Big Sign Up

58,000 have signed up so far for the upcoming  free Stanford AI course.  All about it and the rush to learn about artificial intelligence.  We worked with Stanford and Stanford alumni in the AI space.

Apple Augmented Reality

A detailed view of how Apple appears to be looking at augmented reality using a map + compass approach.   Based on Apple patents, so it is unclear how this might ultimately play in real systems.  Also interesting discussion of the shortcomings of current augmented reality approaches.

Hanging Out in Google+ For Business

An interesting example of how food innovators are using Google+ to interact with consumers.   My first impression was that this might a useful way to link researchers and groups of consumers.  I recall it used to be quite a bit of work to orchestrate this kind of interaction.  " ... those who are using the service are doing so in interesting ways such as: using it as a platform for content distribution and sharing, a cooking school, a market research tool, a social feature to integrate into a mobile application, an interactive education platform, and as a collaboration tool. Across the board, it seems that everyone is embracing the enhanced level of interactivity this social platform offers ... ".   Looks like it would be useful for many kinds of consumer research in multiple moments of truth.

IBM Announces a Brain Chip

IBM has announced a new working chip  " ...  an experimental computer chip that emulates the way the brain processes information. IBM’s so-called cognitive computing chips could one day simulate and emulate the brain’s ability to sense, perceive, interact and recognize — all tasks that humans can currently do much better than computers can ... ".

The human brain and computer, getting closer together in possibilities. 

Drug Vending Machines

Vending machines.  Having seen them used to considerable effect in Japan, have always been interested in their application. Now they are vending drugs.

Gamification the Next Big Thing for Business?

Serious Games from Knowledge@Wharton, from the recent conference:

" ... Gamification -- the application of online game design techniques in non-game settings -- has been quickly gaining the attention of leaders in business, education, policy and even terrorist communities. But gamification also has plenty of critics, and the debate over its future could become an epic battle in the same vein of many online game favorites. This special report includes coverage of a recent Wharton conference titled, "For the Win: Serious Gamification," in addition to interviews with conference participants who discuss the use of gamification in business, government and other arenas....  "

P&G's Tremor Launches Debit Card

Procter & Gamble's fabled word of mouth group Tremor, built during the early days of consumer social network understanding,  has not been in the news lately,  now news it is trying something quite new:

"Procter & Gamble Co.Latest from The Business JournalsNo need to fear the rise of service industries BVI Networks helps retailers track customer behaviorGrowth spurs advisory firms to expandFollow this compan Tremor word-of-mouth marketing division and its Vocalpoint online community have partnered with BillMyParents to offer a six-month “free trial” of its Spend Smart Card, a prepaid debit card targeted to teens ... "

New Science of Retailing

Wharton Prof Marshall Fisher discusses his recently published book:  The New Science of Retailing.  I have read the book, and have reviewed and mentioned it in this blog a number of times, highly recommended.  Here he emphasises the key issue of what data is required to make decisions.   This post nicely summarizes what I worked on for most of my early career.

" ... In today's economy, retailers are hard pressed to increase revenues. Among the biggest challenges they face is matching supply with demand. In The New Science of Retailing: How Analytics Are Transforming the Supply Chain and Improving Performance, Wharton professor Marshall Fisher and co-author Ananth Raman argue that retailers have the data they need to manage supply chains more efficiently and increase sales and profits. Knowledge@Wharton spoke with Fisher about what types of data are most important for retailers to collect, how they can use this information to identify home-run products and why the retailing industry might be missing as much as one-third of potential sales ... "

EZ Face Virtual Mirror

I just posted some questions about implementations of EZ Face Virtual Mirror  and got the following response, Thanks!

Following your post about the Virtual Mirror, here is some information about our retail project:

Duane Read – We have a kiosk at the new store at 40 Wall street. Also attached is a video that introduces our technology at DR store.
Douglas (Germany) – We have started a rollout of our kiosks in Douglas retail chain in Germany.
Galleries Lafayette (France) – We have some kiosks in GL stores in France.
Carrefour Planet (France) – We have started a rollout of our kiosks in Carrefour Planet retail chain in France ... 

 Some good examples, see the links to the above.  Good to see this is moving forward.I liked what I saw when I looked at it a number of years ago. 

Maga Design Group

Maga Design Group See their site for interesting examples of their mapping visuals, at the right a visual about supply chain design, they also have an interesting blog on information design.   I like what I see there because it brings some useful detail  to the visualization component.   I am frustrated by infographics that obscure the details far behind the visuals.  Training and understanding the process are key elements. Talking to them now.

Tide and Green Dry Cleaning

In the WSJ:

With research from Procter & Gamble showing many consumers are not happy with dry cleaning, the company has launched Tide Dry Cleaners stores, which have valets to carry clothes to and from customer cars and machines that are visible. The company expects to have several hundred locations within a few years ... "

Appeal of Store Brands Grows

There is a continued growing interest in private label brands.  Shoppers see them as lower cost, and retailers as higher profit.   And they piggyback off the marketing messages of name brands.

Innovation Excellence Site

Brought to my attention by former colleague Julie Anixter.  Innovation Excellence.  I have been invited to participate, will cross post and point to interesting things there as I learn more.   Check it out. 

" ... Welcome to the world’s most popular innovation blog, featuring regular contributions from the brightest minds in the field of enterprise innovation — thought leaders, practitioners, consultants, vendors, and academia. Innovation Excellence is proud to bring you the best of the best, helping you keep up with the latest insights from the field, while also providing you the opportunity to make your own contribution to the future of innovation ... "

NFC Technology at the Shelf Edge

Location based ideas at the shelf edge are increasing.  Check in and out of your favorite aisle, category, brand.    Obvious useful for retail and brand level loyalty ideas, and much more is possible.

3GTV Networks is adding near-field communication technology to its shelf-edge device capability. "We see NFC as the ideal technology for enabling new approaches to 'check-ins,' integrating social media into the physical store, and rethinking how we reward loyalty and encourage discovery and sharing," said a company executive  ...

EZFace Mirror Kiosk

I mentioned a test of this idea in a limited number of Wal-Mart stores last year.  A Virtual Mirror that allows you to see cosmetics, glasses, etc on your own face.   Looking for some confirmation of it still being in progress. Indications of results?   Anyone know?   Please comment or contact me.  The apparent reasoning behind its installation in stores was to decrease the number of cosmetics returns.   It can be tried online.  A quick look at the EZFace site makes no mention of a Wal-Mart test, or any other in retail.  Tell me otherwise and I will report here.   An example of in store merchandising technology we are interested in researching further. 

Update: See the response to the questions above from EZFace
.

Kraft Using Emotional Profiling

Have looked at a number of related methods,  see also Dan Hill's book: About Face, which I previously posted about.   Should these higher level methods be combined with brain sensor neuromarketing techniques?

Kraft system measures consumer reactions
Kraft Foods has developed sophisticated methods for evaluating the emotional connection between consumers and products. The system looks at consumer responses to specific attributes of products, particularly in new products and relaunches ...

Designing for Collaboration and Mobility Plus Circles

Have recently seen several examples of companies handing out large numbers of tablets and phone Apps, without really thinking through the entire process.  Here in Technology Review:   Designing Around Collaboration and Mobility: Technology shift sparks a rethinking of conventional office space.  With mobile devices invading the workplace and more workers telecommuting, many companies—and the design firms that serve them—are rapidly changing their thinking about conventional office space ...  "

What is discussed is fairly obvious and being done in the enterprise already.  I am inclined to think there are other ideas, inspired by Google Circles, and even Flash Mobs, that can drive specific expertise to the work more rapidly than ever before, and does not require the traditional office. 

P&G Moves Toward Continual Marketing Analysis

This is the future, providing continuous analysis to key measures  and making sure the right people get the data at the right time.

Procter & Gamble is working with Nielsen and DemandTec to monitor the results of market spending in real time, instead of after the fact. The goal is "continuous measurement and scenario planning," said a P&G spokesman, so marketing efforts can be continually changed based on what is working. Advertising Age

Luckiest Generation

MJ Perry on the youngest generation.  At least technologically, and even at a minimum wage job,  quite remarkable.

Who Uses Mag 2-D Barcodes?

In ADAge: Key findings " ...  Among Readers Who Saw Ads with Codes, 4% Snapped a Picture, Gfk MRI Starch Research Says : As quickly as interactive 2-D barcodes and symbols have spread through magazines -- check out Glamour's September issue, where you can scan Social SnapTags to "like" an advertiser on Facebook and get special offers -- it's been hard to tell how many readers actually use the things ... "

Google to Buy Motorola

We worked with Motorola and Symbol, a company it bought,  to understand technology in retail.  Now Google is buying Motorola for an estimated 12 Billion.  Google and retail devices?

Gesture Technology

Gestures are a way to have consumers interact with systems in retail.  One of our areas of exploration was to understand this dynamic.  The Canadian form GestureTek was one companies we worked with.  I was reminded of their abilities recently:

GestureTek™ is the pioneer, multiple patent-holder and world-leader in camera-enabled gesture-recognition technology for presentation and entertainment systems. Back in 1986, we invented and shaped the field of 'applied computer vision' for computer-human interaction.

The company's multi-patented video gesture control technology (VGC) lets users control multi-media content, access information, manipulate special effects, even immerse themselves in an interactive 3D virtual world – simply by moving their hands or body. We deliver Wii-like gesture-control without the need to wear, hold or touch anything. View our [Company Fact Sheet].

In the past 20 years, GestureTek has installed well over 4,000 interactive multi-media displays, kiosks, exhibits, digital signs and advertisements, virtual gaming systems and other interactive surface computing solutions, many with multi-touch interactivity.

Our technology is used in museums, science centers, amusement parks, trade shows, retail locations, bars & nightclubs, real estate presentation centers, corporate showrooms, boardrooms, digital signage networks and other public spaces such as airports and stadiums. We’re also revolutionizing television production, game development, advertising, virtual videoconferencing, and even the healthcare sector, by applying our technology in unique and innovative ways. GestureTek was originally known as JesterTek and Vivid Group.

MobileWorks: Mobile Human Sourcing Intelligence

Long a follower of human and by extension crowd sourcing human intelligence tasks. Humans are just much better at efficiently performing certain tasks than machines, so why not use humans as a means to solve those task and pass the results to machines to integrate and aggregate the results.  Systems  like Amazon's Mechanical Turk have addressed this capability, and we used it to test the idea.  Yet the MT has difficulties related  to checking and determining the results of such tests.  Now a new idea called Mobileworks to address that issue that is worth a look.  In particular it sources intelligence via mobile:

" ... MobileWorks knows this, but it thinks there’s a better solution than micromanagement. The company has set out to build a workforce comprised exclusively of workers who output consistently good results, to the point that users don’t have to worry about managing their tasks. MobileWorks first got its start in January, when it set out to launch a service for crowd-sourcing tasks that would be completed exclusively by workers on mobile devices (in other words, people would be entering data from their cell phones). The company began approaching mobile retailers in India, asking them to identify and recruit customers who might serve as good candidates. The retailer’s incentive? Anyone wanting to be a MobileWorks worker would need a mobile data plan ... "

If Berners-Lee Had Patented the Web

If Berners-Lee had sought and received a patent for the Web, it would just now be coming out of patent protection.  The consequences of that?  What does that tell us about the patent systems?

Overview of Business Intelligence

A good semi technical overview of BI in CACM:  " ... Business intelligence (BI) software is a collection of decision support technologies for the enterprise aimed at enabling knowledge workers such as executives, managers, and analysts to make better and faster decisions ... ". 

Gamification Wiki

This looks to be a useful resource. About game mechanics and other resources.

Open Source Sensing

The Foresight Institute on Open Source Sensing.  " ... Establishing standards now for current and near future widespread sensing based upon smart phones owned by individual members of the public will set precedence for considering the future in which MEMS and nanotechnology will make truly ubiquitous and thorough sensing inexpensive.... "

How an Innovation Effort can get it Right, Mostly

A very good post and video about how newspapers saw their future in the early 1990s.   Which describes how  a Knight Ridder innovation group saw the future of the newspaper. They show a format looking and operating much like a tablet device looks today.  The effort reminds me of our own innovation centers, which looked at the interaction of shopper with home and store.  At our innovation center we were fairly sure then about how the future would look and operate. RFID tags on smart shelves and constant retailer orchestrated shelf-shopper interaction in the aisle.  We were wrong about some of the important details.

Watch the linked video for full effect.  Despite the fact that they were using a pen rather than a touch screen, the similarity of their device to an iPad interaction is uncanny.  And they were interested in the additional complexity of interactive advertising.   They knew this would all happen.  What they did not realize was that it would be orchestrated differently.  Hints in the video show that they knew that the user could control the form and context of their content,  but they did not realize the extent to which search would become a dominant metaphor. Or that a user could decide precisely what they saw, essentially writing off the dominance of the newspaper format. Or that there would be strongly competing formats, like blogs, personal 'face pages', newsfeeds or short messages.  All of this would compete with their financial model, threatening their existence.

I note that the Knight Ridder Information Design lab described in the video  was shut down in 1995.  Perhaps too early?  Procter & Gamble's Innovation Centers have flourished and exist worldwide.

Business Intelligence Total Cost of Ownership

Mark Montgomery points me to a post on Boris Evelson's blog on Forrester's site regarding the total cost of BI ownership.   Some very good comment interaction including some thoughts by Mark:

" ... Let's not forget that buyer beware rules in BI just as it does in most markets, and therefore customer sophistication and internal experience/talent/knowledge is likely the most determining factor (if you don't see a fool sitting around the table.... look in a mirror--that includes enterprise software architects by the way). It's also impossible to relate consulting services to software price tag without drilling down on data silos and integration costs -- still a huge variant there as evidenced by the U.S. Army SAP project among others.

As demand partially suggests (sales tactics notwithstanding), there is a lot of value in technologies related to BI, and as we see in the vendor list mentioned above quite a lot of differentiation in how to structure, collect, analyze, and present data for decision making. In the vast majority of cases I've studied, particularly in crisis prevention, it only requires one accurate decision to pay for the entire investment many times over -- it would be irresponsible to forget that rather dominant fact ... "

I hope this draws you to the blog and conversation.   TCO in the BI world is important.  I wrestled with it in the enterprise where we tended to be lax about what was 'allowed' and thus overpaid more than we thought. 

Replacing Wi-Fi

LED lights can be flickered very quickly to transmit data.   It could replace Wi-Fi under some  conditions, though it does require line of sight or easily reflected situations, while radio frequencies can go through walls.

Sands Research on Neuromarketing

Sand's most recent newsletter on neuroscience methods covers a number of interesting papers and articles on the topic.  If you have not read about neuromarketing or have not followed it recently, this is the time to catch up.  As I have mentioned recently many large marketers are involved.   I especially like the note on  Shopper insight explosion, my specialty. 

" ... In this issue:
 * A White Paper on Finding the Sweet Spot between Neuroscience and Quantitative Research
 * Fast Company Article on Neuormarketing in the September Issue
 * Sands Research Ranked 19th in Top 50 of Innovative MR Firms
 * Shopper Insight Explosion
 * Ni Hao (Hello) Beijing - Neuromarketing in China    ...  "

Personal Computer in the Executive Suite

I saw this post about IBM's first personal computer, not the consumer PC, but the IBM 5150.   In 1981 we received a loaner from IBM.  One ended up in our Chairman's office where he and I programmed it in an early attempt to provide just in time data about sales performance and other Enterprise measures.  Surprising to me he was very interested in the details of a personal computer.  An Executive Information System.  His direct reports were nervous about the idea and the accuracy of the data.   We learned much about  the organizational dynamics of giving decision support at this level. This was the first time an executive in our company had a computer on their desk.  It was not until much later when the Web emerged did we see that happen again.

Made in China Spending

MJ Perry on US consumer spending on goods made in China.  Less than 2%.  Surprising that it is so low.

Amex Gives You Credit for Network

Interesting development I was late to:

" ... Creating a social network is so last week. Today, American Express is unveiling a social media platform called "Link, Like, Love" that gives card members personalized deals on Facebook based on their social graph, while also giving businesses an easy way to set up shop on different social networks. Local and national merchants are already signed on to the program, which dynamically updates new deals in a dashboard tailored to a cardholder's likes, interests, and friends.

The platform is very similar to one AmEx launched recently with Foursquare. With 750 million people on Facebook and 10 million on Foursquare, American Express suddenly becomes a powerful player in the increasingly popular (and crowded) deals space. More and more competitors are entering the landscape, from startups like Square to established players like PayPal. But by leveraging the company's reach--the millions of merchants and cardholders using AmEx--the company hopes to provide a scalable solution for businesses and simplify the fragmented e-commerce space for consumers .... "

Shopping in 3D

Is it more fun to shop online in 3D rather than 2D?  I experimented with this concept in the seminal virtual community Second Life, and found it less than satisfying.  The thought was to use virtual environments to experiment with real shopping spaces and track interactions.  An interesting article in e-Commerce Times  on new companies and developments in this space. ...

"  ... Shopping has traditionally involved an element of seeing, touching and feeling a product before buying. Shopping online, however, hasn't ever quite replicated that experience. That is, until now. With the advent of 3D technologies, online shopping is on the verge of a radical transformation. One new development is the 3D shopping mall. Companies like VirtualE are operating and licensing electronic malls to give online shoppers the sense of actually being there.

3D images and animation bring the online shopping experience alive. "It makes for a more dynamic experience," said Mark Stein, the CEO of VirtualE. "I compare it to the transition from black and white to color TV. Once color was possible, why would you want black and white?"
 

Shopping has traditionally involved an element of seeing, touching and feeling a product before buying. Shopping online, however, hasn't ever quite replicated that experience. That is, until now ... "

More on Wolfram CDF

Wolfram's blog has a long post on Computable Document Format (CDF) which explains it nicely.  Now experimentally built into WolframAlpha.   The idea of having a computable document is very appealing.  You have a document and adjust parameters in the document and recompute other numbers or  visuals on the same document.  The document becomes computationally alive.  Available forWolframAlpha via a free plugin.  I do hope its usage takes off.    Details on the post:

" .... Two weeks ago we made a major announcement: building on technology that we’ve been developing for more than 20 years, we released Computable Document Format (CDF). I think CDF is going to have a big effect on the way all sorts of things can be communicated. Because for the first time it makes it practical to include live computation as a routine part of a document. There are many important applications of CDF that we’ll no doubt be seeing over the months and years to come. But today I’m pleased to announce an experimental one from us: Wolfram|Alpha with CDF.   ....  "

Above an example of Wolfram Alpha with CDF using sliders to adjust parameters.  Read the whole post and explore Wolfram Alpha with CDF. 

Brandwashed

Just starting to read: Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade us to Buy by Martin Lindstrom.   To be available September 20.  Have enjoyed Lindstrom's earlier books such as Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy.  His books are story telling and inspirational rather than either technical or 'how to' .    He tells a good story and leads you to results in a way similar to someone giving an excellent presentation.   It does remind me of Vance Packard's 1950s book Hidden Persuaders, showing the level and details of exploitation that are ultimately used by marketers and merchandisers.  A kind of expose'   Thus this book is more B to C than B to B, and may be more interesting to the consumer than marketer.  A bigger market.   I will follow up with a complete review when I am done with the book. So far it is an enjoyable and quick read.  See also Lindstrom's site for background information.

Coming to a Mall Near You

The esteemed Mayo Clinic is opening a retail outlet at the Mall of America.  In MJ Perry's blog.

P&G: Kinds of Innovation

Jonathan Salem Baskin on innovation at P&G.    Is P&G succeeding because of innovative branding, or because of functional innovation?  I have certainly seen both, but I think that Salem Baskin has something here.  You surely need brand innovation, but is it ultimately functional innovation that makes for the win.  Necessary but not sufficient.

Rules of Exception: Adapting the Process

In ReadWriteWeb:   The way to address this is to have the process have the ability to adapt to changes.  That can and has been done.  It does not need AI,  just a flexible process:

"Sameer Patel of the Sovos Group wrote an excellent blog post on the way organizations tend to deal with exceptions to process.

"The sheer impracticality of channeling exceptions in any scalable way to get the right answers has plagued organizations for ever. Each exception requires a different set of experts or problem owners, some known but most unknown, and often spread across a global footprint at large organizations." ... "

Macy's and Predictive Analytics

How Macy's uses predictive analytics.   Visualization and other techniques.  " ... The machinery of predictive analytics is only as good as the human-engineered models on which it runs. Creating accurate models isn't easy, but visualization tools are helping analysts understand data behaviors and frame the problem before modeling it ... "   (Requires registration)

WiFi at McDonalds

I have now been a long time user of Wifi in the wild and note the many ways that it is applied.  In some cases simply, in other places logging you out periodically to keep the traffic down.   How they respond to differing operating systems is always interesting.   Here is a guide for Mac vs PC users. The details for the non technically adept are insufficient.  The comments, as usual, descend into the usual Mac v PC bickering.    Can we ultimately get a standard?

Meeting Wiz Appears in Smart Meeting Mag

Russell Brumfield, 'the Wiz',  who we have worked with in the area of smart meeting technology and scent delivery strategies, appears in the August 2011 issue of Smart Meeting Magazine, page 54.  He is the head of Wizard Studios, which has continually reinvented meetings.  Click on the space below to see enlarged text.

Semantic Webs in the Enterprise

The movement of the semantic web into the enterprise.  One domain area at a time.  I have seen this direction as well.  Creating a completely generic solution,even with an enterprise,  would mean dealing with disambiguating meaning among many domains. We worked with Stanford KSL in the 90s for AI projects attempting to build taxonomies for corporate knowledge and ran directly into this issue.

Kindle in the Browser

Amazon now offers a Kindle application for the Safari and Chrome Browsers (others coming) for access to the book reading cloud.    I use their App on the iPhone and it works well. 

Collaborative Asynchronous Searching

I recently mentioned SearchTeam.  I see it has now been looked at and reviewed in detail in Information Today,  Note in particular the description of the Semantic Topic network, a novel and powerful capability.

"  ... Zakta launched a new collaborative search site, SearchTeam.com, on July 12. Proposing to “search the web together with people you trust,” SearchTeam lets groups of searchers save results, add notes, modify results, “like” specific hits, and share results with others. Rather than requiring that the entire team (or group of collaborators) be online at the same time, SearchTeam is asynchronous, letting each team member save results, annotate them, and even upload files to share with others. As described in the SearchTeam FAQ, searchers can create a SearchSpace for gathering and organizing search results for each topic. “You can find and save only what you want while you are searching and throw away what you don't want or find irrelevant. You can automatically organize what you save, into folders of your choosing.” ... "

New Benchmark for AI

In CACM:  Top chess players can now be defeated by computer programs.  But this has not been the case for the Japanese game Go.  New methods use Monte Carlo simulation to address this game.  Will  this lead to new more broadly useful approaches for artificial intelligence?

Neuromarketing and Big Marketers

A long article in Fast Company on how the company Nielsen subsidiary Neurofocus is working with major companies to implement Neuromarketing.  Quite interesting with regard to maketing details. They make a big deal of AK Predeep, CEO.  If you are interested in this future marketing spin, read this.

 "  ... These corporations share the same goal: to mine your brain so they can blow your mind with products you deeply desire.  Pradeep and his team in Berkeley are hardly the first to make a direct connection between brain function and how it determines consumer behavior. Advertisers, marketers, and product developers have deployed social psychology for decades to influence whether you buy Coke or Pepsi, or a small or an extra-large popcorn. Like the feather weight of that mobile phone? Suddenly gravitating to a new kind of beer at the store? Inexplicably craving a bag of Cheetos? From eye-deceiving design to product placement gimmickry, advertisers and marketers have long exploited our basic human patterns, the ones that are as rudimentary and predictable as Pavlov's slobbering dog.... "

Stampt Customer Loyalty App

Recently brought to my attention and examined:  Stampt, a simple smartphone based customer loyalty program.  Links to social  networking systems.  More here,

Math and Language

In New Scientist:  Does mathematics depend less on our language than we thought?  Mental calculation methods seem to say so, as well as studies of abacus usage.

Is Gamification Bull?

Having been a veteran of the AI hype world I am always sensitive and open to criticisms of new technology hype waves.  I like to promote new ideas because I am interested in more efficient ways to get things done, but that does not mean that we want to over sell or position even good ideas.  Here an article about the hype today.  My take?  Our own experience that even thinking about using what we call 'game mechanics' can provide real value for consumer and employee engagement.  But it is only a part of the world of user value delivery and experience. It is not a silver bullet. but a valuable design tool, when thinking about the broad view of user experience.  Its also a method to rethink the business process to make tougher tasks easier.  I continue my examination of this idea.

Opportunities for Small Retail Spaces

In Retail Traffic:  " ... Nationwide, the size of food stores is going down — except where it is going up. According to Food Marketing Institute, companies are experimenting with more smaller-footprint stores and stores with larger floor plans than they used to. ... "

Future Cola

We took at look at Coca-Cola's futuristic drink blending and delivery dispenser for some time.  It is a classic case of late differentiation and tailoring a product to the local consumer.  And the dispenser can gather valuable data about what consumers want.  For a long time it seemed like this would be one of those concept ideas that would never see general installation.  A new report indicates that the idea is moving forward.

 " ... The fountain serves up 125 different flavors of soft drinks, flavored waters, sports drinks and lemonades and sends usage data, such as what flavors are most popular at what times of the day, to Coca-Cola HQ. Already the beverage giant is analyzing data pouring in from more than 1,500 machines in restaurants including Wendy's, Burger King, Taco Mac and Five Guys.

While individual restaurant customers have done marketing campaigns using Coca-Cola assets, the beverage giant is now working with Ogilvy & Mather to develop creative concepts for a 2012 marketing campaign. Sydney Taylor, group director of Coca-Cola Freestyle consumer marketing, said that radio, outdoor and digital would likely be the initial focus of any measured media. "We needed to be at a certain threshold to make [a marketing campaign] pay off for us, so that once we advertise Freestyle, consumers can find it at most places," she said ... "

Record Levels of P&G Ad Spending

In AdAge: Lots of interesting novel ad spending at P&G, including a connection with BlogHer and the online deoderant stand off.   I guess brainless ad focusing does still work.

DemandTec and Sam's Club

New from DemandTec.   We explored their capabilities seeking to better understand the relationship between assortment and profitability.   Impressive approaches.

· "        Sam’s Club® has selected DemandTec’s Deal Management software service to enhance its eValues program.  Sam’s Club will use Deal Management to streamline the collaborative presentation, negotiation, reconciliation, and archiving of member offers and supporting supplier funds for the eValues program.  “Our strategy for eValues continues to focus on delivering highly targeted, relevant offers to our members,” said Catherine Corley, Vice President for Membership at Sam's Club.  “Through innovative uses of collaboration on the DemandTec network, we expect to better serve our members.” ....

Boredom Works

Scott Adams has evidence that it is boredom that will cause the creative act.  And its incrasingly hard to be bored.  In the WSJ, Registration required.

Location Based Marketing Ideas

I have been doing a survey of location based marketing and looking for  tips and case studies, here is one that is simple but worth while. " ...  While many merchants hope check-ins will immediately generate sales, most are finding that to be far from the case. Turning check-ins into real-world sales isn't as easy as it sounds  As a business owner, how can you ensure your LBM activities impact bottom-line sales? ... "

Big Data

Information Management on devising a forward looking big data strategy. " ... In today’s 24x7 business world with demand for timely and relevant information, devising a forward-looking big data strategy is critical to ensure your organization can effectively leverage data from all available sources and quickly turn it into a competitive advantage ... "

Book Store Fees

In the future will we all be paying fees for bookstore admission?  Is the unsustainable future of all physical retail simply to have a place where we will browse and try things out? M J Perry's blog brings up the question. Yes inevitable.  Perhaps bookstores will use methods like added QR codes to provide richer information on site, and link that to stronger instant promotions.

Advice for Beginning Graphic Facilitators

David Sibbet posts a piece on starting the process of graphic facilitation.  It is a powerful method we often used.  I found it hard to do myself, even after going through the training.  Still well worth it when done by an expert.

Collaborative Search: SearchTeam

I wrote a note about Zakta's new Collaborative Search Tool: SearchTeam back in mid July.  Wanted to repeat that as I start to take a yet deeper dive look at the tool. I think this is really innovative idea.  Could have used this often when doing research and development.   Now thinking of several applications I am working on now.  Here is my previous post which had lots more links and details.  Try it!  The first fundamentally new search idea I have seen for some time.

P&G a Supply Chain Leader

In The Financial Times: Procter works very hard on supply chain improvement. .  Note that P&G is the only 'old world' non tech company in the top three.  I highly commend their supply chain operation and use of advanced analytical methods.  The full article, linked to above  may require registration.

" ... The Gartner team assesses three financials measures taken from each company’s annual report, return on assets, inventory turns and revenue growth. The opinion portion is equally weighted between a Gartner analyst opinion and a Peer Panel vote. There were 156 supply chain executives who voted in the peer panel this year, coming from the manufacturing and retail sectors around the globe.

So which companies led the way this year? The top five this year include three mainstays - Apple, Dell and Procter & Gamble which have all ranked consistently close to the top every year. Despite some challenges with its initial iPad introduction and subsequent supplier issues, Apple retained the number one slot for the fourth year in a row, riding the crest of superior financials and top-of-the-line voting scores ... 

Virtual Supermarkets

I have spent some time over the years looking at how to build virtual retail spaces, everywhere from the classic local grocery store to large hypermarkets, to the intricacies of understanding the last hundred yards of the supply chain. When examining the value of RFID tagging we built models of the store to understand the technical details of its operation. I have also done several research efforts for manufacturers and retailers on the value of building the virtual market.  And also looked at understanding the potential gamification of such systems.   Here most recently a look in Research Magazine at some of the players in the space of market simulation. With interesting videos.  Good effort, but there is much more to be said about their application.  Be glad to talk that, contact me.

Neputation: Business Intelligence and Reputation Management

Neputation: Talked to these folks recently, very impressive.   I like thinking of Business Intelligence/Competitive Intelligence as a form of reputation management. 

Your Reputation is your Business and your Business is your Reputation

At Neputation, we take a DEEP approach (Discover, Evaluate, Enhance, and Protect) in offering a full life-cycle solution to proactively manage your reputation. Our innovative Business Intelligence (BI) solution provides meaningful insights to make strategic decisions that are critical in achieving your business objectives ....

Learn AI at Stanford Free

We worked with the Stanford Knowledge Systems Laboratory in the mid 1980s when actively involved in artificial intelligence, impressive group, and took a number of their courses before linking up with a vendor in the space.  I see that they are now offering an online course in AI  which starts in October.  No credit hours from Stanford ...  " ... Starting October 10th, you can join Professor  Sebastian Thrun and Google's Director of Research, Peter Norvig, in a free, online version of the school's Introduction to Artificial Intelligence course. The class covers, "knowledge representation, inference, machine learning, planning and game playing, information retrieval, and computer vision and robotics," and ambitiously aims to be the largest online AI course ever taught ...  "

Google Helping to Restore Bletchley Park

Google reports that they are contributing to the restoration of Bletchley Park, one of the birthplaces of both computing and code breaking. I am a long time follower of the history of both these topics. Hope to visit some day.

Feedback Method

We effectively used this method for personal feedback in the enterprise. Simple, easy to remember.

Layar Vision Adding Object Recognition

In Fast Company. QR codes have received lots of positive press recently. But Augmented Reality (AR) has the potential of replacing QR codes by providing information either by using virtual locations, or by interpretation of any object in the physical world. A trial of this called 'Google Googles' is one notable example. Now Layar Vision is also playing in the space. Will AR take over from the QR hype? Will they coexist?

Slogans vs Logos

Penn's always interesting language log blog has an interesting post about how while verbal slogans can be resisted as a form of meme, logos and graphical forms are more difficult to avoid. Is this an example of conscious vs non conscious influence? Is this true? And is a practical finding useful for marketers? The post is here. It is also commented on In Mind Hacks.

Empower Media Marketing to Acquire MIG

I have mentioned Market Intelligence Group here a number of times. More companies should be using their analytical methods. Now they are being acquired by Empower Media Marketing. Much more about that and both companies here. I have been very impressed by people Of MIG during the several years I have talked to them, and their market analytical skills are worth trying. Now they have the leverage of an excellent marketing analysis company to promote and apply their skill. Congratulations to both companies for a good match.

Becoming Acquainted with Data

Stephen Few on on becoming acquainted with a dataset for the first time. Nicely done, this was a situation I often encountered and simple visualization was the best technique.

Back to School Tablet Sales

Forbes suggests that tablet sales will boom with the new school year. Not unexpected, but I still think that laptops are today still more versatile, and tablets will act as an augmentation device.

Facebook Analytics Tool

A new Facebook Analytic tool of interest. ...PageLever shows impressions (any time a story loads in a browser whether on your page or not) for any date range, not just month or week. It separates unique impressions from repeat impressions so that you can see your true reach, and it shows when and where fans “unliked” your page. You can also look at what type of content — photos, video, text or flash — your audience responds to best..... ". I am further investigating other options.

QR Code Mistakes

Good Mashable piece on the use of QR codes and problems with their use in current contexts. A useful quick read for anyone considering a QR code based promotion idea.

Skype on the iPad

Skype now has an available native App on the iPad. Tested it and it works quite well on wifi. Could use better contact management and additional client options. A few crashes. Overall though it creates a nice video 'desktop' on the pad with a very simple interface. Screen sharing?

The Science Fiction Behind Search

In the Google Quarterly. A looking at what works very well, not quite so well and not at all in search by Google, and how we may start to think about the future of search. I think one thing missing is strong collaborative support, like in the newly released SearchTeam.

Eight Pillars of Innovation

In the Google Quarterly. "... The greatest innovations are the ones we take for granted, like light bulbs, refrigeration and penicillin. But in a world where the miraculous very quickly becomes common-place, how can a company, especially one as big as Google, maintain a spirit of innovation year after year? ... "

Brain and Brand Vibrations

Martin Lindstrom in his latest article writes about phantom cellphone vibrations That have us reaching for our pockets even without any conscious cues. He relates how this work relates to fmri studies he did concerning the influence of cigarette warning images. Our brains are powerful and very malleable instruments. Thus the increasing interest in how our brains really react to marketing messages. And how we ultimately respond to those cues under alternative scripts of behavior. Big sophisticated marketers are all investigating. I will be reviewing colleague Lindstrom's forthcoming book 'BrandWashed, Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy' here soon.

Scavenging Power

Fascinating Fastcompany article about scavenging power from waste paper and data. Must be some sort of energy conservation involved, though we will always have waste by products of our activities,

Meeting Shopper Expectations

In e-commerce Times: '... In-content ad delivery is tightly integrated with the content a consumer is most interested in -- e.g., a post in a forum, an article on a blog, or a conversation within a social network. As a result, these ads reach consumers when they are most interested in a product, and they are more likely to consider them useful information than marketing "noise." ... ' People further expect to be able to do research online when they are shopping. Now with the increasing use of Mobile they want it anywhere, by the shelf, driving to alternative suppliers and to investigate alternative solutions to needs. You have to have presence online, and it has to be easy to find. Otherwise an alternative is just a click away

Neural Prosthetics

Good piece on neural prosthetics, prompted by military injuries, considerable progress is being made.

The Hubble and Enterprise Planning

I have been reading Eric J Chaisson's Book: The Hubble Wars, a detailed view of the launch and operation of the Hubble Space Telescope. My background is in astrophysics, so the details of goals and scheduling ring true. My later career dealt with optimizing the large scale enterprise so some of Chaisson's descriptions of the Hubbell team using AI techniques to direct performance remind me of those heady intelligence times in the late 80s and early 90s. The shuttle is over now, but the Hubble is still there and there is still much need for doing things quickly and well in the enterprise. He writes about an environment written for the Hubble: . "Science Planning Intelligent Knowledge Environment. (SPIKE) a neural net, Lisp language based algorithm that includes the latest and sundry kind of smart software, expert systems and artificial intelligence techniques..... " We could use more of that kind of advanced help today. I am now taking closer look at what Spike did.

Google Maps Changing the Look of Data

in GigaOm. Good example of using Google maps based mashups to visualize data. I have seen a number of good examples of this. Simple representations, using the well known Google map UI. Of course many things are not possible to do easily this way.

Whats the Value of a Facebook Fan?

How many friends they have. Obvious answer but the piece makes a reasonable justification.

Gartner's Value Chain Transformation Imperatives

A very good piece in the Informs Analytics Magazine.  I agree.  Have been recently involved in looking analytically at the transformation of major supply chain operations.   Lots of interesting opportunities always exist and can be quantitatively modeled.

" ... Organizations seeking to make the transition from supply chain to a demand-driven value network (DDVN) must look beyond traditional projects and the adoption of functional best practices, according to Gartner, Inc. Gartner analysts have identified four imperatives that supply chain leaders must address to make the change successfully.

“The case for value chain transformation has never been greater,” says Steve Steutermann, research vice president at Gartner. “Competing in today’s global markets requires companies to abandon internally focused supply chains and reorganize resources, processes and systems to support networks aligned for joint value creation.” ... "

Google Maps and the London Underground

I have navigated London by the Underground with the usual paper in hand and surveying the overhead route maps.  This new development gives you mobile direction finding I would love to try.  Now if they would only update some of the quaint people moving systems in the Underground.

Sands Neuromarketing Alliance in China

Just received, an impressive partnership and direction:

Sands Research and Brain Intelligence Establish Neuromarketing Alliance in China and Globally

Partnership to assist clients in fast growing consumer market

  El Paso, Texas and Beijing, China - Sands Research Inc. (SRI), a leading provider of neuroscientific market research services and technology headquartered in the USA, and Brain Intelligence Neuro-Consultancy Ltd. (BI), the first Chinese neuromarketing firm, announced today that they have joined together in providing their specialized services to the top brands and companies in China and on a global basis.

"We are pleased to announce this alliance with the Beijing based research agency, Brain Intelligence and offer our clients local expertise in a market of tremendous consumer growth" stated Ron Wright, President / CEO of Sands Research Inc.

"BI, which was founded by Ms. Ruihong Tang and is advised by leading academics from Beijing Normal University, will be a great partner. Our two companies will work together to provide the latest in market research technology and applications in China and Hong Kong. The neuromarketing services offered include the evaluation of communications (TV advertising, print, web), innovation (product, concepts, packaging) and the shopper experience (both in-store and virtual). Measuring Web usability for increasing conversion rates and online advertising for increasing media ROI is one of BI's real fortes." commented Wright.

"In turn, Sands Research will provide the same services to BI's client base of fast growing Chinese companies who are looking to expand their brands beyond China to the United States, Europe and other key markets."  Wright added ..... "

Vision for Digital Public Library

The DPLA:   Taking some of the Google scanning work further and non profit:

  " ... Last year, Robert Darnton, a cultural historian and director of Harvard University’s library system, began to raise the prospect of creating a public digital library. This library would include the digitized collections of the country’s great research institutions, but it would also bring in other media - video, music, film - as well as the collection of Web pages maintained by the Internet Archive.

Like Google Books, it would have as its goal the eventual digitization of human culture, preserving the works of the world’s authors, scholars, artists, and entertainers and making them widely available. Unlike Google Books, however, this library would not be operated by a for-profit company. It would be accessible to any person, in any place, at any time, at no cost .... "

P&G Minimizes Management Meddling

By Michael Schrage in HBR Blogs:

Was somewhat both proud of and  surprised by this revelation.    I saw some of both behaviors.  And still think more could have been done with even less meddling.  Yes, though to innovative analytics, which we always pushed:

" ... With not a little pride, Procter & Gamble CEO Bob McDonald and Filippo Passerini, his CIO, told Fortune Brainstorm conference attendees that digital investment had successfully transformed their company's transparency and agility. New networks and innovative analytics gave top management greater visibility into Procter's people, processes, and anticipated profits. These technologies were making the world's biggest consumer products firm quicker, nimbler, and more responsive.   ...  "

A good article overall about micro management, read it all.

Children Play Like Scientists

In Wired, the results of a study.  They appear to isolate variables in play.  But is the scientific method all that influences scientists?  Or Children?

Unilever and Groupon Work with Retail

In Progressive Grocer:

" ... Supervalu, Inc.’s Jewel-Osco division is teaming up with Unilever and Groupon, Inc. to bring social buying to grocery shopping in Groupon’s home city of Chicago while at the same time making Unilever the first global CPG company to allow consumers to buy its products through Groupon and pick up their deal at their neighborhood grocery store ... "

Also discussed in AdAge.

Wal-Mart Shares Data with Nielsen

After being out of the process for a long time, it is reported that Wal-Mart will start sharing data with Nielsen again. We were always told that Wal-Mart did not feel that it was of value to them to share data.  Has a deal been struck?

Social Bubble?

Is social media also a bubble?   See here for the graph. I do want just one simple social thing to deal with.

Another Smart Cart

SK Telecom delivers another grocery smart cart prototype. This one can sync from a smartphone. That by itself is a very good idea, decreasing the cost and complexity for the retailer. I have now followed and tested a half dozen of these similar ideas over a decade. None really successful.

Inclusion of location based marketing ideas and self check out are positive inclusions, while the emergence of the smartphone itself  is a negative to those that hope that every cart will have it's display. This addresses one of these by letting a shopper include their own smartphone.  Will follow this where it goes.

Being piloted in Shanghai.
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Using Mind-Mapping to Write Blogs and Articles

I am a big proponent of mind mapping.  Have used it for years.  It is a great discipline,  I use it on my laptop, tablet and smartphone. I can build maps and then synchronise them from anywhere. It helps me get my thoughts in order and then readily convey them to others.   In particular the emergence of the tablet/pad  hardware format makes them even easier to utilize.   I love to promote the technique that was often used in our enterprise.

See this upcoming free Mindjet webinar on the topic:  Wednesday, August 10, 2011, 10:00AM Pacific,  Register here.    I intend to participate.

Much more about the webinar here:

" ... Mapping Your Way to Thought Leadership - Using Information Maps for Writing Articles and Blog Posts

Whether you're a business professional writing articles or blog posts about your industry, or a student writing a paper, MindManager information maps help you research, brainstorm and write more efficiently.

Join us for this live 30-minute webinar, where Jim Lauria, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Amiad Filtration Systems, shares the tools he's used for writing articles that have established both Jim and Amiad as thought leaders in the water industry, such as:

Information maps that quickly summarize each book and article he reads about water technology - making it easy to access information when he's writing an editorial or presentation

Map templates for each piece he's working on - allowing him to map out the purpose, general principles, expected outcomes, brainstorm and next steps ....  " 

Location Based Analytics Market

To exceed $ 9 Billion by 2016.  Says this study, by MR agency ABI Research.

Enhanced EBooks

Have been looking at how HTML5 will ultimately influence publishing online.  A friend sent me this O'Reilly piece on EPUB3, which is worth looking at.  We need to have better multiple platform standards from the very beginning.   I was new to this and see that EPUB3 now natively includes audio and video, a good move. 

Restaurants Using Google Places

An interesting example of how location based systems like Google Places can be used for franchise restaurants.

On the Experience of Learning

From Experientia.  A review of what learning is all about. " ... Learning is a complex process with distinct stages, each with corresponding tasks and emotions. Understanding how users learn can help us design experiences that support the user throughout the entire process.... ".  Agree that processes for learning are usually poorly understood or set up..  We usually do not utilize the naturally engaging aspects of how people enjoy new things to encourage learning.

Customer Loyalty Programs

HBS Working Knowledge on Customer Loyalty Programs that Work. " ... The customer rewards cards that clutter wallets and clog key chains of many a shopper may soon be no more, as retailers move from physical to digital (read: mobile apps) forms of loyalty program member identification. It's a smart decision. Unfortunately, it's one of the only smart decisions retailers are making when it comes to customer loyalty schemes.... ".  Some excellent examples of companies that do it well.