Proximity Power

"contextual" transaction knowledge, understanding brand geography, and faster feedback loops to drive ROI.

Faster and Cheaper has arrived in the mysterious world of "Branding" Brandmaker Express - how it works

quote: The Brandmaker Express process starts with a briefing. We want to have a thorough information-gathering session with key client members and cover capabilities, current consumer insights and learning, plus guidelines and parameters for the project. As important to us is to identify the client's best wishes and expectations for the project and its output.

Based on the briefing, we create a format for two 3-hour invention workshops.

The first workshop is made up of 15-20 of your colleagues. They can and should represent many different parts of your business, including sales, marketing, R & D, promotions and agency people.

Two partners from V & A will facilitate and run the event. No one will leave feeling unproductive.

The second workshop involves 12 creative experts. You join us to observe the second workshop in our New York City office. The experts are an extremely dynamic group of professionals who come from very entrepreneurial and creative backgrounds and whose vocations require exceptional verbal and conceptual skills. Their answers will reinforce some of the previous days' output, plus create totally new and exciting possibilities.

After this workshop we ask you to join us in a very essential lunch meeting. This serves as our reality check and together we will carefully review all of the promising areas of interest that have come out of the workshops. This is also a perfect time to reiterate the parameters and guidelines of the project, best wishes and red flags.

From that point on, you can count ten working days to our presentation.

During the next ten days, we close the doors and do nothing but work on your business. We are four partners. Together, we take the raw material with our broad conceptual ideas then refine, adjust and transform them into introductory ad format, including the essential combination of visual and verbal cues, product names, and generic descriptors. Our expert art directors apply their visual talents, creative insights, strategic notions and artistic expression and truly bring the concepts to life.

We're back to you with 15-17 finished concepts on Day 10. And you love it!

posted by Frank Abrams at 9:37 AM

SalesHound.com

Online Retailing with a Local Flavour!


quote: SalesHound lists advertised sales and deals for stores all over the 48 continental United States; we’ll tell you what’s on sale, where, and how much it costs as specifically as we can (depending on the information provided by the stores).

We also provide lots of geographic information about the stores offering these sales: street addresses of the store locations nearest you, driving distance, even maps and driving directions.

We also provide information about the major malls nearest you, including a complete list of stores, mall hours and more.

Think of SalesHound as an enhanced version of the sale inserts in the Sunday paper. We collect information about sales from the print advertisements of more than 350 national retailers (don’t try this at home). We post these sales on our web site, sort them into departments and provide tools like our keyword search engine to allow you to find the sales you’re interested in quickly and easily – so you don’t have to look through print advertisements store by store. This means that even shoppers without a lot of spare time can bargain hunt, comparison shop and get educated about what deals are available before heading to their local stores.
posted by Frank Abrams at 12:18 PM

XMethods - Web Service Listings

...and finally what can Web Services actually do?


quote: Emerging standards such as SOAP will enable a new generation of "web services" that allow systems to make remote procedure calls to other systems over the Internet. For example, a corporate inventory management sytem might publish a service that allows a customer system to check real-time inventory levels. This site lists publicly accessible web services.
posted by Frank Abrams at 6:16 AM

XML.com: The White Heat of Marketing [Aug. 15, 2001]

The hype around Web Services and XML

quote: ...On the other hand, we can't just wave our hands at web services and dismiss them. Believe me, I've tried. There are reasons for the popularity of the idea, some of which are deeply connected with the popularity of the Web itself. Everyone enjoys creating a home page, communicating and sharing with others. As software developers we have a deep need to see our software being used, communicating with others' programs. In whatever guise it takes, distributed computing over the Web is an important future direction.

posted by Frank Abrams at 6:10 AM

ZDNet: Enterprise: Defining Web services

quote: Web services are just around the corner, and IT managers should be preparing for yet another new way of doing business. IT managers can do a few things to get ready, even if they can't embark on using Web services just yet. First, companies should invest in infrastructure that supports the new and emerging standards that make Web services possible. Next, they should start thinking about potential audiences for Web services: customers, employees, suppliers, and partners.
posted by Frank Abrams at 6:05 AM

Think Local !
Nua Internet Surveys: British users loyal to domestic brands


quote: British Internet users tend to visit sites linked with British brands, according to new findings from Nielsen NetRatings.
posted by Frank Abrams at 3:41 PM

DM Review: WebFOCUS Powers National Adoption Database


Information Builders solutions help Fido find a new home.

quote: Using WebFOCUS, it was possible to create a highly visual presentation where all aspects of the canine selection and review process take place on a single browser screen. Other Web-based adoption services have rudimentary database technology which limits their effectiveness. These sites are list-oriented, operating like an electronic catalog. WebFOCUS allowed us to develop a more natural adoption process.
posted by Frank Abrams at 7:52 AM

The Internet & Public Relations
posted by Frank Abrams at 4:21 PM

Which Is It: Techno-Solution or Techno-Screwup?


Insight from Fast Talk - a Fast Company Newsletter

quote: Kathy Biro: The Web is still like a bubble-gum machine. You go up to it. It doesn't know if you've been there 50 times before or if this is the first time. If nothing comes out of the machine, you send a note to an address. It's one transaction at a time. Usually, there isn't even a data-driven understanding of the customer. And there's no relationship.
posted by Frank Abrams at 9:39 PM

Marketing Warehouses


quote: For thirty years technologists have worked hard to pack as much data as they can into computers. Their singular objective: to maximize transaction throughput by reducing the time it takes to insert, update or delete a record. Relational database technology has flourished as a result, owing to its flexibility in organizing data for online processing.

Today, exactly 25 years after the birth of the microprocessor, the focus has shifted to getting data out of computers. Query response time is what matters. And relational databases, once a blessing, are more of an albatross when it comes to generating information on demand.
posted by Frank Abrams at 10:36 AM

IBM's 10 myths of eBusiness

Managing innovation, and eBusiness integration, takes planning


quote: Inevitably, individual projects and initiatives will vie for the attention of limited resources. Conflicting objectives will emerge and consistency issues will surface. Be prepared to address these challenges as routine. Build an e-business management system that allows you to decide and act -- rather than analyze and debate.
posted by Frank Abrams at 12:54 PM

Live! From Merrill Lynch?


Wall St. is finding value-add for clients in broadcasting finnacial information.
quote :Merrill Lynch sends nearly 80 percent of its live content exclusively to its institutional clients, those who manage assets for investment and mutual fund companies. The remainder goes to Merrill's retail customers who receive time-dated versions of Merrill's Webcast financial show, TechTalk as well as other time-dated analyst offerings. While the investment bank won't disclose traffic data, it claims the programs have been wildly successful
posted by Frank Abrams at 4:29 PM

strategy business by Booz Allen & Hamilton
Marketers fail when they segment Web users on demographics alone. Our study of click-stream data reveals seven usage-based segments that correlate to users' online moods and goals. They can be a powerful tool in crafting effective Web strategies.

quote: Quickies 8%
Quickie sessions are typically short (1 minute) and center around visits to two or fewer familiar sites. Users spend about 15 seconds per page to extract specific bits of information (such as sports scores or stock quotes), or send e-mail. Sites requiring a longer time commitment aren't on the itinerary.

Just the Facts 15%
During Just the Facts sessions, users seek specific information on known sites. At 9 minutes, these occasions are longer than Quickies, but similar in that page views are rapid (30 seconds each). These sessions typically include visits to sites that are transaction-oriented or time-consuming, such as travel, sports, and directories. Just the Facts occasions are less likely to involve entertainment sites.

Single Mission 7%
Single Mission sessions involve completing a task or gathering information, then leaving the Internet. At 10 minutes, the average session length is about the same as Just the Facts', but the 1 1/2-minute page views indicate the occasion involves more reading. Users typically venture to unfamiliar sites to find what they need, concentrating on sites within a single category.

Do It Again 14%
Do It Again sessions are 14 minutes long and notable for lingering page views: 2 minutes. Ninety-five percent of the time is spent at sites the user has visited four or more times. Do It Again sessions typically occur on auction, gaming, and investing sites.

Loitering 16%
Occasions for Loitering are about 33 minutes in duration, with 2-minute page views, tying with Do It Again for the longest of the seven occasion types. Loitering occasions are akin to Do It Agains: leisurely visits to familiar "sticky" sites, such as news, gaming, and entertainment. There are few visits to sites that offer quick, practical bits of information, such as directories.

Information, Please 17%
Information, Please occasions average 37 minutes, with page views of 1 minute, and are used to build in-depth knowledge, such as research for a car purchase. Information, Please sessions tend not to concentrate on a single type of site, or on familiar sites.

Surfing 23%
Surfing is by far the longest occasion, averaging 70 minutes, with few stops at familiar sites, as users typically hit nearly 45 sites. Short page views suggest wide, but not deep, exploration. Users like sites that grab their attention immediately: shopping, online communities, and news.

posted by Frank Abrams at 7:25 PM

DM Review: AMR Research Finds That CRM Isn't Everything It's Cracked Up to Be

quote: A survey of companies busy with customer relationship management (CRM) projects found that despite 74 percent meeting expectations, the projects are not rallying any fans, according to new data from AMR Research, a Boston e- business research firm.
posted by Frank Abrams at 9:29 AM

Double Blog Entry - 1st Time Event

NYTimes Money & Business Mar 18 2001 (archived)
How Did They Value Stocks? Count the Absurd Ways


quote: It has now become painfully clear, and last week's gyrations only added more proof, that Wall Street is a different place than it was even a short time ago. A brutish, bearish market has brought with it deflated hopes and new realities.

Among the harsh realities one stands out. Of all the hot air generated during the great bull market of the late 1990's, none propelled stock prices further than the notion that new economy stocks were a breed apart and should not be held to stringent, old economy investing standards. Internet companies and cutting-edge telecommunications concerns, after all, were revolutionizing the world. So, the thinking went, their share prices deserved equally radical valuation methods. Out went traditional methods used by securities analysis that prized earnings. In came freewheeling measures of worth, like revenue growth, Web site traffic and even customer "share of mind."
posted by Frank Abrams at 9:48 AM

MIT Auto-ID Center | Conversations between inanimate objects


quote: The basic map - that will guide us from our world to this new world and the treasures it contains - has already been sketched out. The four fundamental points on the map are an ID Code, ID System, Internet Directory and Language. Following is a topline description of each.
posted by Frank Abrams at 12:46 PM

CommWealth Research on B2B
posted by Frank Abrams at 4:19 PM