So wrong it's right

SkyTrain advertisement for The Dryspot (September 19, 2014), Vancouver, BC

I've remarked a few times about the number of out-of-date aadvertisementsthat I see on Vancouver's transit system. I saw this one on SSeptember19th. Initially I thought, just another example of out of date advertisements being left up long after the event was over. But there is more to it than that.

Yes, The Dryspot's Summer Camp and Skate Park Tour were only scheduled for July and August. And there is was, 2/3 of the way thorough September and the advertisement was still up. But the situation is a bit more complicated than that. There was a teacher's strike in Vancouver and the schools did not reopen until September 23rd. In fact, The Dryspot offered some special camps during the strike to give kids a place to go.

Website posting for fall day camps, SkateTheDryspot.com

So, leaving the advertisements up in the SkyTrain stations probably did more good than harm, and gave The Dryspot a few extra weeks of camp revenue.

CIBC Bank at Broadway and Cambie

Billboard at Cambie and 16th, Vancouver (September 28, 2014)

Well, it looks like they made it.

It must be embarrassing to make a big splash about opening date, and then miss it. (And I'm sure that the general contractor was looking at a big fat penalty if they missed the opening date.)

Will it open tomorrow?

Sign in the window of a new CIBC branch on Broadway and Cambie, Vancouver, British Columbia

A few weeks ago I took this photo of the front window of a new CIBC (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce) branch on Broadway, just west of Cambie Street in Vancouver.

The branch is supposed to open tomorrow morning? I wonder if it will?

Do these sorts of publicly announced deadlines make achieving goals easier, or harder? One thing is for sure, they make the embarrassment when you miss the goals even greater.

Does ello mean goodbye facebook?

Ello website (Source ello.co)

Facebook has become a victim of its own success. And as Facebook has grown there has been increasing pressure on Facebook to monitize its operations.

This has meant that the website has changed from being a service to users to its current form, a service to advertisers. As more than one person said; on the WWW if you're not the customer then you're the product.

But Ello has emerged as an alternative to Facebook. As of the most recent (September 25, 2014) figures I could find the firm is signing up 31,000 new users per hour. That is 744,000 per day.

And why are people flocking to Ello? I think that the firm's manifesto sums up the attraction pretty well.

To paraphrase Marx; users of the world sign up, you have nothing to lose but your ads.

Ello Manifesto

Your social network is owned by advertisers.

Every post you share, every friend you make, and every link you follow is tracked, recorded, and converted into data. Advertisers buy your data so they can show you more ads. You are the product that’s bought and sold.

We believe there is a better way. We believe in audacity. We believe in beauty, simplicity, and transparency. We believe that the people who make things and the people who use them should be in partnership.

We believe a social network can be a tool for empowerment. Not a tool to deceive, coerce, and manipulate — but a place to connect, create, and celebrate life.

You are not a product.  (Source ello.co)

Is 12% enough?

Poster at Vancouver City Centre SkyTrain station, Vancouver, British Columbia

Well, the sale starts today, but the discount remains a big question for me. Is 12% off enough to motivate consumers to buy?

If this was a pair of shoes I don't think that anyone would even cross the street to buy. But sports are a different matter, and many people are quite passionate about their football.

I wish the Whitecaps luck. I'm just not sure how many people will be motivated by a paltry 12% discount. (Especially since the BC Lions are offering a discount of up to 27% to their season ticket purchasers.)

Segmenting the market

Sign on the wall of the PipSqueakPups location in Vancouver, British Columbia

Market segmentation is one of the more important tasks for marketers. Knowing who is worth going after and creating an offering that will be attractive to that segment of the market.

In this case the market segment is small dogs. Now there are a couple of ways that "small dogs" could be defined. Height and weight spring to mind. This firm uses weight and sets the limit at 35 pounds. So a fat bulldog or a skinny greyhound both pass the test.

I'm sure that owners of small dogs like the fact that their Jack Russell terrier won't be terrorizing the poor defenseless German Shepherds, or vice versa.

Front? Middle? Back?

Bus lineup guidelines at the Broadway/Commercial SkyTrain station

Bus lineup guidelines at the Broadway/Commercial SkyTrain station

Lining up for a bus is a real pain. And if people don't know how to queue, or don't want to queue, the misery is compounded.

This bus route, the 99 B-Line, is the busiest in Vancouver. (It takes students to and from the University of British Columbia.) Even though the route has one of the most frequent services, and uses long "bendy buses", when a bus pulls up at a stop the chaos is a sight to behold. (And despite the frequent service,  many passengers are left behind as full buses roar past stop with waiting patrons. The closer your stop is to the university, the greater the likelihood that you won't get picked up.)

This is a simple solution to try to instill some order into a chaotic process. I just wonder if it will be effective, or if it is just offering an illusion of order to a very hard to control process.

Only in Canada

Poster for Coffee Crisp McFlurry at McDonald's, Vancouver, BC

The Coffee Crisp is one of the most popular chocolate bars in Canada. Despite a few attempts to introduce the bar in the United States, Canada remains the only country where the bar is manufactured and sold. (Currently by Nestle.)

So it is no surprise that McDonald's Canada has introduced a Coffee Crisp flavour McFlury. Will this new flavour cross the border to the US? Highly unlikely, but I'm sure a few Canadian expats in the US wish that McDonald's would give it a try.

Health or productivity?

Sign outside LEED project, Renfrew Street, Vancouver, British Columbia

These days there are not many arguments about the wisdom of smoking. There general consensus is that it is smelly, expensive, and harms your health. But what does that have to do with a building built to LEED standards? Not a huge amount, but eliminating smoking on sight probably has a beneficial effect on productivity. No one is nipping off for a smoke break.

Or will the opposite happen? Will the smokers be heading off site for a smoke while still on the clock? So, will this improve productivity, or have the opposite effect?

Promotion with just a towel and a smile

Schick Intuition promotional bathtub

Schick Intuition sampling crew

The razor business is very competitive and firms are always looking for ways to make their products stand out. The number of blades seems to increase every year or so. The razors come with lubricating strips, or in this case "ribbons", and a host of other features designed to increase comfort.

But how do you convince women that this is the right razor for them? They will most probably be shaving legs and underarms, and the shower or bath is where shaving is most likely to happen.

These three women, apparently clad only in towels and looking as if they just emerged from the bathroom, were getting ready to hand out samples of the Intuition razor outside the London Drugs location at Granville and Georgia in Vancouver.

Will this influence long-term consumer purchasing patterns? Who knows? But three young women, apparently dressed only in towels, will surely catch people's attention. And that is what promotion is all about.

Whose logo is that?

Walkman Logo

Merkury logo from Dollarama computer speakers

Dollarama computer speakers

Is it just me, or are these two logos rather similar? I recognize that I'm probably more visually aware than the average person, but these two are rather close.

Will Sony do anything about it? A pair of $3 speakers is unlikely to be confused with a Sony product, and Sony's recently announced $2 billion USD loss is probably more top of mind. But the principle is important, if you don't defend your intellectual property you could very well lose it.

Keeping things up to date

Poster for Science World Memories Contest, Vancouver, BC (September 3, 2014)

I took this photograph on September 3, 2014. The contest closed on August 31, 2014. Why is the poster still up?

Not keeping up to date with promotional materials drive me a bit crazy. And it is especially bad since there is a September contest that started on September 1st.

Sales must be slow

Sign on condominium tower, Vancouver, BC

Units in this building have been on the market and ready to occupy for over 18 months and according to this sign there are still some available. Given the overheated nature of Vancouver's real estate market that is not a good sign.

What is the problem? Too expensive? Poor quality construction? Neighbourhood amenities not in place yet?

Of course there is another possibility. The suites are all sold and the developer is too lazy to take down the sign.

The contest is over, so put it on sale

One Direction POP at Safeway store, Vancouver, BC

One Direction is a popular boy band. As happens with most pop acts, the band's managers try to find ways to extract the maximum amount of revenue from the market during the act's brief popularity. Some of the licensing agreements are a bit questionable, while other are a good fit the with audience demographic.

Selling special edition packages of Mini Oreos and Ritz, perfect for school lunches, is a great fit with the tween demographic. And running a contest for "A One Direction VIP Experience" is a great way to get kids to pester their parents to buy the cookies.

But what happens when the contest is over?

1dsummer.ca Contest Website (September 16, 2014)

The boxes are just a hollow reminder that you didn't win, or even remember to enter. So, from the regular price of $3,28 the boxes were marked down to $1.99 and then down to $1.49.

Do I care that the contest is over? No. Is a cheap lunchbox treat worth having around the house? Yes indeed. Does this do anything positive for the One Direction brand? Not at all.

But what is the alternative? Throw the remaining boxes in the bin, which would be even worse for the brand's reputation. I'm happy to pick up a deal based on an expired promotion.

A $100 million fiasco

Time Cook at U2 at the iPhone 6 launch
(Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29208540)

According to the rumours floating around, Apple paid U2 around $100 million USD to give away millions of copies of the new U2 album, "Songs of Innocence". 

The laws of supply and demand would lead us to believe that if the price is zero then demand is infinite. Well perhaps not. Lots of people are completely pissed that Apple dumped this album into their iTunes library. (And I'm sure that Apple shareholders are questioning the cost of giving away for free something that some many people didn't want.)

And now Apple has released a removal tool to get rid of the album. Given the amount of data that Apple collects about user preferences you'd think that the popularity of a new U2 album would be easy to calculate. Like all of the members of U2, I'm on the wrong side of 50. I've bought a few U2 albums in the past, but have not really bothered with the band's music for the past 20 years of so.

So, I should have been a prime candidate for the new album, aware and potentially curious. Well it is sitting there in my iTunes library and I just can't be bothered even giving it a listen. 

Based on the public response to the album I'm not the only one.

Another problem with advertising at SkyTrain stations

Poster frames at Vancouver SkyTrain station

On top of the common problem of out-of-date posters at SkyTrain stations, now we have an even worse problem; empty frames.

Even filling the frame with something institutional ("Stay behind the yellow line"), or for a charity, is better than leaving an empty frame on display.

And the more out-of-date posters, or empty frames that riders see, the lower the perceived value of advertising at SkyTrain stations in particular and on transit in general.

I wonder just how much longer transit advertising will survive in Vancouver?

How little do we know about business in China? (Or the rest of the world?)

IKEA logo

IKEA recently announced the sales for the year ending August 31st. Among with the somewhat unexpected news, sales up by 3.6%, were a few hidden gems.

Of IKEA 10 biggest stores, eight (8) are in China. IKEA only has 16 stores in China, so the average size must be massive. And were are these stores? A few are in cities that most westerners have heard of; three in Shanghai and two in Beijing, but many are in places that are far less likely to be on the tip of the average North American's tongue.

How many people have heard of Chengdu, Dailian, Ningbo, or Wuxi?  

Many North American business people probably have a similar level of ignorance about the major cities in India, or the fact that of the 10 largest malls in the world two are in China, two are in Iran, three in Malaysia, and two are in the Philippines. Canada's West Edmonton Mall sneaks in at number 14 and the United States arrives on the list at number 20 with King of Prussia. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_shopping_malls_in_the_world)

The demographic in a nutshell

Advertisement for Kwantlen Polytechnic University on the Vancouver SkyTrain

Whenever I take the SkyTrain I see lots of advertisements for post-secondary institutions. No, I tell a lie. About half of the advertisements are for post-secondary institutions.

What sort of message are these advertisements sending? Get an education and then you won't be stuck on this bloody train? You'll get a good job and be able to afford a car?

Of course the other side of the picture may be that perhaps we are in the midst of a slight baby bust and the post-secondary institutions are scrambling for every student they can find.

But the reality is someone has done some research and discovered that the people who take public transit are interested in post-secondary education. And it is always best to advertise where the audience is.

On a side note it is interesting that I don't think that I've ever seen any advertisements from the University of British Columbia. The university is oversubscribed and does not need to advertise to attract students.

Handcrafted where?

Tacori advertisement from Elle, September 2014

Tacori advertisement from Elle, September 2014 (Detail)

For some reason, "Handcrafted in California" has some appeal. When I think of handcrafted, California does not leap to mind. Italy, perhaps, France, a likely choice. California, not so much. 

But some market research must have identified this as a selling point. Just not for the likes of me.

Another retailer that knows its customers very well

Apple Pay logo Source: apple.com

Whole Foods Market has announced that it plans to be among the first US retailer to implement the new Apple Pay mobile payment system. (Source: http://www.planetretail.net/NewsAndInsight/Article/90108?WT.tsrc=Email&WT.mc_id=GlobalRetailNewsInsight&SendDate=10092014)

Given the demographic of the Whole Foods' customers, rich and educated, it is not surprising that this technology might be attractive to Whole Foods. If it speeds up the payment process it might also have the beneficial side effects of increasing customer throughput at the cash register and reducing labour costs.

It will be interesting to see how Apple Pay rolls out across the US retail landscape. Who will be the early adopters, higher end retailers or those with the bigger IT budgets?

A camera that changed the world

Google Street View vehicle in Vancouver, September 6, 2014

The "Street View" camera under a shroud

Google's Street View has changed so mane areas of modern business. For real estate buyers the neighbourhood is no longer a mystery. They can see that the house next door has a front yard filled with abandoned cars on blocks.

But the usefulness of Street View is dependent on the photos being up to date. In a fast changing city such as Vancouver, this is critical. The street of quaint 1960s houses could all be gone tomorrow.

So, seeing this Ontario-registered vehicle in Vancouver tells me that the Vancouver Street View photographs are due for an update very soon.

When is $3 not $3?

Happy Hour sign at The Cactus Club Cafe

The province of British Columbia recently relaxed its liquor regulations. Happy Hour, reduced liquor prices for a few hours before the peak after-work drinking period, are not legal.

In theory, reduced prices will lead to more business and the $3 Happy Hour beverage is a great deal for people looking to drink on the cheap.

But according to this sign, outside the Cactus Club Cafe location on Broadway in Vancouver, the prices during the "$3 Happy Hour" could be $3, $3.50 or even $4.

Nothing like confusing the customers.

A reason to avoid transit advertising?

Advertisement for Metrotown in the Granville SkyTrain station

The fine print of the end of the "Win your Summer Style" poster 

I've mentioned before that transit advertising has a reputation for not being the most up to date. I saw this on August 30th. The contest closed over 6 weeks earlier, but the advertisements are still up in the SkyTrain stations.

This sort of sloppiness achieves two goals. It pisses off the people who see the advertisements and can't enter the contest, and it tells other advertisers that the demand for transit ads is so low that their ads will remain up long after their useful date.

Neither are great options.