Build your own BRAND! Create your own customers. The kind that pick you over all other alternatives. Delight them to no end, they will share their delight with others because it makes them FEEL GOOD to share something special.
N&C: The text above was a comment I wrote to a Seth Godin post I sent to my Evernote account. His post can be found here.
T-Mobile: iPhone-related defections ‘an area of concern’:
Bellevue-based T-Mobile USA boosted its profits and added to its customer base in the third quarter, but the company this morning warned of future repercussions from its status as the only major U.S. wireless carrier not offering Apple’s iPhone.
(Via GeekWire)
I was one of those defections. My contract expired the same day the iPhone 4S was first available for customers (Friday October 14, 2011). On the next Tuesday (Late late Monday night) I ordered a 4S via the Apple website and Friday morning about 10 AM FedEx delivered it. There were claims that devices would be shipping in 1 to 2 weeks. The one I ordered was built, packed, shipped and delivered halfway around the world in something like eighty hours give or take three.
If T-Mobile was in the running to get the iPhone I might have waited a few more months. There was a report that a high up at T-Mobile said that the iPhone would not be coming to T-Mobile anytime soon. That statement was essentially the nail in the coffin for staying with them.
Could square be used on my own device to pay bills?
Example steps
Open Square.
Enter my payment recipient company (or select from a drop down list of companies one has a prior business relationship with).
Enter account number for payment (could be a typed in number, a barcode or a QR code).
Swipe my own credit card to apply payment.
Bill paid, records kept, stamps not used.
BRILLIANT!
FN: Could also envisions something like scanning a QR code for each payment, loading a few in, then swiping ones credit card just once to pay multiple bills faster.
FN: = FootNotes
Kevin Fox’s Offer to Google Reader:
Is there anyone, anywhere, who thinks the new Google Reader is an improvement?
(Via Daring Fireball)
The guy behind the Reeder app is probably very happy with it.
iPhone, iPad and Mac versions.
I bought the Mac version for $9.99 about 24 hours ago. So far I am very happy with it. Am considering the iPhone version for $2.99.
Waze provides free turn-by-turn directions, with help from your friends:
(Via TechBlog)
Nice review of the mapping app Waze.
So now companies don’t just need to hire people to watch Twitter and blogs and put out fires. Now they have to fear that their abusive policies will become the subject of large-scale, instant protests.
(Via BuzzMachine)
What company or organization will be destroyed by customers who mass cancel their accounts? This will happen someday, probably in the next ten years. Some firms live on the cash flows monthly subscribers pay them.
You have a real problem If your customers loath your organization. New options are becoming available. Some customers will do without, rather that do business with you. A good example of this is people canceling home cable TV service and not replacing it with satellite TV. These people are likely choosing video programming from the Internet. It’s also possible that they are watching over the air HD broadcasts. The power to disrupt that is broadband Internet is hard to over estimate. Many new services will come about as more people have broadband at home. Faster speeds will also enable new businesses. Old ones will decline and some will be eliminated. Online data backup might disrupt the external hard drive industry in the not to distant future.
Editor’s note: Most men will also never become CEOs, too.
(Via Women 2.0)
Love the Editor’s note at the end.
Urban bike riding as training for tree-skiing season:
Riding (er, snowboarding) through trees / down chutes requires you to make pretty quick decisions at decent speeds.
(Via teendrama :: hello my name is dennis.)
Bicycle riding has a lot of inputs. Curbs, people, dogs, oncoming cars, driveways, other cyclists, waters, leaves, etc.
This rapid flow of incoming stimuli requires the mind to analyze a lot of data and to make rapid decisions to prevent bad outcomes. Falls, slops, slides, flips and other injuries to people and property.
The ability to make correct decisions quickly is important in life and in business.
Filene’s Files for Chapter 11 Protection:
Discount retailer Syms and its Filene’s Basement subsidiary filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with plans to liquidate.
(Via WSJ.com: US Business)
Sometimes it’s not a good idea to buy things in a bankruptcy sale. In a weak economy and with tight credit the margin of error gets smaller. If the economy was growing or strong, this could work.The weak economy and integrating in the assets of Filene’s Basement distracted Syms management from what they should have been focusing on … creating customers for their own stores.
When I think Syms, I think suits. Well, in a weak economy people are not looking for new suits. They might have considered expanding their brand to comfort-casual to get more people in the stores. People want to look good and be comfortable with what they are wearing.
Notes:
The U.S. economy is changing. Some expanding trends are, contracting, consulting and casual dress.
Certainly there are some people still buying suits in a weak or contracting economy. Some firms still have old school dress. When facing increasingly intense competition it’s important to focus, focus, focus if you want to win and survive. The weak players will be eaten by the stronger players or by some adjacent market that destroys ones own market segment. In the Syms example it’s professional dress. The casual dress market is adjacent to and expanding, at the same time also taking away customers.
Lenovo said its profit rose 88% in the latest quarter, when the Chinese company passed Dell to become the No. 2 PC maker by shipments.
(Via WSJ.com: US Business)
Moving on up. Expanding profits too!
It’s not clear if there are special reasons that profits expanded. Increasing sales seems to be done so often by lowering prices to gain access to more customers, thus driving down margins and total profits. Time will tell if Lenovo is able to continue expanding profits or if there were other factors that lead to expanded profits for this period.
D.L. Damore 