IBM – Big Blue deserves applause for being the greenest!
Sometimes, the most interesting items to talk about are what’s missing. In this case, it was the IBM Press Kit at NRF 2011, or the National Retail Federation show at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in NYC last week. Just outside the Press Room at NRF were several long tables filled with stacks of literature, expensive glossy covered binders stuffed with printed materials, cdroms and such. A lot of that material has a half life of just days, as journalists review and discard the material, often within just hours. Some of those press kits that assorted companies left out easily ran $5 or $10 each, when adding the costs of printing, graphics design, assembly and the expense of shipping them to the show. Refreshingly, one company showed just how ecologically intelligent the kit could be made. IBM had just a simple postcard (blue and white of course) – probably costing around 3 cents – sitting on the table, with a link to the Press Kit online at the IBM website. Smart!! And even smarter on a couple of levels, after all, a great many of us not only want access to the materials, but we want to bring some photos and the like into our articles and blogs. So what better way to make it easier for the press to do that, than to have the content ready to go in a ‘cut and paste’ format. Kudos to the IBM Communications group!!
(The NRF show was just terrific, incidentally, with excited vendors and consumers. No long faces this year – au contraire – the spirit was animated and elevated. NRF is the premier show for companies in the retail industry – this includes point of sale products, barcode products, labeling, retail technology and retail infrastructure.)
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are solid by all accounts
For entertainment I watched the stats all last weekend on retailer sales. They were SOLID! Not that I had any doubts, going into the weekend. The number of flyers in my mailbox, the number of advertising emails I have been receiving, and the 20 lb. paper on my doorstep (of which 19.5 lbs were ad inserts) reassured me that the Thanksgiving weekend was going to be a time for being thankful for coupons, doorbusters and markdowns. I’d say a good part of it was relief spending. Consumers have held back for quite a while, paying down some debt, and it just felt good to get out there and buy something.
Yours truly did his part by buying a new Sprint phone – an HTC 4G. Let me tell you, it rocks! Keep spending America!
When five year olds are using barcodes, you know the technology is pervasive.
Having been around the barcode industry for over 25 years now, I thought that barcodes were as deeply embedded in society as they could be. Well, I was wrong. Just a couple of weeks ago Target sent out its holiday gift catalog and, lo and behold, they included QRcodes next to some of the toys. In all respects this is both logical and to be expected. I mean, why not? If they are going to go to the trouble of printing millions of catalogs, and mailing them, then why not embed a simple tool to measure consumer interest in a particular item. Who knows, it could even help predict demand for certain toys. What I did not expect was that 5 year old children would be expressing interest in the code and then using their parents cellphones (at least I assume the cellphones belong to Mom and Dad) to look up more information about the toys. This link at TheBarCodeNews relates the full story.
2D barcode breaks record
As reported in TheBarCodeNews, Allure Magazine experienced a strong response by using a Microsoft Tag to get users to sign up for notification of freebies. Some 444,000 scans were processed. Mobile users entered the contest an average of 25 times. A prior record was set with 100,000 2D barcodes being scanned for the Swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated, according to JagTag.
It’s good to see companies reporting results on the use of 2D barcodes. This will strengthen the case for the value of using 2D barcodes.
Our compliments to the folks at Allure for getting out in front of the pack with the use of technology to engage the consumer.
Not so Suave
“Suave does what theirs does for half the price”. (repeat, repeat again). That was, if I recall correctly, the message I heard on TV hundreds of times. And it was true. Was.
Now, I can’t find the “original” Suave product I enjoyed using. In what I would consider one of the more significant marketing blunders of the decade Suave has ditched its core product and chosen only to put the more expensive ones are the shelf.
Motorola Mobile Computers Facilitate Customer Transactions
It was recently reported by TheBarCodeNews that the cruise ship Oasis of the Seas, has been equipping its staff with mobile computers that can log all consumer complaints, and, presumably, send those complaints quickly to the proper staff member. Will the cruise company watch the speed with which those complaints get resolved? Time will tell.
Original Gatorade Disappears Completely!
Shades of Snapple! What has happened to Gatorade? The company changed the product, has effectively killed the original Gatorade and now is losing shelf space and discounting the new product. As someone who has consumed Gatorade since the 1970s, I am heartbroken. This new 02 product has more calories/sugar and does not taste that good. The original product, which the company said to me was still at Target , is not. I went to three Targets in my area with no success. Even the original Gatorade powder is no more. Moreover, I have noticed in my local Publix supermarket that the amount of shelf space that Gatorade used to command has shrunk by about a third, and the product is selling for less money than it used to. Its time to look for a new sports drink. Any suggestions?
The Slow Decline Of Starbucks
When you live near a coffee shop, and like to hang out there and enjoy a coffee on a regular basis, it is painful to witness the gradual breakdown of its systems. It’s like watching a house begin to disintegrate through neglect. First the lawn stops being attended to, then the trash begins to pile up, the screens rust off and eventually there is a foreclosure. So it has been with various Starbucks locations over the last few years – not that any seem to be going into foreclosure – they’ve just lost their mojo. It started with some Starbucks locations in New Jersey. I used to commute from Bergen County to Hudson County almost daily, so I was intimately familiar with every Starbucks on Route 17.
The first signs of trouble were the rolling outages. Essential items like Sugar in the Raw were regularly running short. If you love Sugar in the Raw and its unique flavor, then substituting plain white sugar tends to leave you feeling unsatisfied. That’s when I began buying the 100 packet boxes of Sugar in the Raw at the supermarket and keeping it in the trunk of my car. Which led to a bad habit of carrying it into various restaurants – something that seemed to cause my kids and my wife a degree of embarrassment. (Not that it stopped me). I noticed though, that there was no problem getting SITR at the supermarket. There were no shortages there. Was it an attempt to save money at Starbucks?
Soon, there were other outages – napkins, certain size cups, and other products were regularly out of stock. I called some Starbucks reps (their business cards are sometimes on display in the shops for cranks like me to vent) and shared my dissatisfaction. Nothing changed.
About 4 years ago I relocated to Florida – Sarasota to be exact – and of course, gradually visited all of the ten or so Starbucks in the area. Some are better than others. A few look tired and are not clean. The staff turns over regularly. Due to their perpetual lack of experience, getting past the register can take a while. Training is always in process. And still, there are frequent outages of SITR. (sigh). Folks, that is not a way to cut costs!
On the bright side of all this is the healthier (if not particularly inspiring) food available for purchase. SB has definitely improved their menu, after pretending for a decade that there was sufficient karma in being environmentally concerned and not low fat.
Now there is a new twist – the WiFi. What was formerly a service that had to be paid for, and for a little while was free, has become a service that could be free, IF you have an active Starbucks card. Hmm, are we feeling a little pressure from Panera? Where the Internet is always free, even if limited to 30 minutes during lunchtimes? I believe so. Still, the deal with the active Starbucks card was not tempting enough to get me to buy one on a recent stop at the Starbucks in Venice this past Sunday. Free WiFi is available almost everywhere – maybe its time for SB to buck up and accept that fact. Also, perhaps, SB should stop messing around with supermarket product and get those stores running like clocks!
Unfortunately there are not enough Paneras in my area. Has DD put in WiFi yet? How about Mickey D’s?
