The Perils of Customer Involvement

Malibu Caribbean Rum recently sponsored a contest from its user-generated advertising site. They offered either a prize of $25,000 or a personal banana grove in a tropical location to the contestant who submitted the best original advertisement for the product.

According to The New York Times article "Outcome of an Ad Contest Starts an Uproar on YouTube", Malibu encouraged participation from You-Tube users and said they would consider their votes when making the final decision.

But when a winner was announced even before the final contestants were posted, many YouTube users became upset. Message boards were filled with complaints, and one user even created a short conspiracy theory video about the situation.

The uproar shows how user-generated promotions can backfire with some consumers.

Beware of the risks associated with customer involvement. You must not only be trustworthy, but transparent when building a stronger business.

The SAT Has Never Been Cooler

Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions have merged with iTunes to provide students with SAT study programs they can download to their iPods. Critical reading, mathematics and writing programs are all available for $4.99 in the games section of iTunes.

According to The New York Times article, "Prepare for the SAT Test, or Play with Your iPod? Have it Both Ways", SAT directors are understanding the need to accommodate to the changing learning styles of today's youth.

Since students use their iPods almost everywhere they go, it made sense to merge with iTunes to make studying more fun and accessible. Kaplan has even created a myspace page (www.myspace.com/kaplan) and a series of graphic novels.

While the downloads may be helpful, Kaplan director Kristen Campbell recommends only using them as a supplemental product, since the SAT is still a pencil-and-paper based test.

When you're building a stronger business, go to the places where your target audience is already paying attention.

Wired and Xerox Update Their Images

The first 5,000 Wired Magazine subscribers to upload their photos to Wired.com, received a July issue with their face on the cover. The editorial theme for the issue was the growth of online personalization. The New York Times article, "You, Too, Can Grace a National Magazine's Cover", discusses Wired magazine's partnership with Xerox to personalize their cover. While they did not make any money from the promotion, it also didn't cost much. The main goal for both Wired and Xerox was to update their images. By partnering with the edgier Wired, Xerox hopes to discard its stereotypical image as a single copy machine and showcase itself as an innovator and technology leader. With its young and forward-thinking audience, Wired believes their promotion will be successful. They have also printed personalized copies for television celebrities who could mention it on their shows. Build a stronger business and keep your image fresh in the minds of your target audience. Wired and Xerox did to a good effect for a modest investment.

The Truth About Hydrogen Peroxide

The effectiveness of hydrogen peroxide as a treatment for small cuts and wounds is discussed in The New York Times article by Anahad O'Connor. According to research, hydrogen peroxide does not prevent the growth of bacteria in wounds and can actually increase the amount of time it takes for a wound to heal. In a study conducted in the late 1980s, wounds treated with the antibiotic bacitracin healed much faster. The American Medical Association claims the only benefit of hydrogen peroxide is its ability to remove dirt, debris and dead tissue in some wounds. Many myths die hard, but you've got to learn to let go and move on when you're building a stronger business.

More Ad Placements for Widget Creating Web Sites

Widgets, or applications that consumers can use to produce videos, photo slideshows and music playlists, are posted on sites such as MySpace and Facebook and attract millions of viewers. According to The Wall Street Journal article, “Widgets May Snag More Ads”, the companies creating the widgets, such as Slide Inc. and RockYou Inc. are not generating much revenue from their own content. Instead, the majority of their income comes from selling ads on their own sites because MySpace does not allow it and Facebook only allows the ads to run in certain places, which do not include personal profile pages. Recently, some social-networking companies like Bebo Inc., have started to include ads with widgets on its profile pages, which should increase revenue for Widget creating sites. Links to widget sites: Slide www.slide.com RockYou www.rockyou.com PictureTrail www.picturetrail.com Photobucket http://photobucket.com BunnyHero labs www.bunnyherolabs.com BlingyBlob www.blingyblob.com POQbum www.poqbum.com Brightcove www.brightcove.com Layoutstar www.layoutstar.com Musicplaylistus www.projectplaylist.com

Decreasing PC Power Usage Saves Billions

According to The Wall Street Journal article, “Computer Power Waste Targeted”, PCs waste half the power they consume and account for 2% of world-wide energy usage. Meeting an annual target led by Google Inc. and Intel Corp. to reduce energy consumption, could save more than $5.5 billion in annual energy costs and decrease 54 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions. The initial guidelines set by the EPA’s Energy Star program, raise PC efficiencies from an estimated 65% to 80%. The new initiatives seek to raise efficiency to 90% by 2010. The plan also involves getting companies to use power-management software on their PCs that would put inactive desktop computers into sleep mode to save energy. While the cost for energy-saving software would add $20 to $30 more on a PC and server, it could save the user $10 from $40 on an annual electric bill. When you take steps to protect your environment you build a stronger business.

To Infinity and Beyond! Email services compete to provide unlimited storage.

Since email brings users into contact with all the services and products Web companies provide it has a key role in their business strategies. Yahoo, Google and Microsoft have all created their emails according to their company needs.

In The Wall Street Journal article, “Web –Based Services Give Email Users a Taste of the Infinite” Lee Gomes acknowledges Yahoo’s plans to give “free unlimited storage” as a stretch. Yahoo believes most users will never be able to reach the actual limit and want to finally shatter the public's idea that Gmail provides the most storage.


The battle for perception is a very costly one to fight, but necessary sometimes when you want to build a stronger business.