Web Strategy Blog

Online Market World

Next week the Crimson Interactive group will be out in full force at Online Market World in San Francisco. I will be moderating the opening general session on the Future of E-Commerce and participating in a panel on Social Media Best Practices. My colleagues Rich Julius will be in a panel on Understanding the Business Customer and Esther Lim will be participating in a panel on Turning Customers in to Brand Advocates. If you wil be at the conference - please let us know, we would love to meet with you!

7-Eleven Marketing Brilliance - Kwik-E-Mart!

One of my friends excitedly told me about the new "Simpsons-inspired" Kwik-E-Mart stores that 7-Eleven is opening that I think are a stroke of marketing genius! You can go and see one for yourself in Mountain View. Everything from the branding to the messaging is fun and feels Simpsons-authentic...proving that even convenience stores don't have to be boring - I love it!

   

The Retail Experience - I love browsing!

I finally had a chance to view Steve Ballmer of Microsoft's video of retail of the future from the NRF. It shows a woman managing her shopping list through her cell phone and using that to navigate through the aisles in an efficient way. It made me laugh because I actually know someone that has most of the aisles mapped out at the local grocery store to a shopping list. I have made fun of his obsessiveness of mastering the granular details of store layout, and this video validates his process! I'm not sure that this would be very appealing for a lot of people (including a lot of women I know) who actually like - oh dare I say - prefer to browse! I guess it depends on your perspective of the retail experience, I find shopping fun and entertaining. Others find shopping a chore that needs to be made as efficient as possible.