Lee Dunbar

Aug

12

The Round-Up

August 12, 2008

“Honey I’m headed over to Sams Club, back in a few minutes.”
“Don’t forget to pick up some solar panels, I hear there is a coupon!”
All facitiousness aside, retailers and other businesses are starting to pick up on consumers’ desire for clean, sustainable energies. An article in CNET gives an overview of some of the green projects being developed and products being made available.

On that note — could solar power be reaching the magical $1 per watt?

I’m a fan of the Indiana Jones series, and after watching the last installment I thought that there was a possibility that the torch could be passed onto the next generation. This was recently dismissed by none other than Lucas himself. “George Lucas says he’s already identified the one person who can keep the “Indiana Jones” franchise going: Harrison Ford. The filmmaker scoffed at the possibility of passing the famed fedora from Ford to Shia LaBeouf, the 22-year-old actor who played Indy’s son Mutt Williams in this summer’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”

Tags: Community Stuff, Retail Stuff, Sports Stuff, Technology Stuff
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Aug

9

In a post I wrote about a month ago, I outlined my frustration with changes made at the concession stand of a drive-in my family frequents. I shared that we have given up on the concession stand and were now bringing our own snacks and drinks. It seems we are not alone, and the owners may very well have noticed a decline in overall sales, as the drive-in in question has added a few lines to their website:

“We ask that you kindly refrain from outside food and beverage … “

Hot, fresh, spend half an hour in sweltering heat lining up to get it. No thanks!

Tags: Brand Experience Stuff, Business Stuff, Customer Service Stuff, Design Stuff, Experience Design Stuff, Retail Stuff
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Jul

4

My family has been going to the same drive-in theatre five or six times a summer since we discovered it about four years ago. Last season new owners took over and at the end of the season they renovated their concession building so it would be ready for this year.

On the surface not much has changed. They removed part of the counter so that it is straight instead of a ‘T’ shape, and they removed an antique projector that sat in the corner of the concession lobby. One apparently small change they made has greatly affected the guest experience as a whole.

They removed three drink coolers that the previous owners used in favour of a self-service fountain machine. This of course would likely triple if not quadruple their margin on drink sales. However, this may not equate to more profit for them.

This seemingly small change has slowed service to an absolute crawl. Under the old owner’s system, guests would go to the fridges off to the side of the concession lobby and once they chose their drinks, they would join the line to pay and grab any other snack they may have wanted. Smooth, simple and efficient.

Under the new system everyone gets in a single line which first runs perpendicular, and then turns parallel to the new, straight counter. First there is the coffee station where you pour it yourself from a typical household coffee maker, and don’t forget to add your cream and sugar. Next stop, the popcorn rack where some of the best popcorn you’ll ever taste sits pre-bagged, warm and fresh. Right beside is the self-serve butter and popcorn salt. Next stop is the small counter-sized beverage fridge that holds bottled water and a small selection of juice. Next, the drink fountain machine, where two people at most take about forty seconds to one minute each to fill-up their drinks. Next we have a jar of pickled eggs and another of pickled wieners, dig those hands in there and pick the one you want! Next we have a small selection of candies and chocolate bars. And finally stands the cashier, where you pay for the stuff you picked, and you also place your order for hot food such as fries, hot dogs and burgers that you then stand in another line to pick-up on the other end of the counter.

The new system is terribly inefficient. I watched the cashier as I stood in line and I would estimate that about 60% of her time was wasted because of the log-jam at the fountain machine — and to a lesser extent the other self-service stations. As a result the line is long and slow, and the people in the line-up frustrated. Some, like me, gave up entirely. We now bring our own food and drinks.

And that’s my point. This is absolutely poor customer service. The new owners were thinking of margin, and their convenience rather than the customer’s experience. At the end of the season, when sales are tallied they just might find better margins on their fountain drinks, but I suspect that they just might find that a number of people are forgoing the concession stand for their own thermos of coffee, cooler of drinks, and bag of snacks. The concession food is a lot more expensive, and with their new system a lot of people won’t have the patience to wait for their snacks while they miss the movie.

Anything you do in business needs to follow a design process — and the most important aspect of any design — is the experience you create for your guests. You do this successfully and the profit will come.

Clearly, the new owners didn’t think about the implications of their new design. Hopefully they will do something about it — and while they are at it, they can improve the situation with their bathrooms, but that’s a story for another day.

Tags: Customer Service Stuff, Design Stuff, Experience Design Stuff, Retail Stuff
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Jun

17

Round-Up

June 17, 2008

According to CBC News, 16 Canadian lakes are slated to be officially but quietly “reclassified” as toxic dump sites for mines. The lakes include prime wilderness fishing lakes from B.C. to Newfoundland. Wonder if swimming in toxic water or catching toxic fish will be ‘experiences’ marketed by the Canadian Tourism Commission.

Genepax, a Japanese company, claims that it has invented a car that runs only on water. In fact, a litre of water will power the engine for about an hour at a speed of 80 km. Add that to the two engines that run on compressed air, and we have some promise for an alternative to fossil fuels.

 

Sony develops green flat-panel TV to woo ecological consumers. So watch your HD hockey and golf with a guilt-free conscience.

Anyone who has purchased a flat-screen TV in the last couple of years has likely been shocked by the price of the Monster Cables that the sales person will inevitably try to talk you into buying. Now, I have found something even one better – a $500 cable from Denon!

Tags: Community Stuff, Customer Service Stuff, Retail Stuff, Technology Stuff
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May

25

The wildly popular Lego Star Wars games have been followed up with the soon-to-be released Indiana Jones The Original Adventures game.


Tags: Brand Experience Stuff, Design Stuff, Experience Design Stuff, Marketing Stuff, Neat Stuff, Retail Stuff, Technology Stuff
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Apr

30

“Women don’t buy brands. They join them.”

Faith Popcorn & Lys Marigold
EVEolution

I love this quote. It really wraps things up in a nice, neat package. However, I would argue that in many respects this is not exclusive to women. You could say the same about both sexes.

The iMac, iPod, iBook, iPhone. Apple has built a loyal, fervent customer base. It isn’t just because the Apple products are well designed, it’s about what owning an Apple product says about you.

People buy into experiences. To lifestyles. To a brand that they can identify with.

Tags: Brand Experience Stuff, Design Stuff, Experience Design Stuff, Marketing Stuff, Retail Stuff, Web Stuff
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Apr

24


This 3D sidewalk art kit from Crayola looks like a lot of fun! Chalk this one up with the, “Where was this stuff when I was a kid?” department.

Tags: Brand Experience Stuff, Design Stuff, Neat Stuff, Retail Stuff
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Apr

7

Monday Round-Up

April 7, 2008

Facebook and three music companies are teaming-up to create a new music site. The site would allow for streaming music as well as the option to purchase songs. There is even some thought that they are considering an unlimited subscription service.

Neuromarketing takes consumer behaviour to a whole new level.

Apple suing the “Big Apple’s” over the GreenNYC logo.

One of Dell’s key points of differentiation was the fact that they built custom systems on demand. Now, they are taking a more mass market approach by pushing standard prepackaged configurations. They are also using retail outlets, (I have even seen them in my local Wal-Mart), as a distribution channel – abandoning their direct-to-consumer model.

Tags: Advertising Stuff, Brand Experience Stuff, Business Stuff, Customer Service Stuff, Marketing Stuff, Retail Stuff
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Mar

20

bestbuy.gifBest Buy has joined other retailers in the US such as Future Shop, Circuit City and others who are reaching out to customers who purchased HD DVD players. They are offering a $50 gift certificate to people who purchased an HD DVD player from them before February 23, 2008 – and really, if you bought one after that date you should have known what you were getting into.

This is a good move. On the PR/reputation management side of the equation, it comes off as a feel good story. Brian J. Dunn, president and chief operating officer for Best Buy was quoted in a press release as saying, “At Best Buy, we understood and shared our customers’ frustrations as they were being asked to choose one format or the other. Now that the format war is over, we hope these gift cards will reassure our customers that we will help them make a smooth transition into the right technology for their needs…” … and I’ll add, “…and we are confident that with these $50 gift cards, they will be purchasing their new machine from us.” ;)

Best Buy states that this program will cost the company $10 million. That’s a lot of gift cards – and more importantly a lot of customers who have already adopted the technology (high definition players) that will be looking to replace the obsolete technology. And – maybe more importantly, the need to get in and sell as many of these players and titles as they can before they are replaced with newer emerging technologies. The customers who purchased HD DVD players are the low hanging fruit for Blu-Ray and PlayStation players so this action will certainly result in sales and there is a good chance that consumers will also see this as good will.

Tags: Advertising Stuff, Brand Experience Stuff, Business Stuff, Customer Service Stuff, Marketing Stuff, Retail Stuff, Technology Stuff
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Mar

17

Monday Round-Up

March 17, 2008

Well, back from a nice long vacation in sunny Florida. We had a fantastic time – mostly spent right on the Disney Resort with an added excursion over to Universal, (I am sure Disney hates hearing that!). Of course the best part is that we missed about 70 centimetres of snow that was dumped on those back home. A special, special, special thank you to our neighbours who kept our driveway nice and clear. :)

As with our last trip there, the “Disney experience” has served as great inspiration and has generated about 1000 ideas. I look forward to posting some specifics in later posts.

 Well onto the round-up.

China has blocked access to YouTube because of videos showing the violence and protests in Tibet. Clearly, China is not a place where residents can take full – or even much – advantage of social networking and web 2.0 technologies. The conflict between our interest in human rights vs commerce is a complicated one when it comes to China. It is a market with potential for hundreds of billions more in trade, and yet the actions of the Chinese government towards its people is clearly objectionable to most of us. It seems as a society, we have taken a “hold your nose” approach so we can get our cheap goods at the local Wal-Mart or make a deal that is profitable for our company.

Google has a patent application to interrupt online video signals with advertising. There is a trend to show a sponsored message at the beginning of an online video – especially when it comes to web sites hosted by media companies. As a consumer I find this acceptable, I understand that companies need to turn a profit and there is great opportunity for advertisers to reach a targeted market. But at the same time, it would be annoying to have a 30 sec video served in the middle of a minute long clip.

The music industry wants to charge all broadband users $5 /mo. to subsidize them to compensate for sales lost to P2P file sharing. I have an idea – lets charge an entrance fee to anyone who steps into a store or mall to cover retail losses due to shop lifting. Let’s charge a monthly fee to library card holders to subsidize authors who do not sell books because people can borrow them for free. The music industry has mismanaged the impact of the ‘net from the very beginning. This is their problem, they need to come up with a solution instead of these ridiculous ideas of subsidization – especially since they will be charging some people who do not even download music. There are a number of opportunities to meet the needs of consumers and still make a profit. Instead, they used their resources and effort to fight the technology instead of embrace the technology and use it to its full advantage. The ‘net offers clear opportunity for record labels to actually increase sales, (the long tail theory for example), but they have blinders on and have largely ignored many opportunities – and for that I have no sympathy. There is no excuse to charge what amounts to a 10% tax to broadband users to subsidize an industry that is losing money due to its own mismanagement and misdirected focus.

Tags: Brand Experience Stuff, Business Stuff, Community Stuff, Retail Stuff, Technology Stuff, Web Stuff
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