Monthly Archives: March 2004

Criminal Marketing

Posted on by
Reply

So, you hear about this iPod muggings story coming out of the UK? In short: a local police agency was quoted as saying that folks wearing the distinctive white-wired iPod earphones were being targeted by muggers. Apple’s alleged response was, essentially, some folks would rather be mugged than not look cool. Hilarity ensued.

Been encircling the blogwaves for a couple of days now. But it looks like it may be a hoax. Huh.

A cynical person might say that story was fabricated by Apple’s marketeers to generate some buzz, hype and street-cred. Like, if you catch some guy walking around at night with the white headphones, you think he must be a bad ass ’cause he either a) ain’t afraid-a no mugger or b) he just mugged someone for an iPod. Sort of like the whole kids getting killed for their Air Jordans thing about a decade back. Didn’t hurt Nike any. Heck, sort of made ‘em cooler.

So while it’s valid to ask the question of whether this is Apple’s handiwork, I think not. Who knows where the story came from or, for that matter, whether it’s even anecdotally true (I mean, c’mon, if you walk down a dark alley frequented by thieves at night wearing a Rolex and playing with your top-of-the-line tech toy, you should expect to get jumped). I get the feeling Apple has nothing to do with it.

But, if it is a hoax, we sure haven’t seen Apple jump out to declare it so. Sometimes a little free marketing is the best marketing.

Should Have Studied Harder

Posted on by
Reply

Most folks know that I entered the University of California at Berkeley with the intent of becoming a mechanical engineer. I had two significant problems that eventually led to my dropping out of the College of Engineering and, ultimately, pursuing a degree in “Journalism” (actually American Studies, but since we had no undergrad journalism degree, and Mass Comm seemed lame, I made one up and took a bunch of grad-level journalism classes). The first was the lack of practical application of the knowledge learned in the classroom. It’s all fine and well to perform a titration or derive a function, but without seeing the why it’s completely useless to me. I have little patience for such useless knowledge, so I didn’t spend as much time studying it or paying attention in class. The second reason was simply my narrow mind having a hard time balancing classroom education with the life education I was getting from being away from my parents and out on “my own” for the first time. College is a nice transitional period between living with one’s parents and dealing with the real world, and I was far more interested in the education I was getting outside of class than in it.

But here it is just six years later and some of the cutting-edge things I saw as an engineer are finally hitting the light of day. For instance, I’ve been hearing a lot about this “Aerogel” stuff that was developed a while back but is now seeing some real applications. When I was an ME student, I took the standard class on materials. They took us into the materials lab one day and took out a small 1×1 inch share piece of… stuff. They told us it was almost as light and dense as air and about as expensive to make as a Ferrari. Then they proceeded to pass it around, prodding us to be delicate with it.

When they dropped it into my hand, I could barely feel it, it was so amazingly light. It sort of feels like Styrofoam when you rub your nail against it. And, man, is it brittle — I accidentally broke of a very small chunk in the process of playing with it. At the time, they were still working on practical applications of the stuff. Certainly, an almost light-as-air material would be immensely useful in various industries, particularly aerospace, but it was so damn brittle that it had no structural use. Now they use it to trap space dust and the like without adding any significant weight to the spacecraft. Very, very nifty.

The tech world was also recently abuzz about a robotic exoskeleton being produced at UC Berkeley. What’s kind of cool about this to me is that I actually helped work on that thing to a very teeny, tiny degree way back when I was just a freshman. During engineering orientation, I got to tour the mechanical engineering labs at Etcheverry Hall. One of the labs we toured was Homayoon Kazerooni’s lab. He was interested in designing machines that enhanced human abilities. There’s a special name for the field that escapes my mind at the moment.

I was blown away by what I saw. When I dreamed of engineering school, I dreamed of cool, futuristic things like robotics and computer-generated images and all the normal whiz-bang scifi stuff. His lab was the only one I had seen that had all that in spades. I had read somewhere that the best way to get involved in an engineering project was to just walk in, find the professor in charge and ask if there was an opening. A couple of weeks after the tour, I did just that.

Prof. Kazerooni was a very cool guy. He knew I had zero knowledge – hell, I was just a freshman – but also saw that I had a strong desire to do cool things. So he gave me a volunteer position as the “Lab Manager”. As Lab Manager, it was my task to make sure everything was clean and organized so that the grad students could easily find what they needed and not have to work in a messy lab. That’s right: he made me a glorified janitor. I knew it right from the start and was a tad crestfallen at first, but then I realized that, hey, we all have to start somewhere and both he and the grad students were truly cool folks who were often more than happy to show me how certain things worked and such.

One of the cool things they had was large hydraulic robotic arm. It had tons of thick tubes connecting it to some spot in the wall that, I assume, was where the hydraulic pump was located. One of the grads told me to be especially careful when working around it as severing one of the tubes could send out water under enough pressure to pierce skin.

One day as I was organizing the taps in that lab, one of the grads tried to log into the computer controlling the arm. For some reason, the computer kept asking for all of the necessary BIOD information every time it was rebooted — what hard drives are installed, what type of video card, etc. (this was before plug-and-play was common, so everything had to be entered by hand). Usually, you’d do this the first time you install the machine then never have to deal with it again. As I listened to him swear and complain, I casually turned around and said, “You need to replace the BIOS battery – it’s dead.” The computer – a Gateway – used a rechargeable 9-volt battery to maintain BIOS state between boots. The battery had apparently run out of juice, probably because it had been a long while since anyone had turned on the computer. I recommended they keep the computer on over night and the problem would be fixed. Failing that, they’d have to buy a new 9-volt rechargeable and pop it in.

Sure enough, that fixed the problem. Prof. Kazerooni, hearing about all this, immediately promoted me to computer guy. He wanted me to sit down with the grad students to learn everything I could about the arm so that I could learn to program it. He also wanted me to learn C. I was elated. I spent some time debugging some of the code the grads had already written, learned how to solder circuits and some other general, basic stuff. It was amazing.

Unfortunately, my grades were slipping and it was looking more and more like the whole ME thing just wasn’t going to work out for me. Eventually, I just stopped going to the lab altogether as I tried to get my academic act in order. When I was asked to leave the college, I was stunned and heartbroken. Eventually, everything worked out and, here I am, being the computer geek I always was and making a decent penny at it.

At the time, all that stuff was cool, but I couldn’t really see where it would all go. Now, every time I hear about something like Aerogel, nanotechnology or robotic suits and how very cutting edge it all is, I think back to the fact that all this was happening at Cal when I was a freshman and sophomore. It must have been absolute bleeding edge then. I never really realized that I was standing next to the forefront of technology. Well, at least I have my stories to tell.

Bracing Light of Day at the AAC

Posted on by
Reply

Wow. The SF Chron has a *fascinating* little tale about happenings at the AAC. I don’t think anyone outside the college would have much interest in the going-on internally, but certainly the folks who pay good money to go there ($14k/semester, according to the article) would like to better understand the political machinations and poorly-educated decisions that determine their academic future. Most telling paragraph (buried in the article; emphasis mine):

Alan Kaufman, author of “Jew Boy” and editor of “The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry,” teaches modern art and popular culture at the school and has taught sections of Narrative Storytelling. “The (school’s) system is based on corporate greed,” he said. “It doesn’t even give the bare minimum to students in terms of psychiatric counseling or social services. It just treats kids like credit cards, like clients, basically. There is no artistic vision.“

Wow. Right on target. So very, very, very glad to be out of there. Academy of Art University indeed… what lame accreditation agency would deem an *art* college – that is, a college that teaches nothing but “art” – a university.?

Oh yeah… one whose interests in academia were greatly overshadowed by their inconceivable greed for money. Not unlike the AAC.

From RSS to Smart Personalization

Posted on by
Reply

Doing the marketing thing here for almost a month now, I’m starting to get a hang of some of the stuff that makes companies and websites successful and attracts more eyeballs. So I may start playing around with some of these ideas on this here site. If you’re reading this, you somehow slipped past my first abortive attempt at trying to become a more useful site. I still plan on doing a weekly article out there, but I’m waiting for the move to complete and to get some other stuff off my plate.

In the meantime, I’ve discovered Blog Lines which, despite its name, is really just a web-based RSS aggregator. I heart the concept of RSS (and, hey, I even have an RSS feed myself) but it’s always been a bit hairy. There are, like, two billion aggregators out there and none of them seem to suit all of my needs. The best client-based aggregator I’ve found so far is NewsGator, which is so great because it integrates with Outlook. I genuinely believe that Microsoft and the other email folks out there (you listening, Mozilla?) should make integrating RSS into their products a high priority for their next releases. Doing so would boost the technologies adoption rate to the point where it truly will be the “next big thing” that the tech media has made it out to be (well, that and finally coming up with a well-accepted standard — Atom, RSS and RSS 2.0 need to get their collective shit together). Until this happens, it will remain as nothing more than a hobby for geeks.

My only problem with NewsGator is that it costs money. I don’t pay for a browser. I don’t pay for an email program. Regardless of recent capitalistic tendencies, the culture of free is alive and well on the Internet. So paying a third party to read someone else’s RSS feed, knowing the author of the feed won’t get a cent, does nothing for me. Thank God for Blog Lines.

Blog Lines has truly shown me the power of RSS. I used to read about seven sites a day and feel like I only got half the news happening out there, and even that seemed stale by the time I read it. With Blog Lines, I’m up to about 60 sites a day and not only feel like I’m missing nothing but also get the news as it happens. In addition, I get to figure out just how important the news I’m reading is perceived by seeing for myself in real time how many different sites are reporting it and how it’s spreading. Take Rumsfeld’s latest lie for example. I first heard about it yesterday on, I think, Instapundit. Not too long after that, I caught it at various personal blogs and then, finally, at Boing Boing. Granted, this is primarily a liberals-only meme, but I do expect to see it show up in a major mainstream news outlet within the next couple of days.

Granted, my Blog Lines subscriptions tend toward the techie side, but that’s what I care about. More than any portal or single news site, I think sites like Blog Lines are the future of news – totally customizable, portable, quickly digestible and published as the news happens. Folks have been talking about this future pretty much since the web first went live to the public, which is to say for the past decade. Sad that it’s taken this long, and it’s STILL not ready for public consumption. Blog Lines is a GREAT service and is well on its way, but it’s still not quite ready for prime time. Here’s hopin’ it gets there soon.

One of the things that came up in my feeds list yesterday was a story linked from an e-marketing site called PsychoTactics. Unfortunately, I forget which article it was that initially attracted me to the site as I ended up reading most of the articles I found there. I like the writing style and the info and, in my new job, all of the cool psychological marketing stuff is going to come in handy. So I subscribed to their newsletter. The confirmation email astounded me:

Hi Rob

Welcome to your first Psychotactics newsletter.
It’s way before dawn here in Auckland. I hope you’re enjoying great weather in your city Walnut Creek

Thanks so much for subscribing to ‘Psychotactics’
Each newsletter you receive is comprehensive (often
7-8 pages long), no-nonsense and really gets your grey cells dancing. And that’s why you get just one a month! I know you’d rather get the whole story than just half baked information.

And yes, there are hidden articles on the site.
When you stay a subscriber, you get the direct link to these articles. They are not linked from the home page, so it makes sense to make sure you get the newsletter each month.

————————-
Voila! Here’s your little bonus. This is a gem of a book. I’ve personally read it about 30 times, and it still brings new insights. And it’s over a hundred years old.

http://www.psychotactics.com/scientific.htm

To read the latest article

http://www.psychotactics.com/artzap.htm

Welcome again. It’s wonderful to have you on board the PsychoTactics rollercoaster :)

Warm Regards from Auckland,

Sean
P.S.Rob, I’m curious. Did you have a look through the site before subscribing or was it the free book that caught your attention? I’d really appreciate, if you could tell me.

P.P.S. Would you like to use any of the articles in your online/ offline newsletter or on your website or send it to your readers?
PsychoTactics will give you reprint rights provided you let me know the exact details. Email me directly at sean@psychotactics.com.
If you belong to a forum or a message board, don’t forget to tell others about Psychotactics as a handy marketing resource.

What astounded me was the level of personalization I received. The truth of the matter is that there’s a 99.9% chance this is a form-email created using the data I provided. They asked what city I was in, my first and last name, etc. and then plugged them into the appropriate spots. But, unlike most form letters, this one spoke directly to me. Look at the first graf, for instance. They could have launched right into their pitch, but instead chose to do a little chatting. This is sort of like the beginning of a sales meeting when the parties involved do a little friendly ice-breaking chit chat. I’ve never seen this done in a marketing email before, and I find it extremely effective. The email also did what some of the greatest salespeople in the world excel at – it made me feel important. Just check out this sentence: “Welcome again. It’s wonderful to have you on board the PsychoTactics rollercoaster :) ” Hell, that’s a better welcome than I got at my last job!

The first P.S. is also effective. Had they left my name out of it, I wouldn’t think twice. But it starts, “P.S.Rob.” I’ve been trained by many company mass emails to always look for my name in the body as some vital task will more than likely be buried there. I know you’ve done it to when you’ve asked yourself why you’ve been included on some company mailing list. That’s usually what differentiates a personal email from just another company FYI or, worse, Spam. Plus, we’re self-centered by our very nature, so seeing our name always gets our attention, just like saying a dog’s name within his earshot perks him up.

Very, very impressive. I think if more marketers tried the tactics shown here, their emails would be far more effective. It’s so easy to accomplish using an existing, verified mailing list (like an opt-in newsletter list) and requires little effort to implement. But, man, what a difference it makes. Goodonya, mates!

One last thing: if you’re interested in seeing what’s on my Blog Lines radar, check out my public list, which contains every site I’m reading on a daily basis. For the most part, I just skim the headlines and only click on the news that looks interesting. Which, of course, is the whole purpose of RSS. Now if only Psychotactics had an RSS feed…

LIFE IS GOOD!!!

Posted on by
Reply

I’m about two weeks past my annual “State of the Rob” address, but I’ll get to it. And those of you who have sent me email and haven’t heard a damn thing from me, I apologize. Got a lot going on right now and all of it is tres magnifique. Here’s a quick roundup:

  • NEW JOB!!!!! – Yes, no more listening to me bitch about that dark hole of depression known as The Academy of Art College. I now work for the tremendously wonderful, and appallingly tiny, Robert Anthony Strategic Marketing and Design as a <GASP> Internet Marketer. No, I don’t do spam, just friendly opt-in informational emails and client web sites. I’m in week three and I friggin’ love it. Slightly better pay, WAY more responsibility (I am *the* computer guy) and a terrific bunch of co-workers. Love it, love it, love it.
  • STILL MARRIED!!! – I’m not sure I’d call it marital bliss per se, but I’m definitely more in love every day. And, with the gigantic weight of the AAC off my shoulders, I’m realizing more and more what I’ve neglected. So here’s to me trying to work harder on my relationship with my beloved. She’s a hottie.
  • WE’RE MOVING!!! – Now that I have a new job, which is only about three blocks away from Dani’s job, we decided a move was in order. We got an apartment in Walnut Creek, just North East of Berkeley. It’s sort of like Orange County, but with liberals. The apartment is kinda cute, complete with a WASHER/DRYER (this is HUGE) and located about 1.3 miles from work as the Mapquest flies. This means I get to bike to work (YAY!) and not spend 45-minutes commuting each way each day. I don’t know what I’ll do with the extra time.

So, given all this, I think you can get a feeling for why I’ve been silent. But, hey, drop me a line anyway and I do swear I’ll get back to you soon.

Oh, and I do still promise the following:

  • Complete update on the new job – what I do, where I am and, if you’re good, pictures of my office! I HAVE AN OFFICE!!!!.
  • The pictures from Mexico. Yeah, I know it’s been months, but these things take time. Freakin’ photo perfectionists…
  • State of the Rob. You’ve got the quick summary, soon you’ll get the full story.
  • Whatever else I’ve promised all of you individual people. DJ web sites! Email conversations! Picture sets! Time should stop being such a big issue soon!!!

Rap atya soon!