Microsoft Reorganizes With Focus On Cloud, AI, Windows Chief Leaves https://ift.tt/2J2fNdz The focus will be on experiences and devices -- and cloud and artificial intelligence. Scott Guthrie will head the cloud and AI division, and Rajesh Jha will lead the experiences and devices group. Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile https://ift.tt/2oB2PsH March 29, 2018 at 02:03PM
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Search Drives Conversions, Social Drives Website Traffic https://ift.tt/2pRuMhr Search engines like Google and Bing had the highest customer conversion rates -- about 8%, more than 1.5 times higher than Facebook's. Google topped the list of highest conversion rates with 8.2%, followed by Bing with 7.6%. Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile https://ift.tt/2oB2PsH March 29, 2018 at 01:26PM
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Two million users hacked Spotify to get ad-free music https://ift.tt/2J1Dm67
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Fri, Dec 22, 2017 - (2:08) Mobile Marketing via PSFK http://www.psfk.com/ March 28, 2018 at 04:12PM You are now invited to hack Netflix https://ift.tt/2pP8BZp In need of a new side hustle? Netflix is paying up to $15,000 each to hackers who expose flaws in its system. The bug-bounty program, launched through the platform Bugcrowd, is designed to help Netflix catch vulnerabilities in its system before they become real threats. How much you earn depends on what you find. There are a few caveats. You can’t use the program as your personal pathway to Netflix programming. The guidelines say participants can’t target unreleased Netflix series and movies, which are usually uploaded to the streaming giant’s servers before they premiere to allow for swift and seamless global rollouts. They also can’t hack any of its customers’s or employees’s personal information, or private credentials. If you stumble upon that kind of thing, Netflix asks that you stop what you’re doing and report it right away. It also asks that hackers not destroy any data during testing or disrupt the Netflix user experience or production systems, among other rules. Netflix been working with private researchers to find flaws in its systems for a few years. It launched a private bug bounty program in 2016, after rolling out a vulnerability disclosure program three years earlier. It has invited more than 700 private researchers to participate, and they have discovered 145 valid issues (of 275 submissions). This is the first time the company is opening the program up to the public. Other tech companies, like Google, have vulnerability rewards programs, too. Mobile Marketing via PSFK http://www.psfk.com/ March 28, 2018 at 04:12PM A look at the surge in sexual identities https://ift.tt/2J3LgvB In 1976, the French philosopher Michel Foucault made themeticulously researched case that sexuality is a social construct used as a form of control. In the 40 years since, society has been busy constructing sexualities. Alongside the traditional orientations of heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual, a myriad other options now exist in the lexicon, including:
Clearly, people felt that the few existing labels didn’t apply to them. There’s a clear “demand being made to have more available scripts than just heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual,” says Robin Dembroff, philosophy professor at Yale University who researches feminist theory and construction. Labels might seem reductive, but they’re useful. Creating a label allows people to find those with similar sexual interests to them; it’s also a way of acknowledging that such interests exist. “In order to be recognized, to even exist, you need a name,” says Jeanne Proust, philosophy professor at City University of New York. “That’s a very powerful function of language: the performative function. It makes something exist, it creates a reality.” The newly created identities, many of which originated in the past decade, reduce the focus on gender—for either the subject or object of desire—in establishing sexual attraction. “Demisexual,” for example, is entirely unrelated to gender, while other terms emphasize the gender of the object of attraction, but not the gender of the subject. “Saying that you’re gay or straight doesn’t mean that you’re attracted to everyone of a certain gender,” says Dembroff. The proliferation of sexual identities means that, rather than emphasizing gender as the primary factor of who someone finds attractive, people are able to identify other features that attract them, and, in part or in full, de-couple gender from sexual attraction. Dembroff believes the recent proliferation of sexual identities reflects a contemporary rejection of the morally prescriptive attitudes towards sex that were founded on the Christian belief that sex should be linked to reproduction. “We live in a culture where, increasingly, sex is being seen as something that has less to do with kinship and reproduction, and more about individual expression and forming intimate bonds with more than one partner,” Dembroff says. “I think as there’s more of an individual focus it makes sense that we have these hyper-personalized categories.” The same individuality that permeates western culture, leading people to focus on the self and value their own well-being over the group’s, is reflected in the desire to fracture group sexual identities into increasingly narrow categories that reflect personal preferences. Some believe this could restrict individuals’ freedom in expressing fluid sexuality. Each newly codified sexual orientation demands that people adopt increasingly specific criteria to define their sexual orientation. “Language fixes reality, it sets reality,” says Proust. “It paralyzes it, in a way. It puts it in a box, under a tag. The problem with that is it doesn’t move. It negates or denies any instability or fluidity.” There’s also the danger that self-definition inadvertently defines other people. Just as the terms “heterosexual” and “homosexual” demand that people clarify their sexual preference according to their and their partner’s gender, “sapiosexual” asks that we each of us define our stance towards intelligence. Likewise, the word “pansexual” requires people who once identified as “bisexual” clarify their sexual attraction towards those who don’t identify as male or female. And “omnisexual” suggests that people should address whether they’re attracted to all genders or oblivious to them. In Foucault’s analysis, contemporary society turns sex into an academic, scientific discipline, and this mode of perceiving sex dominates both understanding and experience of it. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy summarizes this idea neatly:
The new terms for sexual orientations similarly infiltrate the political discourse on sexuality, and individuals then define themselves accordingly. Though there’s nothing that prevents someone from having a demisexual phase, for example, the labels suggest an inherent identity. William Wilkerson, a philosophy professor at the University of Alabama-Huntsville who focuses on gender studies, says this is the distinctive feature of sexual identities today. In the past, he points out, there were plenty of different sexual interests, but these were presented as desires rather than intrinsic identities. The notion of innate sexual identities “seems profoundly different to me,” he says. “The model of sexuality as an inborn thing has become so prevalent that people want to say ‘this is how I feel, so perhaps I will constitute myself in a particular way and understand this as an identity’,” he adds. In the 1970s and 80s there was a proliferation of sexual groups and interests similar to what we’ve seen over the past five to 10 years, notes Wilkerson. The identities that originated in earlier decades—such as bears, leather daddies, and femme and butch women—are deeply influenced by lifestyle and appearance. It’s difficult to be a butch woman without looking butch, for example. Contemporary identities, such as gynosexual or pansexual, suggest nothing about appearance or lifestyle, but are entirely defined by intrinsic sexual desire. Dissatisfaction with existing labels doesn’t necessarily have to lead to creating new ones. Wilkerson notes that the queer movement in earlier decades was focused on anti-identity and refusing to define yourself. “It’s interesting that now, it’s like, ‘We really want to define ourselves,’” says Wilkerson. The trend reflects an impulse to cut the legs out from under religious invectives against non-heteronormative sexualities. If you’re “born this way,” it’s impossible for your sexuality to be sinful because it’s natural, made of biological desires rather than a conscious choice. More recently, this line of thinking has been criticized by those who argue all sexualities should be accepted regardless of any link to biology; that sexuality is socially constructed, and the reason no given sexuality is “sinful” is simply because any consenting sexual choice is perfectly moral. Though it may sound ideal to be utterly undefined and beyond categories, Proust says it’s impossible. “We have to use categories. It’s sad, it’s tragic. But that’s how it is.” Constructs aren’t simply necessary for sexual identity or gender; they’re an essential feature of language, she adds. We cannot comprehend the world without this “tag-fixing process.” The proliferation of specific sexual identities today may seem at odds with the anti-identity values of queer culture, but Dembroff suggests that both work towards the same ultimate goal of eroding the impact and importance of the old-fashioned binary sexual identities. “Social change always happens in non-ideal increments,” Dembroff notes. So while today we may have dozens of sexual identities, they may become so individualized and specific that they lose any significance for group identities, and the entire concept of a fixed sexual identity is eroded. “We demand that sex speak the truth,” wrote Foucault in The History of Sexuality. “We demand that it tell us our truth, or rather, the deeply buried truth of that truth about ourselves which we think we possess in our immediate consciousness.” We still believe sex reveals an inner truth; now, however, we are more readily able to recognize that the process of discovering and identifying that truth is always ongoing. Correction: A previous version of this post incorrectly stated both the date Foucault published ‘The History of Sexuality’ and the number of years since publication. Mobile Marketing via PSFK http://www.psfk.com/ March 28, 2018 at 04:12PM
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Best Buy’s CEO led the retailer in an incredible turnaround, here’s how the company is defying the retail apocalypse https://ift.tt/2pN9Cky
When Hubert Joly was named CEO of Best Buy in 2012, he was presented with what he calls an "all-you-can-eat menu of challenges." Best Buy's sales were plummeting. The retailer couldn't compete on e-commerce. The previous CEO had left amid scandal, and the company's founder was fighting an open battle to take Best Buy private. To make matters worse, analysts were suspicious of Joly's abilities, with shares dropping 10.3% in reaction to the news he had been appointed CEO. At the time, the Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter told The Wall Street Journal that Joly was "completely unqualified" and expressed shock with the decision. Since then, Joly has handily proved critics wrong. Since he joined Best Buy, the company's share price has increased 271%. Best Buy reported that comparable sales grew 5.6% in its 2018 fiscal year. Business Insider sat down with Joly earlier in March to discuss Best Buy's turnaround, the retail apocalypse, and how competition and capitalism make companies better. The following was edited for length and clarity. Demolishing an 'all-you-can-eat menu of challenges'
Hubert Joly: What I'd like to do, if you allow me, is tell you a little story. It's easier for me to talk about Best Buy than all of retail, because all of retail is vast. But I'll tell you what has happened in the last five years, briefly. I joined the company five years ago. At the time, yes, it was the all-you-can-eat menu of challenges. Operational challenges, frankly, the quality of services in our stores was not so good. Leadership challenges, with my predecessor being fired, and shareholder challenges, with our share price in the toilet and our founder planning to take the company private. All-you-can-eat menu of challenges. So on the left-hand side, there's some simple facts. Domestic comparable sales increased over the last five years, including last year, where we did about +5.6% in the flat market. The operating income rate — that improved from a low 3.1% to 4.8%, so that's about a 30% increase. EPS grew at 12% per year, the RIC doubled from the total sale to returns standpoint, we're in the top 10% of the S&P 500, and then the stock prices increased 43% per year for the past five years. So these are good numbers. What did we do? At the end of the day, pretty simple. A handful of things — one, we decided we were gonna be price-competitive and that we were going to match online prices. We took price off the table. We had all these customers coming to us, towards our site — I thought these were well-intentioned people — and if they are not buying, and they're not buying online because of price, I could take care of that. If you're asked in your reporting job, "Who has killed showrooming?" I plead guilty — we've killed showrooming by taking price off the table. The second thing we did: We invested in the online shopping experience. Online is where the shopping generally starts. Anything that's above $100, the shopping generally starts online because there's so much research to be done. Your website has got to be impeccable, whether or not the transaction is completed online. So we improved our search, we improved the browse, we improved the product reviews, images, information, we improved checkout, and we improved speed of shipping. We now ship same-day in 40 markets, leveraging ship from store. We ship in two days across the country. Third, we improved the shopping experience in the stores. We've improved the proficiency and the engagement — and we'll talk about this a lot — of the associates. We've actually increased the quantity and quality of labor in the stores, and the feedback from the customers is very, very positive on that. Building the Best Buy of the future
Joly: So, a year ago, with the board, we said, "Turnaround is over." We've saved the company — nobody is saying the company is not going to make it. So let's talk about: "What kind of company do we want to build for the future? What should we look like a few years out? How do we build a company that has gone from 'customers don't like us anymore' to now we would like them to love us?" That's when we introduced, a year ago on the earnings call, "Best Buy 2020: building the new blue." The turnaround was "Renew blue." Now it's "Building the new blue." Sometimes the analysts say, "Yeah, Best Buy grew last quarter or last year because there was a technology cycle, we don't see anything coming, so therefore it's doom and gloom." While it's true that there's some technology cycle — tablets go up and go down, for example — in aggregate, actually, it's very flat. So the market is flat, and it's not decreasing because there's a lot of innovation. The second thing is, a lot of customers need help. Because this proliferation of technology can be overwhelming. "What should I buy? Which one of them should I buy? How does it all work to get the connectivity and compatibility issues in context of IOT, smart home, connected home, and so forth? How do I implement it in an integrated fashion? How do I keep it going?" These are big needs for customers. These two things combined are a huge opportunity for us. There's no home in America that is mono-brand. Even Tim Cook's brand. Tim Cook's house is not mono-brand. And so we're the place where people are going to find the whole range of brands and technologies, where we can integrate. We are the place where everything is available, and we can be your adviser. We've listened to Larry Fink. I think he's got a great point that, you know, that strategy starts with purpose, or Simon Sinek, strategy starts with why. Why do we exist? We don't exist to sell TVs or computers — we exist to enrich people's life with technology. Addressing their underlying need, and then matching solutions with their needs. And that's the angle we have, which we think is very unique. The smart home to connected home is a huge opportunity for us. Total tech support is a great service need; we've been in the service business for a long time with Geek Squad. It was mainly focused on break-fix and singular products. Increasingly, in the home, everything works together. So if Netflix is not working tonight, is it because of Netflix? The Wi-Fi? The TV? The streaming device? What is it? "Honey, can you please help me?" and we're honey. Because we cover all of these brands, all of these technologies. And so, whether or not you buy it at Best Buy, we're going to help you with that. Why are we still alive? Because we play a unique role, an invaluable role, for shareholders and for customers. In most industries, you know, there's rarely alternatives for mediocrity. Sure, you know, businesses, executives, but if what you do is mediocre, you're not going to make it, right? But if you do something that's unique, that's very valuable, then you can win. Business Insider: Do you think that the future for Best Buy is online? How do you connect all of these different things? Joly: We're completely agnostic in terms of how the customer wants to buy. He wants to buy online, he wants to buy in the stores — have at it. We've worked so that the economics of the two channels are actually the same. And of course, you know, we separate them, but they're actually not that separate. You guys start a shopping journey online, maybe then go to the store to finish your order. Or, complete your transaction online — half of the online orders are either picked up in the store or shipped from the store. Whatever the customer wants to do, we are very happy with this. This is good growth, right, going from $2.5 billion to $6 billion, and we think it's going to continue to grow. We're going to grow the two channels as fast as possible. When we did the strategy, we didn't think of ourselves as a retailer. We didn't think of ourselves as a brick-and-mortar retailer. We thought of ourselves as a company that can help customers. Reducing turnover
BI: In retail, there's a lot of turnover. How did you boost morale at the company? Joly: Glassdoor does a good job tracking employee satisfaction. In all of retail, we're now number two, second to Costco. That's a massive improvement. Turnover has decreased massively in the stores. People are engaged, and so they're motivated to do a great job. We do see turnover as a key thing, because we've done a survey among customers. We asked them, "Would you like to speak, preferably, to the brand-new associate, you know, the one that has not yet done training?" Zero percent. We've reduced turnover, yes, but we're not done. The churn with the store general managers, which includes their moving from one store to the other, is now 20% per year. That means, on average, they stay at the same store for five years. We've all read about Jim Collins and the 10,000-hour theory — you know, it takes 10,000 hours to really master something. Well, that's exactly five years. And so that made a big difference. How did we do this? Of course you have to pay people, and we've invested in labor rates. Because we're building a specialty sales force, you know, we're making sure we're paying people appropriately, and they have bonuses. That's only a small piece. In general, if you just pay people, it doesn't suffice. Most people, most of us, want to do something meaningful. We want to live a purposeful life, where you do things that make sense, that [are] helpful to others. And you want to live in an environment that has good values, and where you feel supported, and where you feel respected for who you are. And that's the kind of environment that we're building. We believe that any organization is made of individuals, and that each individual needs to feel that they belong here, and that we're investing in them. Inclusion starts with "I" — so each one of us. That means the training, the coaching. There's a daily, individual coaching session for each associate in the stores. So you check in, you meet with your sales supervisor, and then you're going to review your performance over several days, what you're working on, because everybody's working on something, getting better at something. Maybe you're working in the appliance department, you're trying to get better at selling the full kitchen, because you want the colors to match. And so, maybe, yesterday, your supervisor asks you to go talk to Mary, who is really good at this. You're going to do a role play, and then at the end of the day, we're going to check how it's going, and how your results are. That is very meaningful, because I'm paying attention to you. The five 'be's
BI: What are the qualities that you look for? Joly: I've spelled out the five "be"s of leadership. I think it resonates with what we're trying to do. The first "be" is to be a purposeful leader. Be clear about your purpose in life, what drives you, and make sure it's connected with the purpose of the company. Is what drives you making money? Or your career advancement? Are you ready to walk on dead bodies to go up? So be a purposeful leader. Be clear about your role as a leader. Do you believe your role as leaders is to be the smartest person in the room, and make sure everybody knows that? Or is it to create an environment in which others can be successful and, you know, blossom and flourish and so forth. Be clear about who you're serving. If you believe you're serving your boss, that's wrong. Be polite to the customer. There are different ways to be polite to the customer. If you believe you're serving the servants, meaning people on the front line, and your role is to help them be successful, then you've got it. Then be a values-driven leader. Integrity is really important and is what people look at. And then, be an authentic leader. Be yourself. People talk about work-life balance. You know, life out of work is important, but work-life balance almost has the connotation that your work is not part of your life. So you can be an a--, the most terrible person at work, and then you can be the most wonderful person outside — it makes no sense. Be the full version of yourself, and that's going to make sure that you're happier. So these kinds of principles — it's a very human environment. That sounds soft, and like propaganda. It's not propaganda ... these numbers, with turnover and employee satisfaction, really would not happen if we're just going to tell people, "Be happy." Surviving the retail apocalypseBI: So how do you feel about the number of stores that Best Buy has right now? Joly: We feel really good, talking about the big-box stores. You've seen that ... we decided to close the Best Buy mobile stores. You know, we had opened them about 12 years ago, at a time when the penetration of smartphones was very low, so this was a great growth opportunity. The margins in smartphones were very good. This was a way for us to go after a different type of customer. Fast forward to 2018, smartphone penetration is a very mature industry. We feel it's best for us to invest in our big-box stores where we're providing a better experience because there's more space ... In business, you have to constantly optimize what you do. It's a very small part of our business, about 1% of the square feet and 1% of the revenue, so it's not a big deal. But if you don't optimize, you're stuck. Our VCR department, for example, is not doing so well anymore. Now, as this relates to the big-box stores in the US, we have slightly more than 1,000. We typically get two questions from the investors. One, are they the right size? So we typically have 30,000-, 45,000-square-foot stores. They're the right size. A few years ago, we had a few 50,000, 60,000 square feet — that was a bit too big. We have a few at 20,000 — it's tight. But 30,000, or 45,000, they really feel good because we have so much stuff to show, and the economics work from these two types of stores. In terms of the number of stores, every month, every year, there are 100 to 150 leases that expire. And so every month, we review these leases, and we make very rigorous decisions around [whether we should] renew. "Should we move the store? Or should we close the store?" And we're very rigorous around this. It takes a real-estate team that knows each of these markets extremely well. And, when we launched the strategy five years ago, we said that every year, we're going to gradually optimize the store footprint. On average, we've closed 10, 15 stores per year in the US. So that is about 1, 1.5% of the stores. Many retailers were probably late in the cycle before the recession, and there was a diversification strategy, so we probably built a few too many stores. That's why we're optimizing gradually. But we don't have, as a structural problem, too many stores. And of course, the more successful we are, the more revenue there is per store, and so we're tuning this. But the short answer is: We have the right-size stores, they're in great locations, they're a great asset for us, and every year, we're going to tweak the margin, because things evolve, and so forth. But it's not a structural issue. BI: How much of your revenue comes from services like Geek Squad or in-home advisers? Joly: So, they're different types of services, and I'm going to break this down for you. In-home adviser, well it's a service-like approach, there is no service revenue attached to these. I will come for free to your house, because I want to have a conversation with you. And so the revenue that's attached to this is product, some services in terms of installation and so forth, but it's not a service business per se. It's a way for us to have a better conversation and to build a relationship. So we build a relationship, and that's good. Total tech support, which is a Geek Squad service, we certainly hope that it's going to grow. It's a service line — we're early in the rollout. We started at 200 stores in September, so that's early, but I think that's going to be a very promising piece, and also contribute to building that relationship, because you know where to find me now. Extended warranties and other Geek Squad services — we actually report this every quarter and so forth — that's about 6% of revenue on an annual basis. That's relatively small. Will services revenue grow over time at the company? Probably. But it's not going to be 50% or anything like that. BI: How much do you think your success is from all of this, and how much is from the fact that Circuit City went out of business and there's maybe room for one major, national retailer? Joly: So Circuit City went out of business in '08. BI: Wow, it was that long ago? Joly: Oh, yes. And I didn't kill it. I would never kill it! I have an alibi. The news of the death was more around 2012 [when Circuit City's online presence was shut down]. And so we were already the only national player at the time, so the recovery has nothing to do with Circuit City. Becoming what we should have been, becoming the best version of ourselves — being alone is helpful. In particular when vis-a-vis the vendors. Because we make it easy. I don't like to say they don't have a choice, it's that we're a great opportunity for them, and we can concentrate their effort on one retailer instead of spreading it among several. So that's actually helpful. That part is really helpful. So it's a great asset that I had when I started. Undercover boss
BI: Do you ever go into your stores incognito, just go in and observe? Joly: So I've spent quite a bit of time in stores. Sometimes they're planned visits, because I do a market visit, or there's a purpose for it. Or when I'm at CES, they know I'm there visiting the stores in the biggest market. Sometimes, I'm not announced. Particularly when I travel, I always try to take time to visit the stores in that particular area. And so I walk into a store incognito — it usually takes between one and five nanoseconds before I'm recognized, but it doesn't matter because it is what it is. Because you see, and then you have a good discussion. The reason why it's so important to me to be in the stores — it's not so much necessarily to inspect, because we have an entire management team to do this, but still, it is to inspect. In my office I just look at reports and spreadsheets — they don't tell the story. And so if you're in the store, you really see what's happening, you see the engagement. And then you hear feedback about what's working, what's not working. A lot of what we've done the last five years is fix what was broken. And people in the stores know what's broken because they have to serve the customers every day. I'm using a bit of an excuse to be able to buy everything we sell! Because that's the way you experience what the customers experience. Similarly, when I have a service issue at home, I don't ask my admin, "Can you get somebody to fix this?" No, I actually behave as a regular customer. That's one of the great things about this business — you can actually, truly, personally experience what that customer is experiencing. The fact that they recognize me doesn't change if they don't know how to take measurements for an appliance delivery. You know, if anything, they'll panic because it's me. BI: Have there been things that you've changed because of those drop-ins and because of those experiences? Joly: Yes, absolutely. BI: Like what? Joly: On a Saturday, about five years ago, I had a networking issue at home. It was intermittent failures, as is often the case with networking issues. So I called 1-800-geeksquad, and that was very early on in my tenure, and the fact that — instead of recognizing me not as the CEO of the company, but as a customer — based on some number, like my phone number, or my account number, they had to ask for my information. Then after taking all of my information, including my credit card, they said, "Somebody will call you back." I said, "Really? What are you talking about?" They didn't have the tool to know how long the wait time was to get a specialist for my issue. These were well-intentioned people, but we ended up giving them the tool. So a lot of what we've had to do is give people the tool. It's what Churchill wrote to Roosevelt in 1941. "Give us the tools, and we will finish the job." He was asking for destroyers, and planes, and so forth. Here it was tools, systems, so that people could have the information to do a great job. It's this kind of thing. And once you alert these people, they pay attention. The next generation
BI: We had millennials, they're over. We have Gen Z now. It's all about Gen Z. What do they want? Joly: The Gen Z are still a bit young. They don't really spend their money themselves. But one of the things that people didn't know and were concerned about — five years ago, some people thought we were going to be a grandfather's brand. Our market share with millennials is higher than with boomers. That's pretty cool. I have a 31-year-old son and a 27-year-old daughter, and they love all this stuff, and we have a lot of the cool stuff. Immediate gratification is important, so stores are a good thing, as well as online. Again, we don't think of ourselves as a brick-and-mortar retailer. In fact, we don't think of ourselves as a retailer. We think of ourselves as a company that tries to do amazing things for customers. In our target segment, which we call the high-touch tech fans, in the US population, half of them are millennials. So we're really targeting everyone, and that's a good thing. Millennials are finally, you know, leaving their parents' house. But that means buying appliances, buying all sorts of cool stuff. And so that's a great thing. BI: How much does instant gratification matter? Joly: So there's all sorts of buying occasions. But it's a pretty big deal. It's also the confidence in your decision. If you take a TV, picture quality would be an important buying factor in a TV, can we agree? The only place in the whole world that you can see the quality of the picture for a TV is in the real world. You cannot see it online. Reviews don't do it. Similarly, audio. The only place in the world where you can test the quality of the sound, whether you like it or not, is in the real world. You cannot hear it online. And so, this ability to touch, feel, experience, get every question answered in the stores — for a big chunk of your purchases, it's very meaningful. And then you can grab it and immediately get it. That's really cool. In some other cases, like you're on the road, and you forgot your phone charger, instant gratification is really important. You can pick it up in your store in minutes. It's really an exciting time. We've moved past the turnaround, which was hard work, but now it's about imagining the possible, inspiring the customers to do great things with technology, and knowing that we perform a meaningful role in the world. It's making it real, and therefore investing in the technology, in the tools, in the capabilities, so that you can actually make it happen, and we can fulfill the promise of who we can be. So it's a pretty exciting time. BI: Would you say that Amazon has pushed retailers like yours to get better? Joly: Of course, of course. And that's what I like about the space we're in. We get to compete with some of the foremost companies ... We compete with Amazon. We compete with Costco. We compete with Target. We compete with Walmart. We compete with Home Depot. These are amazing companies. And so, you have no choice. And capitalism is about this — it's about the best companies winning. And the customers are pushing us, but if there is no competition, then they don't even know what's possible. And so I love it that the bar is being raised, because I have so much confidence in our company, that we can be among those who raise the bar, and are not afraid of being bold and playing to win, so on and so forth. It's the customer experience, and it's the differentiating customer experience — it's being unique in what you do. Finding a group of customers for what you're doing is very special and very meaningful, as opposed to "Let's see who can have the best customer experience," and everybody is competing head to head. It's the differentiated customer experience, I think, that's the key piece. And it's hard to do, which we love, because it means it's hard to replicate. Mobile Marketing via PSFK http://www.psfk.com/ March 28, 2018 at 04:12PM Stormy Daniels' Out-of-Home Lift Beats Olympics, Tiger Woods Too https://ift.tt/2pPeRjH Tunity, a promising new audience data company that matches out-of-home audio tuning on an mobile phone to linear TV screens, has made a surprising discovery about Stormy Daniels appearance on CBS’ “60 Minutes” Sunday night. Using its proprietary technology to detect TV tuning in out-of-home locations such as bars, gyms, offices and other venues, Tunity found Daniels highly anticipated interview on “60 Minutes” was one of the highest out-of-home rated shows so far this year. “While losing approximately 25% of her lead-in from the Duke vs. Kansas game, she still managed to rank second for the week in Tunity Share,” shares Paul Lindstrom, head of research and analytics at Tunity. “Stormy’s audience was 50% higher than such highly watched events as Tiger Wood’s one under run at the Valspar Championship and triple the peak Tunity Share for Shaun White’s Gold Medal win at the Winter Olympics,” Lindstrom adds. “At her peak, she accounted for 80% of all Tunity usage and was the dominant draw across all venue types.” Because out-of-home screens are often “curated” to sports and news, such formats command a disproporitionate amount of out-of-home programming distribution. “At home you can physically change the channel. When you are out-of-home you can change the channel by changing your focus. This is an important distinction because it currently cannot be measured by current methods such as ACR,” Lindstrom explais. As an audience metric, the Tunity Share is a composite metric of traffic, attention, and tuning in near real time for out of home on a minute by minute basis. Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile https://ift.tt/2oB2PsH March 28, 2018 at 04:02PM Saucony Offers Dunkin-Themed Sneakers For Boston Marathon https://ift.tt/2GDI0Je Athletic shoemaker Saucony, which designs a special sneaker each year for the Boston Marathon, has this year partnered with Dunkin’ Donuts to create an homage to the brand that “America runs on.” The pair-ing (so to speak) is apt in more than one way. For starters, Bostonians are obsessed with the now-international QSR brand, which was born in Quincy, Mass., in 1950, and now headquartered in Canton, another Boston suburb. Saucony is also headquartered in a Boston burb (Lexington). And though it may surprise non-runners, Dunkin’ reports that the Strava exercise tracking app has found coffee and donuts to be the #1 and #6 most-cited food/beverage among runners, respectively. The Saucony X Dunkin’ Kinvara 9 model features Dunkin’s orange-and-magenta color scheme, and images of hot and iced coffee, sprinkles and (on the back of the heels) a frosted donut, along with Dunkin’s logo and “America runs” tagline. Saucony’s logo was adapted to incorporate a coffee-bean motif. The pièce de résistance: The shoes come in a box that closely resembles a Dunkin’ box. advertisement advertisement “We’ve been keeping America running on Dunkin’ for decades and we’re thrilled to partner with Saucony to literally keep Bostonians running this marathon season,” stated Justin Unger, director of strategic partnerships at Dunkin’ Brands. Dunkin’ is also observing the Boston Marathon, which will be held on April 16, with a special offer for members of its DD Perks Rewards Program. From April 9 to April 20, Perks members in select New England markets who order through its On-the-Go mobile app will earn double points. Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile https://ift.tt/2oB2PsH March 28, 2018 at 04:02PM 64% Of Tracking Cookies Are Blocked, Deleted By Web Browsers https://ift.tt/2E30ltG An ad-serving firm analyzed 20 advertisers and more than 5 billion impressions in fourth-quarter 2017, and found 64% of their tracking cookies were either blocked or deleted by web browsers. The rejection rate on mobile devices was higher -- at 75%, compared with 41% on desktop. Flashtalking’s data suggests that tablets are the worst for cookies, with more than 80% of tracking cookies rejected or deleted. Even in a desktop environment, where cookies are supposed to be most accurate, 41% of cookies are rejected -- confirming that cookie rejection is not a mobile-only problem. On Wednesday, Flashtalking publicly released its first quarterly report, Quarterly Cookie Rejection Index, to educate marketers on the state and impact of cookie rejection. Cookie rejection occurs when a browser either blocks a cookie from being placed at the time of the ad impression or site visit or deletes the cookie. This has major consequences for how advertisers target, track, and measure media. advertisement advertisement For a typical advertiser, 64% of cookies were rejected, with 29% of users rejecting cookies. The reports overstate targeting by 89%, while frequency is understated by 47%, and conversions for display and video are understated by 41%. Generalizing these numbers led Flashtalking to estimate that reliance on cookies leads to a 36% decrease in reported return on ad spend. The biggest issue is wasted investments. A typical advertiser may have a target frequency of 10 impressions per month, but is likely reaching them only 18 to 19 times per month. This advertiser throws away about 47% of its media budget. The cost is not just related to unwanted media. It is also the cost and missed opportunity of not reaching potential customers and having dollars go toward unnecessary impressions to people who were going to convert anyway. For the advertiser spending $12 million per year on display and video advertising, if the $5.2 million is reinvested, the company can expect an additional $26 million in revenue. Mobile Marketing via MediaPost.com: mobile https://ift.tt/2oB2PsH March 28, 2018 at 02:36PM
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Starbucks’ New Yosemite Park Cafe Is Met With Both Delight Dismay https://ift.tt/2E0wZwc A new Starbucks provides convenience and caffeine to visitors, but to many it represents a trend of commercialism and 25,000 people petitioned to stop it from opening It looks and feels just like any of the other roughly 27,000 Starbucks locations that have opened around the world. The green apron-clad barista makes tall, grande and venti coffee concoctions that are handed over in familiar mermaid-endowed cups. But from the parking lot outside – where there is an intentional lack of Starbucks signage – the world-famous Yosemite falls can be heard through the patter of an early spring rainstorm. The Starbucks is part of a major remodel inside the 128-year-old Yosemite national park. It was built to provide comfort, convenience and caffeine to the 4 to 5 million visitors who arrive each year. To many, however, the Starbucks represents a trend of encroaching commercialism inside one of the nation’s most beloved natural landmarks. That’s why more than 25,000 people petitioned to stop it from opening last week. “I understand that they are trying to improve the infrastructure and make it better than it used to be,” Freddy Brewster, a former Yosemite trail guide who started the petition, told the Guardian. “But it is representative of what our culture is becoming. The government is increasingly dependent on major corporations. Time and time again.” His petition states that with a Starbucks, Yosemite “will lose its essence, making it hardly distinguishable from a chaotic and bustling commercial city”. On a wet day in late March, visitors to the valley didn’t seem to mind. Tourists in plastic ponchos scurried off busses and inside the cluster of brown buildings housing the base camp eatery, with offerings including Starbucks. The cafe lured large groups of seniors looking to warm up between tours and teenage tourists clad in snow gear. “Wait, there’s a Starbucks here now?” a girl with sardonically raised eyebrows quipped to her father. Tom Collin, a 23-year-old lounging at a table outside the Starbucks while on vacation from Adelaide, Australia, said it was his first time at Yosemite and he was wowed by the sights outside, including the gargantuan sentinel rock, which can be seen just a short walk from the Starbucks entrance. But he was also happy to dip into the eatery for a coffee while he checked his phone, and appreciated the familiarity of an international coffee chain. “I think it’s good. Because no matter what Starbucks you go to it’s all the same. Same quality, and you know what you are getting as soon as you walk in.” Plans for the upgrades have been underway since concessions and facilities firm Aramark was awarded a 15-year, $2bn concessions contract for Yosemite. A spokesman for Aramark subsidiary Yosemite Hospitality, David Freireich, said the decision to put the Starbucks in the park was based on requests from visitors, and that Aramark is simply fulfilling its contractual obligation to the park service to create a dining experience that “better meets the expectations and needs of visitors”. “We understand that there is some concern among park purists, but we heard from many guests who expressed support for the change,” he said. “We ultimately selected Starbucks based on feedback from guests, and because it aligns with our goals of elevating the food and beverage offerings throughout the park.” The Yosemite Starbucks might signal what’s to come for national parks around the country. A record-breaking 331 million people visited the parks in 2016. But despite the parks’ popularity, there is a maintenance backlog – resulting in issues including closed trails and a collapsing cabin – valued at about $12bn. Hospitality services could be one way to close the gap. Visitor spending is up 30%, and food and beverages account for close to a third of dollars spent. At Yosemite, the infrastructure and hospitality offerings are aging – the last upgrade to the food court that now houses Starbucks occurred roughly 20 years ago. “It’s more than putting some lipstick on it,” said Freireich. “The time to modernize is long overdue.” Brewster, who started the petition, takes issue with the whole ethos of investing in projects that spur consumption as opposed to conservation. “Now it is just a free-for-all. They just pack as many people in,” he said. “But pumping cars into the park at the point where you have to re-do infrastructure to accommodate that many people is not what the park service was established to do, in my opinion.” guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress. Photographs: Gabrielle Canon for the Guardian Mobile Marketing via PSFK http://www.psfk.com/ March 28, 2018 at 02:25PM |
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