Archive for March, 2012

Consolidating Power Postions

Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

Much has been said about Apple and their control of the tablet marketplace via tying up: component suppliers, suppliers and transportation.  These moves effectively limit the amount of quick turn reverse engineering and production for me-too I Pad products.  The moves give Apple a brilliant advantage coinciding with their product life-cycle strategy.

Folks like Target Stores are hinting at emulating this “exclusive” product strategy for different reasons and coming at it from a different angle with less control.

Perhaps most interesting is the move by Amazon to purchase Kiva Systems.  Kiva is at the forefront of warehouse fulfillment automation.  It provides a system featuring robotics which intelligently locate and transport needed products to “pickers” in warehouses run by Amazon companies such as Zappos and Diapers.com.    Controlling; this set of technologies, the patents protecting them and the scientists who continue to tinker with system improvements give Amazon control on which of their would-be competitors will have access to these capabilities …and the low-cost, fast pick results that come from them.

Danger, Danger Will Robinson!

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Missed It By That Much

Thursday, March 8th, 2012

A bit of buzz about a promotion by Subaru urging consumers to “relive the great moments you had in your first car.”  What a great idea!  Most shoppers, men and women, have some fond memories (no doubt positively modified by the passage of time) of their first “ride”.

So I went to the site pretty motivated to see what kind of story I could make up about my first.

First Car Story Promo

It very quickly became evident that I was going to have to select a body style, color and condition from a preset group of cartoon cars.    Then I could narrate all I wished.

That was a disappointment.  Why not simply allow me to select the actual car make, year model and perhaps color?  That would be so much more fun, at least for a guy.    I figured the site design might have done this because it was too difficult to find the various makes, models and body styles.   So I looked for my first car and within the top of the first image fold found one that would be more than acceptable to tell my story.

Actual First Car;

I don’t know about you but I would think this would have made the “game” more fun, more personalized, more social, and more effective.   Sorry Chief, but I Missed It By THAT Much!

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