Starbucks Gift Card App
I came across this article about the expected evolution of mobile payments over the next couple of years. While the technology exists for what can be considered a universal solution for closing a sale using a customers’ mobile device, execution has been painfully slow.
The problem? It is not just the fight over who will own the technology that goes into mobile devices, it is also the over the reader at the Point of Sale (POS). NFC manufactures align themselves with mobile manufactures in hopes that they will get a piece of the payment-processing pie. NFC readers expect to get their piece of the pie. The more parties involved in payment processing, the less profit for the retailer. Additionally, the lack of a defined architecture continues to slow the process.
In the meantime, alternatives to NFC are already in use. I believe that the article missed out on what Starbucks has been doing – and the impact they are already making on the consumer. While manufacturers are tripping over each-other to gain the dominant position on an already aging technology, Starbucks; One of – if not the most innovative retailers has gone with an entirely different approach by utilizing mobile apps. While mobile processing is believed to use a NFC chip, their app uses a QR code (Quick Response code) that is presented on the mobile device’s screen and is read by a scanner at the POS. This solution bypasses the need of an NFC manufactured phone.
While early adapters of any mobile payment system would surely reap the benefits of incremental sales and repeat visits due to the newness and novelty of the concept, one must keep in mind the long-term challenges that retailers and the technology manufactures will encounter. Once the hype and novelty wears off, this will have about the same emotional benefit to the customer as using their credit/debit cards. This is where retailers who agreed to over-the-top processing fees feel the pain. They might pull the plug on the program. The “wow factor” is lost. The customer will grow tired of interrupting their phone calls to make a payment. ROI disappears.
Prior to adapting any solution, retailers and processors need to address the long-standing costumer’s stance of “WIFM” (What’s In it For Me?) – After all, this is what everything boils down to. Retailers and payment processors will not only need to consider the ability to process payments using a mobile device, but the ability to offer additional rewards, loyalty programs and perks will be critical to sustain the program. Processors will need to have an offering to the retailer; Retailers will need to have an offering for the consumer.
Again, I mention Starbucks. They have already worked a points system into their program. They have already addressed the need for mobile payment processing, and “WIFM”. While it is not a credit card processing solution, I believe that they have already set the stage for what the their costumers expect to see from other retailers. It raises the question, “How new will mobile payment processing be when it becomes a universal method of payment?”
How Mobile Payments Will Evolve In the Next Several Years
Steve Jobs, Era of Innovation 1955-2011
Where to begin? As I find it difficult to think of a way to communicate the mark that Apple Founder Steve Jobs leaves on the world of Innovation and Entrepreneurial-ism, I begin to look for words that describe the legacy that he has left behind.
The word “Era” is defined as; “A long and distinct period of history with a particular feature or characteristic.”; “a period of time marked by distinctive character, events, etc.”. Business owners, entrepreneurs, and innovators have long looked to Jobs to gain inspiration as we head down the often high-risk path of ambiguity. We know that he understands the wins, the losses, and blatant sense of rejection that one receives when attempting to break the barriers of what is safe; the “me too’s”; the mediocre; and introduce something that is totally new.
It has been through his success that we are encouraged to push on in adversity and continue down the path of what we believe in. To invent. To innovate.
In his lifetime he has accelerated the momentum with advances in how we interact with the world around us through technology and devices – from home computers to iPods, iPhones, iPads and iEverything. That is why we can call him, “Steve Jobs - an Era of Innovation”.
8 Innovation Secrets From Steve Jobs
The attached article is about “consumer priming” and how the presentation of specific products and colors prime the consumer to spend more than they originally intended to in the store. Priming the consumer is a communication technique used to deliver communications to the customer on a subconscious level. Whole Foods is discussed at length here, opening with their use of flowers and other “symbolics” to subconsciously communicate the freshness of their product selection. Prices written in chalk on black slate communicate fresh delivery and suggest daily price changes.
While working in product development, we needed to take the whole product set into consideration when considering artwork for new items. This is where priming the consumer is exercised on a product. Product that featured photography from an angle of what the customer would see while they consumed it (1st person) gained more interest than product that featured the product next to a bouquet of flowers (putting the costumer at a distance – separation).
Interestingly enough, the article contrasts this approach with a store that greets the customer with “stacks of canned tuna and plastic flowers” (packaged goods) – something that many retailers do. Even though there may be signs that make the declaration of, “Guaranteed Fresh” or display signs that communicate some other message, it is important to back up the message in another way. We are human after all, and when we communicate with each-other there are subconscious messages that occur along with the spoken word.
Article: How Whole Foods “Primes” You to Shop
How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day
One of the most influential books that has been applied to my personal and professional life is Michael Gelb’s, How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci. Within this books’ pages is a single paragraph that has changed how I manage my professional and personal life. It starts by a very basic question, “What if…?”. That’s it… Just two single-syllable words that can spark creativity and innovative thinking – Leading to money making game-changing ideas.
“Most business innovations are inspired by the question, What if…? …Consider any product or service that you might offer and ask what if I: shrunk it; enlarged it; made it lighter; made it heavier; changed its shape; reversed it; tightened it; loosened it; added something; subtracted something; interchanged parts; stayed open twenty-four hours; guaranteed it; changed its name; made it recyclable; stronger; weaker; softer; harder; portable; immovable; double the price; or paid customers to take it? The happiest people in the world ask, “What if I could find some way to get paid for doing what I love?”"
Apply this paragraph and see how things can be done differently. Allow the question to create and drive new strategies personally and professionally. The current environment is more accepting of change than ever before and the ability to think outside the box is embraced more than ever. Without it, companies will have difficulty surviving!
Okay, so a little more about the book… How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci is comprised of “da Vincian” principles:
Curiosità – An insatiable quest for knowledge and continuous improvement
Dimostrazione – Learning from experience
Sensazione – Sharpening the senses
Sfumato – Managing ambiguity and change
Arte/Scienza – Whole-brain thinking
Corporalità – Body-mind fitness
Connessione – Systems thinking
The book shows how each of these principles are applied to life. I had a paperback copy and loaned it out at one point – never to be recovered again. A copy now sits in my iPad via the Kindle app never to be loaned out again! Hmmm… What if Amazon made it where we could “lend” electronic books to friends?
Great Article on Market Basket analysis from the Fact Point Group….
Born from the days of white or yellow boxes and cans marked with bold text that clearly identified their contents, the Private Label industry has evolved from the “tight-budget alternative” into a powerful marketing tool leveraged by many channels of retail.
A retailer or small business that has an assortment of private label products can enjoy benefits that range from increased margins (about 10% when compared to National Brands), to creating a unique shopping experience – encouraging repeat business. Instead of offering only one alternative to the national brand, retailers especially grocers, will present their customers with several alternative brands to play in each tier of product within a given product category. These tiers can be classified as; Value, Mainstream, and Premium and often times each has targeted strategies in pricing and target margins. Retailers can extend the tiers even further, targeting various price points in categories where customers can be highly price-sensitive or to up-sell the customer to another product.
Value: Caters to the needs of the competitive-priced shopper. This consumer shops value for a variety of reasons; ranging from personal choice, use of product (buying for a big party or event vs. family), economy, etc.
Mainstream: Alternative to the National Brand or National Brand Equivalent. These products are placed in the product mix close to the national brand items that they are competing with and offer little to no added benefit to its targeted national brand other than a more competitive price. Targeted flavor profile is an exact match: Cheerios, Canned Chicken Noodle Soup, Oatmeal, etc. The consumer will often sees a communication that states, “compare to leading brand” on the label of these products.
Premium: The top-tier of private label, this line might be in direct competition with Premium National Brands or can stand alone for themselves. Unique flavor profiles and combinations set theses apart from anything else on the shelf. This product assortment is for the non-price sensitive customer and can offer indulgent products that cater to the “foodie” consumer.
As straight-forward as the above tiers are, retailers with more aggressive private-label programs can blur line between these categories. Innovation in packaging, functional ingredients, and flavor give retailers more flexibility when defining their programs creating hybrid tiers or new brands. For example: Innovation in ingredients (organics) has wide-spread consumer acceptance.
A retailer can offer two alternatives to Cheerios; a National Brand Equivalent (mainstream) and an organic alternative. The National Brand Equivalent could be offered at a highly discounted amount while the organic alternative can match the price of the National Brand or could be slightly higher. Debates could begin to unfold as to the identity of this innovative product in relation to its tier. The thing to keep in mind is the bottom line and how these products will make an impact.
Ray Barley is a Principal Architect at RDA Corporation (http://www.rdacorp.com) and has written a great article on how to: Build Integrated SQL Server Business Intelligence Solutions with Microsoft Office.
The opening diagram is a great example of Personal, Team, and Orgainizational BI and the tools used for each:
The BI components of MS Office
Business Intelligence is more than the presence of a reporting application within your organization: it is a process – and the reporting application is a tool to foster that process.
In the midst of emerging reporting technologies, Business Intelligence has taken a shift. Reporting tools such as MicroStrategy, Hyperian, SSRS, Business Objects, and many others have taken the spotlight over the Business Intelligence life cycle. Companies have become increasingly guilty of implementing these tools and proclaiming “we have Business Intelligence”!
In addition to these reporting tools and their erosion of the B.I. process, injecting new discoveries in the B.I. life-cycle is difficult to implement because of overworked IT departments who are fighting to keep the everyday needs of the business afloat. New discoveries are often supported outside of the original reporting solution in Excel Spreadsheets and MS Access Databases – information and process that should have been moved into the listed reporting tools above, but who has the time?
Regardless of these tools and the amazing dashboards that they feature (along with their capabilities), they are still to be considered the technique that supports analytics in decision making as well as monitor the success of management initiatives and decisions in the development of the Business Intelligence (BI) life-cycle.
This section is going to build on BI and it’s application across an organization.