Category: business (Page 4 of 6)

Follow-up: Duane Reade Flex Rewards

December 16, 2010 /

So I was right about one thing when I wrote about Duane Reade’s new flex rewards program in January:

Ten bucks a year is below my worth-the-trouble threshold, so I’m
basically done with the rewards card. I wonder how much less I’ll look
to DR as my default convenience store as a result.

Sure enough, I never did activate a new loyalty card. And now, between the changing system and DR’s buyout by Walgreens, I find myself without loyalty to the store in general. Instead, I find myself stopping in the new CVS that opened a block away (closer to my apartment!) instead… and I’ve never enjoyed CVS.

Duane Reade may be making a few more bucks–or, rather, saving them–but I wonder how many of their customers have done the same thing as me.

data.mint.com

October 29, 2010 /

I just lost a good chunk of my morning to Mint Data, the newly revealed spending database from Mint. Peering into consumer habits is fascinating, but to my retail mind, the store comparisons are the best part.
Of course, Mint’s data is heavily skewed by its demographic. None of the lunching ladies and hedge-fund millionaires are using Mint, so we’re not seeing four-figure steakhouse spends or Madison Avenue purchases in the database.
Still, it’s great fun to compare things like this:

Barneys New York average purchase: $401.11
Saks: $293.76
Bergdorf Goodman: $369.45
Prada: $639.87

If you need me, I’m over here, swimiming in data.

Any color, so long as it’s black

October 21, 2010 /

HP Slate photo gallery.
The real question to me is, how come Apple’s pursuers not only rip off the interfaces and concepts but also blatantly copy the exteriors? Black bezel, chrome rim–is there no other way for a tablet device to look than exactly like an iPad, albeit with a back panel full of Citgo logos?
Every touch phone in the market rips off the iPhone’s visuals, too. It’s not like Apple’s products are always handsome, either. I actually think the iPhone 3G and 3GS weren’t all that attractive. But the competitive market seems to think the only way to keep up with Apple products is to look like them. Even Microsoft’s Zune ripped off the iPod’s single round button for navigation.
Here’s a hint, product teams: these tactics may get you some sales, especially if you’re filling a market need, like offering buckets of iPhone-looking devices on Verizon’s as-yet iPhone-less network. But they won’t get you industry recognition. Or long-term market growth. Or the respect of discerning, taste-making consumers, who generally know the difference.

Answering opportunity’s knock

September 29, 2010 /

In my three years at Alexander Interactive, we’ve taken a boutique ecommerce firm with a diverse client roster and grown it into a user experience powerhouse with an incredible lineup of engagements. The company that helped grow great sites like Action Envelope became rich with brand names: Schwinn. Citi. Kaplan. Even the good folks at Internet Retailer, the paper of record for the ecommerce industry, chose Ai to redesign their website.
This has led to substantial changes within the agency, starting with my own hire to build a strategy discipline, and progressing through evolutions that include engagement management and a lot of short-term travel. On that list was a bit of a disappointment: smaller inquiries became a lot less tenable. It became clear to us that the mom-and-pop or luxury-brand assignment that was perfect for Ai in 2007 was becoming obsolete in the Ai of 2010, despite our long-held belief that those projects are just as fun and fascinating, just as successful and profitable.
So, rather than forgoing those projects, or shoehorning them into the Ai engagement model, we decided to spin them out. We discussed it internally for months, kicked off informally in the spring, and on July 1 I took the keys to a then-unnamed second business unit at Ai. Over the summer we worked on our positioning and materials, and the news officially hit the digital community this week: Canopy is open for business.
I’m thrilled to be heading up Canopy and establishing a sister company for one of the industry’s great ecommerce shops. We know the Ai approach–hands on, user-focused, client-partnership–works just as well for a small retailer as it does for a large one. Our goal is to bring our expertise to multiple market segments.
I am still wearing my Director of Strategy hat for Ai part-time, which makes for interesting days, as I sometimes segue from an on-site visit with a Fortune 50 retailer to a phone call with the owner of a small fashion label. But the opportunity to take that enterprise-level knowledge and experience and apply those concepts directly to small- and midsize businesses is rare. Not many Canopy competitors can claim the same breadth of knowledge. That’s what led Ai to start this agency, and what excites me most about building it. The companies I speak with can’t wait to learn and grow. And that’s why we’re here.

Apple to iPhone 4 critics: ‘shut the fuck up’

July 16, 2010 /

That’s the gist of Steve Jobs’s hastily arranged and moderately defensive iPhone press conference today discussing the antenna-finger-reception issue.
There’s nothing press-conference-worthy about the issue, really, other than the fuss that’s being made. Apple felt the need to respond to its critics, which, I suspect, has more than a little to do with Consumer Reports’ product damnation earlier this week. Stodgy as it may seem, CU wields a lot of influence, as evidenced by its recent safety warning on the Lexus GX460, which forced Toyota to immediately suspend its sales. (Disclosure: I am a consumerreports.com subscriber.)
Apple’s sales are a combination of its near-flawless execution and the halo of respect and admiration the company receives for its products. With the iPhone 4, Apple wound up with a) a tangibly flawed product, whether it wants to admit it or not, however minor it may be; and b) the potential loss of some of that all-important respect and admiration. Apple had to try and remind people of its general excellence and plug the hole in the proverbial dyke.
Let’s analyze the specifics of the “solution,” then, which has been cited as potentially costing the company hundreds of millions of dollars. Apple will give away free bumpers to all its iPhone 4 customers. This has an opportunity cost of $87 million, given Apple’s $29 price point versus the three million phones already sold.
Seriously, though: that bumper’s $29 ask is laughable. It’s a molded plastic ring. A lay consumer can buy full-size iPhone cases for $1.50 for as few as 30 pieces in bulk. What do you think Apple’s wholesale cost is for three million, sourced directly from the manufacturer? Thirty cents? Maybe less?
At $0.30 per case, Apple’s big giveaway will cost the company $900,000 for the first three million, plus overhead. Given that Apple has brought in at least $600 million in revenue (probably a lot more) on those three million iPhone 4s, nine hundred grand seems like a pretty painless repair. (As an Apple shareholder, I should note that this pleases me.)
The iPhone 4 remains an incredible product, and Apple a remarkable company. Today’s press conference didn’t really change things one way or the other. Their hope is that with their case-and-refund announcement in place, the issue will quiet down, and people will feel good about buying and using the iPhone 4. We’ll see if it works.

What I learned today, June 21

June 21, 2010 /

Father’s Day is the third-best-selling “Hallmark Holiday,” with 93 million cards changing hands at a cost of $749 million. It trails Valentine’s Day (152 million cards) and Mother’s Day (141 million) in volume. All three combined are dwarfed by Christmas, which generates 1.8 billion card sales each year.

On AT&T’s new data tethering

June 3, 2010 /

For all the fuss about AT&T’s new data rates (both pragmatically good and knee-jerk bad) the main point to keep in mind is whether those rates are actually good for consumers. For the most part, they are: John Gruber notes in his post that 98% of AT&T’s users fall below the new 2GB monthly plan, and that even with overages these rates beat the competition.
I’m a daily, heavy user of data on my iPhone 3GS, so I logged into my phone bill to see where I land. And lo, a surprise: not only do I not need unlimited data, I can actually drop down to the 250MB plan. Because I regularly use my home and work wifi, and I don’t download much media, my 3G bandwidth usage has been 230MB or less for the past six months.
I like the idea of an open meter, and when I change plans, I’ll probably switch to the 2GB/month plan, even if it costs me a few bucks extra. I will be happier paying $25/month and never hitting my limit than paying $15/month and worrying about, or getting slapped with, overages when I download some videos. Still, that’s found money for me, and for 98% of AT&T’s smartphone users.
One could gripe all day about AT&T’s signal strength or its needlessly expensive text messaging plans. But its data plans are well considered and decently consumer-friendly, no matter how the blogosphere reacts.

Relativity in oil

May 4, 2010 /

BP appropriately announced Monday that it will bear the full expense of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill cleanup. The cost estimates at this point run past $12.5 billion.
Analysts are wondering if BP will really be on the hook for the full amount, or whether the British government will help with payments to not overburden one of the country’s biggest companies. But BP can handle it: the oil giant’s net profits for 2009 were $20.1 billion. With nearly $30 billion in free cash flow, the cleanup, even if paid in full in 2010, would be a manageable sum. It won’t help profits, but it won’t sink BP, either.
Kudos, then, to BP for bearing responsibility and leading containment efforts. One would hope and expect as much from an oil company that touts alternative fuels.
Update: while my appreciation from a financial effort was nice, there’s still a mess of oil to clean up, and not surprisingly BP is facing heat for the intensity and quality of its actions. Here’s to hoping for some fast successes.

The ROI of transparency

May 3, 2010 /

From my post on aiaio:

Suddenly the question shifts from cagey profiteering back to trust. As the questioner remarks, if the patient (client, party-thrower, CPG marketing manager) trusts the adviser, the recommendation of a related business can be more trustworthy, not less.

Posted without further comment except to publicly note my love for the Ethicist.

The ROI of UX: Continental Airlines

February 15, 2010 /

From my post on aiaio:

Yes, there are premium seats available; no, you can’t have them. I asked if I could pay extra to reserve those seats: no. I asked if I could get a seat assignment, any seat assignment, so I knew I would make it on the plane: no. I eventually gave up my attempts to cajole customer service into helping me, and after a few hours of deliberation, I took my business elsewhere.

My story isn’t all that uncommon, but it still strikes me as a miss on Continental’s part. Why must they hold a random middle seat for an unbooked elite member, thereby denying a paying customer a chance to confirm travel?

Between this and Continental’s other discomforts—a small 31″ seat pitch in coach; 60,000 miles to book coach-class reward travel—I haven’t flown CO in more than five years. In the interim I’ve been on American, JetBlue, Virgin Atlantic, Northwest, Alitalia, Midwest, US Airways, United and Virgin America, and I’ve enjoyed all of them more than I enjoy my typical interaction with Continental. (Well, maybe not Alitalia.)