• Thinking about the possibilities of the Optimus Maximus keyboard http://tinyurl.com/yo3lmx #

• Great study of podcast audiences http://tinyurl.com/2uqavo - not just for geeks #

When we are trying to define customers that we have not yet interacted with, we refer to them as a prospects, or targets, or even users or consumers. Seth Godin suggests that this is no longer appropriate and we need a new term:

Citizen recognized the power of this individual. Citizens are no longer the weak, isolated pre-consumers in front of a TV set in 1971, with few options. Now, citizens appear to be holding all the cards. It sounds a bit pretentious, but then, so do most terms marketers use.

He suggests that using this terminology makes for a change in thinking that is more respectful. I like this idea, I think it makes a lot of sense.

• Thinking Seth Godin’s idea to use the word Citizens instead of Prospects or Targets is a great idea http://tinyurl.com/2jdz34 #

A friend of mine once sent me a brilliant email as a brief for a brand job where I had asked him to tell me about brands he liked and disliked. His response included a hilarious rant on why airlines are basically liars. Nearly all the the airlnes brands and marketing project this image of serene, sophisticated travel, when in reality air travel is just awful. The disconnect between the brand promise and actual experience is vast. He makes a good point.

Why do airlines lie though? Why do they think it is okay to consistently over promise and under deliver? Case in point, I left for the airport today at 5.30am with no indication on the website that there would be any delay to the flight, which was due to leave at 6.45 a.m. When I get there, their entire computer system is down and they are doing everything manually. Airline staff do not do well without computers. So we are told it will be a slight delay, now departing at 7.15 a.m. No big deal, I’ll just have another coffee and send some email.

We finally leave at 9.15 a.m. I arrive late for my first meeting and am then on the back foot all day.

Home time comes, look up on the website, no indication of the flight being delayed, due to leave at 5.45 p.m as planned. Leave for the airport, get to the airport at 5 and am told that the flight will leave at 6.15 p.m. A slight delay of 30 minutes. Flight finally leaves at 7.00 p.m.

So now, I’ll get home at 8.30 p.m.

Why do they have to lie, why couldn’t they just txt me or ring me to tell me the flights were running late with an accurate new time of departure and I could have stayed at home for a bit longer and stayed at the Wellington office and finished off some more work, rather than hanging around at airports.

I don’t believe this is just negligence, I believe they operationally want you at the airport just in case they can magically leave earlier. The problem is, this never happens. I have never been told that we’ll be delayed and then leave earlier than they said. Never.

To avoid this you should do a regular disk check (as I should have been doing):

- Restart your Mac - Hold down Apple key + S straightaway - You will eventually see it boot into Unix (black screen) - When it has finished type the following command:

fsck -fy

Press Enter and let it do its stuff. This could take awhile so go make a coffee or something.

When it has finished type the following command:

reboot

And press Enter. Computer will reboot.

If this won’t work for you can use the following alternative command:

fsck -f

posted from iPhoneSlide.com

• Historical Google search - cool http://tinyurl.com/2tbv2g #

• Thinking YouCastr.com (consumer commentary of sports matches) could be big in NZ http://youcastr.com #
• Watching the Indiana Jones trailer http://tinyurl.com/2ej22k #
• Good explanation (20 mins worth) of Google’s Open Social http://tinyurl.com/32n7l3 #

It is no secret in my home and office that I hate mail. When you are the owner of a business you go on the publicly available Companies Office register you end up in numerous databases and become a target for an untoward amount of "personalised" direct mail. I also hate the other mail as well as this is mainly bills and stuff from the tax man. Let me count the ways:

Personalisation

This is a joke. Most marketing departments have terrible data which is invariably out of date because they or their agencies insist on creating copies of their customer database. Examples I can personally attest to include:

• Being asked to join a Kiwi Saver superannuation scheme….one month after I had already done so. What, you want me to join it twice??
• My three year old daughter receiving a special offer to join a rental car company’s priority membership scheme!!
• Various letters from web design companies offering me a special deal - Why would I want to pay you for something that has been one of the main ways I make a living for over 10 years now?

Carbon Credits

Forget about air travel, think about how much natural resources are consumed and carbon is generated with the creation and delivery of direct mail. What makes it even worse is that they usually use those window envelopes with a bit of clear plastic to show the address at the top of the letter so you can’t even recycle them. Send email or better yet, set up a blog with an RSS feed, and save some trees people.

It Costs Me Money

We have to pay for a post box redirect, plus a courier to clear the post box and deliver it to our office. Some days all we get is direct mail.

How to deal with it

Okay, rant over, you get my point.

So imagine my delight to see this link on Katie’s blog to a letter carefully written by someone just like me in Australia which he posted back to the marketing department of some unfortunate company as well as obviously sharing it with the world via the power of the blogosphere. As Katie points out, how many recipients of their DM campaign did not bother to respond with a witty complaint letter.

I know people go on about spam, but this is far less intrusive and easy to deal with. Marketers also talk about permission marketing and the recent flurry of activity around getting permission for email marketing databases in September 2006 with the new legislation in New Zealand. When has a company ever given you a clear opt out option in a direct mail piece. A simple website you can go to where you can tell the company that you no longer wish to receive direct mail please. You can go to this website and have your name removed from all databases in theory, however, it is up to the individual marketers to keep their database up to date with those that have asked to be removed. I’ll let you know if I notice any difference in a few months.

Am I just being overly cynical? Does anyone out there like getting direct mail?

• Doh! He should have bought an iPod http://tinyurl.com/2ltveq #
• Android powered phone http://tinyurl.com/38wtor #
• Checking out R.E.M.’s "open source" music videos - great idea http://tinyurl.com/yoptln #