October-Design

I went through the drive-thru at McDonald’s fast food restaurant the other day (rare occasion), and noticed that the drink fountain was fully-automated. The machine that filled the drink order was linked to a central processor that managed the order information keyed in by the order taker. All the drive-thru server had to do was put the lid on my cup and hand it to me with a smile, which she did marvelously.

This set me thinking about process automation and how it has reached every corner, every facet of the modern business world and for good reason too. Downward pricing pressure is around every corner. Companies need to innovate in order to keep costs contained. I thought about October-Design and how we have written small and big software applications to automate several processes both internally and externally for ourselves as well as clients.

In McDonald’s case, it would seem the decision was made to keep the touch points (drive-thru window or front counter) uniquely human, with smiling servers and cashiers, and then automate where possible in the food preparation areas. Could McDonald’s, with its $22 Billion (2007) gross income afford to automate the whole “McDonald’s” experience? Sure, but would it? McDonald’s, like all of us, is in the people business. We transact with, cater to and work with other people. Good human interaction drives repeat business.

As our society becomes more segmented for a variety of geo, socio and demographic reasons, the emphasis will shift from process automation/innovation to innovations in the human touch. That future interaction may not be face to face, but will have a face and a voice associated with it. Future innovation will emphasize the human aspect of technology.

As a society we need human contact and human interaction. Blogs, Social Media, Yelp!’s consumer reviews or Cisco Systems recently announced (September 08) video conferencing and collaboration suite TelePresence, all intend to reconnect us on very personal levels. At the same time technology works to offload the burden of “process” on to the machines. The smart money will be thinking about touch points and how we can enhance the human connection while at the same time, leverage technology to contain cost.
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The Mobile Marketing revolution really is a three-legged stool. First, there has to be open and free data sharing; then smart devices that account for place, distance and time; and finally standardized communication between devices.

The first two legs are well on the way to full implementation and with critical mass. Now, Close Proximity Wireless Transfer Technology, like Sony’s January, 2008 announced TransferJet, has the potential to bring a communication standard to the marketplace allowing for simple wireless connections and data transfer between devices. For example, a temporary smart mobile device to cash register wireless connection.

Let’s say its grocery shopping time again and you were at home tapping out your list on your mobile device notepad. You have an account with Coupon Clipper (http://www.thecouponclippers.com) and also queued several discount coupons in your digital coupon basket, or you could have run the application RetailMeNot (http:// iphone.retailmenot.com) for iPhone which serves discount coupons too.

Fast forward to the grocery store, and you just finished scanning your groceries at the automated checkout. You’ve checked off all the items on your list and are ready to pay. But you’re smart and you never leave money on the conveyor belt, in a manner of speaking.

Because your device is enabled with Close Proximity Wireless Transfer technology, you can touch the scanner reader with your smart mobile device and all the coupons in your coupon basket are automatically transferred to the store central processor. All valid discounts applied, and the grand total adjusted. Ever more convenient, is that PayPal handles the transaction so no need for cash or credit cards either.

Redemption rates on discount coupons have been in a steady decline concluded a study by Cornell University (The Coupon Report: A Study of Coupon Discount Methods, March 2005). Manufacturers count on coupon redemption for multiple purchases and brand loyalty. The same study concluded that only 7.3% of coupon users, use online coupons. Soon, technology and infrastructure will allow a wholly digital process for managing coupons. Through Close Proximity Wireless Transfer, we’ll have the third leg of a nice stool to sit on while we organize and save a lot of hard earned cash.

Other Coupon Servers:
http://www.Bradsdeals.com
http://www.couponcabin.com
http://www.retailmenot.com
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Smart mobile devices and personal digital assistants (PDA) have the potential to turn marketing and advertising on its head, primarily because they can deliver content when you actually need it. For example, instead of a coupon in the Sunday paper, I could call one up right on the spot while at the check-out. I’ll talk about peer-to-peer (ex. mobile device to cash register) data transfer next week. But the gates of heaven are ripe with peril, well maybe.

I have an iPhone (RIM’s BlackBerry Curve has similar capabilities) which is location- aware (using Global Positioning System or Radio Frequency tracking) plus it can communicate with remote data servers. So I download a FREE application called Yelp! that takes advantage of two critical pieces of information. One, my location, where I’m standing at that moment in time; two, restaurants and businesses that are very near my position.

Threat or opportunity:

Yelp! also offers consumer reviews on the restaurant or businesses I may be interested in. This is the real innovation, or threat, depending on your perspective. Consumers now have instantaneous, unbiased information, influencing their purchase decisions. Previously, businesses saw word of mouth advertising as the lynch pin to a successful campaign, hoping the buzz was good. Professionals came up with catchy terms like buzzmetrics and Voice Of the Consumer (VOC) and Loveline to describe the effort to hear the buzz. The goal was to track, measure and somehow affect the buzz towards the product or business.

How powerful is VOC in the hands of the average consumer? I had a coupon in my coupon drawer for a pizza shop and drove to where there are several shops including the one offering the coupon. Pulling out my smart mobile device, I launched Yelp!, and it identifies my location. Then I tap in the word ‘Pizza’ in the search field. Voila, five pizza shops returned, including the one I have a coupon for.

My coupon was buy-one-get-one-free (BOGO). There were four reviews, one as recent as a week ago. Only one review was favorable the other three were not. Guess what, I didn’t go to that pizza shop. Even though I didn’t have a coupon to the one with the best rating, I would rather pay for good pizza instead of bad pizza for about the same money.

Not only was the sale lost, but also the advertising expense to get that coupon in my hand.

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There is a lot of chatter around the launch of Google’s browser Chrome and its ability to report back to Google on your Internet whereabouts. Effectively, you create data as you surf, which now could be measured! So when you’re shopping on eBay or researching Egrets (a species of bird), there is a profile in Google’s vast ocean of data that is getting clearer. Is Chrome friend, big brother incarnate or just a sign of things to come?

As cloud computing (remote computers connected and sharing resources) gains traction, shared data between remote systems will also become commonplace and easily facilitated. All this ’sharing’ is leading marketers and government agencies to a clearer picture of you. That digital dataset will be as tangible as your physical being in the carbon world. Many cry foul and say this is leading us to abuse of privacy and big brother out-of-control, and certainly there are elements of both. But let’s look at the upside for the next few hundred words.

Domestic advertising spending ranges between $250 – $300 BILLION dollars a year. Apply the old adage “I know 50% of my advertising works, just don’t know which half” and we can assume $125 – $150 Billion is not immediately measurable, possibly wasted. Now what if marketing were more sophisticated and had an intimate knowledge of you. In fact, business could predict what you need JUST before you realized you needed something. How much money would be saved in the ‘cost of sale’ and on the retail price? How would you benefit from a timely, predictive offers? I buy shoes every six months; I’m at the mall and it is about time for a new pair; and ding, iPhone goes off offering me a coupon for the shoe store, 500 feet ahead.

Sounds futuristic right? Consider this:

I log in to SKYPE automatically every morning and SKYPE tracks this information calculating the average time I’ll be logged in. Let’s say there is an 85% chance I will be logged in at 8:45am M-F. SKYPE shares this data with SalesGenie or SalesForce.com, services that generate leads and list for subscribers among other services. Now then, a copier sales person is planning to cold call on my street and wants to plan his route targeting only businesses whose owner will likely be in at a specified time. He logs in to his favorite sales lead generation service, plugs in a set of variables and out comes a number of businesses including mine. The data is collected from various remote data servers vis-a-vis shared data service agreements. The report could feature probabilities, including that there is an 85% chance I’ll be in my office at 8:45am. The next business owner down the road will be in her office at 9:15am and so on. Our copier sales person plans their route in sequential order based on the probable time the owners will be sitting behind their desk. Everything is already in place for this level of marketing intelligence. All that is missing are the shared data agreements between the aforementioned.

When surfing the Internet, you leave a data wake. The search you conduct, the sites you visit, the systems you log in to and transact with, all generating data about you. As cloud computing and data sharing become commonplace, the puzzle pieces of your digital identity starts to fit together and your digital being is made real.
As for Google’s infamous motto “DO NO EVIL” and the newly polished Chrome browser, Google does sometime feel disingenuous about its intentions. But I believe all things work toward good and that the benefits of shared data, regardless of how it is collected, will far outweigh the abuse.

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