Did you know that when you sign up for a Google service or account, their personalized search option is automatically turned on?  What is does is it keeps a history of your search queries in order better tailor future search results.  Their goal is to give you exactly what you want when you search for it.

If you step back a second, what Google really is becoming is one big online CRM (customer relationship managment software).  You, the customer, want to find out information.  Google’s product (its search results) is providing you with that information.  By keeping tabs on search history, Google is acting as a good sales rep who enters in all of his/her notes, correspondence, and sales about its clients.  By storing all this information, Google now has data to make better informed decisions and also enables them to create a product which truly meets the needs of its customers.  This data helps them manage their customers’ wants and the relationships it has with its customers.

I spent the weekend on an outdoor camping trip up at Sequoia National Park.  When I checked-in to the campsite, I noticed one thing that they were doing really well.  They made it absolutely clear what their stance was in regards to bears.  Bears should behave themselves and so should the humans.  Bears and other wildlife would remain friendly and go about their business in the woods and our job as humans was to lock up all food and scent-bearing products within our designated Bear locker at all times.  If we each did our part correctly, there should be no issues during the trip.

Their messaging was quite effective because they were consistent.  Like good marketers, they had the same message on all promotional items (handouts, flyers, signage, etc.) and all of their employees knew and believed in the message they were telling their customers (campers).  The message was successful because it was direct, to the point, and created word-of-mouth buzz among the campers. 

There was recently an article about a study which concluded that obesity is contagious.  If you had obese friends, you yourself had a greater chance of being obese.  The opposite was also true — if you had very fit friends, you would be more likely to be fit yourself. 

This makes sense as behavior is learned and is definitely influenced by your environment.  These conclusions can also be translated to other areas.  Look at celebrities who are in the news today — Michael Vick had a higher chance of getting into his current legal troubles due to the company he kept; Lindsay Lohan is wrapped up in drinking and drug issues because of the party culture she hangs out in. 

This is why word of mouth and viral marketing works.  The things you do and products you buy are definitely influenced by your friends and the environment you live in.  Monkey see, monkey do. 

My local supermaket, Vons, recently got a facelift.  They changed the aisles, brought in new fixtures, and made the store look new again.  While these physical changes were nice, it was the attitude changes of the employees which made the greatest impact.  Everywhere throughout the store, each employee said hello and asked if you needed help.  They all smiled and genuinely seemed to care.  It actually made a positive impact on my day.  It’s amazing how an easy, simple act can impact customers and their experiences. 

As more people spent time watching video clips on YouTube instead of TV, can the inclusion of commericals be far behind?

On the web today, you see advertising everywhere – on personal webpages, news sites, search pages, blogs, email, etc.  The next step is clearly video.  Someone will commercialize a way to easily insert advertising into user generated video.  Whether it be before, during, or after, commericals will start appear on these videos. 

This new pay-per-view model will finally reward viral video creators.  Why shouldn’t the fat kid making funny noises benefit from our amusement?