Lawrence Gee | Marketing, Internet, Creativity, Strategy

Wal-Mart Announces Price Cuts

The Fed had another rate cut this morning.  Will Wal-Mart do the same?  Last week, Wal-Mart annouced that it was cutting grocery prices some 10-30% in order to help consumers get excited about shopping again.  Just in time for the Superbowl, this smells alot like good ‘ol fashion marketing and promotions.  Known for Everyday Low Prices, Wal-Mart continues to build on its brand image as a low cost leader for the typical American family.  It also gets alot of free press by playing off of the Fed Rate Cuts.  Free, positive news when recession looks loomingly close is great, but will it bring the shoppers out?  I’m not sure if I would make an extra trip out to Wal-Mart but when I’m buying chips and sodas for the NY Giants victory  (ahem, cough, cough) this weekend, it’s definitly top of mind….and that’s exactly what Wal-Mart wants. 

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Social Search Results

I came across this post in Danny Sullivan post in Search Engine Land today.  It points out that Yahoo! is testing out Del.icio.us (Social bookmarking site) data being integrated into search engine results.  Basically for search results it will list how many people have bookmarked the site and the tags associated with it. 

The posting points out that Yahoo! will not factor in Del.icio.us data into it’s page rank calculations (as of now).  You have to imagine that if people believe that pages are more valuable a la bookmarking then one could argue that it should be factored in to page rank.  It’ll be interesting to see how much more integration there might be with Del.icio.us or other bookmarking sites in the future.  Google already has a “note this” link which can bookmark specific results into your own notebook.  I can imagine Yahoo! allowing the ability to bookmark directly to Del.icio.us, the ability add tags to page results, or the ability to select specific results to share with other people. 

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2007’s Dumbest Moments in Biz

January is the month of review and predictions for the upcoming year.  I came across this list of 2007’s 101 Dumbest Moments in Business by the Editors of Fortune Magazine.  Some were on the target, some were funny, others were moments that I missed.  Here are some of the highlights:

#5 - Stanley O’Neal - Now that’s a compensation package. 

#13 - Disneyland - They have to fix “It’s a Small World”’s because Americans weigh too much….the boats sink! 

#17 - Cocaine Energy Drink - Did they really think this was going to work?

#20 - O.J. Simpson - There’s no glove this time around….

#26 - Isiah Thomas - So is the dumb moment his sexual harassment lawsuit?  the fact they didn’t settle and lost? or the fact that he is still the Coach of the Knicks?

#47 - John Mackey - WildOatsHater would have been a better screen name.

#84 - Southwest Airlines - Kicking people off for dressing too provocatively?  Have these people been to college campus’ lately?

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Time on Site

Web analytics is definitely an important part of Internet Marketing.  Having tangible data to see trends, set goals, and measure impact of changes is vital to success.  It can lend to much insight into what does and doesn’t work and can shift your overall thinking and strategy. 

Vitally important is knowing what each specific metric means and how it gets calculated.  One metric that I look at on a regular basis is  Time on Page and Time on Site.  They measure how long a visitor is engaged on your site.  The convential thinking is the more time that is spent on a specific page or site as a whole, the better.  I came across a great summary by Avinash Kausisk, a Google Analytics Evangelist that really explains how Time on Page and Time on Site are calculated.  It’s a little bit different that I had originally thought and he dives deep into how opening links in tabs can affect the calculations.  Interesting stuff.

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Are You an MBE?

What’s an MBE?  Apparently its a Multilayer Business Executive according to blogger Maria Popova.  I googled the term and nothing really comes up so it remains to be seen if this term can stick or not.   So what exactly is an MBE and could you be labeled as one?

According to Maria, MBEs are…

“a new-age version of the types who have been running the parade since the beginning of business time. They’re not the old-school conventional “suits.” Many don’t even go to work in suits, if there’s anywhere to “go” in the first place—nursed on new media and technology, this set is comfortable with telecommuting, Web- and videoconferencing, livecasting and all the rest of those new tools that let them control both their time and their business.”

Here’s a simple checklist to see if you qualify:

1. Not in a suit 24/7 - Yep, that’s me.
2. Comfortable and immersed in new technology - Absolutely.
3. Worldly intellectual and a culture-crossers - I’ve been to Asia and Europe.  Mexico, Canada, and the rest of the US sort of counts.  I’ll do a partial nod and a full nod once I eventually make it to Australia and Africa.
4. Have an MBA - Getting one…so check.
5. Quote Christopher Guest movies rather than Peter Drucker books - Well, I have seen Best in Show…
6. Crave luxury and good design, but also socially and enivronmentally conscious  - Wonder why Pinkberry’s and Prius’ do so well? 
7. Excelled at higher education, but they’re uniquely attuned to pop culture - Face me in Trivial Pursuit, I dare you.
8. Have successful business careers, but are also harvesting entrepreneurial ideas or actual projects on the side - Check and check.
9. Have money to spend - Not yet, but hopefully.
10. Great bloggers with something to say - You can be the judge of that.
    

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