In the Age of Consumer Empowerment (made possible by millions of interlinked communications devices), companies that continue to practice draconion customer service will not only be outed, they will be forced to change, or face extinction. click for the You Tube video While watching Keith Olberman on MSNBC last night, I learned about one such customer's encounter with a customer service agent from AOL that made me …
No Greed. No Need.
Wall Street Journal looks at Craigslist, the free classified service now serving 300 U.S. cities. No one really questions that Craigslist could be bigger -- much, much bigger. The company took in a relatively paltry $25 million or so in revenue last year, while its peers among the Internet's top 10 raked in billions. One industry analyst has estimated that Craigslist could generate 20 times that $25 million just by …
Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Flattery
Blogging phenom, Jason Calacanis, is reinventing Netscape on AOL's behalf. According to New York Times: The new Netscape site, which is scheduled to be introduced in a preview version today, is modeled on Digg, a rapidly growing site focused on technology news. Digg users find items that interest them on news sites, blogs or anywhere else on the Web. They submit links to those items along with short descriptions. …
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Old (White) Boy Network Under Attack
An Ad Age reporter heard some severe criticism of the white bread industry she covers. The president-CEO of Black Enterprise magazine yesterday called for consumer and political activism aimed at increasing the number of marketing dollars spent with black-owned media. Earl "Butch" Graves Jr. said agencies that specialize in targeting blacks often are not responsible for media buying and planning for products bought …
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Garage Philosophy Leads To Big Things
Mark Fletcher spoke about his experience starting ONElist and Bloglines at this month's SDForum in Palo Alto. I like his advise about doing it on the cheap. I am a cheap bastard when it comes to startups. With ONElist I was, you know, $55,000 got us through a million users. With Bloglines it was $200,000 from start to finish. It's so cheap to start and run these web companies, especially if you do it virtually. Like, …
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Ego A Driving Factor In Car Purchases
It seems those crazy kids in Coconut Grove are inventing new ways to sell VWs on a daily basis. The new tool in the automaker's belt is a co-creation site called Ego Index, where consumers rate cars and everyday items for the ego they emit. For instance, anchovies, came in at 50, which is a neutral rating on a 1-to-100 scale. Apparently, anchovies emit no ego. Here's how a CP+B copywriter describes the concept: Each …
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AmEx Motivates Rich Ladies
According to their website, Make Mine a $Million Business™ has one goal: to help women-owned businesses surpass the million-dollar revenue mark. Founded by Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence with OPEN from American Express, the program provides a combination of money, mentoring and marketing tools that women entrepreneurs need to help grow their businesses to a million dollars and beyond. Lexi Reese, …
Make Art. Not War.
Diablogue is offering up a saucy bit from Jonathan Kneebone of the Glue Society. When someone with vague creative aspirations could do anything with their time and energy, why the hell work in advertising? After all, you could be writing a novel or movie, a TV drama or comedy show. You could be directing a documentary, photographing nudes or paiting landscapes. You could be being creative rather than talking about …
