Marketing Pilgrim Published: “Cup of Joe: An Open Letter To Everyone Else” plus 1 more

Cup of Joe: An Open Letter To Everyone Else

Posted: 28 Jan 2011 09:18 PM PST

If you are reading this post on a computer screen, please print it out and hand it to someone that doesn’t have access to the internet. Because this post is geared towards them.

Dear Everyone Else,

Hello there, my name is Joe, and I am from the Internet. Well actually, I am from South Carolina, but I am sending this article out to you through the Internet. On a blog to be exact. A blog is a online journal of sorts. The blog that I am sending this article through, gets around five thousand readers a day. Before I started writing for blogs, (or “blogging” as we like to call it) no one listened to me. Or at least no one beyond my family and friends. I don’t have a degree in writing or journalism. But that’s OK, because, I don’t need one. Because blogging is open to anyone that has access to the Internet. And if what they write is good enough, then it too can be read by thousands of people.

This democratization of information and ideas has been revolutionary in the last several years. Don’t believe me? Well go ahead and turn on your nightly news. You are sure to hear about Egypt shutting off their Internet services to cut communications with political protesters. If that’s not enough evidence, ask your local newspaper how the Internet is changing their business. Newspapers across the country are shrinking in size and distribution because they can’t compete with the Internet. Now Internet giants like Google are venturing into on demand video entertainment, which is bound to severely disrupt the television industry.

Social media, (which is just a fancy phrase for parts of the Internet where people talk to each other) is changing the way people engage each other as well. For example Facebook.com now has around 500 million people using their web site. That’s well over the population of the United States. It is projected that among those 500 million they share 30 billion pieces of content every month. Yes that’s right, I said billion, with a “b”.

I know that many of you are reading all of this and thinking, Well great for them, but who cares? That’s fine. No one is forcing you to use the Internet. But the problem is that some of you own businesses. Some of you run organizations. Some of you write and vote on laws. Some of you run our churches. And some of you are in our courts. If you fall into any of these categories, or any position where you are responsible for others in any capacity, you are doing them and yourself a diservice by not taking full advantage of the Internet.

It’s 2011 and the Internet isn’t going anywhere. Despite this it seems like every couple of months a politician, judge, or CEO does something that runs in complete contrast to the reality of the Internet. I believe most of these people have good intentions, but they are just inexperienced with the digital age. You need to make sure that you aren’t one of those people. You need to make sure that your good intentions aren’t blindsided by a complete failure to understand how information is exchanged in the 21st century. Your local library provides free Internet access and computers. Go and use it and, learn more today. And who knows? You might enjoy yourself with all of this nonsense we call cyberspace!

Thanks for listening!

Joe Hall

Will the PC Go the Way of the 8-Track and Does it Matter?

Posted: 28 Jan 2011 03:00 PM PST

Deloitte Predictions says that by the end of 2011, more than 50 percent of computing devices sold globally will NOT be PCs. Smartphones, tablets and non-PC netbooks are taking over the market at a rapid pace and it’s their growth, rather than the PC’s decline that Deloitte claims will make the difference.

Deloitte says the old PC will continue to be the workhorse that powers the dataflow for a good portion of the world, but we’re a mobile society and if we can grab our email and go, we’re going do it. We are doing it.

One of the big signs of a global shift is the decline in software profits and the rise in application sales. Remember the days when you could walk into an Electronics Boutique and find ten new boxes of software a week? Back then I was playing Roller Coaster Tycoon on my computer and wishing for a better graphics card so I could play Star Wars. Now I can play complex games on my phone while I’m waiting in line at the bank. Oh wait! I don’t even have to go to the bank because I can scan my checks with my phone and have the money credited to my account.

Star Trek has arrived. We can now carry around whole encyclopedias of information in a computer the size our hand. How can the PC compete with that?

So suppose it’s true. Suppose that in another ten years, PC’s have gone the way of the 8-Track player and only nostalgic geeks keep them on their desks so they can play “vintage” games. What does that mean for marketers?

For one thing, banner ads as we know them will probably disappear do to the lack of virtual real estate. Most non-PC screens are smaller than PC monitors which means we’ll no longer have webpages that are 25% content and 75% advertising. It could mean a return to single sponsor advertising (which has been making a comeback on TV) and more branded content. We’ve already seen a move in this direction and I believe it’s going to become even more important in the next few years.

The big difference between PCs and ‘anything but’ is the size of the bite and I don’t mean byte. Smartphones and other portable computing systems are designed to give you what you need in a quick, clean, compact way. PC’s, on the other hand, give you pop-overs and sliders, automatic video players and ads that literally dance and sing. As we move forward, the smart marketer is going to have to find away to capture an audience without all the hoopla. Easy? I doubt it if for no other reason than because change is hard, but we’ve got to do it. We have to start now, creating marketing that delivers something of value to the consumer be it information, entertainment or financial.

What do you think? How will the rise in non-PC computing devices change the way you market your product?

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