The document is a compilation of blog articles authored by Tim Vermeire, reflecting on diverse subjects such as business, marketing, technology, and society, published during 2010 and the first half of 2011. It serves as a personal commentary on contemporary marketing visions and societal changes, aiming to provide readers with insights and experiences identical to those shared in the essays. The book concludes with an overview of current business and marketing paradigms as understood by the author.

1. Whispering Web
Business and Marketing in a Mobile, Socially Connected World.
This book is a collection of blog articles posted by Tim Vermeire on his Whispering Web
weblog.
The author considers this web space as his “Public MoleSkine”.
He reflects on topics that intrigue him - which include: Business, Marketing, Technology,
Ecology, Society, Politics, etc.
The book “Whispering Web” gathers all articles published in the year 2010 and the first half
of 2011. It closes with an overview of what Marketing and Business is and means today.
The author considers this last post and book production as a turning point. After all, he
came up with his own vision upon business, marketing and society.
This books aims to allow the reader to have the same experience: get to know the new busi-
ness vision like it was envisioned - through separately published essays.
For essays published after May 2011, please visit Whispering Web online
Collected Essays as previously whispered through the web by @vermeiretim - vermeiretim.wordpress.com

2. Contents
Business as a societal phenomenon 6
Globalization’s impact on government’s stability 7
Reflections on Carrefour to drastically cut jobs in Belgium 8
Search Engine Optimization as a PR tool 10
The Kölner Starbucks Effect 11
Power of mobile web for newspaper publishers 12
Cycling: a unique marketing opportunity? 14
Celebrity power as a marketing tool. 16
The future of printed pictures. 18
E-mail marketing versus spam. 20
Lessons from Germany’s traffic lights. 22
Future of print: Large format sexy ads! 23
On media selection: radio ads for universities. 24
Belgian election fever: reflections on extremists’ outdoor print. 26
On the oil spill: BP to deploy SEM techniques for reputation manage- 27
ment.
E-mail marketing. Reflections on timing. 29
Vuvuzela: why to love it? Lessons from ethnomusicology. 30
The power of Twitter for websites: own test results. 32
A wordpress-car on the highway? On brand identity. 34
World cup advertisers reflect shift in economic powers. 35

3. Contents Contents
Google Adsense: why should you consider? 38 The app store economy: an innovate price model for publishers? 75
Sustainable Business Strategies for SMEs in dying industry. 40 Apple, Microsoft and Google to battle for internet-tv. Sony for vic- 76
tory?
How to make money with Social Media? A new business in global vil- 44
lage? The Open Source Economy: from software to restaurants. 78
Flanders & its strong extreme right political party. On the frequency 48 Our first blog year in stats! Thanks to Wordpress. 80
aspects of media buying.
Football @ World Power: 2010-2014-2018-2022 (continued from 82
The importance of strong copy in advertising. On the latest Stihl- 52 part I)
campaign.
The app store economy. Squared. 84
Google: a new phase in brand management techniques? 54
Not about the software but the way you use it. On CRM. 85
BNP Paribas Fortis: from mobile web to mobile app. 56
Cyclo-cross’s disruptive innovation that made competition irrelevant. 86
Are you QR-coding your business card already? 57
What this blog is about according to Wordle. 88
Running an e-commerce website? Watch out for Google Shopping. 58
Where is my Senseo / Nespresse Sugar? Questions to a sugar cube 89
Towards an augmented social reality? MediaPro review. 60 factory.
Business and targeting ethics? The co-operative case. 62 This monkey is in for some candy. And Stories. 90
Facebook’s history of innovations. What’s next? 64 Who’s ever going to tag this QR code anyway? On Axabank’s outdoor 98
ad.
Innovate your Twitter reading experience: paper.li 66
The rise of the Happiness Engineer & Corporate pursuit of Happiness. 101
Most influential brands 2010: where are the FMCG giants? 68
Why my future business card is as it is. On Design Thinking. 110
Spatial planning strategies to meet demands network society. 70
Dumbo the Elephant and the Battle for standards. Poll. 112
Postmodern intertextuality in music: mash-ups. 72
Everyone deserves 2 seconds of fame. Iphone Appe Messe Düssel- 114
Citizen journalism & citizen service: Twitter interview Minister Q. 73 dorf.
Touchscreen text input to be revolutioned? Swype it! 74 How a Chablis wine learned me something about networking. 115
Tweet topic explorer - infographic generator. 118

4. Contents Special thanks
3 C’s of Social Media Marketing Automation: Cool, Cute and Crap. 119
What does Mark Etting do for a living? On Marketing and the 124
Marketer.
Conclusion 130
To all who encouraged me (ever).

5. Business as a societal phenomenon February 23, 2010 Globalization’s impact on government stability. February 23, 2010
Say whaaaaaaat? Foreign affairs destabilizes Dutch government
Some call it “Marketing”, others call it “getting market”. I call it “Business as a Not so long ago, I planned to have a quiet evening in front of my television.
societal phenomenon” – which transforms the same thing into an even more Everything went fine until the evening news announced the fall of the Dutch
interesting aspect of contemporary society. government. Not being dutch myself however, I was astonished by the story.
The government fell because of a dispute related to external affairs. This made
Why I don’t use the word “Marketing”? me think. It was not just a dispute on external affairs. It was a dispute between
two groups of people: the globalization group vs. the localization group.
Marketing is often narrowed into the creation of a brochure, the creation of a
website, etc. Since this is what most people think of when you tell them you do NATO & the war on terror
marketing for a living and since this shrinks down the importance of Market-
ing way too much, we don’t want to use that word to describe our everyday-life The NATO is one of the first “globalized institutions” the world has known. It’s
activities and reflections. because of the globalized war on terror that the NATO asked for the Dutch to
prolong their stay at Afghanistan to battle the taliban regime. Some of the
Why do marketers need to be sociologists? dutch politicians are on the “globalization side” ; others are on the “localization
side”. So, one part of the politicians were willing to agree upon the NATO re-
Well, quite simple: it’s the marketers job to interpret human behaviour. This quest, others were not. This conflict seemed that deep that it meant the end of
includes analyzing it within the correct contextual environment(s). a government.
Why do you hear this for the first time? Globalization
I assume you never read or studied the work of Globalization has always meant the following to me: “something that happens
“Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund Adorno”. deep down in the jungle of Congo has an impact on the way people drive their
car in Belgium”. Since today I will explain globalization with an other sentence:
“a battle in the war in Afghanistan has an impact on the government’s stability
of the Netherlands”.
6 7

6. Reflections on Carrefour to drastically cut jobs in Belgium Reflections on Carrefour to drastically cut jobs in Belgium
February 23, 2010 February 23, 2010
2 of my most visited Carrefour supermarkets will be closed …
The plan calls for cutting 1672 jobs and closing 21 stores in Belgium by end-
June, Carrefour Belgium said in a statement on Tuesday. (yes, this is the first
sentence on a Google search on Carrefour and I’m so lazy I just copy/pasted it,
and that’s why it’s in italics). But the point is, I rarely visit a Carrefour but have
2 of them very close to my place. However, Carrefour has turned out to be my
lifesaver: it’s open until 20h! Both of those Carrefour supermarkets are on the
closing list. I guess I’ll never see a Carrefour from the inside again.
… my friend in India however will soon meet Mr Carrefour.
Njummie! All that good stuff he’ll soon enjoy!
On that same google page result I noticed the statement of carrefour going into
India. I am almost tired of writing, so I quickly want to provide the reader some
insights on a possible “why” of this decision.
Marketing strategy?
• Facts & Figures from Belgium: 10 million inhabitants struggling to keep their
wealth as high as in the past, a government that has almost the highest
debt rate in the world, etc.
• Facts & Figures from India: estimated population 2010 is 1,177,424,000,
increasing wealth, etc.
• Marketing strategy background: the economic core of the world economy is
moving east, it’s over there that money will be made.
• Marketing strategy: “Carrefour will develop its activities in India with the
start of cash-and-carry activities in 2010,” the company said in a statement
emailed to AFP.
8 9

7. Search engine optimization as a PR tool February 24, 2010 The Kölner Starbucks Effect February 25, 2010
Search engine optimization Starbucks: a McDonalds story?
SEO is about tricks to put web pages on top of Google’s search results. It has Thoughts automatically focussed on the marketing strategy of Starbucks. I
proven to be a fruitful marketing technique in order to attract more visitors to don’t know it particularly well. However, in the first instance, it seems like a
your website. Another nice feature about Google manipulation is the way it has McDonalds story. This means: geographically expanding by buying properties or
changed the PR game. buying out others in order to create some sort of “experience”. For Starbucks, I
would call it the “New York Coffeehouse from Friends Experience”.
SEO for PR
Why didn’t I have that Coffeehouse Experience?
The thing is: journalists are human beings as well and try to obtain the maxi-
mum result with a minimum of efforts. In their “search for news” they also rely I believe exporting a product from one culture to another isn’t that easy. May-
on the internet. And most of the time they just “Google” for news. You suppose be Europeans are used to drinking coffee elsewhere? Maybe Europeans want
they would double-check that information. But due to lack in time, they often better coffee (I did not like the coffee that I ordered, tasted like carton)? Did
do not. Starbucks create the wrong expectations in my head? Was my view biased by
Rachel, Ross, Monica, etc. ? Whatever might be the reason, I won’t be a Star-
Means-end-chain: SEO for Thought-leadership bucks fan on facebook – millions already are!
One of the great PR goals in today’s society is being the “thought leader” within
the sector or industry. Studies have shown that being on the number 1 Google
result page evokes the psychological effect of “the best, the biggest, etc.” For
PR people today SEO could be a means to the end of thought-leadership.
10 11

8. Power of mobile web for publishers February 26, 2010 Power of mobile web for publishers February 26, 2010
The power of mobile websites
Half a year ago I finally got myself a smartphone. Hooray for the “laggards”
(referring to Rogers Adoption of Innovation studies)! Since then I’m able to
browse the worldwide web on my mobile phone. My preferred mobile websites
are social network sites and a website of a newspaper. Why? Both have done
their best to create a website (or even an iPhone app) that is optimized for mo-
bile devices.
The power of a good news website
I never read that financial-economic newspaper before. However, I started
reading it on my mobile device for usability reasons. After a while I noticed
that I also browsed their website for news on my laptop. I liked the website for
providing news very fast, the e-book feature, etc. That website also offered the
printed version for free for 2 months… I agreed… Now I read the printed version
of a newspaper that I disliked before!
Reading on paper is a habit / ritual
The marketer of the newspaper truly hopes that I will enjoy the printed version
that much that I will sign up for a year. Maybe a 2 months free trial will not be
sufficient to get me as a full-time reader. Nonetheless, providing free time to
learn to read on paper, to enjoy the paper, to make a habit of reading a printed
version while drinking your morning coffee, etc… might prove to be effective.
Maybe the romanticism of reading on “yellow, dirty” paper will empower the ef-
fect?
What’s the power of mobile web for a newspaper?
It got me reading a printed newspaper (for at least 2 months!) that I’d never
bought or read before.
12 13

9. Cycling: a unique marketing opportunity? February 28, 2010 Cycling: a unique marketing opportunity? February 28, 2010
New cycling season : new brands
I agree, I do like cycling. Not just doing it myself but as a passive sportsman:
watching it on the television. It’s also exciting however from a sponsorship side
of view. Every year when the new season starts, I meet new brands. I rarely
learn what the brands stand for actually. This year’s list of new teams (read:
new sponsors):
• FOOTON-SERVETTO
• SKY PROFESSIONAL CYCLING TEAM
• TEAM HTC – COLUMBIA
• TEAM RADIOSHACK
New brands on top of my mind … but !
The above brands will be top of mind if you ask me “name a brand”. Neverthe-
less, I will never know what these brands are about (unless I browse them or
meet them by accident). This was a starting point for a quick reflection on mar-
keting opportunities in sport sponsorship, in particularly cycling.
Marketing strategy on cycling sponsorship?
I doubt the effectiveness of sponsoring a cycling team. I mean, it costs a lot of
money and I doubt whether it’s earned back. Nevertheless: brand owners, keep
sponsoring cycling teams! I love the sport and you have a broader task then
just selling your products!
14 15

10. Celebrity power as a Marketing Tool March 4, 2010 Celebrity power as a Marketing Tool March 4, 2010
Who will open the new mall?
The above sentence is something that I note everywhere: outdoor posters, local
newspaper ads, flyers, etc. My immediate reaction: “Who cares? Isn’t celebrity
power a thing of the past?”
Celebrity power as an advertising strategy
Celebrity power has always been an advertising strategy, mostly known as the
“celebrity endorsements phenomenon”. The logic is sort of the following: The
coercive power of a celebrity results in all people wanting and buying that good.
Everyone a celeb?
In today’s world, everyone is a celebrity – or at least they have the ability
to become one using their own power. Just look at reality TV-shows such as
“Idols”, “Master cook” , “Big Brother” , “Expedition Robinson” , etc.
Everyone a celebrity within a specific ‘market’?
In today’s digital network society people are all celebrities within a certain
“market”. Maybe this will prove to be the genuine coercive power of advertising
instead of global stars? We’ll see…
A powerful example of celebrity marketing?
Despite the above, I found an ad where I believe the celebrity is used effective-
ly: an ad for “Hanes” panty starring Jennifer Love Hewitt. This ad uses the ce-
lebrity in a good way because of the powerful copy (baseline: “look who we’ve
got our hanes on now”). What’s more: it uses the “sexiness” of the celebrity.
Nice :-)
16 17

11. The Future of Printed Pictures March 13, 2010 The Future of Printed Pictures March 13, 2010
The profession of “photographer” is dead
In today’s digital and mobile world, everyone is a photographer. People are mo-
bile and carry along mobile devices that most of the time can take (high) quali-
ty pictures. What’s more, the digital technology allows to take as many pictures
as one can imagine. In the end, one will have made at least one picture that
has the appearance of a professional photo.
“Everyone a celebrity”
I believe the “end of the photographer” should be understood within the realms
of the “15-minutes-of-fame-for-everyone society”. Actually this means it’s not
the end of a certain profession. Celebrities still exist. Photographers still ex-
ist. The border however to enter those categories is now hazier then
ever because of the individual’s empowerment brought along
by digital technologies. Worth a large format print?
Upload & pay online
Back to the pictures. Peo-
ple take pictures every-
where, anytime. Whether
with a point&shoot, reflex
or a mobile phone. Most
of the time those picture
are used to post online to a
social media profile. Rarely
those pictures are printed.
The future of printed pictures
however is via an online work-
flow. Upload your own “profes-
sional photo”, set the characteris-
tics, pay and … there you go 2 or 3
days later you receive a profession-
ally crafted large format print in your
mailbox.
18 19

12. E-mail marketing versus spam March 13, 2010 E-mail marketing versus spam March 13, 2010
E-mail marketing: still valid? Implementations?
I would answer the above question with a big yes. Yes, unless you’re using the E-mail copy : subject lines
spam strategy. Unfortunately for the ones who want to do “good e-mail mar-
keting”, the spammers touched the reputation of mass mailings. But what’s the Spammers are often using the words “free” or “win”. Usage of those words in
main difference between e-mail marketing and sending out spam? your subject line copy makes it very likely that your e-mail will be classified as
“spam e-mail”. More about e-mail subject copy lines could be a topic for future
E-mail Marketing vs spam posts…stay tuned if interested!
E-mail software: contact list management
To send out targeted e-mails with rich content to the correct receiver you re-
quire an intelligent contact management system. More about contact list man-
agement (segmentation) could be a topic for future posts…stay tuned if inter-
ested!
20 21

13. Lessons from Germany’s traffic lights March 20, 2010 Future of print: large format sexy ads! April 2, 2010
Set gear…it’s green soon! Fact: printed matter is going down
A while ago I drove through Germany by car. Apart from Have a look at the amount of brochures, catalogues and newspapers that are
the zones on the express way where there’s no speed printed today – compared to 10 years ago. Indeed, commercial printed mat-
limit, I was pleased with the way traffic lights work in ter decreases year by year. Of course, packaging printing will continue to exist.
Germany. You can’t deliver without properly packing the good. But you can sell without a
printed brochure or catalogue (just put it online as a PDF and it’ll do the trick).
How do they work?
Fact: large format prints
When the light is red it first jumps shortly to orange before it turns green. The add value
traffic lights in my country do not do that. They only use orange in between
green and red. Not in between red and green. I believe however, using orange In the above I stated that
in the “start-flow” of city traffic brings along certain advantages. packaging will continue to
exist. This will also count
Advantage 1: traffic flow optimized for large format print.
Large format prints provide
When it’s red and the cars are waiting, it often occurs that it takes over 5 sec- additional value compared
onds for the traffic to move again (after the lights have jumped to green). to commercial prints. Large
When you put orange in between , drivers know: “set to first gear, you can format prints grab the at-
drive soon”. This improves the traffic flow because people are not longer hesi- tention of people. A bro-
tating on “red” but instead on “orange”. This could result in drivers being less chure isn’t read thoroughly
frustrated by traffic. In the end: happier people in a non-aggressive city envi anymore – after all, they
ronment? find the content on the
world-wide web.
Advantage 2: save your car’s gearbox
Suggestion: sexy large
Another advantage of this traffic light system is that you don’t screw your gear- format prints
box that easily. Hasty people are often in 1st gear while waiting and thus have
to push down their left feed pedal continuously. Not that good actually for tech- Sexyness has always been
nology inside the car. a trick to grab people’s
attention. Nevertheless,
Advantage 3: improves ecology and economy of driving? sexyness should be used
appropriately. It doesn’t
I’m not completely sure about that but using the “neutral” gear more effectively make sense for all prod-
improves in a more economic and ecologic way of driving? ucts. This page depicts a
good example of sexyness
within a large format print
concept. It depicts a good-
looking women next to a big shower head. The copy (Feel Dirty?) enforces the
“sexual” aspect as well as it provides appropriate information about the com-
pany’s products: they provide solutions to make your body clean…
22 23

14. On media selection. Radio ads for universities April 19, 2010 On media selection. Radio ads for universities April 19, 2010
Radio advertisements
When talking about advertising on radio, one needs to know a few things about
the medium and its audience:
people mainly listen to the radio while driving a car
the other 50% of ‘hearing’ the radio is while they are working
teenagers do not drive a car
teenagers listen to their Ipod or play with their Iphone (social web apps) while
taking the bus, the train or driving their bike.
Why do universities advertise on the radio?
The main goal in university ads is to convince teenagers to sign up for classes
at their school. As stated above: teenagers do not listen that much to the radio.
Why on earth would one buy expensive media space on national radio if the
message doesn’t reach your target audience?
It might be that parents have a great influence on the university teenagers join.
It might just be that those same parents do listen to the radio while driving
their car or working. It might just be that radio spot rings those parents bell…
I assume the target audience (teenager) have things like a Facebook fan page,
a YouTube movie library of the university’s infrastructure and activities, a flashy
banner on a certain website, an architectural booth at a trade fair, …
Why marketers better be sociologist
I suggest to read the above paragraph.
24 25

15. Belgian election fever: reflections on extremism and their On the Oil Spill: BP to deploy SEM techniques for reputation
outdoor print ads. May 29, 2010 management. June 11, 2010
Belgium is heading towards elections BP: attack on nature and mankind?
Regardless of the fact that we are facing elections again in Belgium, I want to You might have heard about it: there’s an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. BP –
discuss the outdoor print poster of the right extremist party. For your informa- held responsible for this disaster – is doing everything within its reach to solve
tion, they’re very nationalist. They rather see the northern (dutch-speaking) the issue as soon as possible. Instead of discussing the engineering operations
part of the country become a separate state instead of cooperating with the by which the company is trying to stop the leak, I want to say a word or two
southern (french-speaking) part. Their driving factors are: a different language, about the marketing (public relations) aspects that come into play.
a differently organized economic structure, money that flows from the north to
the south, etc. Reputation at risk.
Language at the core of the party program Needless to say that a natural disaster can seriously harm the reputation of a
company – resulting in fewer “likers” (cfr: the Facebook like hype on external
As stated above, language is a major point in their (ehrm) “ideology”. So they websites…) or even less people willing to fill up their car at a BP service station.
state in their posters: “Flemish people first” – written as “Vlamingen 1st”. For BP this is as much a disaster as is the oil for the nature and our planet. BP
Problems with this statement. Either they make a dutch spelling mistake or can’t afford to have a decrease in revenue – the cost of the oil spill is already
they introduce English (1st, means first) into their campaign… Isn’t this a bit sufficiently high.
strange for a party who has Dutch language at the core of its existence? The
ambiguity is clear to me…Empowering the stupidity of the right-wing. Reputation management: what is the reputation?
A situation where I could have understand this approach One could think of BP as a “money-making machine while destroying our plan-
et”. One could think that is correct – but it’s not. In the past – as well as today
I could have understand this poster without – BP has been glorified for its environmentally responsible business model. Yes,
worrying when the party had received list BP is not just about oil. BP is about: oil, natural gas, wind, solar, biofuels, effi-
number 1 for the election. From a market- ciency, energy security, energy diversity, …
ing point of view, the big 1 would have made
clear that they were the first party on the SEM techniques as a means for reputation management
election sheet. Nonetheless, they are not.
SEM stands for search engine marketing. It is the “art” of positioning website
They received number 7. The irony in here pages in the Google query result pages. One can pay Google to be on the re-
is that number 1 was granted to the flemish sult pages. You’ll end up in the “sponsored links” and pay each time somebody
social-democrats – their ideologic counterpart. clicks your link. This type of search engine marketing is called SEA: search en-
gine advertising. An other approach is to build your website in such a way that
it organically (without paying Google) lists well in the search results. This type
of SEM is called SEO: search engine optimization. The latter is more sustainable
than the first, but takes more time to prove its efficiency.
In order to understand the point, one needs to know a bit more about
“the psychology of Google result pages”.
26 27

16. Some facts about Search and “Googling”
• people usually look no further than the results displayed on page 1
• people believe that they receive good information via this technology – and
they actually do!
• people believe the “best” companies are at the top of the list
• Google has become the number 1 source for people to obtain information.
Is SEM a powerful reputation management technique?
SEM, both SEA and SEO, are valid reputation management techniques. As a
matter of fact, companies should consider thinking about this aspect not only
when dealing with so-called crisis communication.
SEO: long-term reputation management?
What if the first Google result page of your company’s brand name is entirely
filled with webpages that you own or that you have relations with? Well, then
you would control your reputation when people search for you. How to handle
that? Well, just think on the following set-up: index your company (product)
specific website in Google, make a Facebook page as well, set up a blog, deploy
a twitter account, etc. You’ll note that after a while when people browse your
company or product they see pages in Google that are managed by yourself.
The reputation that develops in people’s minds is completely under your con-
trol.
Why BP ran an SEA campaign
As stated above, SEA is a means to appear in the listing with a finger flick while
SEO takes time to have impact. For this reason BP had to run an SEA campaign
on the keywords ‘Oil Spill’. Is it wrong to do so? Actually no, it’s not because
they paid for inclusion that it is immoral to do so. As a matter of fact, nobody
would have questioned BP buying a newspaper page in order to put an ad for
e.g. apologies about the oil spill (they might even have done so).
Finally, a word about BP.
Looking at the BP case, we have to admit that they are quite committed to the
environment. We see that the engineering operations are doing everything to
get the leak fixed as soon as possible. This is also what they want to make clear
to the general public. However, if they had deployed a more extensive reputa-
tion management strategy before the disaster… it would have been more pow-
erful and people wouldn’t have questioned the adwords campaign that much.
Nevertheless: BP is environmentally responsible. They just had a little bad luck
with their operations on the Gulf of Mexico…
28 29

17. E-mail marketing. Reflections on timing. June 12 2010 Why to love a vuvuzela? Lessons from ethnomusicology.
June 14, 2010
In a previous post on this blog, we already discussed e-mail marketing as still
being a valid marketing channel. In that post we made a clear distinction be- These days there’s a lot of “buzz” about the usage of vuvuzela instruments at
tween e-mail marketing and spam. the World Cup Football in South Africa. People seem to be annoyed by the “vuu-
vuu” noize. Nevertheless, I want to make a case for the Vuvuzela.
Additionally, when you are not sending out spam but deploy e-mail blast soft-
ware in cooperation with intelligent marketing techniques, one needs to realize Ethnomusicology.
that timing is a rather crucial aspect as well.
A couple of years ago I was glad to take a class called “ethnomusicology”. Eth-
When does the message appear in front of the receiver? nomusicology is a branch within musicology. The first studies social and cultural
aspects of music in local and global contexts as opposed to the latter which is
Today, a few minutes ago, I went voting. Back at home I checked my e-mail more designed for and dedicat- ed to Western art music (classical mu-
inbox: 3 commercial e-mails from political parties in order to get my vote in the sic). So to speak, ethno- musicology studies music as a human,
last minutes of the campaign. Sorry, too late! I voted after which I read your social and cultural phenomenon.
e-mail. Nevertheless, you had about 2 or 3 months to reach me via e-mail. You
didn’t. Timing is almost as crucial as targeting the right audience. Wrong timing Lesson from the classes about African
is a classical example of deploying e-mail marketing non-effectively. music
Other reflections on the timing aspect of e-mail blasts One crucial aspect about the
“music” (regardless of their
• E-mails on Monday: if people take a day off, it’s probably a monday… So, diversity) in African societies is
if you want your e-mail not to be read, send it on monday. that it was (is) an insepara-
• E-mails on Monday – part 2: people open their mailbox after ble part of societal live. This
not opening it for an entire weekend. Your e-mail is in a means e.g. that African mu-
clutter of loads of e-mails. Are you that sure yours it sic has to be understood
the one that’s going to be read? within the realms of other
• E-mail campaigns on Friday: if people take structures that evolve around the
a day off, it’s probably on Friday … or “tones” and “noises”. Those structures
on Monday are: events (religious or profane: a celebra-
• E-mail hour of sending: I tion), dance moves, costumes, body paintings,
believe e-mails have the high- …
est change of being read when Well, I guess you already start to see the link between the
send on Tuesday, Wednesday or world cup and the vuvuzela. It’s just a habit, a ritual - so don’t
Thursday. Additionally one needs be annoyed by it.
to realize that people want a small
break from now and then while The “vuu-vuu” noise as a means to a state of trance
working. Don’t you feel like read-
ing something amusing when you’re Some traditional African music had the aim to get in some sort of “trance” in
close to lunch break? Yes, I suggest that order to get closer to nature or God (for instance). I believe the monotone
sending out e-mail blast shortly before noon is sound of the Vuvuzela is rather reverberating instead of annoying. I can imag-
the most fruitful period of the day. ine that the players on the pitch never really notice the “vuu-vuu” sound – but
instead feel a certain “drive”, “tempo” that encourages their play.
30 31

18. The Power of Twitter for websites: own test. June 15, 2010 The Power of Twitter for websites: own test. June 15, 2010
Tweeting the day away via your smart phone?
Result today: a nice woman from Italy re-tweeted one of my stories, started to
If you’re a Twitter user, you know what it’s all about. For those who don’t: twit- follow me and added me to a themed list.
ter is a micro-blogging platform that allows you to send out messages (limited
to 140 characters) to the entire world. What will this bring along? New followers? We truly hope so, since the Italian
woman is already followed by over 1 000 people, my article is now within the
Twitter for business purposes? reach of more people than the 20 daily visitors on this blog and my 5 twitter-
followers. If I have a closer look at this blog web stats … I can already see that
If you’re in business you might think of adding a “Twitter account” to your mar- the re-tweeted article is currently my “most read article”…
comm mix. After all, it might drive traffic to your website. Once you have those
“Twitter-people” on your website, you can start to convince them. But not eve- A re-tweet in Italy: no more words, just an image
rything will turn into sales…
What else might happen?
• A “tweet-reader” ends up on your webpage and decides to tweet about your
webpage…your webpage has been broadcasted to people you never reached
in the first place…
• A tweeter retweets your statement and as a result your phrase is shared
with people that didn’t initially follow you.
• A tweeter might list you within a specific theme
• A tweeter is by definition rather unpredictable, so almost everything might
happen
• …
My test results: this blog, the Bizz2Sozz twitter account
Based on the date of my first post, I started this blog at the end of February.
While setting-up the blog, it came to me that to spread the ideas on this blog,
another channel should come into play – as I can’t solely rely on my bloggin’
skills (if I have them, for you to decide). For this reason, I turned to Twitter.
com and set-up an account.
Every time I posted a story on my blog, I tried to give it publicity by tweeting
my views over the twitter platform. (I have to be honest: I forgot it a couple
of times and backed this up by tweeting all articles at once. I know, not the
perfect strategy). The workflow is rather easy: I write a blogpost, after which I
summarize what’s in the article and add a link to the article (all in a 140 char-
acter phrase!).
32 33

19. A WordPress-car on the HighWay? On Brand Identity. World Cup advertisers reflect shift in economic power
June 29, 2010 July 9, 2010
Fifa world cup: global event, global brands
The world cup football is almost at its end. A European country is about to win
the tournament – that’s for sure.
However, if one digs a little deeper into the entire phenomenon of the world cup
– one could see that the “economic powers” from the past (let’s say USA, West-
ern Europe) are loosing power.
I’ve been a dedicated world cup watcher since the ‘Mundiale’ in Italy, 1990.
Since that day I mainly see “Western brands”: brands from manufacturers in
Confused? the classic economic powerzones – they were the only ones who could afford
the investment.
I was confused as well. While driving at 120 km/hour (or faster but I can’t say
that for legal reasons) I suddenly thought that I noticed a car with some “word- With today’s shift in economic and financial power, it should not be a surprise
press advertising” labelled on to it. This was not the case though – it was a that we see non-western brands on the global advertising platform (which the
Volkswagen. The feature story however demonstrates that WordPress is a brand world cup football definitely is)
that is highly prioritized in my brain…
Fifa partners and their core market
The graphic design aspect of brand identity
To demonstrate the reflection in powershift, one can start looking at the “gen-
The identity of a brand is constructed within the head of the receiver – the eral fifa sponsors”. These are well-known companies from the past with their
intention of how it should be conceived however is inherent to the sender. The headquarters in Western (industrial?) economies. Brands that match this exam-
design is the first aspect by which people construct an identity around the ple: adidas (Europe), coca-cola (US), visa (US), sony (Japan), hyundai(South
brand. Looks matter, also for brands. Korea). One of the upcoming economic (financial) powers is the Middle-East.
You shouldn’t be surprised then that the Dubai-based Emirates Group is an of-
Marketing clutter: be different ficial sponsor nowadays…
To be noticed by the receiver, you need to be different from the rest. Easily Stadium perimeter advertisers
said, I agree. When choosing your logo, you only look at the market that you’re
in – in order to differ from your “market”. Nevertheless, the above suggests The driving factor in this analysis however came from looking at the stadium
that brands are not limited to a specific market. Brands are brands. “Trans- perimeter advertisements during the game. By seeing exotic alphabet (chinese)
market” analysis of brand identity may be recommended since brand confusion and an Indian inspired font next to the pitches, my attention was drawn.
can have a negative effect… let’s take the wordpress-volkswagen example… Here’s a list of non-western brands that I’ve noticed to be advertising on foot-
ball pitches during the world cup. In my opinion, they reflect the shift in eco-
Similar look = similar feelings? nomic and financial powers.
• mahindra satyam > Mahindra Group; India
I wonder: if I had a negative feeling towards WordPress … would I have nega- • Yingli Solar > China
tive feelings for Volkswagen as well? Or it might just be the opposite: would I • Seara > Brasil
have choosen a different blog platform because I confuse the wordpress iden- • Proving the shift in powers
tity with the one from Volkswagen? I might hate Volkswagen… • Credit crunch : US ; Europe
• Economic slowdown: US, Europe
34 35

20. 36 37

21. Google Adsense: why should you consider it? August 26, 2010 Google Adsense: why should you consider it? August 26, 2010
Google Inc. Benefits Google Adsense
If I ask people to “just name a brand”, then I often get the answer “Google”. • The most robust targeting of any ad network
Yes, Google is a powerful brand these days. Nevertheless, people often know
nothing more about Google then it being a search engine. Of course, Google AdSense’s innovative targeting options allow advertisers to more precisely
is much more than a search engine. Just think about the apps “Google Earth”, reach their desired audiences on a third-party website — resulting in more rev-
“Google Maps”, “Google Video” “Google Docs”, “Google Calendar” and last but enue for the third-party website owner as well as more sales for the advertiser.
not least “Gmail”.
• Contextual targeting
It’s clear that Google isn’t just a search engine. But how do they generate rev-
enue then? Google introduced an innovative business model – AdWords – and AdSense ads are related to the content of the webpage. This is an advantage:
the pay-per-click (SEA) concept. The new business model proved to work be- your ad pops up there were it doesn’t interrupt. It fits in between the content
cause today AdWords is still the main source of revenues of Google Inc. on the website.
Google and its highly targeted advertising options • Placement targeting
The powerful element in the Google business model is the fact that advertisers An advertiser can target a site based on demographics, vertical, geographic
are ensured their ad appears location, or URL.
only when people are inter-
ested. A search engine ad only • Interest–based advertising
appears for relevant keywords
(in the case of the pay-per- An advertiser can show ads based on users’ interests and previous interactions
click model). People only enter with that advertiser.
keywords when they are ex-
plicitly interested in a subject. • New Media?
An Adsense ad only appears in
between relevant content. This AdSense isn’t just for websites. Earn extra revenue by displaying ads on your:
means the ad is advertising • Site search results
the same good or service as • Mobile webpages
the page it is on. Bottom line: advertising via a Google platform is cost-effective • Feeds
since it only reaches people who are interested. Compared to “mass advertising • Parked domains
media” such as television, this way is much more effective. • Mobile applications
• Videos
Example: Google Adsense on this blog • Online game
Have a look at the below screenshot of this website. It’s an Adsense ad that
was placed next to an article on “brand management”. For a company special-
izing in brand management, appearing next to an article like that is very useful
since the reader of the article is already interested in the advertiser’s core busi-
ness.
38 39

22. Sustainable Business Strategies for SMEs in a Sustainable Business Strategies for SMEs in a
“dying industry”? August 26, 2010 “dying industry”? August 26, 2010
Print: a dying industry? Is commercial printing dead?
I often encounter the phrase “Print is Commercial printing is about the crea-
dead”. Of course, print is not dead. tion of leaflets, brochures, catalogues,
First of all, it’s not a living organism etc. Yes, it still exists and it’s often
– so technically unable to die because quite important to have those “sales
it never actually lived. Second, I still support documents” next to a power-
meet printed collateral on a daily ba- ful website. What is a fact is that more
sis. Third: history demonstrates that and more corporations are re-allocat-
some people always tend to state that ing their budgets from print to other
new emerging media “kill” existing media (internet, mobile, tv, …). But
ones. Concerning this third issue, al- it is not dead. Nevertheless, the de-
low me to have a small digression by crease in volume of printed marketing
referring to the panic for the medium radio with the rise of commercial televi- collateral has been an undeniable trend for years now.
sion. Companies that have been in the industry for years are increasingly looking to
survive. What business strategies have proven to be effective in surviving this
Commercial television would kill “the radio”. In fact, radio still exists. What hap- turmoil?
pened is a re-allocation of the time spent for a specific medium. People tend to
watch more tv and listen to the radio less. But radio is still alive and kicking. Sustainable business strategies for commercial printers?
People just use it in a different way. The radio went from a “primetime” medium
to a “drive time” medium – which means that people mainly use radio while Business strategies and innovation are closely linked together
driving a car. So: did video kill the radio star? No, it did not. It just resulted in a We don’t want to put an in-depth (theoretical) analysis here about business
new way of allocating resources for specific media. strategies for growth and innovation. But apparently they are closely linked to
one another. The image on the left should do the trick for now. We believe it’s
How to understand the phrase “print is dead”? more fruitful to draw a real-life business case.
So one needs to pay attention what exactly is meant and how the above phrase Sustainable business strategies for SMEs in commercial printing?
should be understood. First of all, we have explained in the above paragraphs
that media do not die. However, having a look at the phrase “print is dead”, The graphics / printing industry has been going down for years now. The eco-
there seems to occur another problem. What is the “printing industry”? nomic slowdown and the credit crunch only empower the trend. Loads of SME
The printing industry is a rather general description of business activities re- printers went bankrupt or at least had to shrink down the number of employ-
lated to printing. The argument that print is dead doesn’t hold much water past ees.
books, newspapers and magazine – which aren’t even dead also by the way.
The printing industry has multiple subsections, so one cannot simplify that eas- As a reaction, the industry’s major players reached out to a well-known strat-
ily. egy for growth: “M&A” (mergers and acquisitions). A financially strong company
within the sector buys out less powerful players and consequently integrates
To start with: every single item made and sold in this world comes with packag- them into the new structure. The sustainability and growth of the business is
ing, even if ordered over the internet. So package printing won’t die. However, hence secured (it might be a short-term…).
in times of economic downfall people consume less, which results in less ship-
ments of goods (with printed packages). This also counts for commercial print-
ing – which most of the time people denote when saying the phrase “print is
dead”.
40 41

23. Sustainable Business Strategies for SMEs in a Sustainable Business Strategies for SMEs in a
“dying industry”? August 26, 2010 “dying industry”? August 26, 2010
The Pica Media Partners case
As a result of the concentration process, the number of printers within the in-
dustry decreased. SMEs reacted by expanding into multi-media production ser-
vices or by integrating into larger corporations. However more creative initia-
tives have seen the light as well. And those initiatives don’t even mean the loss
of SME commercial printers. The initiative “Pinca” of the Pica Media Partners
Group is one of those creative initiatives to counter-fight the negative spiral of
the industry.
Pica Media Partners is an independent network that contains more than 30
graphic communication corporations within it. The network covers the entire
area of The Netherlands. By gathering the strengths of each entity in a network,
the group has additional forces for marketing, sales and purchase. By uniting
forces, the SME companies within the network can benefit from the state-of-
the-art tools as if they were a big player.
In today’s printing industry it’s important to make the transition from a “printer”
who sells products into a “media service provider” who sells services. An impor-
tant element to successfully realize this transition is technology. Specific tech-
nologies support printers’ transformation into a service provider.
The network equally saw the importance of technology and jointly invested in
an “online collaboration platform”. We are very keen to see how this technol-
ogy will further prove how business model innovation can act as a strategy for
growth.
And I have to say: it looks quite promising. The deployment of the technology
resulted in an innovative business model within the graphic production industry.
In fact, BMI or business model innovation could well be the theme for my next
blog post since I started to feel a particular interest in related subjects.
42 43

24. How to make money with Social Media? How to make money with Social Media?
A new business in “global village”? October 20, 2010 A new business in “global village”? October 20, 2010
Every young marketer probably Social Media Photo applications
has met a C-level executive that
made him end up in the same situ- I came to realize that one important aspect
ation as depicted in the cartoons about the usage of social media is to share
below. photographs with its friends, connections,
peers, … (you name it). What if you could
Anyway, it was a starting point for provide additional value to this “photo sharing
me to come up with a concept of experience” in such a way that people actually
how you can generate revenue with would want to pay for it? Wouldn’t it be better
Social Media. As far as my thinking than “spending money on social media adver-
is concerned I came to the conclu- tising”?
sion that social media cannot make
money for you if you consider, deploy and use it solely as a communication Connect the virtual photo sharing experience with the physical one
channel. To state it very simply: a Facebook fan page or a netlog advert prob-
ably won’t do the trick. Social media profiles mostly contain a section where the user can upload im-
ages. In this manner users share their real-life experiences with their peers
We see a remarkable resemblance with the “status” of marketing within an in the virtual domain. If there was an application that could gain access to all
organization. To unleash the power of marketing you cannot reduce them to the images of the user and offer the user a user-friendly interface to create
channel communication and sales support, just as you cannot simplify social and consequently order photo books, postcards, calendars or slide show mov-
media solely into a communication channel for your business. ies from their social media-assets, one could generate a business from selling
those goods.
Don’t consider social media solely as a marketing channel.
Social Media Web app specs
The opportunities of social media should be explored in a far more extensive
way then as it being a highly targeted communication channel for marketing I would make the web app open enough. This means it should be able to access
messages. The image below demonstrates why this approach won’t result in data from multiple platforms:
you generating money with social media. • The application presents multiple templates to the user: select a photo book template,
select a card template, select a calendar template or select to generate a slide show movie.
At the start templates and slide show movies are rather limited since they are created by
Create a new value on top of Social Media the app developer. The goal is to come up with a business model that encourages people to
supply templates to the platform. If another user selects the uploaded template in order to
If you create new value on top of make and purchase a photo book, the creator of the template receives a margin on the or-
social media networks, you might der. Templates are created in such a way that there occurs no resolution problem (since the
create a new market. If you are platforms mostly resize the uploaded images, I suppose).
• The user selects a template and consequently selects photos from his social
smart enough to keep your “new • media album.
value” open for multiple social net- • The user gets a preview of the template with his photos.
works, you have a potential 700+ • The user sees a price for his creation and can order and pay it online.
million euro business ahead of you. • The user receives his physical good at home. He can now have a physical photo
• sharing experience as well. What’s more he can use the social media to “testify” about the
usage of the photo book application. In fact, you can imagine that one takes a picture of its
physical experience (receiving the photo book) and sharing this experience virtually again
(indeed, upload a picture of the photo book to the social media platform!).
44 45

25. How to make money with Social Media? How to make money with Social Media?
A new business in “global village”? October 20, 2010
How could a business model look like for this type of product?
There is a lot to say about a business model and its components, difference
with a business plan, etc. Instead of going into an academic discussion about
that topic, I will make use of the Business Model Canvas as developed by Alex
Osterwalder. I believe his canvas provides a valid framework to design “a busi-
ness”. The business model canvas is defined by the following building blocks:
partners, activities, resources, value proposition, customer relations, channels,
customer segments, cost structure and revenue stream.
The image below depicts a thinking exercise on a possible business model of
the Social Media Photo Application. It is based on Osterwalder’s business model
canvas.
Business model generation by using the BM canvas
with a business plan, etc. Instead of going into an academic discussion about
that topic, I will make use of the Business Model Canvas as developed by Alex
Osterwalder. I believe his canvas provides a valid framework to design “a busi-
ness”. The business model canvas is defined by the following building blocks:
partners, activities, resources, value proposition, customer relations, channels,
customer segments, cost structure and revenue stream.
The image below depicts a thinking exercise on a possible business model of
the Social Media Photo Application. It is based on Osterwalder’s business model
canvas. It might prove fruitful for reading purposes to download the business
model canvas for the social media photo book application as a PDF. (yes click
here, this is a link!)
Just one more thing, how should one call this type of solution:
Social-to-Print?
46 47

26. Flanders & its strong extreme right political party. On the Flanders & its strong extreme right political party. On the
frequency aspects of media buying. October 21, 2010 frequency aspects of media buying. October 21, 2010
Belgium: the story You might disagree on Vlaams Belang’s opinions, but you’ve got to give them at
least one thing: it is the only political party that tries to establish a continuous
We live in a country that isn’t governed for a period of about 4 months now. conversation with the inhabitants of Flanders. By this I mean, they are active
Why is that so difficult? Just watch the below instructional video from Marcel even without upcoming elections. Is it strange then that they get a lot of votes
Sel… at elections? We believe it’s not that strange.
Flanders: strong right-wing Given the fact that most of the people don’t really care about ideology, they
might vote for “a brand” that they are most familiar with. The brand they’re
In the northern part of the country (Flanders, where they speak Dutch) inhabit- most familiar with might just be the brand that chooses to have a continuous
ants tend to vote for conservatives. But what’s even more striking, is the huge advertising frequency strategy.
support for an extreme right political party – known as Vlaams Belang (=”Flem-
ish importance”). Frequency-based theory high percentage extreme right voters derived
from “advertising science”
Why does this political organization receives so much support from that many
inhabitants? Is it that all Dutch-speaking Belgians are a bit “fascist”? It cannot Political advertising and commercial advertising serve pretty much the same
be, I cannot believe. goal. To convince people to believe information provided via a communication
channel.
Next to loads of other aspects, we want to point out that this political party sets
itself apart from the other parties not only by leaving the democratic spectrum Within the communication science, there seems to be a general consensus on
behind but also by deploying a different media buying strategy. With their me- how to reflect about the impact of frequency of media exposures. Here’s sort of
dia strategy, they tend to be visible in the streets the entire year – not only in how it works:
the run-up to elections such as the other political parties. Added to that, the
party empowers that visibility in the streets by offering gadgets via a webshop The media objectives of a media plan often call for some combination
(e.g.: branded sweaters, caps, cycling outfits, mouse pads, flags, etc.). of reach and frequency. Media planners want the highest reach possible
because that means more people will be exposed to the campaign, which
New campaign: the Republic of Flanders. should lead to more brand awareness, customer loyalty, sales, and so
on. Media planners also seek high frequency if they feel that consumers
Belgium has struggled to form a government for about 4 months now – one po- will only take action (that is, buy the product) after multiple exposures
litical crisis follows the other. Main reason is the inability to make an agreement to the campaign.
between the Dutch-speaking community and the French-speaking community.
Ended up at this point, Vlaams Belang decided to launch a campaign to dem- Media planners can choose among three methods of scheduling: conti-
onstrate that the country is doomed (this has been their main argument for nuity, flight, and pulse. Continuity scheduling spreads media spending
years). The solution, according to them, is to form the Republic of Flanders. evenly across months. The flight scheduling approach alternates adver-
To convince people that the republic of Flanders is the means to the end of tising across months, with heavy advertising in certain months and no
wealth, Vlaams Belang launched a campaign that consists of 500 20 sq.m. out- advertising at all in other months. Pulse scheduling combines the first
door ads, window posters and a brochure of which more than 1 million copies two scheduling methods, so that the brand maintains a low-level of ad-
are printed (to compare: the biggest newspaper in Flanders is printed on about vertising across all months but spends more in selected months.
100 000 copies).
48 49

27. Flanders & its strong extreme right political party. On the Flanders & its strong extreme right political party. On the
frequency aspects of media buying. October 21, 2010 frequency aspects of media buying. October 21, 2010
Reading the above theory on scheduling methods, we have to say we’re not
quite sure which one the political party is using. However, others are using none
– except when running into campaigns. In this manner the political brand ap-
peals to people in the streets because they meet it all the time…
Think about it? Should other parties counter-feight this dominance by also buy-
ing media space more frequently?
50 51

28. The importance of strong copy in advertising. On the latest The importance of strong copy in advertising. On the latest
Stihl-campaign. October 22, 2010 Stihl-campaign. October 22, 2010
I like the latest adverts (see images below) of the saw manufacturer Stihl be-
cause they are based on strong copy. The importance of strong copy cannot be
underestimated.
Importance of strong copy for adverts: No half work Importance of strong copy for adverts: I came, I sawed and I won (J.Caesar)
(with characters sawn in half)
52 53

29. Google: a new phase in brand management techniques? Google: a new phase in brand management techniques?
October 23, 2010 October 23, 2010
Google is without a doubt one of today’s global brands. What’s remarkable, it 3. Product extensions and sub-branding
gained that position without deploying branding techniques previously known as
effective. If one compares the manner by which the Google brand grew to the Strategy deployed by the big brand institutes was in fact one of “sub-branding”.
strategy used by brand institutes like P&G or Unilever, one might believe a new Every product was conceived as a separate brand. An element that could ex-
phase arrived. plain the power of the brand Google is the fact that nothing is in fact sub-brand-
ed. Google is actively creating product extensions that all become an part of
1. Google & adverts the brand google (e.g.: Google Mail to Google Maps) to ensure that it can grow
beyond search. Other corporations such as Unilever choose to build a brand for
Marketing used to follow this logic: manufacture with the lowest cost and spend each product, ending up with a big portfolio of different brand names.
money on adverts. This will do the trick. Google (almost) used no adverts (as
far as we know). They relied on “viral” and pr to build the brand. Funny aspect: Does this introduce a new stage in brand building?
ads are Google’s main source of revenue. Does this make the profession of brand management totally different?
2. Branding: corporate design, corporate identity
It used to be important to have a consistent display of the corporate design
/ identity. To simplify: the logo has to look always and everywhere the same.
Google plays with its logo – expressing change and hence its identity (?). Equal-
ly striking are the options to customize your homepage (e.g. by modifying the
background). What’s more the corporation itself encourages users to personal-
ize their homepage: have a look at the movie (google slam).
54 55

30. BNP Paribas Fortis: from mobile web to mobile app. Are you QR-coding your business card already?
October 23, 2010 October 23, 2010
BNP Paribas Fortis mobile banking What is a QR-code?
We believe the strategy is in compliance with what we (and most important lit- A QR Code is a bar code that is read by QR scanners,
erature) know about mobile web and mobile apps. Here’s a non-exhaustive list mobile phones with a camera and smartphones. The
of important facts for mobile projects: code consists of black modules arranged in square
patterns on a white background. Today’s mobile devic-
• mobile web or mobile apps need to load quickly (even with 3G and UMTS). es are standard equipped with a QR code reader. And
• the mobile web is not a mirror of the website if it’s not on it, you can easily install an application
• automatically present the mobile website when mobile devices is detected on your phone (as long as you have a photo camera
• the mobile web is used to find contact coördinates, product information and build-in).
news
• for mobile apps one needs to reflect on the different OS: iOS, BlackBerry,
Symbian, Android, … Benefit of a QR code
With intelligent mobile devices and smart phones as a common utility, the pos-
sibility to immediately send information to that device saves a lot of time and
56 57

31. Running an e-commerce website? Watch out for Google Running an e-commerce website? Watch out for Google
shopping. October 27, 2010 shopping. October 27, 2010
Apparently Google launched a Beta version of “Google Shopping” (Google Indexed enterprises in France that offer iMac on google.fr
Achats) in France last week. The application looks very promising and might
change the online shopping experience. If you sell over the internet, you defi- Imagine you want to buy an iMac and want to know the perfect place and price
nitely should consider listing your products in Google Shopping. How you index for your purchase.
your products is explained below the screenshots. Imagine you’re a go-getter and will search for all places online where you can
buy an iMac.
Imagine you accurately archive all information in a spreadsheet so to compare
the offers.
How long would that take? How long does it take with Google Shopping?
Can you see the benefits already?
Companies that partner with Google within the “market of the search
term ‘iMac’ on Google Shopping France” are listed below.
• 2xmoinscher.com
• 3 Suisses
• Alapage
• Apple: logic appearance since I browsed for a Mac
• Boulanger
• dealopro
• Docteurdiscount.com
• Fnac.com
• Grosbill.com
• Inmac-Wstore.com
• LDLC.Com
• Materiel.net
• Misco.fr
• MISTERGOODDEAL
• Pixmania.com
Index your products through a feed in Google Merchant Center
In order to appear in the list, an e-commerce website or webshop needs to
provide a feed of their products to the Google Merchant Center. Consequently
Google indexes the data and makes them available for search and price com-
parison via a web interface on google.com (or in case via a country-specific url
extension).
In addition, consumers are able to immediately buy the good if the e-commerce
website supports Google Check-out.
58 59

32. Towards an augmented social reality? MediaPro review. Towards an augmented social reality? MediaPro review.
November 8, 2010 November 8, 2010
On November 2-3 we were among many
others at Olympia London to attend me-
diaPro. The event is rather unique in its kind
but brings real value to the people within the
“marketing and media industry”. Or as the
organizers describe it their-selves:
“Things are changing in the world of me-
dia and marketing. Marketers, agencies and
media owners now know all about email
marketing and websites. They tell us that
what they want now is a next generation
event that helps them take their marketing
and communications to the next level: and
that means integrating channels including Social media
offline, online and all the exciting new stuff
in mobile, social media etc. And that means How many times a day do you log on to Facebook, Twitter or similar “social me-
mediaPro!” dia”?
Mix of exhibitors and keynote speakers At the show “social media” was a central theme: two theatres were specifically
devoted to topics within the realms of “social media” and a lot of exhibitors
Visitors enjoyed a nice mixture of keynotes and classic trade fair exhibition (suppliers to marketing agencies, corporates, brands, media, …) stressed their
stands. social media technology (in one way or another).
Our final impression after the event coincides into the question “are we heading What if you combine augmented reality with social media?
towards an augmented social reality?”.
Augmented social reality! Hooray! Tagwhat!
Let’s try to unravel what this means… and how we stumbled upon this thought…
Augmented reality … an interesting technology!
We were fascinated by the maturity of AR technology shown at mediaPro.
Have a look in the below video and be astonished about the possibilities this
technology brings along!
60 61

33. Business and targeting ethics? The co-operative case. Business and targeting ethics? The co-operative case.
November 14, 2010 November 14, 2010
Promoting funeralcare services at a mediated sport event Business ethics and customer targeting?
Ever heard of the sport “Bowls”? We hadn’t before. Is there a group that offers funeralcare services in a “retail way”? It might, The
co-operative group strives to be a nation-wide funeralcare service provider with
Basically speaking it’s a form of “pétanque” often played in the commonwealth local branches all over the country.
nations. The goal of the game is to roll slightly asymmetric balls (bowls) so that
they end up close to a smaller bowl, as demonstrated in the below video. But Visitors/viewers bowls sport: a target group for funeralcare services?
there’s something more to that video … something that has to deal with busi-
ness ethics and marketing target groups… Yes, the place is full of elderly people. As the sport could be labeled rather bor
ing, chances are big the television audience is equally old.
The co-operative funeralcare as main sponsor
In the above video one could see multiple adverts at various locations of an
enterprise called “The co-operative”. All ads promote their funeralcare services.
The advertisements are everywhere: on the player’s shirts, on the left and right
of the pitch, behind the players. The event visitors see it all the time – as well
as people watching the game on their television.
62 63

34. Facebook’s history of innovations. What’s next? Facebook’s history of innovations. What’s next?
November 17, 2010 November 17, 2010
Facebook is pushing its latest product innovations hard these days. Only within Finally, the innovative new messaging system which is rumored for bringing
the last three months we have seen the launch of Facebook places, Facebook together text messaging, instant messaging and e-mail messaging. It seems as
Groups and Facebook Messaging. the Facebook Messaging Innovation took a classic “melt-to-innovate” approach.
The history of the enterprise seems a history of innovations. What is the next Will the next innovation be mobile?
innovation and where will this end?
The question for us is: what will be next? What could be Facebook’s next big in-
novation? Let’s have some ideas flow on that …
• Would a photo book app on top of Facebook be innovative? And what if you could collabo-
rate with your friends on the creation of that photo book?
• Would an e-newspaper based on posted articles by friends be innovative? In this manner
you can leaf through a digital newspaper that contains all news shared by your network.
• What are the chances they further develop an “office suite” on top of it? Would that be in-
novative? Would that impact the way employees work? Would it mean the definitive break-
through of enterprise 2.0? After all Facebook obtained Docs from Fuse Labs that will allow to
co-create and share text documents, spreadsheets and PDF directly within Facebook with all
friends, family and (especially) colleagues.
• Is the next big thing in the mobile sphere with Facebook Places? Shall we get suggestions to
drink a beer with a friend in the bar behind the corner? Will it embrace AR technology?
• Or will Facebook evolve into the basis for artificial intelligence, as one of the main (Russian)
investors believes?
Framing innovation
Innovation is about adaptation! We don’t want to bother you with theoretical
facts about the adaption of technological innovations, but please realize that in
Facebook: a history of innovations the end, it are always the people who decide whether an innovation becomes a
mainstream success or not. For those interested in the theory on innovation &
Facebook as a platform is innovative by nature: it redefined our social experi- adaptation: it follows the statistical distribution known as Gauss.
ences. Hence, this technology had a tremendous impact on how people con-
struct their identity. From time to time we tend to note a “I publish, so I am-
trend”, meaning that if it didn’t happen on Facebook (or there are no traces on
Facebook) it didn’t happen.
Secondly, with their “connect to facebook” technology, the social sharing expe-
rience was opened up to third-party apps.
The third innovation that we wish to bring forward is the implementation of
the like button across the web. This might seem an easy trick but has loads of
consequences. And it’s extremely nice for a savvy marketer! Why? Guess this is
food for another blog post…
64 65

35. Innovate your twitter reading experience: paper.li Innovate your twitter reading experience: paper.li
December 2, 2010 December 2, 2010
We stumbled upon a lovely and promising web app called “paper.li”. The app or- Output for other media?
ganizes twitter feeds into a newspaper-format. Shall publishers and marketing
departments soon embrace this innovative technology? Or does the technology How will the publishing industry and brands embrace this? Will it be a necessity
need to support multiple output formats before they do? for paper.li to generate an iPad compatible “website”? Will those groups ask for
a different experience, such as presenting the stream in the format of a “leaf-
through digital document”? Will traditional publishers feel the need to organize
the stream in a printable document? Stated differently: is a truly personalized
newspaper to become reality in this manner?
Just one more thing: developer of the app embraces Social CRM
As we are publishing this article, the application is being updated. We wonder
what the new features will be. Looking forward to it.
But what’s at least equally important: SmallRivers – the app developer – not
only builds innovative solutions. It also innovates its operations. In this respect,
one could state that they strive to practice concepts as “Social CRM”, “BMI” and
“enterprise 2.0″.
The update made clear that SmallRivers’ Customer Service deploys social media
to inform their customers. In practice: twitter is used to inform them about the
ongoing update. Just great!
Your Twitter Feed as a Newspaper
The functionality and benefits of this web technology could not have been sum-
marized better than by the organization that developed the tools. Here it is:
“paper.li organizes links shared on Twitter into an easy to read newspaper-style
format. Newspapers can be created for any Twitter user, list or #tag. A great
way to stay on top of all that is shared by the people you follow – even if you
are not connected 24/7!” – source: paper.li
The Whispering_Web Daily
Of course we’ve been playing around with it and truly love it: great product.
Have a look at the Whispering Web Daily!
66 67

36. Most influential brands 2010 index: where are the FMCG gi- Most influential brands 2010 index: where are the FMCG gi-
ants? December 2, 2010 ants? December 2, 2010
We often wonder what the most influential corporations or brands in the world
are. To answer this, we need to pass two challenges: how does one define and
measure “the most influential”? We searched for a list that could express “most
influential”. We believe we found one that expresses this concept: the Thought
Leadership index of TLG.
Defining influential as “Thought Leadership”
With the expression “most influential brand” we mean those brands and corpo-
rations that have impact on “opinion formers”. Opinion formers are human be-
ings that, through their own actions and attitudes, shape those of others. They
reside within several areas, such as business, politics, media, etc. Those opinion
leaders often base their opinion upon the expertise available through organiza-
tions. Those companies are conceived and labeled “thought leaders” within a
specific industry/sector/subject. “Thought leadership” is often cited as a strate-
gy to build trust in your company and products – which in turn leads to growth.
“Most influential brands 2010 index” aka “TLG’s Thought Leadership
index 2010″
The TLG index lists the “Thought Leadership” top companies aka “the top in-
fluential brands”. We believe that the TLG index is based upon a valid method:
in-depth conversations with opinion leaders. We don’t have information on who
exactly were the “opinion formers”, so one could question whether researcher
selected “genuine opinion formers”. Let’s assume they did and analyze the list.
List trends: no FMCG concerns & dominance of web-based corporations
Have a look at the list again. There’s not a sign of FMCG concerns such as Uni-
lever, P&G or Nestlé. On the other hand, relatively new corporations with web-
focus seem to dominate the list (Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon).
Do these FMCG groups realize they are not conceived (“decoded”) as thought
leaders/influential? Do they need to deploy another communications (pr) strat-
egy? Are they not striving for thought leadership? The latter is hard to believe.
Let’s see whether they’re in the 2011 top list!
68 69

37. Spatial planning strategies struggle to meet demands net- Spatial planning strategies struggle to meet demands net-
work society? December 2, 2010 work society? December 2, 2010
During one of our “search sessions” on random topics on google scholar, we
stumbled upon an interesting article written by Healey, P.: “Network Complexity
and the Imaginative Power of Strategic Spatial Planning.”
Not being an expert in both matters it was interesting to see how a discipline
struggles to comply with knowledge from another science. As suggested by the
article, spatial planning is still theoretically struggling to give answers to the
characteristics of the network society.
Debate: the network society and implications for spatial planning?
The world has changed. Societies have changed. Concepts for spatial planning
remained untouched. In order to know how planning could adapt to the chal-
lenges of the network society, one needs to define the specifics of this society.
The article argues that a network society is fluid, open, complex and experi-
ences multiple time-space relations.
How to answer the challenges?
Healey critiques the determinism resulting from the usage of architectural con-
cepts for spatial organization. She suggests to find answers in sociological theo-
ry and/or geography studies. Once again a call for a multidisciplinary approach.
Below is an attempt to translate the theoretical concepts into design strategies.
We apologize for this extremely theoretical post. Some like that however.
70 71

38. Postmodern intertextuality in contemporary popular music: Citizen journalism & Citizen service: Twitter-interview Bel-
mashups. December 9, 2010 gian Minister. December 13, 2010
Within current popular music culture, we witness the interesting phenomenon A couple of days ago, a Minister from the Kingdom of Belgium organized a
of “mashups” – a composition created by blending two or more songs that often Twitter-interview. The “event” was organized in cooperation with a newspaper.
involves an overlay of the vocals of one song over the instrumental of another. As a result, a lot of Q-A occurred between the Minister and officially registered
Mashups are an obvious and beautiful example of what postmodern theorists journalists of a publishing group. We do understand this of course. However,
mean with intertextuality. Thanks to a clever technology, you can now hear, see the “Twitter-interview-experiment” could have meant the start of “Citizen Jour-
and feel intertextuality in your web browser. Listen, look and party here! Enjoy! nalism” and “Citizen Service”. The first being a form of journalism that enables
anyone to take part in the news-making process. The latter being an informa-
tive, collaborative and conversation platform for governmental organizations.
The rise of the internet and the advent of Citizen journalism
With the rise of the internet, journalism gradually changed. Anyone could create
articles through blogs. Everybody could be a journalist. They just had to start a
blog and write articles. Today, there’s something even more interesting: Twitter.
Twitter-interview Belgian Minister
The interview on December 9 demon-
strated that in fact anyone with a Twit-
ter-account could have interviewed the
Minister. Anyone was able to ask ques-
tions. Everybody was an interviewer.
Citizen service: Twitter as a tool for
governments?
The event did not guarantee your ques-
tion to be answered. Should there be
a dedicated governmental service to
make sure all citizen questions are an-
swered?
Can Twitter be a useful medium for
this? Can governments deploy it to fur-
ther bridge the gap with their citizens? Is it useful to inform citizens about new
laws via a twitter feed? Would it be beneficial to build up conversations about
essential social themes over Twitter? Could Twitter bring the government closer
to the people? Could this result in happier citizens and an improved quality of
life?
72 73

39. Touchscreen text input to be revolutionized? Swype it! The app store economy: an innovative price model for pub-
December 13, 2010 lishers? December 13, 2010
Do you call to contacts who Newspaper publishers suffer for years
texted you? Do you hate to now. The number of readers is going
write text messages? Con- down – and as a result advertisers are
sider Swype! less interested to put an advert in a
newspaper. With the rise of the app store
Swype offers a new method economy, publishers have the chance to
to input text on any touch- come closer to a price model that works.
screen device (such as
phones, tablets, game con- Strategy 1: news behind a pay wall?
soles, kiosks, televisions,
virtual screens, etc.). In order to generate revenue there are
plenty of newspapers who have turned
news into paid content. The UK Times
The technology could revolutionize the way experiment with the paywall demon-
touchscreen devices handle text input. strates that people say “No, thanks” and click away to another site when faced
with a paywall at a news site. Source: The Times UK Lost 4 Million Readers To
Why do we believe in Swype? Its Paywall Experiment
It is a project of Chris Kushler who previ- Strategy 2: look at other industries (gaming industry) – The app store
ously invented the T9 text input method. We economy
all use that method multiple times each day.
Stories are often repeat themselves. The app store economy - innnovative pricing through inn-app purchase
Since there are loads of buzz within the publishing industry about publishing for
the iPad, why not have a look at the opportunities of the app store economy? In
the beginning of the Apple App Store, you had free apps and paid apps. After
a while, they added a functionality called “in-app purchases”. In-app purchases
mean that you can offer the apps for free and charge upgrades in the app – like
e.g. in the gaming industry new levels.
Price model innovation newspapers: app store and in-app purchase
Consider this: a newspaper publisher creates an iPad edition. Would it make
sense to offer the app for free, allowing everyone to read the entire newspaper
on iPad? Would it make sense to limit the free articles to 3 and then offer “in-
app purchase options” if one wants to read more? Would it make sense to show
a summary of all articles and offer “in-app purchase options” to get the entire
article?
We’d love to see publishers experiment with it and see whether the strategy
from one industry can be applied to another one.
74 75

40. Apple, Microsoft and Google to battle for internet-tv. Sony for Apple, Microsoft and Google to battle for internet-tv. Sony for
victory? December 14, 2010 victory? December 14, 2010
Apple, Microsoft and Google try to acquire a strong market position for the ris- Internet-tv to enter mainstream via gaming consoles?
ing internet-tv industry. We feel that everybody is underestimating Sony. Sony
takes a different approach compared to the “big 3″. The strategy could well The above cases make clear that internet-tv might be a service that enters
result in Sony being definitely one of the players within the internet-tv market mainstream via gaming consoles. What other manufacturers within this industry
space. Here’s why. could have an impact on internet-tv? Nintendo? How user-friendly is navigating
the web with a “Wii”? The Netflix services can already be accessed through a
Internet-tv, Apple, Microsoft and Google Nintendo Wii, so it will be interesting to see what role they will play…
Internet tv brings the experience and options of the web to your television set. Or will traditional electronics manufacturer play an important role?
In order to integrate both media, the big 3 are eager to set the standard. Mi-
crosoft for instance is talking to the big media concerns to offer a new televi- While working on this article, we ran up to an interesting article discussing the
sion service over the Xbox 360. In this respect, it follows Google’s path. Google position of Samsung within the internet-tv market. We suggest to read it here:
launched Google TV in cooperation with Sony and Logitech but the project is “5 social media Apps for your Internet tv”.
not loved by the big media concerns because of the “free specs” of Google TV.
Apple in turn released a new version of Apple TV.
What about smaller play-
ers as Netflix and Hulu?
The “Big 3″ are facing com-
petition in the US by smaller
companies like Netflix and
Hulu. Over time these servic-
es already became an alter-
native to classic cable sub-
scription. But how do the big
ones react to their offerings?
The way to handle the “small
players” seems to integrate
their services. We notice that Netflix can be accessed through Apple TV, PS3
and of course Google TV.
The Sony Strategy: frenemies
Sony is betting on two horses. On the one hand, they co-create with their “fren-
emy” Google to support Google TV on Sony hardware. On the other hand, Sony
is strong in the console gaming market with its Playstation. Gamers can also
use the Playstation to enjoy internet-tv services. In this manner, Sony is in the
market from multiple perspectives: a strategy that almost guarantees success.
76 77

41. The Open Source Economy: from software to restaurants… The Open Source Economy: from software to restaurants…
December 14, 2010 December 14, 2010
Pretty much everyone is familiar with open source software. However, the con- Open source in other industries?
cept is transcending into other industries. Hence, we label this trend ‘The Open
Source Economy’, an economy where organizations don’t design to protect (pat- • Publishing – Open Source Magazine: The July and November issue of a
ent) but rather to spread (share). The idea behind open source is that someone South-African magazine “hip2b2″ only consisted out of open source content
can take an idea or design and develop it further – which in turn can lead to licensed under a Creative Commons.
better solutions. • Fashion – Open Source Fashion Label: A label for green and fair fashion
items is open: other designers and artists are invited to enrich the label with
Roots: Open source software – Drupal their own creations. The label ensures that the product is high-quality and
sustainable.
Drupal is the most widely used open source web content management system. • Automotive – Open Source Eco-car: An open source project that aims to
It is used as a back-end system for 1% of all websites worldwide. Drupal is be- design the car of the future. More than 800 people collaborated on the car’s
hind complex websites such as whitehouse.gov; data.gov.uk and even Ebay. In blueprints. Those blueprints are publicly available under an open source li-
addition companies deploy it for knowledge management and/or business col- cense. The new car is open for modification by others as long as any derived
laboration. Telenet for instance, the largest provider of broadband cable servic- works are shared with the public as well.
es in Belgium, used Drupal to develop their knowledge base. • Food / Lifestyle / Leisure – Open Source Restaurant: At a restaurant
in Amsterdam, everything starts with a web-based documentation platform.
The web app allows people to share their with others and the restaurant
deploys it for crowdsourcing basically for anything. What’s more, the instruc-
tions for creating a similar restaurant yourself are available online.
How to “open source” your business?
Open source seems a sustainable recipe for success. We’re not saying you have
to comply with this trend but why not consider it at least? Is it also applicable
to your activities? If you were to transform into an open source business, how
would that affect your current workflow (a.k.a. cost structure)? What market
advantages would you get from it? Would it result in a unique position that
positively impacts your bottom line?
Need ideas? Generate them with us.
Just contact us, follow on twitter, etc
78 79

42. Our first blog year in stats! Thanks to WordPress. Our first blog year in stats! Thanks to WordPress.
January 2, 2011 January 2, 2011
Our first blog year in stats! Thanks to WordPress.
This blog hasn’t been around for a year, nevertheless we got these annual stats
from WordPress. We really like and appreciate this service and want to express
it by sharing the stats with you. Equally important is the fact that seeing this
post should remind me to keep blogging in 2011 (and beyond)! Happy New
Year!
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in
2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health: Minty-Fresh!
Crunchy numbers
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed
about 1,800 times in 2010. That’s about 4 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 42 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 98
pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 21mb. That’s about 2 pictures per week.
The busiest day of the year was October 22nd with 39 views. The most popular
post that day was About us.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were digg.com, facebook.com, 1harga.com, twit-
ter.com, and en.wordpress.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for business model generation, business
model canvas, china gdp growth rate, whispering marketing, and india gdp
growth rate 2010.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
• About us
• Search engine optimization as a PR tool
• World cup advertisers reflect shift in economic powers
• BNP Paribas Fortis: from mobile web to mobile app
• Celebrity power as a Marketing Tool March 2010
80 81

43. Football & World Power: 2010-2014-2018-2022 Football & World Power: 2010-2014-2018-2022
(continued from part I). January 5, 2011 (continued from part I). January 5, 2011
With the allocation of the FIFA World Cup Football for 2018 and 2022, observ-
ers mentioned that it reflected the emerging markets. It truly does! But what’s
more, the trend was already there during the World Cup Football 2010 in RSA.
We even devoted a blog post to the way by which the adverts surrounding the
pitch reflected the global shift of economic powers.
Nevertheless, which countries have been granted the rights to organize this
first-class global event? Are these the emerging markets?
Upcoming FIFA World Cup hosts and their economies
The trend seen in the adverts in the 2010 event is also there when one looks at
the countries that have been assigned to organize the future events. All coun-
tries that are to organize the world cup, show a growing/booming and interest-
ing national economy.
• World Cup 2014 host Brazil
“Brazil is one of the fastest growing emerging economies in the world. With
large and growing agricultural, mining, manufacturing and service sectors,
Brazil economy ranks highest among all the South American countries and it
has also acquired a strong position in global economy.”
(Source: trading economics)
• World Cup 2018 host Russia
“The Russia Gross Domestic Product is worth 1231 billion dollars or 1.99% of
the world economy, according to the World Bank.”
(Source: trading economics)
• World Cup 2022 host Qatar
“The country’s economic growth has been stunning. Qatar’s nominal GDP,
estimated to be $128 billion for 2010, has recently been growing at an av-
erage of 15%, and the 2010 growth rate is estimated to be 19%. Qatar’s
2007 per capita GDP was $67,000, and projected to soon be the highest in
the world. The Qatari Government’s strategy is to utilize its wealth to gener-
ate more wealth by diversifying the economic base of the country beyond
hydrocarbons.”(Source: U.S. Department of State)
82 83

44. The app store economy. Squared. January 8, 2011 Not about the software but about the way you use it. On
CRM. January 8, 2011
We previously blogged about the app store economy. This “economic trend” will The rise of CRM software – “ready-to-send” quote generation
probably get an extra boost – after Apple launching the Mac App Store on Janu-
ary 6 2011. The store is available for Mac OS 10.6.6 users and introduces the Don’t get us wrong: CRM is great to keep track of the marketing and sales
app sales model to Apple computers. process. The end of such a process ideally is a sale. In order to reach that, one
needs to send out an offer and a quotation. With the rise of CRM Software this
Happy New year – a year in which the app store economy’s figures will task has been automated to the fullest. CRM tools often integrate a functionality
square? to generate a “ready-to-send” quote.
Generate a quote with CRM Software
The “issue” with those documents is that they are often very hard to under-
stand and do not show the relationship that was built during the entire process.
The real innovation: not in software but in behavior?
It’s not about the technology nor the software but about the way you
use it.
We’d prefer to use the CRM as to manage the long sales process. However, we
would not recommend to deploy the quote generation functionality.
Instead we suggest to make it personal: add details and information from the
sales process. Things that remind them about the relationship you have built
during the past weeks, months. You could already do this easily by e.g. inte-
grating a meeting date and place into your proposition.
Make it easy to understand for human beings
Make sure there is no confusion about the content in your offer. Auto generated
quotes tend to be very hard to understand. Additionally, make use of strong
copy as you’re still trying to convince someone to favor your offering. If you’re
good at “sales talk” but not a writer, don’t hesitate to collaborate with a copy
writer to help you write the proposal.
Specs for which we believe the above “theory” applies.
• B2B markets
• Complex products
• Long sales cycles
• Telco industry might match (?)
• Strategy might be beneficial for SME facing big guns (?)
84 85

45. Cyclo-cross’s disruptive innovation that made competition ir- Cyclo-cross’s disruptive innovation that made competition ir-
relevant. January 9, 2011 relevant. January 9, 2011
This weekend several Relevance for Business?
national champion-
ships cyclo-cross were We believe this case shows that innovation doesn’t have to come from technol-
organized. We looked ogy – as you often read in the literature and cases, especially in the areas of
at Belgium’s cyclocross BMI (Business Model Innovation). Additionally, the case clearly shows that you
championship held in should never stop looking for new innovative practices or tools – since others
Antwerp. This national will follow and might even excel the original innovator. Today there might be
championship almost another rider who can leap over higher objects than Nys can.
equals a world champi-
onship as Belgium has Nuance: notes on Sven Nys
delivered the best ath-
letes within this sport The above story is oversimplified. Sven Nys is a phenomenon, he’s way more
for decades. than “the one able to jump over the obstacles”. During his career he also ex-
panded into mountain biking and is quite good at it. To get an overview of his
What’s even more interesting, a few years ago a Belgian rider – Sven Nys – impressive career, have a look at the Wikipedia page.
started dominating the sport by introducing a disruptive innovation that made
competition irrelevant. Sounds like a story that relates to the concept of the Possibly related articles (not automated – suggested by author):
Blue Ocean (BOS) as developed by authors W. Chan Kim and Renee Maubor-
gne. Let’s dig a little deeper into the story and try to derive relevant lessons for • Basketball’s Disruptive Innovation - the jump shot (yes, not the slam dunk)
business practices. • Clap skate in speed ice skating – this is in fact a technical innovation but
nonetheless quite compelling. Something we just know about in one way or
Disruptive innovation: Sven Nys leaps over objects while driving another. Not investigated thoroughly by us.
When talking about innovation, we often think of technical/technological in-
novations. These are rather important of course but are often incremental by
nature. The innovation Sven Nys introduced years ago that disrupted the sport
was not a technical one. It was e.g. not about an improved tire or a lighter bike
frame – as those technical innovations were incremental and simultaneously
available for all competing riders.
The true disruption happened when Nys introduced a skill: the ability to leap
over objects while riding a bike. Other riders overcame the objects by jump-
ing of the biking, lifting the bike by hand while jumping over the object. Speaks
for itself that the manner deployed by Nys was faster. This often allowed him
to make competition irrelevant during races. Nys created a Blue Ocean. Others
were to follow his example soon of course and today one can see many riders
leaping while riding. Is the Blue Ocean red again?
86 87

46. What this blog is about according to Wordle. January 10, 2011 Where is my Senseo / Nespresso sugar?
Questions to a sugar cube factory! January 12, 2011
Tag cloud generated with Wordle - based on all words on this blog... Does it make sense to make a pad-and-capsules-compatible sugar
cube?
Coffee. Loads of books have been written about it. Drinking coffee is an expe-
rience. And this experience has changed. At least when one thinks about new
coffee machines that change the way we make, drink and experience coffee.
What didn’t change was the sugar you put in your coffee: a cube. Why not
change the sugar cube as well
What’s new in coffee machine land?
• Philips Senseo
• Nestlé Nespresso
Question to the sugar industry
• How would you market a sugar cube for Philips Senseo? For Nestlé Nespres-
so?
• What message could you possibly bring?
• What Channels would you deploy to reach that? Would you make it exclusive
to stylish hotels, restaurants, bars?
• For Nestlé: only available through the community/club/members? Or full
force retail? How would you package the cubes? And how do you believe this
will influence the adoption of the new sugars?
• How does such a sugar cube look like? Does such a cube require integration
with the machines from the market leaders in pad- and capsules-land? Pads
and capsules are integrated into the machines since you have to put them in
to produce the coffee. Maybe the sugar cube needs to be integrated in the
machine as to be able to introduce the sugar while operating the machine
(in analogy to the pads). If you’d select this option you might even conclude
that the sugar cube you were looking for does not necessarily needs to be a
sugar cube as we know it today.
• Would you need to team up with Philips and Nestlé? What would be the best
way to develop business relations?
• Do you have machinery in place that can handle mass manufacturing? Since
this is a new product how much would it cost to build a machine that makes
the special cubes?
• How would you promote/advertise new sugar cubes?
• …
Note on my coffee drinking behavior
I drink coffee. I enjoy coffee. I always drink it black. Sugar? No thanks!
88 89

47. This Monkey is in for some Candy. And Stories. This Monkey is in for some Candy. And Stories.
March 21, 2011 March 21, 2011
Please Listen very carefully to what this monkey has to say.
He shall say this only once!
It’s monday evening. You had another marvelous meal with your family. Chil-
dren are to bed. You’re all set.
Couch? Check. Tele? Check. Wife half asleep under the blanket? Check. Game
on? Check. Candies? Check.
Hold on, wait a minute!
Didn’t you just enjoy a great dinner with wife and kids? Do you really need that
candy bar? I thought children were to bed? I can tell you one thing: you don’t
want candy. So why are you eager for candy than?
Well, simply because you have a monkey brain!
You’re telling me I have the brain of a monkey?
No offense, but yes I do tell you that you have a monkey brain. Period. Let me
explain. In fact, you still have that brain from back in the days people lived in
caves. And it’s that caveman that is hard-wired deep inside of you that makes
you want to have candy. You know back in the cave days, sugar was scarce. So
we took every single chance we had to pump sugar into our body.
Nowadays, we still have that same brain. We still take every chance we have to
eat candy. However, in today’s world sugar isn’t rare it all. It’s everywhere. But
our brain doesn’t realize that. What our brain also doesn’t realize is that it sim-
ply loves stories.
Monkey brain loves stories.
Back in the cavemen days, stories were the manner to transmit information and
knowledge in such a way that it was easy to remember and to share. The ex-
planation speaks for itself: in an oral culture – where content is transmitted via
speech – one needs a certain “angle” to find something compelling in order get
attention, to be remembered and – especially to be shared. And that’s where
stories come into play.
Stories create an angle. An angle makes something remarkable. Something
that is remarkable enough to be noticed. Something that is that impressive that
you might remember. Something that is that awesome that you need to share it
with your peers.
90 91

48. This Monkey is in for some Candy. And Stories. This Monkey is in for some Candy. And Stories.
March 21, 2011 March 21, 2011
Stories are told with moderate voice, or even whispered! • Don’t push it, Pull me. But pull me hard, Baby!
As stated before, in oral cultures, information was passed along through the us- The storytelling phenomenon from the cavemen clearly demonstrates that in-
age of stories. As people were unable to transcend distance, only those at the formation or messages should not disrupt (push). Creators and distributors of
right time and at the right place were able to hear the information. They were information made their content that relevant that people were basically dragged
close enough to hear a story being told. A story brought to them via the me- towards them. In this manner, creators could whisper the story to the people in
dium ‘voice’ or ‘speech’. the circle. The circle is what we label today as a community.
Today, with so-called social media, we have the chance to spread stories and
The medium wasn’t disruptive and messages weren’t loudly screamed at par- make them easily accessible for anyone. Through conversations about the story,
ticipants. People who wanted to take part were pulled towards the storytelling the community is build. No need for shouting. Whispering works just fine.
circle, because of their interests, because of the fact they belonged to the com-
munity. • Connect people, Stupid!
What we should realize here is that “stories” and “storytelling” are hard-wired The whole point of the cavemen culture was to connect people by creating a
into our cavemen brain – as is our love for sugar and thus candy. OK. Fact. But “shared knowledge base” crafted through stories. Because of mankind’s evolu-
doesn’t the monkey brain brings along implications for today’s business, mar- tion we altered from this and we started screaming our information. After all,
keting and communication? screaming was the only way to reach people spread across the globe.
Today, with the rise of social conversation digital media, we have the chance
The monkey brain and your business, marketing and communication to act close to our monkey brain again. We can whisper messages to people in
our storytelling circle slash community. To match the monkey brain, a whisper-
I didn’t tell the story above without a reason. I want to distill some essential ing approach seems to work well. As a result we need to show ourselves in our
characteristics of human communication and relate them to the world of busi- authentic way, fully transparent.
ness, marketing and communication.
• No spinning please, those sleep outside of the cave.
The thing is, we are still cavemen, all of us. Our brain still favors elements that
are compatible with a Social control was rather big in cavemen society. People that told stories that
cavemen environment. weren’t authentic or fully transparent weren’t appreciated. They were con-
We live in a modern demned to sleep outside of the cave. Pretty unsafe for mammoths!
world with a prehistoric If you aren’t authentic and transparent today, you’re well on your way to loose
brain. So here we go, all the monkey brain people – which is basically everybody! So you might want
what are the implica- to consider…
tions of the monkey
brain for business, mar-
keting and communica-
tion?
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49. This Monkey is in for some Candy. And Stories. This Monkey is in for some Candy. And Stories.
March 21, 2011
Old marketing versus New marketing Oh, just one more thing.
It seems as if the above reflections result in the same conclusion as made by The above is just my story, framed for a
market researchers. Here’s something I found through Twitter (yes, Twitter): a special purpose. I could have framed it
“bit of Polle Demaagt” from InSites Consulting. I believe at the end, we (try to) completely different. But here’s why I did
indicate the same thing. For those who rather have schemes than a story, I’m not.
talking about the scheme below.
The story of me ending up writing
this story
Date is March 2010 or something like
that. I decided to set-up this blog. Did get
an average of 23 people a day. Hooray!
OK, it helped me to get rid of my writing
anger. But clearly, it soon appeared that I
wanted more.
So I ended up thinking about adding some touchpoints for the blog: a twitter
account, mention it on linkedin, tumblr account, etc. Options were numerous. I
decided to go for Twitter first. I think we were September 2010 by then and it’s
one of the key drivers of writing this piece.
That’s why I Whisper through the Web in XL, Medium and Small
The above shows why I whisper through the web. Yes, I don’t wear a mon-
key suite. And yes, I do realize that the baseline “screaming is from the past”
doesn’t completely fit. But I hope to have demonstrated that in the cavemen
era people whispered in a community – they did not scream to people outside
the community (who didn’t care about the information) and that we conse-
quently altered from this, but that we now have the chance to go back to acting
like our monkey brain loves most.
See which stories I whisper through the web? Hit the below links:
• Web Whispers (WordPress Blog)
• Small Web Whispers (Tumblr)
• 140 character Whispers (Twitter)
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50. This Monkey is in for some Candy. And Stories. This Monkey is in for some Candy. And Stories.
March 21, 2011 March 21, 2011
@rafstevens, my Storytelling teacher
I was intrigued by Raf’s project “The New Trade”, a crowd-funded and crowd-
sourced book on Storytelling for business. So I asked Raf: “how does the col-
laboration process work?”. Raf kindly replied me “why not have a phone call
about that” and provided his phone number. I promised to call him the day
after. I didn’t. It slept my mind. My apologies.
However, I decided to take this “social error” (not calling as promised) into an
advantage. After all it gave me the time to get more details and insights on the
entire storytelling thing.
Twitter as a home-cooked private teacher
I used Twitter (and @rafstevens in particular) to obtain an MBA in storytelling.
There you are. You have a twitter name. Congratulations! Now what? What to With Raf’s expressions and links to other world-class storytellers I started to re-
do with it? alize what it’s all about. Or at least, I believe I do. I wonder if Raf thinks so too.
I decided to consider Twitter as my private teacher as I figured a lot of interest-
ing people had to be active on Twitter: MBA professors, Industry Thought Lead-
ers, etc.
Twitter is full of crap
Setting up an attempt like crafting Twitter into a first-class MBA professor is
hard. Quite frankly, I’ve unfollowed loads of people that I followed at the start
of my Twitter experience.
But one guy has been there almost from the very start. And I’ll probably never
unfollow him: @rafstevens.
96 97

51. Who’s ever going to tag this QR code anyway? On AXA Bank’s Who’s ever going to tag this QR code anyway? On AXA Bank’s
outdoor ad. March 22, 2011 outdoor ad. March 22, 2011
During one of my many escapades on the road, I came across the advert
above. The ad is to promote a beneficial “renovation loan” and the offer is only
valid until the end of 2011. So you’d better renovate your home this year to get
the deal, right?
Don’t bother answering the above question. I have different issues with the
ad. I believe the ad demonstrates that many marketers still don’t understand
technology from a consumer mindset. I also believe that the usage of the QR
code in the ad was solely driven on the fact that earlier that year a competitor
launched a campaign in which the QR code was given a rather central position.
So the ad clearly demonstrates “old-school competitor based marketing”. But
let’s start by briefly describing the ad.
Description of the ad
The large format printed advert is clearly divided into two separate yet linked
parts.
• Right frame: the right frame contains the advertising copy and the logo of
the company. The copy states “Axa proclaims 2011 as year of renovation”.
People should link renovation with renovating a house and a special renova-
tion loaning. So far so good, I managed to get that.
• Left frame: the left frame is an image. It seems as it depicts the act of tear-
ing down your house’s wallpaper and running into a hidden QR code behind
it. I didn’t see wallpaper in the left frame while driving by. But I did notice a
big QR code – hence the picture.
Who’s ever going to tag this QR code anyway?
First of all: do most consumers already know about QR codes? Shall they realize
it? Or do you only want to address the “geeks” to renovate their house in 2011?
I can tell you one thing: geeks are often not that into “DIY stuff”. Maybe you’re
addressing the wrong target group with your renovation loan promotions?
Second, assume consumers are completely into QR codes already, how on earth
can you tag this code while driving by at 90 km / hour? It’s already hard to take
a picture of it. Let alone tag it with your mobile phone.
98 99

52. Who’s ever going to tag this QR code anyway? On AXA Bank’s The rise of Happiness Engineer & The Corporate pursuit of
outdoor ad. March 21, 2011 Happiness. March 24, 2011
Second, assume consumers are completely into QR codes already, how on earth After several months of bloglessness I finally
can you tag this code while driving by at 90 km / hour? It’s already hard to take got myself up-and-running again. Full of inspi-
a picture of it. Let alone tag it with your mobile phone. ration? Yes. And I still remember my password
too. Great! But that’s only half-way there.
To end I would dare to say that the QR code is there just because they can put
it there. Or is it all about parroting the competitor? Earlier this week, I couldn’t access my blog
Administration. WordPress kindly informed me
Why a QR code? Because BNP Paribas Fortis had one? about the issues. The message was something
similar to “Whoops! There’s something wrong.
I believe AXA bank used QR because their competitor BNP Paribas Fortis did Please check the knowledge base for any
earlier that year. However, how BNP Paribas Fortis deployed it was completely known issues and if none of this helps, drop us
different. BNP used it to launch their mobile banking application and services. a note”.
And because I believed it was quite impressive, I even reported on their break-
through mobile banking app on this blog but I didn’t relate to the way it was So I did all of that but ended up dropping them that note. The issue got solved
promoted. Today I will though. extremely quickly by Andrew. But I don’t want to talk about WordPress’s great
support service today.
Promoting online banking with a QR code
Today I want to talk about Andrew. Andrew is a Happiness Engineer at Word-
Why would it make sense to put a QR code on an advertisement for mobile Press. Happiness Engineer? What on earth? Well, WordPress probably met Mar-
banking and not on an advertisement for renovation loans? keting professor Jennifer Aaker and her research on “Happiness”.
• Because a QR code is scanned with a mobile phone. People scan the code Jennifer Aaker’s study on the corporate pursuit of happiness
and they are automatically taken to the mobile banking app. That’s just
great, that’s convenience. If you force people to scan a code that has in fact Jennifer Aaker is a well-known professor marketing. She studies psychology
nothing to do with mobile, why would you do the effort? Why would you alongside marketing and spent the last several years studying the subject of
spend the money? “happiness”. How do people find happiness? How do
• Next to that, BNP’s QR codes were easily scannable. You could easily scan they keep it? How do they manipulate it? How do they
them because they were in newspapers, magazines and on in-bank posters. use it as a resource?
Not on large format. Not next to a speedway.
• Finally, the target group. Yes, early adaptors of mobile banking will prob- The main finding of the study is that in fact a “mean-
ably know a thing or two about QR codes. And no, people who renovate their ingful experience” (e.g.: new skill) often makes peo-
houses are not particularly interested in geeky stuff. ple happier than moments of pure pleasure. This is
what she and others call the “Paradox of Happiness”.
What CMOs and agencies need to learn from this
• Don’t just use technology because you can. Make sure it matches your target
group.
• Don’t just do something because your competitor did. The trick is to stand
out. Will never happen if you parrot!
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53. The rise of Happiness Engineer & The Corporate pursuit of The rise of Happiness Engineer & The Corporate pursuit of
Happiness. March 24, 2011 Happiness. March 24, 2011
Next to that, she discovered happiness is age-dependent. Young people relate Benefits of “happiness-driven” marketing campaigns?
happiness to excitement whereas elderly link it with peacefulness. But what’s
more important to me is that Aaker soon discovered that the above little nu- In fact nobody really knows for sure, as is often the case in social sciences.
ances were key for marketing and business. Aaker’s hypotheses is the following:
After all, she realized, brands are increasingly trying to appeal to consumer’s Marketing Happiness is one of the few ways businesses can still appeal to peo-
emotions to keep their sales going in these rough economic times. ple in a manner that feels authentic. That’s important, because people have an
aversion to anything that feels overly manufactured.
So she set up her theory and easily convinced the academic world that she was
on to something – resulting in a graduate-level class “Designing Happiness” in The concept of Marketing Happiness thus expands the idea of what it means to
one of USA’s leading business schools. But in today’s post-recession economy, buy something. If you follow this theory, you believe that brands can provide
where morale is low, brand owners and marketers tend to see the appeal of greater meaning to the world for the consumer. One of those greater meanings
promising happiness along with their products as well. They realized that they could be things that enable happiness. Consequently the consumers want to
could deploy happiness as any other commodity to sell something. share that happy moment and feeling as if the product is part of their lives and
community (read: facebook likes, twitter mentions).
Of course, the question is: how does one implement the ideas of Happiness into Happy Talk = Word-of-Mouth!
marketing and business? Let’s have a look at corporations that tried to integrate
this entire “happiness idea”. Case WordPress: bringing Happiness through a job title isn’t enough
Aaker’s Happiness and some Big Guns
• Adobe:
got lectured by Aaker on the liaison between happiness and meaningful mo-
ments. The ideas were implemented through the “Adobe Youth Voices” pro-
ject. The project allows children and teenagers from poor environments to
use the Adobe software freely in order to create their story.
• Coke:
experimented with the link between happiness and the brand. Just think
about Coke’s “happiness machine” or the entire “open happiness” campaign.
• AOL:
sources claim they have received lectures from Prof. Aaker but I don’t have
an idea whether they implemented it in one way or another.
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54. The rise of Happiness Engineer & The Corporate pursuit of The rise of Happiness Engineer & The Corporate pursuit of
Happiness. March 24, 2011 Happiness. March 24, 2011
Best regards — Andrew — Happiness Engineer — WordPress.com Best regards — Andrew — Happiness Engineer — WordPress.com
As I mentioned earlier in this article, I dropped WordPress a note to register my As I mentioned earlier in this article, I dropped WordPress a note to register my
issue. Most compelling about the whole support was the job name of the guy issue. Most compelling about the whole support was the job name of the guy
helping me out. Andrew is a Happiness Engineer. Guess his job is to engineer helping me out. Andrew is a Happiness Engineer. Guess his job is to engineer
people into a happy state of mind, right? Now how can he make people happy? people into a happy state of mind, right? Now how can he make people happy?
First, and this is what most people believe is sufficient, he can solve our techni- First, and this is what most people believe is sufficient, he can solve our techni-
cal problems as soon as possible. cal problems as soon as possible.
Second, he can inform us what the error is about and educate us about the skill Second, he can inform us what the error is about and educate us about the skill
required to fix it. Maybe next time I can do it myself. This is what’s going to required to fix it. Maybe next time I can do it myself. This is what’s going to
make me really happy, according to Aaker’s findings. And it will probably make make me really happy, according to Aaker’s findings. And it will probably make
Andrew happy too. His work-load will decrease. Andrew choose the first option Andrew happy too. His work-load will decrease. Andrew choose the first option
by the way. He solved it himself. Not teaching me anything. Maybe Andrew al- by the way. He solved it himself. Not teaching me anything. Maybe Andrew al-
ready figured I couldn’t fix it anyway. ready figured I couldn’t fix it anyway.
Aaker discovered that a meaningful experience (e.g.: new skill, volunteering, Aaker discovered that a meaningful experience (e.g.: new skill, volunteering,
spending time with family) often makes people happier than moment of pure spending time with family) often makes people happier than moment of pure
pleasure. pleasure.
Andrew, are you authentic? Do you really exist? Andrew, are you authentic? Do you really exist?
Aaker believes marketing happiness could be one of the few ways business can Aaker believes marketing happiness could be one of the few ways business can
still appeal to people in an authentic way. still appeal to people in an authentic way.
I doubt the authenticity of Andrew. Would an authentic human being out of I doubt the authenticity of Andrew. Would an authentic human being out of
flesh and blood e-mail you six times? Would he send recurring e-mails that flesh and blood e-mail you six times? Would he send recurring e-mails that
bring you exactly the same message? I wouldn’t for sure. It felt like spam. And bring you exactly the same message? I wouldn’t for sure. It felt like spam. And
I’m quite convinced that you’d experience too much e-mails as “manufactured” I’m quite convinced that you’d experience too much e-mails as “manufactured”
as well. Didn’t Aaker learned us that we actually don’t like that? Aaker says that as well. Didn’t Aaker learned us that we actually don’t like that? Aaker says that
people have an aversion to anything that feels overly manufactured. people have an aversion to anything that feels overly manufactured.
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55. The rise of Happiness Engineer & The Corporate pursuit of The rise of Happiness Engineer & The Corporate pursuit of
Happiness. March 24, 2011 Happiness. March 24, 2011
WordPress and Aaker did they ever had a date? Notes:
So, in the end I find myself asking: did WordPress ever had a lecture from Aak- • I’m still in love with WordPress. This is just storytelling.You can always frame
er? Or did WordPress just hear about the “Happiness Buzz” and came up with a story like you want to. I could have written it completely different. Just
a title to put on automated e-mails? One would think so. After all they didn’t consider me framing it from the perspective of me being happy because of
integrate two key findings of the study: writing this article as a result of my initial Back-office issue. If you look at it
like that, Andrew truly engineered me to be happy. After all, the true strug-
• that happiness after a struggle is the most rewarding gle was writing this blog post. Now that’s finished, I’m happy. Or suppose I
• that bringing happiness requires authenticity wrote this story with a focus on the opposite approach “fear appeals”?
As they did: • There used to be a theory/research about persuasive communication that
stated that “fear” (as being the opposite of “happy”) was a very effective
• just solve my problem. OK, it was solved fast, so I’m quite happy with that. way to get attention and communicate a message: “fear appeals”. Here are
• not show any authenticity to me. Yes, too much e-mails feel robotized and some references from that “wave”:
spammy.
• Spence, H.E.; Moinpour, R. (1972). “Fear Appeals in Marketing. A Social
Yours Truly — @vermeiretim — Awesomeness Developer Perspective”. Journal of Marketing 36 (3): 39.
• Leventhal, H (1971). “Fear appeals and persuasion: the differentiation
of a motivational construct”. American Journal of Public Health 61 (6):
1208.
• Dillard, J.P., & Anderson, J.W. (2004). The role of fear in persuasion. Psy-
chology & Marketing, 21, 909-926.
• Witte, K. (1992). Putting the fear back into fear appeals: The extended
parallel process model. Communication Monographs, 59, 329-349.
• I’ve also encountered this philosophy in political sciences. Let’s think e.g.
on Adorno’s theory of the “authoritarian personality” (1950).
• Taken the above into account and from what I know from the “fear ap-
peals” theory, one can hardly imagine that this could ever be an ethical
way to promote your business value a.k.a. to organize your marketing
around a.k.a. to use in your communications.
The comments to previous articles were not mentioned in the book. But in this
case, it’s quite important that you read the comments. Put’s things in perspec-
tive.
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56. The rise of Happiness Engineer & The Corporate pursuit of The rise of Happiness Engineer & The Corporate pursuit of
Happiness. March 24, 2011 Happiness. March 24, 2011
Comments: Comments:
Andrew Spittle says: Andrew Spittle says:
March 24, 2011 at 6:29 pm (Edit) March 24, 2011 at 7:19 pm (Edit)
Interesting post, brings up some good points. Yep, I noticed the notes. Much appreciated. :)
Best of luck with the blog! We’ll try to keep things smoother around here so it’s
I’m the same Andrew from the emails that were sent out. Just to clarify that less of a hassle for you to write and publish.
I’m not actually a robot but am a real, authentic person. :)
March 24, 2011 at 8:39 pm (Edit)
I’m sorry that you got 6 emails. There should have only been 3 that were thanks. No worries, I think it’s great blogging tool once you get around, but
sent out but it looks like your support request created two separate tickets. that’s also true for a new mobile device for instance.
Notice how, in the screenshot above, one subject line is #752102 and one is
#752104? WIsh you all the best, hope you are able to engineer the entire world population
into a happy state of mind :)
that happiness after a struggle is the most rewarding
Totally agree. With the vast majority of support issues this is the approach we
take. We want to help you learn how to do things, not just fix them when they
go wrong.
With the error from the other night though, it was something that as entirely on
our side as a result of some incorrect code. There’s not anything that you did
which caused it nor that could have remedied it.
Next time we’ll do a better job of explaining that in the emails. Thanks for the
feedback.
March 24, 2011 at 6:51 pm (Edit)
wow, so fast! Very nice to hear you’re actually a human being. Now I really
envy your job title!
I don’t know why I have those two IDs for one issue. And, yes, one sentence
“we fixed some code over there” would have made it more human. Thanks for
the support last night!
Also, hope you noticed my notes: “If you look at it like that, Andrew truly engi-
neered me to be happy.” :)
108 109

57. Why my future business card is as it is. On Design thinking. Why my future business card is as it is. On Design thinking.
March 26, 2011 March 26, 2011
I recently got selected for the IBBT iBootcamp dating event. It’s a thing about
innovative start-ups. Some of the teams are still looking for people in marketing
to empower their business idea. So I presented myself.
One week later. E-mail: “you’re selected”. Hooray! Wait a minute, maybe I need
a personal business card for that? So I started thinking.
Design thinking is to come up with different scenarios and consequent-
ly select the best design
Design thinking is huge these days. Is it a buzz? I believe it’s more. It’s an es-
sential way of getting the best result. Design Thinking isn’t just for car design-
ers, interior designers or architects. No, even writing is design thinking.
You come up with a bunch of angles to frame your point in. You select the best
angle, the one that appeals most to people. Design works in the same way: you
choose that design which you expect will appeal most to people.
Maybe I do have design skills?
As I just figured out I was always using Design Thinking as a means to create
an article, it came to me that maybe I could have got those design skills I’ve
always dreamed of. Why not do the same but now with graphics?
Below are some steps of the process.
No need for words.
Oh, maybe just one more question:
would it make sense to create this
business card in A4 format?
Who wouldn’t remember such a big
business card?
Making it look beautiful
I’m currently trying to turn this into
something sexy. I guess you’ll see the
result when we meet, offline.
110 111

58. Dumbo the Elephant and the Battle for Standards. Poll! Dumbo the Elephant and the Battle for Standards. Poll!
March 28, 2011 March 28, 2011
Moving content from a wordpress.com blog to another wordpress.com blog sort Dumbo is on but Samson is on too.
of works like this (or at least, that’s how I think you’re supposed to handle it):
make new domain, export xml old, import xml into new, wait 20 sec, site is Easter holidays, rainy day. You’re not allowed to play outside. So is your friend
there! But afterwards, you need to do organize your blog. Settings and things living across the street. Good thing: big afternoon on the tele. Dumbo was
like widgets and themes are apparently not in the XML. aired. But Samson, which I was equally into, was on too. And at the same time.
Bummer!
Annoying? Absolutely not.
Me and my friend (read: their dads) decided to each tape a show, not realizing
Just modifying a name shouldn’t take that much time. I guess any non-tech- they couldn’t exchange the tapes because one of the dads had a betamax and
nician will agree. But while going through this entire export/import/tweak- the other had a VHS. Battle for standards, there you go!
process, I noticed that the WordPress back-office has a “Polls” option. Hooray!
Always wanted to poll. Let’s play Dumbo. Hell yeah, I believe I can fly!
My poll is about the battle for standards As a result me and my friend watched the Dumbo movie together and we didn’t
watch Samson anymore. Rain stopped by the way. It was logic that we went out
Don’t underestimate the battle for standards within high-tech industries. It can to play. We always did that. We often played football. Not that day.
be an important factor for the adoption of innovation. It can also make or break
a company. We played dumbo that day, only that day that is. We took a bucket and a feath-
er. Climbed on top of our red brick postboxes. I jumped believing I was about
I learned this pretty early. At an age of about six to seven, I was quite into to fly, exactly in the same way as Dumbo does in the below video. Crashed on
Dumbo the Flying Elephant. And back in the eighties one had to record video my head but scored the bucket though! Guess I didn’t fly because I miss the
on a physical tape with a video recorder. And those tapes showed me that the elephant ears.
same product can be different and one had to “win”. Here’s what happened.
Few hours later I woke up. Diagnosed with a brain concussion. Maybe that’s
why I remember this entire story anyway?
Oh yes, VHS won and I love Samson more than Dumbo since then.
112 113

59. Everyone deserves 2 seconds of fame. Iphone App Messe How a Chablis Wine learned me something about Network-
Düsseldorf. March 30, 2011 ing. April 5, 2011
I recently received a personal invitation to take part in a wine tasting event.
As I did not know anything about wine before, I decided to go for it.
• Do I remember the wine? No.
• Have I learned how to taste? Yes.
• Do I want to talk about that? No. Maybe a little at the end.
Today I want to pin-point a valuable lesson that I learned at the wine tasting
event. It’s about networking and having a 6 second pitch to present yourself.
Who are you, what do you do and why are you here?
So there I was. Amongst many others. Privileged to take a seat on the “master
table”. As a result, people truly believed I knew something about wine. Some of
them even figured I had to be a professional wine guy.
Nothing is a bigger lie however.
While tasting and discussing the specs of the wines, the woman next to me
fired a question.
Who are you? Are you professionally into wine? What brings you here?
I was puzzled by this question. It came as a surprise. It shouldn’t have. Here’s
why.
Be ready for networking
I started to explain who I was and what I did for a living. As I was doing so, I
realized the woman I was talking to didn’t understand what I was saying at all.
I failed. I didn’t take my target group into account. I was unable to briefly ex-
plain my activities in the words of my audience. Yes, my audience was com-
pletely different to the one I’m used to talk to. So, why would I do an effort
anyway? This audience isn’t important to me…
True. The lady next to me presumably won’t bring me a lot of future value.
But here’s the thing. In networking, it’s not only about the direct relations. The
power of the network is in second and third rank relations. So every encounter
can be crucial: an easy-to-understand pitch is important.
114 115

60. How a Chablis Wine learned me something about Network- How a Chablis Wine learned me something about Network-
ing. April 5, 2011 ing. April 5, 2011
The importance of a 6 seconds elevator pitch
Lesson learned: before you go to a networking event, prepare. Think about the
kind of people who’ll be present and how you want to present yourself. Next
time, before I enter a networking event, I will be prepared. I will prepare a 6
second elevator pitch that easily explains who I am, what I do and why I am at
the event.
I believe 6 seconds should be sufficient. Most people don’t have a longer atten-
tion span after all.
Finally, I believe that to overcome being puzzled by a question, you might try
the “ask before you being asked” approach. I don’t have any experience with
this approach. But I believe it’ll work. I’ll try it next time.
What I’ve learned about wine?
Did I only learn something about networking? No, not at all. Being a part of the
tasting event gave me an opportunity to distill ways to taste wine. I learned
some of the vocabulary to talk about wine. For those with interest in wine and
wine tasting, my tasting sheet is below.
In for a discussion over a glass of wine?
Touch me. The conversation doesn’t have to be about wine...
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61. Tweet Topic Explorer – infographic generator. April 23, 2011 3 C’s of Social Media Marketing Automation. On Cool, Cute
and Crap. May 15, 2011
I recently came across a nice tool to generate infographics based on the topics I recently received a “Twitter Status 6 achievement” on empireavenue.com.
you tweet about. Below is an infographic of what I tweet about. If you like the It means I posted 750 tweets in my life. This merely indicates that I’ve been
topics, why not connect with me on Twitter? active on Twitter for a short period. During this short period however, I noticed
a little annoying aspect of the social media phenomenon.
That little annoying aspect I want to talk about is what I call “the deployment of
social media marketing automation tools” or even “twitter marketing automa-
tion”.
Social media has a human aspect
Social media doesn’t bear the word “social” in it just for fun. It’s all about en-
gagement and connecting with people. As a result I recommend to listen before
you define your social media strategy – and especially before you start auto-
mating. This will improve your overall social media campaign…
Oh wait! Stop thinking campaign-wise! It’s social, not campaigns. It’s people.
It’s connecting. It’s engaging. It’s conversations. It’s for once and forever. It is
marriage.
Social media’s machine aspect: automation
Let’s say social relates to human and let’s assume automation relates to ma-
chines. How can you then appropriately deploy automation within a social
sphere? I believe the answer ought to be found in the 3 C’s of Social Media Mar-
keting Automation.
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62. 3 C’s of Social Media Marketing Automation. On Cool, Cute 3 C’s of Social Media Marketing Automation. On Cool, Cute
and Crap. May 15, 2011 and Crap. May 15, 2011
The 3 C’s of Social Media Marketing Automation: Cool, Cute, Crap. COOL
As I’ve been around and active in social media for about 750 tweets now, I’ve
distilled some of the do’s and don’ts of social media automation. • Multiple account management tools. If you need more than one account /
It turned out however that it’s not that easy to define an automation aspect profile / personality in the social realms, it might be cool to automate the
as “do” or “don’t”. Sometimes it can be used in a “good” way but it can easily management of the different personas. One could think of e.g. a professional
glimpse into a “bad” one. That’s why I introduce a third class into this debate, and a private account or a consultant managing multiple company accounts,
the “consider wisely” category. etc.
• Multiple contributors to one account (professional environments).
Bringing sexiness: category labels and infographics – Cool, Cute, Crap. • Url shorteners. One of the key social aspects is to share things. Most of the
time this includes sharing a link. It’s very cool to use Url shorteners. And it’s
So to turn my entire theory / philosophy about social media marketing automa- supercool to deploy personalized url shorteners…
tion into a sex bomb, I’ve relabeled the categories into something more com- • Monitoring. It’s cool to monitor what people say about you or your themes.
pelling (at least I believe, and please allow me to do so) and spice it up with an But please don’t push it.
infographic.
CRAP
The categories / labels are:
• Auto creation of users so to have a higher follower rate. There are tools who
• Cool (do): social media automation that’s recommended. A do. A Cool • promise you a high amount of followers. In fact, the software creates fake
thing. people that follow you. Big fail.
• Cute (do with care): social media automation that might be beneficial. • Extensive retweet scheduling: automatically scream the same message over
There’s the danger to glimpse into the don’t category. and over.Bulk tweet sending. If you see a person able to tweet 10 messages
• Crap (don’t): absolute don’ts of social media marketing automation. in less than a minute than you know it’s automated, than you know it ain’t
human.
Cut the crap – what exactly is Cool, Cute or Crap? • Auto message to new followers “look forward to your tweets”. Yeah right,
you follow over 20K people, as if you’re really interested in me.
Well, read the below overview or scroll down to the infographic below. Please • Auto follow followers. It doesn’t make sense to follow somebody just merely
realize that this is not an exact science and only a personal interpretation of because they follow you.
what I’ve encountered. Of course, the list also doesn’t claim to be complete. I • Picked keywords that are automatically (re)tweeted. This is very annoying.
would highly appreciate your suggestions to include in this list – whether under Yes it’s cool to monitor to stay informed but automatic re-spread of a mes-
Cool, Cute or Crap. sage is crap.
• Constant retweet of your marketing hero without any input. If I like those
tweets, I will follow the source, your hero. After all it’s your hero who’s cool,
not you.
• Feed tweets from other sources that don’t have a 140 chars limit. Facebook
has a 420 character limit, so if you push this to Twitter, your message is lost.
nd figures sexier to read. That’s probably why some even call it infoporn.
OK, mine isn’t that sexy but it’ll be only by trying that I’ll make good once
later, much later.
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63. 3 C’s of Social Media Marketing Automation. On Cool, Cute 3 C’s of Social Media Marketing Automation. On Cool, Cute
and Crap. May 15, 2011 and Crap. May 15, 2011
CUTE:
• Feed it from a different source. Linking your blog to other social networks
is cool but tends to be cute when you don’t pay enough attention. It’s com-
pletely crap when you don’t pay any attention at all. Make sure you can
modify your message for the different platforms’ characteristics.
• Tweet scheduling can be very cute. Especially if you have a follower base in
An infographic – that makes things sexy these days
different time zones. But don’t spam it.
• Automated tweeting when there’s a new comment on your blog is cute. But
what about auto tweeting spammy a-like messages?
• Social Media Monitoring and auto-follow anyone who mentions you without
any interaction or further engagement. I personally had that experience with
big brands as Adobe, Audi and RedBull. Of course I was flattered they fol-
lowed me but without any engagement or interaction, it was only cute, not
cool.
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64. What does Mark Etting do for a living? On Marketing and the What does Mark Etting do for a living? On Marketing and the
Marketer. May 17, 2011 Marketer. May 17, 2011
The What do you do for a living question. Within this respect Seth’s advice is to no longer interrupt people with spammy
messages, to make innovation (in all its dimensions) your biggest cost and last
It happens from time to time that people show interest in what you do profes- – but certainly not least – craft marketing into your product(s).
sionally. Not surprisingly, some of them even pose the “what do you do for a
living question”. This is what I would call new marketing. Don’t make crap, produce value and
don’t push it. This is the only valid approach to take on marketing. It’s not
I formerly answered this with “I’m in marketing”. And I recently stopped giving about supporting short-term sales of crappy products. It’s not about advertis-
that answer. Today “I’m getting market”, as it turned out that most people react ing. Or as some put it: “commit acts, not ads”.
to “marketing” with a frown of their eye brows while producing a little – rather
scary – noise in between their teeth. It looks like the images on the left. If you look at it like that, you quickly realize that marketing shouldn’t be per-
Agreed, I’m a marketer. My professional activities are about “getting market”. ceived negatively. It can and should be used as a positive force to engage with
I’m a marketer. And I can’t help it. It’s not a well-planned career path. It’s more your customer – whether to improve life (B2C) or business objectives (B2B).
something that I, as a sociologist, accidentally stumbled into. Nevertheless, But how can you unleash the power of your marketers? Well, I believe the GE
it proves to bring me self-fulfillment. I’m happy with what I do, Trying to “get story is a great example.
market”, like in marketing, like in “market getting”, not like in “pushing mar-
kets”. How GE unleashed the power of Marketing
Guess the whole frowning and bad-noise-making reactions on “being in mar- “When GE realized that its products would no longer sell themselves, it had to
keting” has to deal with to the old-school conception of “what it is to be a mar- invent a formidable marketing function from scratch.”
keter” or “what it is to push markets”. Or: how old-school actually means old- (Comstock, Gulati, Liguori)
scream.
Let’s say about 10 years ago, GE had no significant marketing. The company
What is marketing? The old-school vision: SCREAM : OLD MARKETING was quite confident in its technologies. It believed the technical superiority
would get market for itself. People with the position of a marketer were as-
Allow me to refer to Seth Godin’s book “Meatball Sundae – Is your market- signed to sales support (lead generation, events, …) or to communications (ad-
ing out of sync?” to explain the difference between “old marketing” and “new vertising, PR). In the essential corporate strategy meetings, marketing wasn’t
marketing”. After all the first part of the book makes a great analysis of how invited. Marketing was considered a support function – or even overhead.
new consumer needs and the internet made old marketing (think: P&G, TV and Things were about to change however …
mass production) less effective. The book continues by underpinning this differ-
ence with broader sociological phenomena that are re-shaping the world…
Yup, you’ve got to love it!
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65. What does Mark Etting do for a living? On Marketing and the What does Mark Etting do for a living? On Marketing and the
Marketer. May 17, 2011 Marketer. May 17, 2011
GE - unleashed the power of marketing New positions top-class marketers reflect New-school Marketing
The business was mature and GE could no longer win by simply launching in- I tend to see a compelling relation with the new positions by well-known mar-
creasingly advanced technologies or by taking existing technologies to new keting guru. Their new functions basically show this “unleashing the power of
markets. Some of their best offerings were mere commodities. marketing and marketers idea”. Here’s a small overview of those top of my
The re-focus in GE’s strategy was accompanied with a note by the CEO who mind – feel free to suggest more:
stated that: “marketing should be a vital operating function across GE and an
engine for organic growth.” • @briansolis joins the Altimeter Group as principal in order to define clients’
business strategy and bridge their gaps between strategy and execution.
How does one implement such a thing? Yes, this is marketing.
• @darmano his new position at Edelman as EVP Global Innovation and Inte-
New Marketing is a culture, not a department, role or responsibility. gration. It means he’s responsible for the small, nimble, incremental steps to
In short, one could say GE’s corporate culture changed. They gave Marketing help a brand uncover new opportunities in marketing, communications and
the respect it deserved. It wasn’t just a sales support function for screaming how to conduct business in a connected age. Yes, this is marketing.
messages at as many people as possible. As a result, marketing at GE is now • @sethgodin started his own business: the Domino Project and might thereby
an engine for growth. It paves the way for customer collaboration, new product disrupt the publishing market. And yes, disruption is marketing.
opportunities and new markets.
Sincerely yours,
Equally important however is that this new marketing is related to a new socie-
ty. Let’s say Society 3.0 or the trends as described in Meatball Sundae. Did you Mark Etting.
know by the way that lots changed in society 3.0? Branding for instance. Your
brand is about to be a reflection of your corporate culture, certainly in the long
run.
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What does Mark Etting do for a living? On Marketing and the Marketer.

67. Conclusion June 11, 2011
Separate publication for the Whispering Web Biz & Marketing Model
As mentioned earlier, the above essays lead into a new vision on Business and
marketing. The author has the intention to create a separate publication to
explain the model in-depth. He considers this prologue as an essential part for
understanding how he got at the ideas.
Further development Whispering Web @ vermeiretim.wordpress.com
We will further elaborate the Whispering Web theory. This will in the first in-
stance occur on the weblog. Please visit and comment - your way to cocreate
the theory, book, and lots of other things...
Cheers!
@vermeiretim
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68. Whispering Web
Business and Marketing in a Mobile, Socially Connected World.
This book is a collection of blog articles posted by Tim Vermeire on his Whispering Web
weblog.
The author considers this web space as his “Public MoleSkine”.
He reflects on topics that intrigue him - which include: Business, Marketing, Technology,
Ecology, Society, Politics, etc.
The book “Whispering Web” gathers all articles published in the year 2010 and the first half
of 2011. It closes with an overview of what Marketing and Business is and means today.
The author considers this last post and book production as a turning point. After all, he
came up with his own vision upon business, marketing and society.
This books aims to allow the reader to have the same experience: get to know the new busi-
ness vision like it was envisioned - through separately published essays.
For essays published after May 2011, please visit Whispering Web online
Collected Essays as previously whispered through the web by @vermeiretim - vermeiretim.wordpress.com