A golden opportunity for investors
Here’s a trend that I find interesting: The ability to purchase gold through ATM-like machines branded Gold To Go.
We first saw these machines appear this spring in Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace Hotel and in Germany. I remember wondering about the kind of investors who would seek out these machines.
As it turns out, the response has been so overwhelming that the company that makes Gold to Go is planning to install these vending machines in a Florida resort as well as a casino in Las Vegas.
Gold To Go dispenses gold bars and coins up to an ounce at a time. But because the price of the precious metal fluctuates, the machine has to adjust every ten minutes. The machine offers ten different products and buyers can get their gold in their own country’s identity—such as a Canadian maple leaf coin.
Users simply insert their cash or credit card, but the machine limits the purchase amount to prevent misuse like money laundering.
This isn’t for just any investor. As I write this, gold is priced at just over $1,300 an ounce! What do you think? Would you buy gold from a Gold To Go machine?
Smartphones will continue to change the way we live
Thanks to our phones, we’re becoming tightly drawn together as a global society. With half a billion users on Facebook and nearly as many on Twitter, our humanity and the way we connect is undergoing a seismic shift.
Some predict that Google and Bing will no longer be our favorite search engine sites. Instead Twitter will become the go-to search engine of choice. In face I find that I can find exactly what I’m looking for by searching trending topics there. Often, I do my searching via cellphone.
I notice in my own blog’s analytics that quite a bit of traffic comes from social media promotion. If you are popular in the world of social media, your blogs and your articles will get read, and product sales from your websites will soar.
Smartphones used to be for the affluent users a few years ago, but now even pay as you go smartphones can get you surfing online in a few clicks. Phone prices are decreasing, and many living in third world nations often will own a cellphone even if they don’t have adequate shelter or food.
Smartphones seem to be getting smarter by the week, as new and improved connectivity applications are released. As for multimedia functions, most phones now have built in cameras which can shoot video and stills up-loadable in seconds to whatever social media site you enjoy.
No wonder these videos and stills have the potential of going viral as millions of people share, retweet and like. How are you using your phone to network and share?
Social sharing is growing increasingly cozy at work and home
The trend toward increased convergence of our social media sites, home entertainment devices and your company intranet is going to change the way you communicate to the world in the next few years. People’s identities will be embedded in our televisions, music and video devices and the like, thanks to enhanced location awareness.
It’s been coming for years, and now a new spurt of cutting edge web and mobile technologies will shake things up even sooner than you might think.
From my perspective, this convergence trend is already changing the way corporations view channels like Facebook and Twitter. In the next few years I think you’ll see more companies embracing open innovation through social media channels, allowing people to collaborate seamlessly and share interests in a a multi-channel environment.
As online sharing becomes embedded into everthing we do, we’ll need to decide individually how quickly we need to adapt our TVs, music systems, cars and computers to keep on top of the trend. Imagine your TV remote control not only being touch screen, but including “like” and “tweet” buttons which autopost to your Facebook page.
And if cell phone identity-location postings make you nervous about people being able to find you, get ready for even more devices empowered by embeddable RFID tags. I’ve heard that some companies are working on smart handbags, which would enable auto-checkins and send coupons to your phone as you enter your favorite store!
Are you ready for the future? Or is all this sharing making you apprehensive?
Eyes to the future
We know that green and clean technology and the “Click Stream Customer” are two of many trends that will impact the way we do business in the future.
Trend watching has become a business in itself. Futurist James Canton is one of many business futurists who make a living by interpreting the signs of what will be in 5 or 10 years.
But what about translating those trends into a solid business strategy? Interpreting and then planning for the future is crucial to your innovation strategy. It’s one thing to have information on climate shifts or economic conditions that affect our bottom line, but quite another to interpret these signs in a useful way that will help your business ride the wave and come out on top.