Strategy

Digital Darwinism: Are You a Swinger or Dead Meat?

The late author Carl Sagan observed that those of our ancestors who couldn’t figure out how to brachiate successfully through the jungle simply didn’t leave any offspring.

Rather gruesomely they ended up as piles of rotting meat on the forest floor many metres below.

Darwinism at its most brutal: Figure it out or die.

Business, especially Australian online retail, is going through its own painful process of natural selection right now caused by the booming online economy.

They either don’t get or are completely unaware of the need to start swinging in the online business jungle.

And, unfortunately, there’s no doubt that it is a jungle with all sorts of lethal traps for the unwary and strange, exotic beasts that will devour them overnight if they are not quick enough or smart enough.

But into it they must swing, there is no escaping it.

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How Australian Retailers Can Get Online in an Arvo

For Free

Much has been written lately about how Australian bricks and mortar retailers and businesses lack the knowledge, skills and resources to go online.

In an effort to ease their transition to online business here are over a dozen free or inexpensive solutions to get started.

My last post Australian Business Just Doesn't Get the Web certainly stirred up a healthy debate around my networks, especially about how fearful and confused many business owners are around online business.

Unfortuantely there is still a lot of snakeoil out there as well as well meaning but misguided advice from web practitioners as to what is actually required. Many business owners have already been badly burnt with expensive or unusable website solutions.

Another point raised was that as online professionals we need to do a better job of educating the market about what they actually need, which is the point of this post.

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Australian Business Just Doesn’t Get the Web

Nearly two thirds of Australian businesses don’t have a website, and half of those don’t intend to get one any time soon.

This astounding revelation was made recently by John Moss is Chief Strategy Officer, MYOB and based on recent research carried out by MYOB.

To me it explains why many Australian retailers are having such a hard time dealing with online shopping and ecommerce.

It is a mental problem, a business cultural problem; it’s nothing to do with technology, GST loopholes or the nasty, greedy invading offshore online operators.

It's a failure to understand the modern economy.

Find out why...

US Mail Dies, Australia Post Thrives

- Royal Mail MIA

In another of life’s great ironies the internet is being both blamed for the failure of the postal service in the US and credited for its booming success in Australia.

A paradox for sure, how can the web be the reason for both failure and success in almost identical institutions?

Why the US Postal Service Is Going Out of Business Forbes

Postal Service Is Nearing Default as Losses Mount New York Times

The U.S. Postal Service Nears Collapse Bloomberg

I’ve been following the slow decay of the US Mail with some mild curiosity because, as almost everyone in Australia is aware, our equivalent institution, Australia Post has been banging on about how wonderful the web has been for its business for years.

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Marketing as Theatre

Does your marketing entrance, engage, enrapture and encourage your customers to want more?

Because it’s not how good (or not) your product is, what matters is how you sell it.

The company or salesperson that puts on the best performance wins.

A clear reminder of this occurred the other day when I was attending the Perth Home Show at the Exhibition and Convention Centre.

I bought something didn’t even know I wanted because the salesman’s show was so good - The World’s Most Advanced Broom

Step right up folks, because of all things, he was selling rubber brooms, supposedly a technically superior alternative to the normal hair broom.

Certainly unique and different, I’d never even heard of, or could imagine a broom made of rubber; I mean it just sounds ridiculous.

But the sales guy was good; it was like watching a finely tuned performance, which is exactly what it was. I knew it, and I paid more out of admiration for his “game” than for the actual product.

Read how to up your marketing performance level...

eGroup Association, Perth Western Australia

eGroup WA Association provides a forum for Perth and Western Australian based online entrepreneurs to confidentially discuss issues particular to their business, and to share advice, solutions and ideas in a supportive, informative and educational manner.

It was established October 2009 and includes some of Perth's leading online business people. 

Its charter is to support, encourage and provide education to new online ventures (at all stages of development) in Western Australia; and to provide an organised voice to industry, government and the wider community by which we define, disseminate and promote ideas, findings and issues that are common to members.

You can find out more at their website

Incredible India's Unique Value Proposition

Sometimes you can break all the rules and get away with it.

If you've read my blog or spoken to me you'll know that I'm always banging on about the need for a USP/UVP (Unique Selling/Value Proposition), a big idea and the need to address the WIIFM (What's in it for me?) question.

These issues are always at the top of any potentail customer's mind: "What is this place, what can I do here and what value can I get?"

When I saw this latest ad from the long running and very successful Incredible India campaign I was sharply reminded that we don't always have to be so obsessive about our USP's.

A unique value can often be implied, and left to the customer's imagination to fill in the rest.

And with something like India, the imagination can run rampant.

But what is it about this campaign that allows it to ignore the rules and yet still succeed?

Click to learn more...

What Sexy Food Can Teach You About Website Navigation

Sex and food are the two greatest motivators for most people, so any website that combines the two has a good chance of getting high conversion rates and good online business.

The other day i took a shot at Yogurberry for having a great landing page but with no call to action.

That being said it's still a great looking site, and the way it uses it's images on the rest of the site perfectly highlights how captivating the right images can be.

It looks like the designers had a lot of fun when doing this site.

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What ZZ Top Can Teach You About Branding

Think ZZ Top and immediately you picture a host of images from beards and furry guitars to hot rods and girls, all backed by a growling, irressistable Texas boogie.

Their brand is unique, almost timeless.

But it wasn't always so. ZZ Top always had the sound and the attitude, but the iconic image came much later.

It was the legendary and infamous Ike Turner who told the Reverend Billy F Gibbons that he needed to get his look together.

Neuromancing the Stone

A thought piece I posted over at Stone Soup on how the pace of the online world is leaving all of us behind. Even those of us who are already highly active in cyberspace. Businesses and individuals can't afford to wait anymore, we must all dive in and start paddling like hell.

It’s No Longer About Websites

And Why Current Online Marketing Techniques Are Already Outdated

See http://stonesoup.com.au/website-development/neuromancing-the-stone/