The Trend Post

Farewell to the TrendPost

2011-03-03T21:49:00.000-05:00

I have decided to consolidate my blogging into a new blog at http://brandpvc.blogspot.com. I have not been able to update this blog as often as I wanted to. My focus has been so diverse and the new blog will allow me to expand on my interests. Thanks for reading and please visit the new blog.

Why Twitter makes blogging easy

2011-02-23T21:56:00.000-05:00

Besides the obvious fact that you are only allowed 140 characters to get your thoughts across - "tweeting" can easily be done from your smartphone - anywhere & anytime. I carry a Moleskine notebook with me most of the time to capture my thoughts and ideas, but more often than not, the thought and moment passes that I want to share. Enter Twitter. Initially the blogging and tweeting was a way for

Now THAT'S (Customer) Service!: Amazon.com

2011-02-05T14:17:00.000-05:00

For weeks now I have been raving about my new third generation Kindle to colleagues, friends and family. It was during several of these discussions that I heard about the dealings with the web retailer's customer service department. I want to preface that I myself have fortunately not had to deal with Amazon's customer service department over my personal customer experience (I shop there quite

"The Social Network": A Quick Note

2011-01-31T21:50:00.000-05:00

I finally saw "The Social Network" from Aaron Sorkin and to my dismay, the movie lived up to they hype. I can't believe that the majority of the story was based on actual events - for if they were I would have to assume it was from the account of Eduardo Saverin (played by Andrew Garfield) who was the only real "good guy" in the movie. The funny thing of note however is that my good friend Jim

My Master Thesis

2011-01-25T23:33:00.002-05:00

LOOK at what I was able to find online: There is a common misconception that age and user experience are common bottlenecks to technological adoption. I applied this idea to a study around the implementation of a new "enterprise" level intranet in an educational setting. This was my master thesis paper. Thanks for reading. Abstract: This paper explores the validity of an extension of the

Set aside some time for social media before you wind down for the day

2011-01-17T08:22:00.001-05:00

With the Arizona shooting tragedy, I re-affirmed that social media is my primary source of news and information. Forget the location-based trend, I’m speaking specifically of Facebook and Twitter. I started realizing this last year when I learned about the earthquake off the coast of Hawaii last March. Before running my first 5K of the season, I had arrived at the race about an hour too early.

Facebook Integration: Photo Kiosks

2010-12-31T19:02:00.000-05:00

This option was presented prior to final submission at Wolf Camera. Facebook domination continues into 2011 ... Stay tuned.

Acronym to Remember (and avoid) in Innovation: FUD

2010-12-30T07:24:00.001-05:00

Blogging Innovation » Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt as Barriers to Innovation http://www.business-strategy-innovation.com/wordpress/2010/12/fear-uncertainty-and-doubt-as-barriers-to-innovation/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+business-strategy-innovation+%28Blogging+Innovation%29

Minimalist: HEX & iPod nano watch

2010-12-29T12:35:00.001-05:00

Ok ... If I didn't already have an iPod shuffle (for practicality's sake I refuse to double purchase functionality) I would probably own one of these in metallic. http://m.engadget.com/default/article.do?artUrl=http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/29/hex-ships-ipod-nano-watch-band-dares-you-to-destroy-it-video/&category=classic&postPage=1

Minimalist: The iPad

2010-12-24T00:14:00.003-05:00

How can it get any simpler? One single button? The iPad is simplistic sophistication at its best and it's one of the year's greatest innovations. With it Apple has started a new revolution in portable connectiveness. Image courtesy of Creative Commons.

Minimalist: ZIIIRO Minimalist Watch

2010-12-23T15:10:00.002-05:00

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." - L. Da Vinci It may sound like an oxymoron, but think about all of the ultra chic and modern designs ... think of the Apple store. When you go back to basics, it has a way of bringing forth the worth and beauty of basic functionality. This new label highlights that. My first highlight is the ZIIIRO Minimalist watch. In our opinion, even more

The POWER of social media in action

2010-12-17T22:19:00.000-05:00

I love animals, especially my dog Presley. I am a volunteer at the local SPCA with their marketing department, consulting specifically in the realm of social media. As I left the house today I updated my Facebook status to indicate my plans for the next few hours. Upon arriving in the parking lot of the SPCA, I set up (with the organization's approval) their location profile via Facebook places

SUPER USERS are our friends

2010-12-10T08:22:00.000-05:00

Yesterday while participating in a webinar I submitted several questions to the host during its broadcast to get a better understanding of their points of view on the topic being discussed. At the end of the session, during the Q&A, I felt very satisfied that my question was selected (acknowledged) and answered in depth and drew long discussion from the webinar participants. Why was I satisfied?

No correlation found between company performance and CEO education credentials

2010-12-09T09:47:00.000-05:00

File under TRENDS: I found an interesting article based on a recent report sanctioned by Bloomberg Businessweek that found that less than half of the highest-paid CEOs have MBA degrees which begs the question: "Are MBA degrees necessary to achieve top management positions?" Although I already have my MBA I had wondered the same thing myself before. I believed that "real world" experience and the

Now YOU can submit trends

2010-12-07T22:04:00.003-05:00

Starting today, this blog has become a wiki of sorts in that YOU the reader can now become a TrendPoster. If you have news or opinions pertaining to social media, marketing, innovation, technology, management, trends, and business in general, submit them by composing an email to trend2post@gmail.com with the SUBJECT as the post title. If you want to be acknowledged, please include an email

Increase Usage of Check-ins, Tweets, and Status Updates as "Coupons"

2010-12-07T10:09:00.000-05:00

By now it is apparent that brands are embracing social media and incorporating them into their marketing. We’ve seen Gap give away 10,000 pairs of jeans for a check-in at their stores using Facebook places. Chili’s offering free chips and salsa for a check-in via Foursquare. These are just two examples of national brands/companies that have successfully utilized the technology. But businesses

Best Buy scoffs at those who argue "Internet will kill off brick-and-mortar retailers"

2010-12-01T19:40:00.000-05:00

... as a matter of fact, the electronics retailer is embracing the Internet, more specifically social media as an integral ally for business. The retailer believes that as much as fifty percent of their customers' purchases are influenced by what they have read online mainly through customer feedback. Customers follow trends on social networks like Twitter and Facebook and also provide opinions,

More Mr. Wall

2010-11-19T12:24:00.001-05:00

I take back what I said ...

2010-11-19T12:20:00.001-05:00

Earlier I had said that nothing could save the Reebok ReeZig line. Well, now I may eat those words as they have landed heralded NBA rookie John Wall and actually redesigned their basketball line. Not too shabby ...

Use your website to understand your customer

2010-11-19T10:41:00.001-05:00

Website statistics should be a part of your CRM strategy. Through this invaluable tool you can track where consumers/clients are going on your site, where they are coming from, what browsers are the most popular, peak-traffic times, and more! Armed with this information, your business can identify target customers to create different web experiences and optimize engagement to maintain customers

The Gap: Retail Social Media Pioneer

2010-11-05T12:23:00.002-04:00

Take it from the Gap, the retail clothier that has truly embraced social media and allowed consumers to affect the direction of the company. Today I was a part of the latest social media risk taking experiment that the company undertook. As a part of this venture, Gap teamed up with Facebook to help promote its new 'Places' feature to compete alongside popular location based application

T-Mobile resorts to 'stale' marketing

2010-11-03T07:53:00.001-04:00

Remember those Mac v. PC commercials that Apple phased out MONTHS ago? Of course you do … and so do I. Which is why I winced when I saw the new T-Mobile commercial featuring a vibrantly dressed attractive young woman touting the speed of T-Mobile’s 4G service compared to a Apple’s sluggish service represented by a (business-like?) gentleman in a suit being weighed down by yet another, albeit

Interpretation of an excerpt from Marshal Cohen's 'Buy Me'

2010-11-01T21:48:00.000-04:00

As often as I can I like to visit the local Barnes & Noble and take advantage of their "try it before you buy it" policy. This weekend I came across Marshal Cohen's book, 'Buy Me: New Ways to Get Customers to Choose Your Product and Ignore the Rest' and while the book is a rehash of many of the other recent marketing books I have read recently, it doesn't hurt to remind ourselves of the concepts

The Art of Corporate Naming

2010-10-28T12:43:00.000-04:00

Interesting article by Eric Spitznagel posted on October 21, 2010 regarding how to name a company. Basically the rules are: keep it quirky but memorable. According to the article (see below), there are 200 countries on the cyber-platform and in the last year alone, 11M Internet names have been registered. Also according to the article ... it now takes expert advice to find identities? Surely

Corporate Parasites Feed off of Stephanie Meyers' 'Twilight' Frenzy

2010-10-27T13:45:00.001-04:00

While commercializing off of the popularity of a trend is nothing new, I’ve not seen anything so blatantly capitalizing off of the vampire craze as the two major companies Revlon and Bath & Body Works has. And this is not just feeding off of the vampire phenomena, but off of its main cash cow: Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series. The campaign for Revlon’s new ‘Just Bitten’ lipstain + balm