The Value of Asking & the Necessity of not Being Afraid to Fail

To be a Chef you have to ask around for recipes. If you burn a dish, don't fret, just learn how do it better next time. The value of asking and the necessity of not being afraid to fail by a very young and bearded Steve Jobs on the record from a rare video.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Sure, everybody and their dog has already bought this book (379,000 copies sold in the US alone during its opening week), but we really need to make a point that this a remarkably honest and thorough account. One can only give credit to the late Jobs for cooperting with this Isaacson to make this happen. The author avoids the sticker, me-too glorification of the man that has plagued the press and cocktail discussions around the world and squarely focuses on the story and Job's many virtues and vices. Dispassionate and engaging at the same time. Thumbs up!

1 in Every 5 Minutes...

1 in every 5 minutes of time online is now being spent on social networking sites, up from a mere 6% in early 2007. The sites, led by Facebook, now reach 82% of the world’s internet-using population — about 1.2 billion people in total. This growth is happening across countries, with 41 of the 43 countries that the web measurement firm tracks showing penetration of 85% or more. Read more on the latest comScore report on social media.

Of Smartphones and Tablets: A Disruption in the Making?

Compared to an average PC, even the best of smartphones or tablets sport limited computational power and memory capacity. Smartphones, in particular, also come with the additional constraint of a small screen.

Yet, when it comes to basic, everyday functionality such as reading email or keeping up with the latest on Facebook or Tweeter, tablets and smartphones seem to “get the job done” quite nicely. Furthermore, they allow their users to do that on the go.

The sales trend evidence is overwhelming: The combined unit sales of smartphones and tablets have already exceeded the combined unit sales of notebook, notebooks, and desktops since the 4th quarter of 2010 - the gap is only is increasing as we speak.

Additionally, since the 2nd quarter of 2010, Windows installations amount to less than a half of all Internet-enabled devices. Due to the fact that Windows currently (Oct 2011) represents less than 6% of the overall smartphone market and less than 5% of the tablet market, its clear that it’s the non-PC segment of the Internet-enabled market that is growing.

In Innovation Management parlance, a disruptive innovation is an innovation that helps create a new market and value network, and eventually goes on to disrupt an existing market and value network (over a few years or decades). To the marketer, a disruption is the Holy Grail of product development and commercialization. Elusive, and seeming unattainable. But, it exists and often when least expected.

Back in 1979, the Sony Walkman disrupted the audio reproduction equipment value chain. Sure, the Walkman didn’t sound half as good as the average High-Fidelity system of the time, but it was good enough to listen along the likes of Michael Jackson, or the Go-Go’s on the … go.

Eventually the Walkman went to sell more than 200 million units and fundamentally changed how people experienced music.

Are smartphones and tablets the new Walkman? They are smaller, more portable, less powerful versions of their full-size PC cousins and, most importantly, for the vast majority of the users, the get the job done.

So, it If it looks Like a duck, walks like a duck, sounds like a duck…., yes indeed, I think we are witnessing the disruption of the Wintel dominated PC value chain. Stay put on your (touch) screens, there is more to come.

Unmeasurable or Unmeasured?

A recently released survey from Unica shows that while the proliferation of electronic channels — from email to social and mobile media — has opened up many more possibilities for meaningful communications with customers, this “online channel sprawl” has led to confusion and information overload. Marketers need better analytics tools to turn data into action overall and particularly in social media for which being there simply isn’t enough to win friends and drive business results. If you can't measure it, you can't manager it - all over again?

For the full survey Unica’s 2011 Survey of Marketers please click here.

Entrepreneur of the Week: Brett Martin at Sonar.Me

Sonar uncovers the hidden connections you miss everyday, in real time, in the palm of your hand. Our very own Brett Martin, founder of Sonar.Me and winner of the Ultra Light Pitch contest, interviewed by Trevor Sumner. Read on...

Geopolitics 2.0: the Power of Social Media

In the aftermath of Iran’s massive street protests in June 2009, that country’s authoritarian regime blamed the unrest on Western intelligence agencies and big media organisations. This time, however, the ruling mullahs lashed out at a new list of Western enemies: Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

For more read the full blog post by Matthew Fraser.

Your Brand – The Guiding Light for Your Employees

Your Brand – The Guiding Light for Your Employees

Employees will treat customers the same way they are treated by management. If employees do not feel an emotional attachment to the brand they are serving, then they will not pass on an emotionally gratifying experience to customers.

For more read the Kompas article.

Reid Hoffman on Enterpreneurship

Internet entrepreneur Reid Hoffman has a simple summary of the complexities involved in starting your own business: "You jump off a cliff and you assemble an aeroplane on the way down".

For more read the full article on BBC news.

Emotional Design 2 - Unconscious Desire

When I finally was able to upgrade my mobile phone, the decision to buy an iPhone was very easy, in fact, I believe my unconscious mind made that decision for me long before it was time to enter the credit card number to close the sale on the shopping cart web page. The truth is that our unconscious mind has the majority of influence in purchasing decisions, and our poor conscious and rational mind is left to justify the decision so we can explain our actions rationally to our spouse and friends. So what is our mysterious unconscious mind considering when it makes decisions?

There are at least two key questions that must be resolved in the unconscious mind as it navigates the decision process. The first question, and perhaps the most important one is related to personal image, “does this help me be who I want to be?” All day, from the time we wake up to the time we fall asleep, we are managing the impression we make on others. When we see an ad, a new product, a new store, web page, etc., we are always relating that new thing to our personal image. We are seeking those things that can help us project the image we unconsciously seek to display. When something very strongly resolves the image we are seeking to project, we have a strong desire to own that object.

Emotion is at the core of the second question. We sum up all the emotions we associate with that thing. We ask ourselves; “how we would feel if we owned that product?” To answer this question we sum up the emotions we have stored in our memory associated with that product, the brand it is associated with, and other things we relate to it in some way. So if you have had bad emotional memories associated with a specific brand, it may be hard for you to consider any product from that brand, even if it closely connects to your image. If the product is associated with primal, reptilian emotions such as those affiliated with sex, the appeal can be very strong.

For products to perform at a high level in the market, the product and the overall experience associated with that product must resolve these unconscious considerations. Therefore every aspect of the offer must be in tune with the image the consumer is seeking to convey, and evoking the emotions the consumer wants to feel. Understanding how consumers perceive products and brands in their unconscious mind is not easy.

Highly skilled researchers, designers and creatives can leverage these unconscious needs in the development of products and brands. To do so, they use methods that get to the unconscious drivers, and convert them to attributes to be designed into the offer. Skilled creative resources can utilize this insight to develop concept proposals. These proposals can then be carefully evaluated by consumers in a way that determines if these unconscious needs are being met. Through refinement and optimization, the offer can be crafted to strongly resonate with the consumer’s conscious and unconscious mind.