Power of mobile web for newspaper publishers

February 26, 2010 Leave a comment

The power of mobile websites

Half a year ago I finally got myself a smartphone. Hooray for the “laggards” (referring to Rogers Adoption of Innovation studies)! Since then I’m able to browse the worldwide web on my mobile phone. My preferred mobile websites are social network sites and a website of a newspaper. Why? Both have done their best to create a website (or even an iPhone app) that is optimized for mobile devices.

The power of a good news website
I never read that financial-economic newspaper before. However, I started reading it on my mobile device for usability reasons. After a while I noticed that I also browsed their website for news on my laptop. I liked the website for providing news very fast, the e-book feature, etc. That website also offered the printed version for free for 2 months… I agreed… Now I read the printed version of a newspaper that I disliked before!

Reading on paper is a habit / ritual

The marketer of the newspaper truly hopes that I will enjoy the printed version that much that I will sign up for a year. Maybe a 2 months free trial will not be sufficient to get me as a full-time reader. Nonetheless, providing free time to learn to read on paper, to enjoy the paper, to make a habit of reading a printed version while drinking your morning coffee, etc… might prove to be effective. Maybe the romanticism of reading on “yellow, dirty” paper will empower the effect?

What’s the power of mobile web for a newspaper?
It got me reading a printed newspaper (for at least 2 months!) that I’d never bought or read before.

Filed under Business, Economy, Marketing, Media, Society, Software & Technology Tagged with , , , , , , ,

The Kölner Starbucks Effect

February 25, 2010 Leave a comment

Starbucks coffee at Köln Dolm

Starbucks coffee at Köln Dolm

Starbucks: a McDonalds story?

Thoughts automatically focussed on the marketing strategy of Starbucks. I don’t know it particularly well. However, in the first instance, it seems like a McDonalds story. This means: geographically expanding by buying properties or buying out others in order to create some sort of “experience”. For Starbucks, I would call it the “New York Coffeehouse from Friends Experience”.

Why didn’t I have that Coffeehouse Experience?

I believe exporting a product from one culture to another isn’t that easy. Maybe Europeans are used to drinking coffee elsewhere? Maybe Europeans want better coffee (I did not like the coffee that I ordered, tasted like carton)? Did Starbucks create the wrong expectations in my head? Was my view biased by Rachel, Ross, Monica, etc. ? Whatever might be the reason, I won’t be a Starbucks fan on facebook – millions already are!

Filed under Business, Culture & Arts, Marketing, Society Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Reflections on Carrefour to drastically cut jobs in Belgium

February 23, 2010 Leave a comment

Google screenshot "Carrefour" keyword

Google screenshot "Carrefour" keyword

2 of my most visited Carrefour supermarkets will be closed …

The plan calls for cutting 1672 jobs and closing 21 stores in Belgium by end-June, Carrefour Belgium said in a statement on Tuesday. (yes, this is the first sentence on a Google search on Carrefour and I’m so lazy I just copy/pasted it, and that’s why it’s in italics). But the point is, I rarely visit a Carrefour but have 2 of them very close to my place. However, Carrefour has turned out to be my lifesaver: it’s open until 20h! Both of those Carrefour supermarkets are on the closing list. I guess I’ll never see a Carrefour from the inside again.

… my friend in India however will soon meet Mr Carrefour.

Njummie! All that good stuff he’ll soon enjoy!

On that same google page result I noticed the statement of carrefour going into India. I am almost tired of writing, so I quickly want to provide the reader some insights on a possible “why” of this decision.

AFP Carrefour press release

AFP Carrefour press release

Marketing strategy?

    Facts & Figures from Belgium: 10 million inhabitants struggling to keep their wealth as high as in the past, a government that has almost the highest debt rate in the world, etc.
    Facts & Figures from India: estimated population 2010 1,177,424,000, increasing wealth, etc.
    Marketing strategy background: the economic core of the world economy is moving east, it’s over there that money will be made.
    Marketing strategy: “Carrefour will develop its activities in India with the start of cash-and-carry activities in 2010,” the company said in a statement emailed to AFP.

Filed under Business, Economy, Marketing, Society Tagged with ,

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