Treat different people differently... but how?

We are just doing some customer research at Justaxi - a mobile phone app which helps you get the best price taxi service in Manchester - and so this blog by Seth Godin is rather well timed.

He has a great point - but in a way - he doesn't have the answer.

His point is treat different people differently.

"Don't teach your students as if they are a monolithic population of learners. They learn differently, they have different goals, different skills, different backgrounds.

Don't sell to your customers as if they are a fungible commodity, a walking ATM waiting for you to punch. Six of one are not like half a dozen of the other. They tell themselves different stories, have different needs and demand something different from you.

Different voters, different donors, different employees--we have the choice to treat them as individuals. Not only do they need different things, but they offer differing amounts of value to you and to your project.

The moment your policy interferes with their uniqueness, the policy has cost you something.

We used to have no choice. There was only one set of data for the student body, one way to put things on the shelf of the local market, one opportunity to talk to the entire audience...

One of the biggest unfilled promises of the digital age is the opportunity to go beyond demographics and census data. Personalization wasn't supposed to be a cleverly veiled way to chase prospects around the web, showing them the same spammy ad for the same lame stuff as everyone else sees.

No, it is a chance to differentiate at a human scale, to use behavior as the most important clue about what people want and more important, what they need.

It's a no-brainer to treat the quarterback of the football team differently from the head of the chess club. We treat our bank's biggest investor with more care than someone who merely wants to trade in a bag of pennies. Instead of reserving this special treatment for a few outliers, though, we ought to consider what happens if we offer it to all of those we value.

The long tail of everything means that there's something for everyone--a blog to read, a charity to donate to, a skill to learn. When you send everyone the same email, demand everyone learn from the same lesson plan or try to sell everyone the same service, you've missed it.

A very long time ago, shoe salespeople realized that shoes that don't fit are difficult to sell, regardless of what you've got in stock. Today, the people you serve are coming to realize that like their shoe size, their needs are different, regardless of what your urgent agenda might be.

So.... what does this mean for an taxi comparison app like JusTaxi - in truth - I don't know. I know that it means that perhaps we aim for personalization but how we do that - is in the hands of the techies - which means.... we will have to ask nicely and tread softly.

Perhaps bringing in the Facebook and social login's will make a difference as the more we know about each customer the more we can personalise the offer. But how much can you personalize the best price on a taxi in Manchester?  

Born or made? Entreprenurs. Discuss.

After a rather turbulent Christmas and New Year. I have been left asking myself about employment vs. entrepreneurship. Whether you really can be an "intrapreneur" and in truth, whether I have a mental problem or something wrong with me. The reason being is that I have left my rather stable world of employment to work as a consultant for a start up once again. This despite knowing the risks involved. 

And you know what..... I couldn't be happier. Well I would be happier if my last employer and I can see eye to eye on the subject of some money still owed to me - rather a large amount as it happens. 

It is this disagreement again and the fact they didn't seem to see it as a problem that prompted my leaving, not the team I left, not the ideas that we had, not the speed of progress made, not the changing of the world or the changing of the seasons. 

Yet, something deep inside me puzzled me about my leaving, so it was with interest that I read the below about entrepreneurship, as it might just be that I don't have a mental problem, it might just be a gene inside me, a gene, called the e gene.  

Recent research by Amway has revealed that, to become a successful entrepreneur, you must be in possession of the 'e-gene', which is categorised by six different personality traits as identified by Chris Coleridge, an innovation researcher at the London School of Economics. And you see - I have several of them - if not all of them.... to an extent. 

The six traits of entrepreneurship are: 

Difficult background - left on a doorstep when I was two, taken into two care homes, adopted by a loving family (of a different race and religion)

Minority/disadvantaged group - originally rather poor - mixed race - luckly adopted see above.

Disability - mild dyslexia (yes I couldn't spell that without spell check - why is that word so silly anyway!  I also wear glasses (very strong ones) and I am a bit odd socially (great on stage but not in groups.)

Risk-lover and optimist - I would say the latter rather than the former, but looking back on it - not starting a career till 36 and always running my own businesses from 16 probably says "risk" 

Independence and social distinction - fiercely so  to the extent it has become a disability (see above) and what else motivates a man to write a blog like this :)

The need for achievement and power- again former rather than the latter. (See above see above)

However, an important distinction it that - power is something - I care not one jot for - and am a firm believer that power simply corrupts - the less of it in the hands of men the better (and I do mean men here not men as mankind.) The more power to the people rather than to man made bureaucracies (and again I mean man made not woman made.) 

Coleridge argues that a combination of these six traits can be identified in all "successful" entrepreneurs. Which brings up the subject of success which creates another points. As many / most entrepreneurs are failures for a long time, some argue that it is that ability to be a failure in the eyes of the world and still love what you do, still continue, still work at it and become successful that is another characteristic (and even a necessary part of the process.)

But isn't this the same of all artists and creators? When looking into the "Over night success stories" from musicians to comedians you often see the magic 10 years and the irony of them being called over night successes.  However, back to Coleridge's e-gene traits. According to the research, Richard Branson has four of the traits – disability, risk-lover and optimist, independence and social distinction, and need for achievement/power, whilst Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, possesses three - difficult background, minority/disadvantaged group, and independence and social distinction.

"Having researched entrepreneurs' personalities and traits, most of the successful possess an effectual logic – an approach to solving a problem that starts not with the desired end but with the available means, limiting the risk of failure," he adds.

Which pretty much sums me up.

And for the record I have all six traits - which cannot be healthy. 

But not everyone agrees (which is good otherwise the world would be boring) as serial entrepreneur Jonathan Richards believes that an entrepreneurial mindset is the sum of all our experiences and it is not something that we are born with.

"An entrepreneur is created when an idea comes together with a person who is happy to balance creativity and management; understand, live with and manage risk; evangelise the idea in the face of negativity; and stay responsive and positive," he says.

However, if you see the six traits, less than half are you born with. 

Former Dragons' Den judge and founder of School for Startups Doug Richard also believes that nobody is ‘born’ an entrepreneur and that entrepreneurship can most definitely be taught.

But he would as he teaches it. And very well might I add. Sometimes with my help.

What Doug says is...

"If you give a group of people a violin, certain people will have a natural ability of course, but that becomes irrelevant if everybody is given a chance to learn and practice. We all need to do exactly that in whatever we choose to do professionally or otherwise. Nobody can claim to be born an entrepreneur, and nobody wakes up one day with a successful business and brand. Hard work, mistakes and a determined attitude combined with the right support at the right time are the not-so-magic formula."

After reading the Outliners book and others it would seem that 10,000 hours should do the trick and then everyone would be entrepreneurs. The problem with this thinking is that some personality types, many of whom I have met now as I have had a job, simply wouldn't want to ever become a entrepreneur.

Perhaps entrepreneurship it is like greatness. Some are born great, some make themselves great and some lucky ones through clever marketing and PR have greatness thrust upon them! :)

Either way it is with the spirit of an entrepreneur I create my consultancy contract for working with a geo location mobile software specialist start up called Justaxi.  They have a great technology, an eager investment team, some real pedigree in entrepreneurship on the board, a great culture and new team (lead by me) and an amazing £1 billion market to aim at.

I am going to do their marketing and business development, bringing in social and mobile, maybe even a bit of augmented reality, definitely some gamification for the app experience and loads of digital guerrilla marketing ... as a consultant at first.... but you never know I might let them employ me :) 

Mobile, gaming, education, and augmented reality!

I have been away to Singapore and thinking, talking and meeting people and organizations in there about mobile augmented reality. So interesting to find out that whilst I was there that researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) say some students taking part in a trial have shown an improvement in retaining information after playing an iPad-based game.

So mobile, gaming and augmented reality - all my favourite things :)

According to the University, a group of 36 Secondary One students from Outram Secondary School showed a 22 per cent improvement in learning outcomes after the game. Which could be great news for a couple of companies I spoke to last year who wanted to bring in augmented reality to education - where I think it would work as well!

The game, based on a chapter in the Secondary One History syllabus, makes use of augmented reality (AR) to bring history to life for students.

The game, "The Jackson Plan", is named after Sir Stamford Raffles's town planner Lieutenant Philip Jackson.

His plan of the Singapore River in 1822 forms the game's storyline.

Raymond Koh, research designer at Keio-NUS Connective Ubiquitous Technology and Embodiments (CUTE) Center said: "Lieutenant Jackson actually designed a segregation plan for the population of immigrants. And we looked at the sort of activities that these people did at the time to motivate narrative and game structure."

Under the trial, students were shown a fragment of the map of old Boat Quay.

Their task was to find the missing pieces of the map.

"They have to learn to analyse, to organise all the information so that they can find out who is the one who stole the map," said Deidra Wong, social science researcher (education) at NUS.

Along the way, students learn more about history with the help of AR.

"AR is basically representing virtual content in physical spaces. So you can interact with these sort of information in real time," said Mr Koh.

Talks are already underway for a licensing agreement to use "The Jackson Plan" as a supplement for students.

Dr Henry Duh, co-director of Keio-NUS CUTE Center said: "Since the project is quite successful and it proves to be quite effective, we hope we can work with other schools to roll out and deploy such mobile AR education tools and to help the students to learn about their neighbourhoods and engage them in their community."

Designers and researchers at the Keio-NUS CUTE Center took three-and-a-half months to come up with the game. Which doesnt seem like tooo long. Perhaps worth looking into for Great Marketing Works as well as some of our clients as well.

Stop believing in luck by Shed Simove

This is all taken from his piece in business zone - and as I am a massive fan - I pop it here so I can read it when I am not working.

Right now I am working for Blippar - the mobile augmented reality specialists - which is interesting as they seem to keep on succeeding and succeeding... They / we won another award last night for the ground breaking work with Shortlist magazine.

But that's another story - and one for a client - not for me. So as Shed says he is a "firm believer that in business personal development should be compulsory for everyone. We should all learn how to be become fulfilled, decent members of society and ones that are easily capable of making our dreams come true.

Instead of learning techniques for success, most people grow up with snippets of information gleaned from common knowledge. The problem is that these snippets don’t often deliver the whole truth about the process of how to achieve any goal you might have, and sometimes make it seem like something to avoid.

Here’s one such snippet you’ll most certainly have heard, 'If at first you don't succeed try and try again'. This is wrong, if you keep trying and keep failing then you need to change strategy to have any chance of being successful.

Persistence alone however, is simply not enough. Instead, what you need to do is persist and evolve your approach to success. 'Never giving up' is fine (and necessary), but simply doing the same thing over again may well only deliver the same results. This is why you must frequently change your approach or – even better – try lots of different strategies at the same time. The more opportunities you work on simultaneously the greater chance you have that one will turn into a success – so always try and keep a broad focus.

The successful writer and playwright Samuel Beckett also had his own version of this idea. He said: 'Try Again. Fail again. Fail better'. In saying 'Fail better', Beckett neatly forces your brain to re-understand that failing is something necessary, beneficial and worth striving for. This is one of the single biggest lessons a businessperson must comprehend.

Here's a thought that comforts me when I encounter a setback or challenge (much better words than failure), 'A failure is simply something which tells you that you’re nearer to your goal.' If you fail at something you learn from it and don’t make the same mistake again. You have improved your knowledge and as such, are more likely to become successful in future.

Here's another big tip for success: banish the word 'luck' from your vocabulary. When it comes to success there is no such thing as luck. In fact, the truth of the matter is quite different – and should make you feel incredibly empowered. The fact is that nothing happens without you making it happen.

'Luck' is often used as an excuse by people who don't want to try to attain success or by people who want to give up. These people might say, ‘Other people are far luckier than me’ or ‘My luck has run out and so I can’t reach my goal’. Nonsense! These attitudes are very dangerous because they suggest that your life is controlled by external factors that are uncontrollable by you.

Well I'm here to tell you different: luck is a myth and you can control pretty much everything as a businessman.

Rather than waiting for luck to happen to us, we must realise that we alone are responsible for what happens in our life. The key is to take control and create situations that allow good things (or ‘lucky things’ as some people wrongly call them) to happen.

The concept of being lucky is a falsehood and here is a good example of putting yourself in a position to be lucky.

When I made some of my first gift products, a big firm in the US asked me to develop another item that went on to sell more than the original product I’d sold them. This happened when I released a novelty item called 'The Parent–Child Contract Pad' (a simple notepad that mimics a formal contract for adults and kids to fill in) and the buyers at the gift chain told me that they wanted another item to sit next to the pad on their shelves and have even broader appeal. I quickly suggested an idea to the fantastic partner company I was working with at the time, and we went on to release the ‘Sound Machine’ (a little plastic box that plays sixteen different sounds, from applause to explosions – and even burping). It went on to be a surprise hit around the world.

This may have been a fortunate outcome but, that example of success wasn’t down to luck, it was down to the fact that I’d created a product in the first place that gave me the chance to be lucky in the future. I’d bought a ticket and therefore had given myself the opportunity of winning the raffle."

All wise words - not surprising as Shed Simove is author of Success Or Your Money Back.

Can the Lone Wolf become a pack leader.... should they even want to?

There is something unique about entrepreneurs and the way they work. Spontaneous, driven, constantly on the go, they focus all their time and energy on bringing their business ideas to life. And if their ideas fail, they go back to the drawing board and start again. So writes Alison in Entrepreneur Country.

They are the lone wolves of the business world, relying only on themselves for inspiration and successful at innovating in isolation; until a business idea takes off and then requires the input of skills, expertise and manpower. Very quickly, the lone wolf entrepreneur has to become a people manager, delegator, influencer; a leader of the pack.

It’s a huge transition and it raises the question; can brilliant entrepreneurs become great leaders?

On the face of it, the qualities associated with the two roles couldn’t be more different.

Entrepreneurs create something out of nothing. They channel all their energies into turning ideas into viable business innovations.

Leaders draw on and direct the energies of the people around them to achieve their business objectives.

Entrepreneurs work ridiculously long hours and don’t sleep. Well, not much, especially when they are on the verge of a big break.

Leaders have to set an example to their team by working comparatively sensible hours; occasionally long, but no all-nighters.

Entrepreneurs don’t like to delegate; that feels like a loss of control over their business and its direction.

Leaders recognise delegation as a key business strategy. Handing tasks and responsibilities over to those with more relevant skills leaves them free to focus on business development.

Does this mean that entrepreneurs can’t be leaders? Steve Jobs did both, brilliantly. He innovated and then created a workplace culture of innovation, because he knew he wasn’t going to succeed on his own. Young entrepreneurs are often described as the leaders of tomorrow, and if they are to make it from lone wolf to head of the business pack, these are some of the steps they’ll need to take.

Network – Once your business starts to grow you’ll need to think about bringing in outside skills and expertise. Networking is the key to finding the people who can provide them, who may eventually become key members of your business team.

Share – As an entrepreneur you have the vision and the drive to take your business concept to the next level. Share your vision with the people in your team, inspire and engage them, and you’ll take it much further.

Let Go – A lone wolf in business is also a Jack-of-all-trades; responsible for every aspect of the operation. Let others share the workload and take on the tasks they are best equipped to handle, and you’ll have more time to work on your next big business idea.

This one is going to take some doing. Letting go. So I am going to do something to help myself with this and ask other people about our new idea. Market research might will pivot massmob - A portal for pay as you go brand able mobile games. Into something else entirely.

Grow – Whether entrepreneurial talent is a product of nature or nurture is a matter for debate, but there is no question that leadership skills can be learned. Take advantage of formal training programmes or coaching and mentoring sessions to continue growing and developing them.

When you focus on what’s being removed, it’s easier to understand the revolution

This mini blog by seth godin - is so wonderfully wise that I pop it hear to remind myself.

When you focus on what’s being removed, it’s easier to understand the revolution

We remove shelf space as a limiting factor in books.

We remove the cost of polycarbonate as a cost factor in CDs.

We remove paper as an expense in magazines.

We remove the number of channels as a limiter in the broadcast of TV.

These are not small changes. These are revolutionary shifts in what’s scarce and what’s not.

If you are still organized around them, you will fail. If you embrace their removal, you’ve got a chance.

Which is why we at Massmob - are going to create a market place for mini mobile games which removes the marketing company!

Unlucky, Great Marketing Works - you just got disrupted!

Not enough pennies in Britain - maybe there is....

Malcolm Evans in his excellent blog - Corporate Finance North West - has made a great point. And so I have popped it below.He was chatted about:

"the seemingly endless overhang of investment funds in the region – VC, PE, mezzanine, banks saying they want to lend, the RGF, the BGF……goodness you’d think that potential growth companies could gorge themselves in a region flowing in milk and honey. (Not something we have seen at goAugmented - the independent Augmented reality development company I have been working with.)

Somehow, through, all this seems to work like the amusement arcade penny falls – money accumulates and accumulates but precious little of it ever seems to tumble out.

And I am absolutely convinced about what is going on – it is a situation which has long been evident but which has been radically heightened post-Credit Crunch.

Just about all of the tides of capital are looking to drip feed super-performance. By this I mean that they will only cherry pick the prospect of exceptional returns over relatively short periods. That disqualifies the vast majority of the business world, which I categorise as performance. I would estimate that some 2% of the SME market comprises super-performance and 98% performance.

Just as debt is an inappropriate funding vehicle for financing the development effort of a pre-revenue digital startup, so venture capital will also likely be inappropriate for replacing plant within a long-established componetry supplier embedded deeply within multi-national supply chains.

There are many such subtleties – and, indeed, thousands of funding applications out there that are sheer rubbish! But the trend is that just about everything sub the bottom end of super-performance, or at least the very top end of performance, is too often no longer getting a look-in.

We have become very poor capitalists – possibly the worst at any time since the Industrial Revolution. State initiatives tend to end up mired in the “mushy middle” of public sector bodies which appear more and more to be creeping back to swallow up cash, if, for that matter, many of them actually went away in the first place.

The banks have decidedly – and often by their own admission – undergone a revised risk profiling. Whilst the question used to be “is this business and this person capable of repaying this loan”, lending assessment has now entered the realms of super-performance. Just being good enough in business to service loans is no longer deemed good enough. But performance is enough – it is what makes the economy go round. The banks don’t do this very much anymore – we need to find ways in which performance is validated with appropriate investment.

We need new funding mechanisms – and we need to be precise, practical and determined about it. There was talk today about regional business investment banks.

That’s great – but we will need to be extremely vigilant and determined lest all the investment money continues just to feed the penny falls operators."

Myself I am wondering if Malcolm has every heard of the likes of USA crowdfunding portal Kickstarter which seems to be doing rather well.

It is interesting what this all might mean for finance. As Fred Wilson from America rightly points out here... in Gigacom.

And I think it is this crowdfunding route I am going to go down with for my next venture in mobile marketing - Massmob - a platform for mobile game developers for the business to business market place.

The question is.... is it a good idea?

Worth thinkg about after a training session with New Directions - 7 Ways to Disrupt your Chosen Industry

I just finished a rather lovely trainig half day with MMU and some fine students who wish to take a New Direction in life and maybe start their own businesses.

I was, of course, talking mainly about guerrilla marketing and the amazing changes that digital marketing and mobile marketing are bringing to the world.

I then read the below from Fast Company - and loved it so much - I had to pop it below. So there you go.

To all of your reading this blog from New Directions - congrats to you and good luck with the new year ahead.

Just remember... Massive disruption is coming, and the only question is whether your idea is going to cause it or fall victim to it. Disruption is not easy--either to create or to confront. We have no illusions about that.

But in the spirit of helping established firms best serve their customers, we offer seven ways your firm could disrupt its own industry, raising the standards of customer experience and creating new opportunities for growth:

1) Totally eliminate your industry’s persistent customer pain points.

Each industry has practices that drive customers crazy.

Technology providers drive customers crazy with technical support that often requires long waits on hold and hopelessly complex interactions (“Just find the serial number on the back of your device and type that into the space provided along with your IP address and the exact wording of the error message you encountered”).

Unsurprisingly, this is the exact type of practice that causes customers to believe a company is behaving stupidly.

What practices exist in your industry that drive customers crazy? How do all companies in your industry behave stupidly? Identify these types of practices, and wipe them out.

Think: can we turn our process or perspective around, to look through the customer’s eyes as though they were the company and we were the customers?

2) Dramatically reduce complexity.

As we write this in November 2011, a company we have been tracking for some time--Simple, formerly known as BankSimple--is trying to take a machete to the insanely complex and confusing world of consumer banking.

Recognizing that banks do a pretty good job of managing money but a poor job of managing customers, Simple has been designing vastly simpler customer interfaces and tools.

Simple plans to partner with, not compete against, established banks. They’ll manage the customers while their banking partners manage the money.

The more complex the processes and practices in your industry, the greater your opportunity to gain competitive advantage by simplifying them. Yes, doing so will be very hard. But that’s the whole point; the first firm to do so gains tremendous advantages.

3) Cut prices 90 percent (or more).

Incremental change doesn’t disrupt an industry; radical change does. Radical price reductions require radical new processes and business models. Smartphones and tablets create numerous opportunities to identify these. Recently we replaced a $500 marine navigation unit with a $20 iPad app that works better.

You don’t cut prices by 90 percent through marginal improvements in existing products. You do it by asking, “What problem are we trying to solve for the customer, and how do these disruptive forces create opportunities for us to solve it in a far more efficient manner?”

4) Make stupid objects smart.

We didn’t think this one up. The race is on to make everything smart, and the dumber your products were to begin with, the greater the opportunity to make them smart.

Think of a garbage dumpster that calls central dispatch when it is full, eliminating the need for the customer to do so or your office to send a driver out unnecessarily. That same dumpster could warn the customer when it is overweight, and point out that it would be cheaper to empty it now than to further overfill it.

No offense to dogs, but their collars could alert owners when the dog wanders away, barks excessively, or jumps on the furniture.

Light bulbs could flash before they burn out. Baseballs could announce how fast they were thrown. Plants could politely request water when they are too dry, or shout out when you try to overwater them.

Take every product you sell, and make it smart…or accept the fact that you must forever more compete on price and accept low margins.

5) Teach your company to talk.

Apple's Siri personal assistant on the iPhone allows you to have a conversation with your phone. Your iPhone can now access the Internet as well as the information it stores, both understanding and responding appropriately to your statements.

Flash-forward two to five years from now. What if your company could talk to customers? We don’t mean that your employees talk on behalf on the company. We mean that a digital, computerized persona speaks on behalf of your firm.

It takes orders. It provides support. It answers questions. It upsells. It issues refunds. All of this, and more, in response to verbal requests by customers.

The toughest part of this challenge is not technical, although a few problems still need to be solved.

The tough part is knocking down the walls that separate your databases and departments. It’s deciding whose product gets cross-sold, who gets “credit” for sales, and who “owns” the customer.

Our view is simple. No one owns the customer, and you either do what’s best for the customer or you will lose him. But the real question we want to put forward is this: what happens if your competitors’ companies talk, but yours doesn’t?

6) Be utterly transparent

Think: not just no secrets, but also no spin.

The concepts of social influence and pervasive memory will make it increasingly difficult for companies to hide from dissatisfied customers, negative reviews, and faulty products.

What if your company didn’t simply try to stop hiding, but instead radically embraced the truth? How might it impact your culture to decide that your firm would be the most powerful force in your industry making certain that every speck of the truth was obvious to every customer, analyst, and reviewer?

Would it change your reward systems? Would it impact employee motivation? Might it cause changes in the kind of employees you attract and retain?

We’re pretty opinionated in this regard. The truth is coming, and there’s nothing you can do about it. But most firms won’t recognize this until it happens. Better to get far out in front while confusion reigns.

7) Make loyalty dramatically easier than disloyalty.

According to Don Clark writing in his Wall Street Journal blog, Intel executive Mooly Eden once asked an audience how many had cellphones, and then how many were married.

Then, he asked if any of the married people would be willing to hand over their phone if their spouse lost his or hers. None would. “That is my point,” said Eden. “That is personalization.” By definition, when companies act smart they are personalizing the way they interact with and serve customers. Once you start delivering personalization, you create immense opportunities to make loyalty more convenient than disloyalty:

You can store customer preferences, and act on them.
You can save the customer time, money, or effort--especially by eliminating repetitive tasks.
You can provide auto-replenishment of needed supplies.
You can monitor products remotely, and service them before they break instead of afterwards.

Think about every major purchase decision your customers face in your industry. How can you make it easier for customers to remain with your firm? Now, think even bigger. Can it be five or ten times easier? Subtlety can be lost on today’s customers.

The challenge is to make loyalty so much more convenient, so radically easy, that customers won’t even consider switching to a competitor. Ever.

This is the year of mobile advertising

Justin Barr maybe a little bais as he is chief operations officer of TapIt! but I think he has some good points.

Whether a small business, nonprofit organization or big brand, mobile advertising has proved to be a rapidly growing and effective medium for any business.

This personal medium has taken flight already and is only expected to grow even more in the coming years as mobile proves to be a medium capable of driving brand awareness and affinity, as well as purchases.

In fact, according to eMarketer’s updated analysis, United States mobile ad spend is expected to reach $2.61 billion in 2012 – adjusted from a previous estimate of $1.8 billion. The newly adjusted projection for ad-spend in 2012 in the U.S. is an 80 percent increase over last year’s actual ad spend.

As consumers continue to adopt everything mobile, mobile devices are quickly becoming the preferred way to surf the Web, read books, stream music, watch videos and shop online. Brands are finally beginning to recognize the opportunity that mobile advertising presents to them for targeting their demographics.

This is the year of mobile advertising. Below are some of the reasons why the time for mobile is now.

Although traditional mediums might be struggling to keep advertisers’ budgets in their pockets, mobile advertising has already taken off stealing big spends from other forms of advertising.

Mobile has proven to be an efficient and effective way for brands to reach their target demographics. There are a few main factors driving this change.

First, there are more mobile media buyers entering the market to compete with their competitors and purchase volumes are increasing.

In addition, there are many companies who have tested mobile advertising in its early stage and are now focusing on executing mobile focused campaigns that equate to higher ROI as well as more user engagement.

With the recent explosion of mobile, the demand for mobile application development is significantly growing as the volume of smartphone and tablet devices sold increases. Which is why Great Marketing Works is moving with our clients into apps.

Developers are jumping into creating mobile applications to feed the demand of the market, while also monetizing their applications by serving ads or charging per download.

With developers acting quickly to fill this demand by developing apps for iOS, Android, Windows and Blackberry platforms, mobile inventory is becoming more available and affordable.

In 2010 there was a shortage of mobile inventory due to the lack of smartphone users and no demand. In 2010 the app market only pulled in $1.7 billion.

However, a new report by Forrester Research suggests that the app market will explode to a $38 billion industry by 2015.

Mobile-focused location-based services are bigger and more popular than ever. Which is great news for augmented reality applications on mobile phones too.

Advertisers are beginning to discover the effectiveness and practicality of local and hyperlocal mobile campaigns.

This breakthrough technology using GPS signals can push ads to mobile users to promote events, drive in-store traffic, as well as offer special deals and coupons to users based on their location. This not only provides a solution to businesses looking to reach local consumers, but it also makes advertisements more relevant and useful.

Real-time bidding (RTB)
Real-time bidding, also referred to as RTB, is a real-time auction of mobile inventory.

RTB allows for buyers to compete for and purchase individual impressions that best serve their campaign’s needs.

Both buyers and sellers share the value that RTB presents. Buyers purchase inventory that they want, while publishers and developers benefit by receiving the maximum value for their ad space.

The concept of mobile advertising has been around for over half a decade. However, the ads themselves have held back the full potential of mobile advertising.

Granted banner ads might have been a little uninspiring and dull due to technological limitations. At the end of the day, they were not converting the way advertisers had hoped.

Now, with faster smartphones, improved wireless Internet speeds, and the implementation of HTML5 in most mobile Web browsers, rich media ads are growing in popularity.

Rich media ads include video ad units as well as interstitials, which are more animated and more esthetically pleasing to the eye.

In today’s world, rich media ads make more sense than static ads because consumers demand engaging, entertaining, and enhanced picture quality as technology advances.

Although rich media ads can be a bit more expensive, they have proved to be significantly more effective in the past years, achieving an average of 1.01 percent higher of a click-through-rate when compared to banner ads.

ADVERTISERS, DEVELOPERS AND publishers are spending more time and money on mobile advertising than ever before.

With the explosion of apps and rapid increase of mobile device penetration, the potential of this market is like no other medium we’ve seen before.

Mobile advertising allows advertisers to optimize while also offering its scalability, making it even more effective and unique.

With technology allowing for a successful mobile ecosystem in 2012, the building blocks are now set in place to assist in bridging the gap between opportunity and capability. The time for mobile advertising is now.

It might be over in America - but... what happens over there....

Just read this with interest and then some - all about mobile over in the States. And you know I be loving mobile marketing at the moment - as it's all Losomopho. And the future of #greatmarketing. Which I tweet all about :)

All the below are taken from a report created by Hipcricket Mobile Marketing Survey. The survey was conducted in October via email and is based on 607 respondents.

And they found that stunningly sixty-three percent of smartphone users have visited a retailer’s Web site from their mobile device, compared to 53 percent in 2010. Additionally, 41 percent have done so while in the retail store.

Interestingly, 50 percent have checked a competitor’s mobile Web site while in another store.

Historically, mobile retail sites were lightweight versions of retailers’ PC Web sites. They were mostly relied on for information such as store locations, directions and hours.

All of that has changed. Today, consumers expect mobile-specific retail sites to provide significant benefits to them. And, retailers need to be using their mobile Web sites as a tool to move consumers through the purchase funnel.

Seventy percent of all smartphone users use their device regularly to access the mobile Web.

Smartphone users are accessing mobile retail Web sites to research prices (46 percent), search for coupons and offers (36 percent), research products (28 percent) and purchase products (13 percent).

“Remember, you’re a guest on your customers’ mobile device,” Mr. Harber said. “Be respectful of the opt-in nature of mobile marketing but don’t overstay your welcome.

“Give them useful, compelling content – tips to save time at the holidays, special recipes – and special offers on things you know they want to buy,” he said.

“Whenever possible, use the data in your CRM systems in combination with mobile in order to stay relevant.”

Loyalty
Only 9 percent of survey respondents reported they are being marketed to by their favorite brands on mobile.

However, respondents showed a willingness to join mobile customer relationship management or loyalty programs for their favorite brands. In fact, 33 percent would be interested in joining such a program, but only 12 percent currently participate in one.

Additionally, 75 percent of consumers found value from participating in mobile loyalty clubs.

During the holidays, 61 percent of consumers will likely use their mobile device as a shopping companion.

Overall, 31 percent of all mobile phone users have interacted with a brand through their mobile device and 59 percent of smartphone users have done so.

Also notable, 33 percent of mobile phones users are interested in receiving offers based on time and location. For example, a coupon delivered at noon for $5 off a pizza at a local shop.

“Mobile’s got a seat at the table now – it’s a critical, cross-channel marketing element, rather than a discrete, siloed activity,” Mr. Harber said.

“Increasingly, our customers are seeing the benefits of connecting customer-facing mobile marketing technologies such as mobile retail sites or ongoing SMS campaigns with back-end CRM and enterprise marketing automation solutions,” he said.

“It’s not just about single campaigns any more. Savvy marketers are often beginning with mobile advertising and tying it into a post-click engagement strategy to build an ongoing relationship with customers and prospects.”

Now how we tie this into mobile augmented reality applications we do not know yet.

But we will.

"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand."

You know the drill. I see it, I like it, it appears here.

Just thinking about starting something new. It's been over three years for Great Marketing Works - and the old model for training people face to face paid for by the public purse is dying (or dead.)

Someone a lot wiser than I told me this last year - but as ever I didn't listen.

So in an attempt to not make the same mistake several times I re read the below blog with more interest.

It's taken from http://brandorienteering.com/2011/10/11/value-driven-brands/

As recent events at News Corp have shown values, or the lack of them, play an important role in how a company is run. By values I am not referring to those that have been manufactured in order to provide a solution to a problem or rolled out because the research shows that they will improve the brand image.

The values I’m referring to are neither transitory nor disposable. They are authentic, ingrained, part of the woodwork, for the most part invisible, the very air we breathe. The driving force behind the brand, these are the values that provide a sense of direction and overarching purpose which helps further differentiate the brand from its competitors.

The outdoor clothing company Howies, and Lush cosmetics, have each used their core values to create two very distinctive brand strategies based around their common stance of providing ‘eco’ friendly products. Howies make clothes from natural materials that are designed to last. Lush cosmetics are made from natural ingredients and come with little or no wrapping. The expression of these values, Howies hand me down campaign and for Lush retail outlets that look like grocery stores differentiates both brands from their competitors.

Brands that do not have a ‘values driven’ agenda or are happy to go along with the flavour of the month struggle to develop their own distinctive voice. Adopting a ‘me too’ approach and with it a certain blandness customers are far more likely to find these brands difficult to distinguish from the competition.

In a market place that is overcrowded and where price and quality are no longer guaranteed to distinguish one product or service from another customers are increasingly looking for brands whose values and social outlook is in line with their own – aspired or otherwise.

An increasingly important part of the purchasing mix values provide sticky brands with a social status and with that status a language, which further defines and differentiates the brand.

Ben and Jerry’s ice-cream with ‘its gobs of chocolate chip cookie dough’ is in keeping with the company’s status as a ‘brand of the people.’ This language, which is quite different from that used by Haagen-Dazs, is underpinned by the founders commitment to social justice for everyone. Ben and Jerry’s ‘it’s not fair’ campaign is simply one more expression of this core value. As with all sticky brands Ben and Jerry’s communication never deviates from delivering its core values.

As well as being able to project a single well focused message which has provenance value driven brands have one other distinct advantage over those companies who are content to lead purely on product or service benefits.

While the latter look for people who are qualified, value driven brands look for those who share their values. Having a natural affinity with the product, service or/and underlying ethos of the company they are far more likely to represent the brand in a good light. By insisting that all their employees have a strong sporting background Oakley are ensuring that every department is the sales department.

Walking into a bookstore where the staff are interested in books and walking into one where they are not lends itself to two quite different shopping experiences. In the first the experience is friendly and embracing in the other you are likely to get the impression that they couldn’t care less not just about books; but about you. Not the sort of experience that lends itself to creating a sticky brand.

And I think it is this bit which I will take home the most.

Love what you do. And this will shine through.

I love marketing. So hopefully this will shine through.

But do all the development team at goAugmented love making AR applications for mobile phones. I think this is worth a chat this afternoon.

Should I stay or will I go? What kind of talk is that for a leader?

Leadership has around these parts become a bit of a dirty word as of late.

But as Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader, a great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves.”

So with that in mind I read the following article from http://www.entrepreneur.com/leadersecrets with great interest.

Especially as I may have to forgo being the leader of one ship - for another.

But, as the article rightly points out becoming a great leader isn’t easy. And so deciding to move course mid adventure isn't either.

Successfully maneuvering a team through the ups and downs of starting a new business can be one of the greatest challenges a small-business owner faces. And one I feel might be done better by someone who knows more about the technical side of the business.

Leadership is one of the areas that many entrepreneurs tend to overlook, according leadership coach John C. Maxwell, whose books include The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (Thomas Nelson, 1998) and Developing the Leader Within You (Thomas Nelson, 1993).

“You work hard to develop your product or service. You fight to solve your financial issues. You go out and promote your business and sell your product. But you don't think enough about leading your own people and finding the best staff,” Maxwell says.

It turns out, the skills and talents necessary to guide your team in the right direction can be simple, and anyone with the determination can develop them. Here’s a list of 10 tips drawn from the secrets of successful leaders.

1. Assemble a dedicated team.
Your team needs to be committed to you and the business. Successful entrepreneurs have not only social and selling smarts, but also the know-how to hire effectively, says leadership trainer Harvey Mackay, who wrote Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive (Ivy Books, 1995). “A colossal business idea simply isn't enough. You have to be able to identify, attract and retain talent who can turn your concept into a register-ringing success,” he says. When putting your team together, look for people whose values are aligned with the purpose and mission of your company. Suzanne Bates, a Wellesley, Mass.-based leadership consultant and author of Speak Like a CEO (McGraw Hill, 2005), says her team members rallied around each other during the worst part of the recession because they all believed in what they were doing. “Having people on your team who have tenacity and a candid spirit is really important," she says. It is this team spirit that I need to find again.

2. Overcommunicate.
This one’s a biggie. Even with a staff of only five or 10, it can be tough to know what’s going on with everyone. In an effort to overcommunicate, Bates compiles a weekly news update she calls a Friday Forecast, and emails it to her staff. “My team is always surprised at all the good news I send out each week,” Bates says. “It makes everyone feel like you really have a lot of momentum, even in difficult times.”

3. Don’t assume.
When you run a small business, you might assume your team understands your goals and mission -- and they may. But, everybody needs to be reminded of where the company’s going and what things will look like when you get there. Your employees may ask, “What’s in it for me?” It’s important to paint that picture for your team. Take the time to really understand the people who are helping you build your business. “Entrepreneurs have the vision, the energy, and they’re out there trying to make it happen. But, so often with their staff, they are assuming too much,” says Beverly Flaxington, founder of The Collaborative, a business-advising company in Medfield, Mass. “It’s almost like they think their enthusiasm by extension will be infectious -- but it’s not. You have to bring people into your world and communicate really proactively.” Something I can fail to do.

4. Be authentic.
Good leaders instill their personality and beliefs into the fabric of their organization, Flaxington says. If you be yourself, and not try to act like someone else, and surround yourself with people who are aligned with your values, your business is more likely to succeed, she says. “Every business is different and every entrepreneur has her own personality,” Flaxington says. “If you’re authentic, you attract the right people to your organization -- employees and customers.”

5. Know your obstacles.
Most entrepreneurs are optimistic and certain that they’re driving toward their goals. But, Flaxington says, it’s a short-sighted leader who doesn’t take the time to understand his obstacles. “You need to know what you’re up against and be able to plan around those things,” she says. “It’s folly to think that just because you’ve got this energy and enthusiasm that you’re going to be able to conquer all. It’s much smarter to take a step back and figure out what your obstacles are, so the plan that you’re putting into place takes that into account.”

6. Create a 'team charter.'
Too many new teams race down the road before they even figure out who they are, where they’re going, and what will guide their journey, says Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One-Minute Manager (William Morrow & Co., 1982) and founder of The Ken Blanchard Cos., a workplace- and leadership-training firm. Just calling together a team and giving them a clear charge does not mean the team will succeed.
“It’s important to create a set of agreements that clearly states what the team is to accomplish, why it is important and how the team will work together to achieve the desired results,” says Blanchard, who is based in Escondido, Calif. “The charter provides a record of common agreements and can be modified as the business grows and the team’s needs change.”

7. Believe in your people.
Entrepreneurial leaders must help their people develop confidence, especially during tough times. As Napoleon Bonaparte said, "Leaders are dealers in hope." That confidence comes in part from believing in your team, says Maxwell, who is based in West Palm Beach, Fla. “I think of my people as 10s, I treat them like 10s, and as a result, they try to perform like 10s,” he says. “But believing in people alone isn't enough. You have to help them win.”

8. Dole out credit.
Mackay says a good salesperson knows what the sweetest sound in the world is: The sound of their name on someone else's lips. But too many entrepreneurs think it's either the crinkle of freshly minted currency, or the dull thud of a competitor's body hitting the pavement. “Many entrepreneurs are too in love with their own ideas and don't know how to distribute credit,” Mackay says. “A good quarterback always gives props to his offensive line.”

9. Keep your team engaged.
Great leaders give their teams challenges and get them excited about them, says leadership expert Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Free Press, 1989). He pointed to the example of a small pizza shop in a moderate-sized town that was killing a big fast-food chain in sales. The big difference between the chain and the small pizza joint was the leader, he says. Every week he gathered his teenage employees in a huddle and excitedly asked them: “What can we do this week that we’ve never done before?” The kids loved the challenge. They started texting all their friends whenever a pizza special was on. They took the credit-card machine to the curb so passing motorists could buy pizza right off the street. They loaded up a truck with hot pizzas and sold them at high-school games. The money poured in and the store owner never had problems with employee turnover, says Covey, who is based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

10. Stay calm.
An entrepreneur has to backstop the team from overreacting to short-term situations, says Mackay, who is based in Minneapolis. This is particularly important now, when news of the sour economic environment is everywhere. “The media has been hanging black crepe paper since 2008,” he says. “But look at all the phenomenal companies and brands that were born in downturns, names like iPod, GE and Federal Express.”

And it is this LAST point which is the most important for me - and the take home moment. Perhaps I will lead the lads @goaugmented after all. It was just with so many people entering the Augmented Reality Mobile Applications market I was starting to lose sight of the end goal.

We have a great team and a great chance.

Now it is time for me to be a great leader.

"Few of our own failures are fatal," economist and Financial Times columnist writes in his new book:

Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure.

 

Which I loved so much I will copy the whole article down here to remember. 

 

According to Adapt, "success comes through rapidly fixing our mistakes rather than getting things right first time." To prove his point, Harford cites compelling examples innovation by trial-and-error from visionaries as varied as choreographer Twyla Tharp and US Forces Commander David Petraeus.

I interviewed Harford over email to dig deeper into the counter-intuitive lessons ofAdapt. What follows is a series of key takeaways on the psychology of failure and adaptation, combining insights from our conversation and the book itself.

The Wrong Way To React To Failure
When it comes to failing, our egos are our own worst enemies. As soon as things start going wrong, our defense mechanisms kick in, tempting us to do what we can to save face. Yet, these very normal reactions -- denial, chasing your losses, and hedonic editing -- wreak havoc on our ability to adapt.

Denial. "It seems to be the hardest thing in the world to admit we've made a mistake and try to put it right. It requires you to challenge a status quo of your own making."

Chasing your losses. We're so anxious not to "draw a line under a decision we regret" that we end up causing still more damage while trying to erase it. For example, poker players who've just lost some money are primed to make riskier bets than they'd normally take, in a hasty attempt to win the lost money back and "erase" the mistake.

Hedonic editing. When we engage in "hedonic editing," we try to convince ourselves that the mistake doesn't matter, bundling our losses with our gains or finding some way to reinterpret our failures as successes.

 

We're so anxious not to "draw a line under a decision we regret" that we end up causing still more damage while trying to erase it.

 

 

The Recipe for Successful Adaptation
At the crux of Adapt lies this conviction: In a complex world, we must use an adaptive, experimental approach to succeed. Harford argues, "the more complex and elusive our problems are, the more effective trial and error becomes." We can't begin to predict whether our "great idea" will actually sink or swim once it's out there. 

Harford outlines three principles for failing productively: You have to cast a wide net, "practice failing" in a safe space, and be primed to let go of your idea if you've missed the mark.

Try new things. "Expose yourself to lots of different ideas and try lots of different approaches, on the grounds that failure is common."

Experiment where failure is survivable. "Look for experimental approaches where there's lots to learn - projects with small downsides but bigger upsides. Too often we take on projects where the cost of failure is prohibitive, and just hope for the best."

Recognize when you haven't succeeded. "The third principle is the easiest to state and the hardest to stick to: know when you've failed."

 

The more complex and elusive our problems are, the more effective trial and error becomes.

 

 

How To Recognize Failure
This is the hard part. We've been trained that "persistence pays off," so it feels wrong to cut our losses and label an idea a failure. But if you're truly self-aware and listening closely after a "release" of your idea, you can't go wrong. Being able to recognize a failure just means that you'll be able to re-cast it into something more likely to succeed.

Gather feedback. "Above all, feedback is essential for determining which experiments have succeeded and which have failed. Get advice, not just from one person, but from several." Some professions have build-in feedback: reviews if you're in the arts, sales and analytics if you release a web product, comments if you're a blogger. If the feedback is harsh, be objective, "take the venom out," and dig out the real advice.

Remove emotions from the equation. "It's important to be dispassionate: forget whether you're ahead or behind, and try to look at the likely costs and benefits of continuing from when you are." 

Don't get too attached to your plan. "There's nothing wrong with a plan, but remember Von Moltke's famous dictum that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. The danger is a plan that seduces us into thinking failure is impossible and adaptation is unnecessary - a kind of ‘Titanic' plan, unsinkable (until it hits the iceberg)."

 

Being able to recognize a failure just means that you'll be able to re-cast it into something more likely to succeed.

 

 

Creating Safe Spaces to Fail
Twyla Tharp says, "The best failures are the private ones you commit in the confines of your own room, with no strangers watching." She rises as 5:30 AM and videotapes herself freestyling for 3 hours each morning, happy if she extracts just 30 seconds of usable material from the whole tape. This is a great example of a "safe space to fail." But many of us don't have this luxury of time or freedom. So how do we create this space?

Practice disciplined pluralism. Markets work by this process, encouraging the exploration of many new ideas as well as the ruthless weeding out of the ones that fall short. "Pluralism works because life is not worth living without new experiences." Try a lot of things, and commit only to what's working.

Finding "a safe space to fail is a state of mind." Assuming that you don't operate a nuclear power plant for a living, you can probably infuse a bit more freedom and flexibility into your workday. Give yourself permission to test out a few off-the-wall ideas mixed in with the by-the-book ideas.

Imitate the college experience. "College is an amazing safe space to fail. We are experimenting with new friends, a new city, new hobbies and new ideas - and we'll often mess up academically and socially as a result. But we know that as long as we don't screw up too dramatically, we'll finish college, graduate, and move on - that mix of risk and safety is intoxicating. Yet somehow as we grow older we lose it."

 

The above is soooo right as we here at goAugmented are finding out as we experiment with mobile Augmented reality applications - not all of them are right. In fact, most are wrong - but after reading this we can see why :)