Thursday, April 26, 2007

test to joyful biz

this is a test


Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell?
Check out new cars at Yahoo! Autos.

Amazon mum on EC2 and S3 spending

Amazon mum on EC2, S3 spending by ZDNet's Larry Dignan -- While Amazon delivered a blow-out quarter it remains quiet about detailing how much it is spending on the fast-growing EC2 and S3 Web services. On the first quarter earnings conference call, Bear Stearns analyst Robert Peck tried to pin down Amazon (AMZN) executives on the capital spending issue for 2007, but CEO Jeff Bezos didn't [...]
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I just glanced at his Wikipedia bio. It was interesting to read, among other things, that his mother gave birth to him while she was still a teenager.

Then I read an interesting August 2004 article from Fast Company titled: Inside the mind of Jeff Bezos.

By the way, I noted in an earlier post that Jeff Bezos is also funding a company called Blue Origin to build vehicles for space travel.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Ego: Remember me!

Here is another story from Seth Godin's blog. This story points out that customers like to be remembered. Here is an excerpt:

"If I come back to your website and you know my name, why not plaster it across the page? If I come to your fancy restaurant for dinner, why not ask me about some of my preferences on the phone and laser print a menu that highlights some of my faves. Or better yet, the waiter (with help from a computer) should remember that I loved the cucumber soup and maybe he can let me know the chef will make it again if I'd like. If I'm visiting your insurance brokerage for a meeting, how about a little welcome sign on the cube, or my favorite seltzer on ice?
Amazon has raised the bar. Invasion of privacy? Creepy? I think it has become an expectation. People like to be recognized, respected and trusted."

read more digg story

Seth's Blog: The brand formula

This is an article that discusses a couple of ideas on branding. Here is an excerpt:

Fedex is a powerful brand because you always get what you expect, and the relief you get from their consistency is high.

AT&T is a weak brand because you almost never get what you expect, because they do so many different things and because the value of what they create has little emotional resonance (it sure used to though, when they did one thing, they did it perfectly and they were the only ones who could connect you).

The dangers of brand ubiquity are then obvious. When your brand is lots of things (like AOL became) then the expectations were all over the place and the emotional resonance started to fade. If the predictability of your brand starts to erode its emotional power (a restaurant that becomes boring) then you need to become predictable in your joyous unpredictability!

If you want to grow a valuable brand, my advice is to keep awareness close to zero among the people you're not ready for yet, and build the most predictable, emotional experience you can among those that care about you.


read more digg story

Monday, April 23, 2007

Test

I am checking to see if the bookmark button shows up in my individual posts.