A Great New iOS4 Feature

There are a bunch of great walkthroughs of the new OS for iPhone. Probably the best and most complete is over at ArsTechnica.

I love tucking lesser-used apps into folders, I’m glad audio apps other than iTunes are now allowed to run in the background, and I’m happy to see how much faster the phone seems to be with the new software.

However, I stumbled upon a feature that I didn’t see mentioned in the Ars review.

This morning, I got an email from a business partner who proposed we have lunch on Thursday. The OS saw the phrase “lunch this Thursday” and automatically underlined it as a link.

Clicking the link offered to add an event to my calendar.

Of course, this is Apple, so it created an event on the right date (this coming Thursday) guessed that it would be at noon, and put the subject of the Email in as the event name.

Something very like this functionality exists in Apple’s desktop Mail.app, but it was a great surprise to see it appear on my phone. I’m still distressed to see that Apple hasn’t added a “mark all as read” function to the Mail application, but this new feature is a welcome addition.

Tags: Apple, iOS4, iPhone

Test and Retest Your Online and Mobile Campaigns

It’s a cardinal rule in Internet Marketing. Whatever communications you create have to be tested again and again, on every possible platform and configuration. Even a simple website has to be reviewed repeatedly in different browsers, different browser versions, different operating systems, to make sure your message is properly formatted and reperesents your brand favorably no matter where it’s seen. If there are multiple steps from first touch to final purchase, the list of testing scenarios grows quickly.

This is the most tedious part of the business. And unlike many tedious tasks, it can’t really be delegated to the lowest levels of the organization. Someone who doesn’t have a full grasp of your communication goals can’t tell you if they’re being met. Fortunately, at Zacks, we’re able to divide the workload so each team member is responsible for two or three browser/OS configurations. Even so, a good chunk of time can be easily eaten up with creating test email accounts, logging in and out, deleting cookies and starting over again. When product or promotion launch deadlines are looming, it takes real discipline not to cut corners and actually go through all the steps.

Apparently, even the biggest companies with the largest marketing budgets have a struggle in this area. And mobile marketing opens a whole new frontier of possible platforms and formats. I was surprised recently to see the glaring neglect of testing in a mobile campaign for Coke Zero.

Checking scores in the excellent iPhone app SportsTap, I saw an ad headline that read "Join Facial Profiler." So far so good. It’s a mobile ad, so maybe this "Facial Profiler" does something cool using my phone’s camera. It got my attention and made me curious enough to tap the ad.
The landing page looks nice, and is obviously formatted for the iPhone. The imagery and typography are attractive and easy to read. Now I see that it’s a Coke Zero project. So now I think there’s an even better chance that it’s something cool, since they certainly have the budget to create something entertaining or engaging.
Scrolling down the page, there’s a video thumbnail. Whoever designed the campaign seems to have understood that I’m not going to keep reading forever, so here’s a video file to explain the promotion. Brilliant.
But that’s where the whole thing breaks. Somehow, they encoded or embedded the video in a way the iPhone didn’t like. This video is the only means I have to find out how the program works, so when it fails, the entire experience becomes a dead end. So now, whatever Coke spent on this campaign has been 100% wasted. Even worse, this experience lowers my opinion of the brand, so they’ve actually put their marketing budget to work in a way that damages their brand image.

It’s an excellent example of what can happen when you don’t commit to testing your entire campaign. And there are no shortcuts. Even when you duplicate an existing process and apply it to a new product or promotion, unforseen details almost always become obvious during testing.

If it can happen to a marketing powerhouse like Coca-Cola, on a closed platform like the iPhone, it can certainly happen to your email campaign or banner ad landing page. All the time, effort and money you spend promoting your product will be wasted if an overlooked error gets between your customer and the sale.

Update: Cheryl Gledhill at molt:n took the Facial Profiler application for a test drive and found that the actual feature was just as unsatisfying and poorly executed as the mobile campaign.

Tags: Coke, Facial Profiler, Internet Marketing, iPhone, Mobile Marketing, Online Campaigns

Amazon’s iPhone Kindle Strategy, Take 2

Here’s an update to my earlier post about Amazon’s strategic decision to release a free iPhone application to read e-books published for its Kindle device.

Of course, it’s undeniably brilliant to cultivate an audience for reading books on a handheld device, reaching people who have a history of buying expensive electronics. But as you’d expect from Amazon, their followup is also first rate.

Knowing that I’d downloaded the iPhone app, they sent me an email this morning announcing that their Kindle device is now on sale. At Zacks, we’re always looking for opportunities to target our email campaigns like this. There’s no better way to reach your customer than demonstrating that you’ve paid attention to his interaction with you. When you can credibly make the claim that you’re sending this message specifically because he might find it useful, you’ve greatly increased the chances that your customer will click through to the action page.

Actually, the Kindle app has made me a believer when it comes to reading text on my iPhone. Except the Kindle app isn’t my platform of choice. Instead, I’ve been using the much more versatile Stanza. Where the Kindle app concentrates on titles available from Amazon, Stanza and its companion (Mac or Windows) desktop application make it unbelievably easy to put any text on your phone in ebook form. Just open text files, word docs, pdfs or html pages in the desktop app and load them over wi-fi onto your iPhone.

Now any time I stumble upon a long but interesting blog post or article, I’ll load the URL in Stanza and take it with me to read whenever I find a spare minute on the go. The very legible and customizable display makes it much easier and more enjoyable to read than if I’d copied the bookmark and navigated there in the mobile browser. And the text is loaded on the phone itself, so I don’t have to worry about the availability or speed of my connection.

Of course, the retail giant took notice of how well Stanza works. In April, Amazon bought Stanza’s development company Lexcycle. So far, though, they have not disabled the Stanza app itself. Presumably, they’re working with the Lexcycle developers to morph all the extra features of Stanza into the next generation Kindle reader.

Tags: Amazon, e-Books, iPhone, Kindle, Lexcycle, Marketing Strategy, Stanza

The Strategy Behind Amazon’s Kindle iPhone App

This week, Amazon released a free iPhone app for reading eBooks made for its Kindle reader. It has so far received mostly favorable reviews for its execution and for the idea itself.

It would be easy to say that offering eBooks to be read on the iPhone would cannibalize Kindle sales. You could also object that the iPhone’s screen is far too small for reading an entire book. Yet in my view, this is a brilliant move by Amazon.

Amazon’s core mission is to sell content. While the Kindle is a real physical product for which they make a very real profit, the ongoing revenue model for Amazon is to sell eBooks. Kindle’s primary role is as a vehicle for those sales. The iPhone app allows Amazon to open another channel for eBook sales which costs them virtually nothing and removes a $300 barrier to entry for new customers.

Releasing any high-profile application for the iPhone is a publicity triumph. Kindle has received its fair share of media coverage, but no device in recent memory can match the iPhone when it comes to media affection. Any significant move made by a large company which credibly includes the iPhone as a major character in the drama is sure to generate plenty of press.

One of the iPhone app’s most telling features is the ability to synchronize bookmarks across devices. This presents a clear statement that the iPhone app can live harmoniously with the user’s Kindle, meaning enjoyment of your eBook is not an either-or proposition.

That’s where it becomes clear what a victory this is for Amazon. For any iPhone user who has already bought a Kindle, this rewards their purchase with a free option to continue enjoying their eBook in situations where they don’t have their Kindle handy. Even more importantly, it makes an excellent pitch to iPhone users who haven’t bought a Kindle.

There couldn’t be a better target market for the Kindle than a class of consumers who have demonstrated their willingness to buy an electronic device for three figures. By letting iPhone users try Amazon’s eBooks for only the cost of the book itself, Amazon lets the user sell himself on the idea of reading electronic books. As he becomes addicted to the convenience of reading nearly any title anywhere and concurrently grows frustrated with the iPhone’s tiny screen, the Kindle looks more and more attractive.

Any iPhone user who downloads the app and doesn’t buy a Kindle probably wouldn’t have bought one anyway. This gives those users the opportunity to become eBook buyers that otherwise wouldn’t have existed. For those iPhone users who have considered the Kindle, but for one reason or another have not bought one, this app gives a significant nudge.

I applaud Amazon’s iPhone release, and wish them great success. Well done.

Tags: Amazon, Cannibalization, iPhone, Kindle, Marketing Strategy

This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

I ordered a beanie as a Christmas gift for a friend. (Hopefully he’s not a reader yet – surprise!) 

It was priced well, was easy to find on the website, and arrived very promptly.

But why did it ship in this enormous box? There’s nothing fragile. (It’s a beanie). It’s awfully tiny. (Again– beanie). Yet it sits I’m the bottom of 480 cubic inches of shipping capacity.

Maybe it’s not a big deal- the box doesn’t weigh much so it couldn’t have added much fuel consumption to the trip. But wouldn’t a padded envelope consume a smaller percentage of a tree?

Tags: Environment, Logistics, Online Retail, Packaging, Shipping, Waste