What the Hell is an iLightr?

Well, we all know that the iPhone has been ravenously ingesting market share in the mobile phone market. Their buzz factor is off the deep end, all because of the most marvelously useless but captivating stuff you have ever seen:

- A tilting lighter (rock lighter, seen here)
- Lightsabers that swing and make the buzzing sound

- A fish pond where you can freak out digitally generated fish by poking the "water" with your finger, and so on.

There are a number of variations on the "lightr" including a zippo and a "burner" which allows you to see how many other users are burning across the globe, and where they are burning.

Initial response? Who, exactly, has time for this crap? Response: just about everyone and their second cousin. Not only are these apps flying off the iTunes "shelf", the vast majority of them are user-generated.

Question: is the value proposition becoming obsolete? Do people care what you can offer them, or do they care what they can offer themselves?

Marketers and the Environment

The Inspiration:

http://www.marketingprofs.com/8/green-power-in-marketers-hands-ottman.asp?adref=hpbasic

One of my favourite topics is discussing global warming as a brand.

Despite the definitively "higher ground" approach most commentators take on the issue of environmental sustainability, I argue that mass awareness of climate change has created one of the most successful, superfluous brands on the market.

Wherever applicable, companies make clear efforts to incorporate "green" into their image. The article above broaches the topic, and how it is beginning to shift from being a pro-active measure to commanding a price premium. Enter the Toyota Prius, the example used by the article's author as evidence.

Forth, then, with the question(s): we realize that marketing can convey the message of environmental sustainability, but what is the moral hazard of using it to command a premium, drive sales, and generate brand recall? Do we lose focus on the true goal of saving the freaking world? Then again, as marketing managers, do we have the right to ignore the prevalent trend and fall behind? OK, last one: does the profit incentive inevitably lead to exploitation of otherwise noble causes?

Article Analysis

Global Social Time Perspectives in Marketing: a Strategic Reference Point Theory Application, - Harvey, Michael G., T. Kiessling & R. Glenn Richey


Highlights:


Originally published in Volume 25 of the International Marketing Review, this article is less a guide to the application of strategic reference points (SRPs) than it is a scholarly contribution to the academic discourse of time and marketing. The authors’ underlying mission is to establish awareness of the “social value of time” among international marketers, en route to recommending a set of targeted questions that instigate further research into the topic.

This article is dense, highly conceptual, and largely abstract. While it sounds rather relevant to managerial controls and cost-reduction, it is in suitably targeted at marketers and philosophers alike. You can choose to have a read, or start with my analysis. Either way, logos is kurion in any such evaluation; I make no excuses to the authors regarding my personal perspective.

Social Time – in the context of this article, “derived from the social context of individual cultures and has become one of the critical environmental issues [to international marketers].” Far and above the physical differences of time zones, Harvey et al are referring to a multifaceted, culturally dependant definition of the traditionally ubiquitous concept of time. The foundations of this approach to time-conceptualization can arguably be sourced from the philosophical school of cultural relativism, which purports that moral values are not objective, but dependent entirely on socio-cultural environs.

The authors identify 7 elements of social time:

1) Timeframe – or the concept of polychromic time (multitasking)
2) Tempo – perceived rate of time (pace)
3) Temporality – life span (of goods, marketing campaigns, product life cycles, etc.)
4) Synchronization – coordination of events relative to time
5) Sequence – structured pattern of events through time
6) Pauses – duration of intervals between events
7) Ubiquity – impact and importance of time on marketing events

At this point I would like to proffer the traditional concepts allocated to time by the business and marketing communities:

1) “Time is money”
2) “Timing is everything”
3) “Time is of the essence”

If we compare the two, we note some tangible similarities in content but a notable difference in intricacy.

The ubiquity of time begets the notion of the “primacy of timescape”- that marketing managers abroad must learn to master the intricate and nuanced discrepancies between their inherent sense of social time and that of their occupational posting. Enter, then, the authors’ interpretation of strategic reference point (SRP) theory – the guide by which marketing managers can measure their preconceptions and optimize their effectiveness.

SRPs manifest themselves in three ways:
1) Past orientation to time – social time references instrumental past occurrences
2) Present orientation – social time is grounded (ostensibly) in current events
3) Future orientation – I think you get the framework by now...

The bottom line: Marketing managers that calibrate their “risk postures” with a local concept (SRP) of the social value of time over an objective one stand to gain long-run benefits.


Comments & Analysis


Time, then, for logothetis to have a go. As the authors elaborated the concept into SRP culture classifications, SRP/environmental clusters, and time horizons, I began to find myself intellectually adrift. The concept of social time has an almost transcendent quality about it, and I could not bring myself to either envision it or contemplate it thoroughly. Concrete examples of SRPs would have been quite useful here, and I recommend them for any further elaboration of this dialogue.

The provided example of grocery consumption was nonetheless operable: where grocery consumption is typically weekly in North America (think trip to Costco), Europeans tend to consume on a daily basis (think fresh baguette from a Parisienne boulangerie). By mismatching promotions and consumption, early North American entrants experienced a strategic disconnect that could result in a bullwhip effect.

On a recent business trip to the Middle East, I witnessed some attributes of this phenomenon. The city of Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia, was a solid traffic jam at about 1:00 AM. Many retailers enjoyed peak period sales during this time, and would not vaguely consider keeping North American store hours. The industry tradeshow there that a colleague and I attended over a four-day period ran from 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM, and we found it tiring to re-calibrate our strategic reference points.

Thus I do not refute the notion that daily or even circadian horizons are highly variable among the globes vast regions. I do, however, contend that assigning these clusters as past, present or future oriented is arbitrary and ill-advised. Anyone who has witnessed a Middle Eastern business magnate climb out of a heavily modified E-Class Mercedes in traditional Bedouin apparel would most likely do the same. Is it possible for cultures to be mired in all three modes simultaneously? I think so (time is polychromic, after all).

Furthermore, if timescape had risen to primacy in the marketing world, would firms not recruit local marketing managers to ensure that “social time” was a non-issue? Had the ubiquity of social time truly been as sensitive and intricate as Harvey et al suggest, an ethnocentric marketing manager would most likely have to forsake their own SRP altogether. I market to the Middle East, but am I fasting for Ramadan at the moment? NO. Has that affected the sales of my department? NO.


Conclusion


Clearly this topic warrants significant elaboration, but the contents of a blog can only go so far before they lose their reader entirely. I believe in the need for cultural sensitivity and flexibility in marketing campaigns and decisions. I am not sold, however, on a surreal notion of social time. Any marketer worthy of their position knows that anticipating the needs of target segments is critical to success. Is cultural relativism an integral part of this analysis? This is debatable but I would think not. We live in a world united by multi-national corporations, globalization, and a common “oops” known as global warming.

What do you think?

NY Times Mac Vs. PC Ad

http://www.nytimes.com/ - check it out, running on September 18, 2008.

Intro and Blog #1

Blog Posting #1: The Ascension of the Blog and the Need for Caution

The Inaugural Moment

Well, there is no way to put it subtly so I have opted to bludgeon ahead instead; this is my first ever blog posting on my first ever blog. I feel as though I have been waiting this moment all of my life – the culmination of my nervous anticipation, the point at which I finally get what “it” is about...

Just kidding, as a self-proclaimed smart-ass, logothetis has no business being either surprised or anticipatory. I already knew what it would feel like and what I would say because I basically know everything :-D.

Seriously now, I do like to harbour intelligent discussion and share experiences, and hopefully you enjoy my sense of logos.

It All Starts with Google...

I should briefly describe two important aspects of myself. First, I work during the day as a consultant to international students looking to study in Canada. At the same time, I am a part-time MBA student and I have created this blog for the purposes of showcasing the content of an internet marketing course I am currently enrolled in.

Recently, I was sitting through a particularly boring class (not this one) and decided to muck about on Google. I searched “my name” in quotes, and discovered that I had a hit on an Arabic website. A little alarmed, I translated the page and scoured it to see how I had possibly ended up being listed there.

As it turns out, a group of students from Saudi Arabia had posted my recommendations regarding their intended program onto a forum. My name popped up in my workplace email signature, along with two full emails that I had sent to one of the forum’s members. Over the past year, I have emailed hundreds of students on how they could benefit from the services offered by my employer, and I had little recollection of this particular student. I eagerly read on to see what this little corner of the web had to say about my advice!

Food for Thought

What I found was a bit of surprise (even to a resident know-it-all). I quickly recognized my approach, as it was fairly standard. I analysed the prospective client’s application, decided that there was little opportunity of mutual benefit, and advised that the program the prospective student was seeking was very exclusive (and hinted that the credentials I saw did not show a lot of potential). Basically, the quick brush-off, known as “firing customers” in relationship marketing, seemed like the sensible thing to do for one client that represented little profit potential.

Now, let’s take a look at the forum. There were 7 active bloggers who were conversing in the forum. They were checking out study opportunities in a variety of markets, including the UK, US, Canada, and Australia. They were also working together on crafting their correspondence with me. Where I thought I was conversing with a sole student, I was contacting at least eight (who knows how many more were reading but not blogging).

Time, then, to re-examine my managerial training. Would I be more willing to deal with this low-potential student if he represented economies of scale across a contract of eight relatively similar clients? You bet your ass. Did I have any ability to know this at the time? Not so much.

Conclusions

The conclusion here is simple from my perspective. Blogging (and its culmination in forums, which I personally view as community blogs) is transforming the concept of business transactions. Luckily for me, the comments on the blog pointed to the fact that I knew what I was talking about, and that maybe a country with easier accessibility to their chosen program was a good idea. I “fired” one customer but “laid off” eight, in the end. Also, my written consultation was now posted to a public forum that was accessible by a Google search (and most likely through other major search engines). Should my colleagues in the education industry search my name, they would come across my comments as a gate-keeper to the Canadian market.

I think the ramifications here speak for themselves. I need to watch what I say, and how I say it lest I ruffle the wrong feathers or give crappy advice (thus incurring the ire of, well, just about anyone).

I cannot help but wonder though, what gains are there to leveraging this kind of attention? What are the managerial controls that apply here (if any)? Pandora’s Box or Midas’ Touch?

I need to mull this over a bit longer.........