The 6 Biggest Takeaways From Amazon’s Dash Button

Here is an article about Amazon's Dash Button, where the author lists out a few takeaways from the new product.

While some folks may find the product/service to be intrusive, I actually do not mind a little extra convenience that's being offered.  With work already consuming a significant portion of my time, having that extra bit of convenience to get things when I need them is really valuable.  It is either that, or make those late evening trips to nearby Walgreens.  So I think it is a very smart marketing strategy from Amazon to connect the digital eCommerce world with the everyday needs.

Full article here:

Amazon's Dash Button is set to take the future of e-commerce by storm. What can we expect from the new technology?

When Amazon unveiled its new Dash Button, which places an order for a specific product with just one press — people thought it was an April Fool’s joke. But while the promotional video Amazon released felt a bit playful, and the concept seemed maybe a tad ridiculous, the truth of the matter is that the Dash Button is real, and it’s well on its way to becoming a household item.

While everyone’s been out arguing about whether or not the button’s ever going to catch on, scarcely anyone has stopped to really pick the thing apart to create some useful takeaways. For instance, is there such a thing too much convenience? Or does the Dash Button demonstrate the opposite? With a product like the Dash Button it’s important for us to step back and take a deeper look, because the biggest insights are often hidden in the details. As it turns out, some of the most downplayed aspects of this new technology might actually tell us most about Amazon’s intentions and, in turn, the future of e-commerce.

1. The Biggest Takeaway Is…Not the Button

While it’s been rolled out as a revolutionary new product in its own right, Amazon has a very clear-cut growth plan for its Dash Button. With the Dash Replenishment Service, which Amazon unveiled alongside the Button itself, they provide an API for smart devices. This means that eventually, any smart device will be able to implement an "order more" option within its own interface.

While the Amazon Dash Button is a great first step toward this, the Dash Replenishment API represents the real future of the Amazon Dash Button, and I’m excited to see how brands will take advantage of it in the coming months.

2. There’s No Pricing Display

The design of Amazon’s Dash Button is brilliant in that you can easily understand its function just by looking at it. All it takes is one glance at the bold branding and prominent white circle to know that this is clearly a "push-to-order" button.

Conspicuously missing from the Dash Button, though, is any sort of pricing display. It may have been more expensive to produce, but Amazon could have easily included a price readout to show how much the item’s going to cost the customer. Still, the lack of display is actually a huge win for Amazon and retailers who want to encourage impulse buys. By sending customers the details of their transactions after the fact, it allows sellers to convert first, and answer questions later.

3. Mastering the Recurring Purchase

One of the most striking features of the Amazon Dash Button is how specific it is. For starters, the entire button is boldly branded, meaning that frequent users of the button will become loyal to one particular business whether they like it or not. This specificity is important for other reasons, too: In its ad messaging, Amazon doubles down on recurring minor purchases, and even goes so far as to name off the specific scenarios where it sees the button working best, namely, the "kitchen, bath, laundry, or anywhere you store your favorite products."

In addition to encouraging more regular purchases, the focus on recurring transactions has a second implication for Amazon — it could pave the way for all-new brand partnerships and revenue opportunities.

4. Knocking Down the Barriers to Entry

It’s unclear whether the Amazon Dash Button will cost money in the future, but for now, Amazon Prime members can get up to three of them for no charge. This extremely low barrier of entry makes the Dash Button at least worth trying out for Prime users who have products they like to replenish on a regular basis. This will be a key factor for these types of systems in the future – the lower the entry point, the more likely they’ll be to catch on.

5. Friction Can Always Get Lower

A lot can happen in a year’s time, and it’s worth noting that last year Amazon went for something similar to the Dash Button when it announced its AmazonFresh Dash system. Similar to the Dash Button, the device allowed users to place quick orders from home, but its functionality was entirely different. First of all, users had to scan or speak their desired items into the device, which would then add them to an online shopping list. From there, the customer would log into their Amazon account and place their final order.

While this would seem to make the shopping-from-home process extremely easy, the Amazon Dash Button is a sign that perhaps the original Dash device wasn’t quite frictionless enough. So there’s a lesson: Regardless of how much we streamline the purchasing process, there can always be less transactional friction.

6. Dash Button as Stepping Stone

As of now, it’s difficult for me to view the Dash Button as anything but a first step toward something greater. The button itself is full of little flaws: For instance, most recurring purchases, like toilet paper or shampoo or toothpaste, are for items that you need right now. There will be many situations in which even an expedited delivery won’t be fast enough for the customer, and for those situations, the button will fail. The better application is for smart devices. In the use case they offer for the Dash Replenishment Service, Amazon talks up a coffee maker that tracks the amount of beans, and offers a "buy more beans" button for customers when the supply is running low.

Even though this tech is already available for retailers, it seems to undermine the usefulness of the button itself. Still, if there’s one thing we take from Amazon’s new Dash Button — it’s the potential that this tech can offer when we pair it with smart devices in the home.

U.S. Digital Display Ad Spend Shifting Toward Facebook and Twitter

No surprise here, a new research from eMarketer shows that Facebook and Twitter are growing their share of the digital display ad  revenues in the US.  With their dominance in mobile based applications, Facebook and Twitter are growing at the expenses of Yahoo and Google.  Lots of good stats about the market share of digital display here.  It will be interesting to see how Google and Yahoo respond in the coming years.

New research from eMarketer shows that Facebook and Twitter together will account for approximately 34 percent of U.S. digital display ad revenues by 2017, while Google and Yahoo’s share will decline.

Facebook and Twitter combined will represent approximately one-third (34 percent) of U.S. digital display ad revenues by 2017, while Google and Yahoo's share will dip, according to eMarketer. The shifting numbers show that marketers are putting more of their ad spend toward the social networks, perhaps in an effort to reach much-desired younger demographics.

The new research predicts that U.S. digital display ad expenditure will reach $37.36 billion in 2017, up nearly 38 percent from 2015. Facebook will take around 27 percent of the pool, compared to 25.2 percent in 2015.

Meanwhile, Twitter will surpass Yahoo in total U.S. digital display ad revenues for the first time in 2015, and its market share will increase from 5 percent to 6.8 percent in 2017, reaching $2.54 billion, estimateseMarketer.

But while Facebook and Twitter are seeing a robust growth in display advertising, Google and Yahoo are falling behind.

Throughout the forecast period, Google will maintain the second place behind Facebook, but its market share will drop from 13 percent this year to 11 percent in 2017. During the same period, Yahoo's share will decline from 4.6 percent to 3.5 percent, according to the research.

Both Facebook's and Twitter's gains are driven by mobile, says eMarketer. The company projects that for the first time this year, mobile ($14.67 billion) will surpass desktop ($12.38 billion) in U.S. digital display ad expenditure.

And by 2017, according to the research, Facebook's U.S. mobile ad revenues will reach around $7.53 billion, a more than 50 percent jump from this year. By then, Twitter and Google will be neck and neck, as the social platform's U.S. mobile ad revenues will double, reaching $2.29 billion.

Facebook Lets Marketers See What Users Talk About With Topic Data

Facebook has teamed up with DataSift to allow marketers access to its topic data about specific things people post on Facebook, such as activities, events and brand names.

This creates visibility into real time activities of the users and would allow advertisers gain insights in user activities and potentially increase the ROI on future campaigns.  To protect consumer privacy (and perhaps not pushing the boundary), Facebook does not allow marketers to target ads directly.  However, it does establish highly relevant connections between the advertisers and Facebook users, which may help with new design / product / trend ideas.  I'm all for product improvement.

Full article below:

In collaboration with DataSift, which can access and scale Facebook's pipeline of data, the social media giant can provide marketers with insights about specific topics users are posting about.

Facebook, in partnership with social data platform DataSift, is allowing marketers access to its Topic Data about specific things people post on Facebook, such as activities, events, and brand names.

Now, brands can see how people on the platform are talking about them, their competitors, and their industries in general. More specifically, a fashion company, for example, can see which particular items are resonating with consumers, giving the retailer an idea of merchandise to stock. Similarly, an athletic apparel company can see which types of exercise people are talking about, guiding which activities the brand will have its models do in advertisements on the platform.

While this type of data was available in the past, the sample size was rarely big enough for marketers to get much insight about the audience or its demographics.

"When marketers have a deeper understanding of people and what they're interested in, they can create more relevant experiences for their audience," says Nick Nyhan, chief executive (CEO) of British agency WPP's Data Alliance.

While Facebook's Topic Data provides guidance to marketers, it doesn't allow them to target ads directly. And to protect consumers' privacy, the data Facebook shares is anonymous and aggregated, and doesn't disclose any of its users' personal information.

Mark Flaharty, executive vice president of advertising at online video platform SundaySky, isn't quite sure how marketers can apply the information gleaned from the data at scale, but he believes Facebook's latest enhancement builds on the capabilities of paid search.

He uses an accountant who advertises on Facebook as an example. The accountant may have traditionally allocated the bulk of his marketing spend toward search - a market he says is extremely valuable, if somewhat saturated - but would be wise to move some of those dollars toward Topic Data because Facebook is where his potential customers are.

"What really resonates with me more is that this is a way for brands to be entered into the conversation on a more regular basis," Flaharty says. "A lot of people don't go to Google to find an accountant. People reach out to their dramatically growing circle of friends on social media." With the availability of Topic Data, brands can know that their industry is being mentioned by consumers and act on it wisely.

For the time being, Topic Data is available to select Facebook-approved DataSift partners in the U.S. and U.K.

Email Marketers Are the New Keymasters of Digital Experience

Here's an article from Click Z about email marketing campaign.  The artcile goes on to argue that email marketing is not going anywhere and remains the highest ROI channel of digital marketing.

I think a good email marketing campaign requires short messages (subject title) that catches the users attention right away, with underlying content direct and to the point.  In my opinion an effective marketing email should probably be no different than social media marketing in that sense.  In addition, based on my experience the frequency of the emails should be limited where it is not too many to become annoying or disruptive to the overall effort.

Full article below:

Email marketing isn't going anywhere. In fact, it's becoming more important than ever, as it increasingly gives marketers the means for creating digital engagements and tracking their efficacy.

It's a great time to be an email marketer. While email has been overshadowed by flashier emerging marketing channels for some time, a new perspective on its role in facilitating cross-channel digital marketing puts it right back into the limelight. One of the most popular discussions taking place among marketers is how email addresses themselves can be the key to understanding and reaching individuals across an ever-broadening set of digital interaction channels.

At a recent industry event, Brian Anderson of LUMA Partners spoke about "The Changing Digital Marketing Technology Landscape." Anderson affirmed once again that email is the highest ROI channel and shared insight into how email’s value extends well beyond direct ROI. He described how a person’s email address is now the "connective tissue" that enables marketers and advertisers to coordinate multi-channel, multi-stage marketing engagements.

Leading marketers now understand the value of an email address is not just in opening up a line of communication with a customer; it's also as an effective means for targeting and attribution across alternate digital channels.

Even more recently, Dave Hendricks, president of LiveIntent, pondered the question "Is Email the Missing Link?" One of his most salient points was this: "The most important element of email seems to be the least exciting to so many current email marketers: the data." The email address itself, and the behavioral data associated with it, are incredibly valuable in ways outside of the traditional email communication channel. Their use in media and advertising is now emerging, where smart email marketers need to start thinking differently about their email data.

Email marketers must recognize their new role across the wider organization and the critical new part they now play in improving customer experience and engagement. While most email marketers have long been obsessed with the results driven through the channel, there are now new areas where they can focus their time and energy.

List Building Beyond the Permission

Since the dawn of email, marketers have been obsessed with securing permission to engage consumers through the channel – getting to that critical opt-in. While this core fact is unchanged, the email address now plays a broader and very valuable new role within your organization. Even if some consumers prefer not to engage with your email communications, their email addresses can still be the key to reaching them. Building custom audiences in Facebook, tying together behavioral data from a variety of sources, or figuring out how multi-channel interactions are impacting your customer engagements, can all be done based on that key email address held within your systems. Managing an email list can deliver incredible value to your organization, even if that person never happens to engage with a single email.

Cross-Functional Leadership

Many of today’s marketing organizations are still highly siloed in their approaches and execution. Now more than ever, it’s critical to break down these internal silos and create true cross-channel orchestration to improve how we interact with our customers. As the holder of a key piece of information, email marketers are in a perfect position to lead us to this new coordinated future, where email address can be used to target display ads, tie together behavioral data, or even send a targeted offer.

Building Cross-Channel Contextual Data

"Context," along with developing contextual marketing engagements, is shaping up as a key theme of 2015 for most marketing departments. Building a contextual understanding of consumers, and engaging with them on their terms, is changing how companies interact with, and create value for, customers.

Understanding true customer context requires bringing many types of data together, from a wide variety of sources. Context for a customer is comprised both of the disposition and situation of the individual consumer, as well as the disposition and situation of your business at the time of engagement (see image below). Email marketers need to develop true contextual insights and understand that the email address is the key to bringing the required data together.

Social Media: 15 Ways You’re Doing It Wrong

Here is an article on common mistakes made during social media marketing.  If done correctly, social media marketing can be a big game changer and incredibly effective way to attract the attention of target audience. 

The list is as follows:

1. You Don’t Have a Plan
2. You’re Working Alone
3. You’re Not a Writer
4. You’re Spread Too Thin
5. You’re a One-Trick Pony
6. You’re Not Posting in Real-Time
7. You’re Not Being Yourself
8. You’re Not Listening
9. You’re Erratic
10. You’re Careless
11. You’re No Fun
12. You’re as Bland as Milk Toast
13. You’re Not Sharing Any Pictures
14. You’re Not Paying to Play
15. You’re Ignoring the Numbers

While most of the examples are quite obvious and also useful outside of social media marketing, I did find #7 to be a helpful suggestion.  I agree that transparency and authenticity are not an option on social media.  Win friends and influence people with refreshing candor and put a face on your brand every step of the way.  That's how a digital marketing effort can truly connect with the users.

Full article here:

http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2396567/social-media-15-ways-you-re-doing-it-wrong

Big Data in China Is a Big Deal

Here's an article on big data potentials in China, where about 250 million Chinese spend around $275 billion each year on internet shopping.  Companies such as Alibaba has been using sophisticated computer models to tailor the shopping experience for the users.  And to one's surprise, big data is a big deal and users in China should be expected even more targeted digital marketing going forward.  Unfortunately the market is domininated by Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, thus protecting the domestic players from their foreign competitors.

Full article below:

Big data means different things in different regions – in China retailers are finding ways to make it useful.

One thing Western brands have learned from expansion into the East is that Chinese shoppers are a discerning consumer group. They want genuine quality – fake items are no longer acceptable, value (demonstrated by Single's Days' record-shattering sales levels), and VIP treatment.

They also spend a lot of money, with around 250 million of them parting with approximately $275 billion each year for Internet purchases alone. That’s a massive 60 percent of all online purchases in Asia.

It’s a hugely significant retail market, and key to leveraging its potential is the intelligent use of the wealth of data gathered each time a shopper researches a product, visits a store, or makes a purchase.

"Big data" is often a loaded term – it can mean different things to different people, depending on the industry. But retailers have gone some way toward pinning it down and making it useful. 

Targeting With Precision 

Perhaps the most important – and profitable – use of consumer data is extracting preferences and patterns of purchase and using the information to offer highly targeted value-added services and products.

For example, Alibaba’s Open Data Processing Service (ODPS), has allowed it to analyze millions of transactions and set up a highly effective loan service for small online businesses. Data from Alipay and Alibaba’s shopping sites, including purchases, reviews, and credit ratings, assesses a borrower’s ability to repay a loan.

The use of more than 100 computing models and around 80 billion data entries has allowed Alibaba to reduce the cost of lending to a fraction of the cost of a traditional bank loan.

Of course, this kind of accuracy in consumer targeting opens the door to clienteling and the personalized service customers in China are looking for – the ability to identify with precision the needs and wants of people looking for a superior service.

For a small fee, retailers can use the might of the ODPS’ processing power to identify trends, pinpoint key demographics, and plan future ranges and campaigns aimed to meet the exact requirements of their customers. 

Tracking Rogue Traders 

Concern over counterfeit products means that consumers are prepared to pay a premium for genuine Western items, and will choose online stores such as TMall, which have a reputation for trading in authentic brands. However, the proliferation of fake goods is still a problem, and businesses are turning to big data to help tackle the issue. Following a report by the Chinese government, an e-commerce union comprising key online firms has been established, designed to pool vendor data in an attempt to identify rogue traders through their online shops, transactions, and other sales activity.

The amount of detailed information available to sales platforms should, in theory, mean that there is simply nowhere left to hide for sellers with less than scrupulous product standards. 

Transfer of Intelligence 

According to the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the three biggest players in China’s online industry, known as "BAT" (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) are "sitting on a goldmine of big data."

The potential for cross-industry application is huge – data integration and mining between retail and financial institutions, for example, will drive the future of both online and physical commerce.

Tapping into the skills and experience of BAT – Baidu alone has thousands of analysts assessing data every day – will give retailers and other industries unprecedented accuracy in profiling the people buying their products and using their services, rich in both detail and opportunity.

The bottom line is that, especially for retailers, big data is a big deal. Expect to see even more sophisticated targeting models and customer-centric business operations coming from China over the next year, thanks to the intelligent use of information.

Samsung TV is eavesdropping on your private conversations

Here's a digital marketing news that caught my attention:  apparently a number of Samsung's "SmartTVs" come equipped with voice recogniziation which allows the TV to listen in on your conversations.  Samsung not only sends the voice commands to a third-party whothen analyzes the captured speech, but also performs certain analytics themselves.

According to Samsung, the goal of analysis is to help make improvements on the feature.  But at the same time, I can't help but to think that such valuable information may also be used in various digital marketing campaigns to benefit Samsung's future sales.  What is even more annoying is that even if the user opts out of the voice command feature, the voice commands will still be captured.

Luckily I don't have a Samsung SmartTV and now will not be getting one.  And even if I do, I will not be using the voice recognition feature, ever.  I want my TV to be "dumb" and one directional.  There's a fine line between helpful data gathering / digital marketing, and becoming too "smart" for your own good, and Samsung has crossed that line in my opinion.

Full article below: http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/09/technology/security/samsung-smart-tv-privacy/index.html

Be careful what you say in front of your Samsung TV. It's listening to you.

Many Samsung "SmartTVs" come equipped with voice recognition, which allows you to bark commands at your TV. Since the television is always listening for your voice, Samsung has warned its SmartTV customers that every word is being captured and sent over the Internet.

"Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice Recognition," Samsung posted in its SmartTV privacy policy.

Okay, that's pretty creepy.

Samsung says it needs to send your voice commands to a third-party, because that company converts your speech to text. But Samsung also collects your voice commands to perform research and determine whether it needs to make improvements to the feature.

Samsung noted that a microphone appears on the screen when the voice recognition feature is turned on, notifying customers that their voice is being captured. You can opt-out of the SmartTV voice recognition feature.

But even if you opt out, your voice commands will still be captured. The SmartTV has a set of pre-programmed commands that it recognizes even if you opt out of voice recognition. Samsung will collect the text of those pre-programmed voice commands (though not your voice itself) and analyze how much you're using certain commands.

"Samsung does not retain voice data or sell it to third parties," the company said in a statement. "If a consumer consents and uses the voice recognition feature ... the voice data is sent to a server, which searches for the requested content then returns the desired content to the TV."

Samsung did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the identity of the third party or whether that company records the voice data.

Here's an article about Facebook's new feature "Place Tips", where the Company will use signals from cellular networks, Wi-Fi, as well as GPS and beacons to deliver location-based recommendations and information to users' News Feeds. 

I think this is an ingenious move by Facebook to effectively compete with likes of Foursquare and Yelp in location-based search/discovery market.  With its existing dominance in social media, this is a natural migration towards new growth markets and leverage off its existing subscriber base.  From a competition perspective, it is also a good time to get into the market before some of these guys become the next Facebook.

Full article below:

The social media giant’s new feature will deliver location-based content for businesses.

Facebook is testing a new feature called "Place Tips," where the company will use signals from cellular networks, Wi-Fi, as well as GPS and beacons to deliver location-based recommendations and information to users' News Feeds. According to many in the industry, the move may enable the platform to compete with other local search and discovery services like Foursquare and Yelp.

Now, when iPhone users tap on "Place Tips" in the top of their News Feed, they can see content from a business' Facebook page along with what their friends have shared about that place, such as popular menu items and upcoming events. Users have the option to opt out of "Place Tips" by turning off location services on the Facebook app.

In the coming weeks, Facebook will enable "Place Tips" for eight businesses in New York City that have installed beacons, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dominique Ansel Bakery, Strand Book Store, the burger joint at Le Parker Meridien Hotel, Brooklyn Bowl, Pianos, the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop, and Veselka.

The pilot program also includes the use of other location signals at larger places including Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, and JFK Airport.

"I think it's a big plus for traditional brick-and-mortar based businesses. [And] it would be something to watch very closely and start testing if a brand is already relying on things like Yelp to drive business," says Josiah Humphrey, co-chief executive at app developer Appster. "I don't want to scream 'Yelp-killer' but Facebook definitely has the user base to make a play here, maybe even carve out a potentially new revenue stream."

It's also interesting to see Facebook delving into beacon marketing, as one of the obstacles to the mass adoption of beacons is that businesses have to develop their own apps to leverage the technology. But now if brands use Facebook's "Place Tips," they can avoid this issue.

"Everyone has Facebook and most are using it primarily on mobile devices, making Facebook's reach via this technology vastly better than most custom app capabilities," says Derek Browers, vice president of product and client relations at MomentFeed, a location-based marketing platform. "So now Facebook is piloting the ability for brands to leverage their beacons to target consumers in and around [their] locations, making Facebook location pages much more important and more critical than ever before."

However, Chris Damron, chief innovation officer at BeaconStream, argues that brands may still want to develop their own apps, rather than using the platform's "Place Tips."

"Many retailers may not want to give advertising control to a third-party application such as Facebook, which works through its own big advertising channels," Damron tells ClickZ.

He continues that as Facebook rolls out "Place Tips," advertisers will now have to take proximity into consideration.

"The value proposition behind beacons is to deliver relevant content at the most crucial moment. Businesses will have to design their ads to lure in a consumer that could be within walking distance into their establishment, meaning ads must be designed within the context of a new mindset," he explains. "If consumers are in a mall or shopping district, they are already primed to make a purchase. What offer or piece of information will trigger them to take action now?"

Currently "Place Tips" is free for businesses; Facebook has not disclosed if it will monetize the service in the future.

Social Media Will Have 5.4M More Users by 2016

Interesting stats in this article:

There are nearly 180 million Americans who use social media, and there will be 5.4 million more users by next year, according to data from eMarketer. The market research firm looked at the number of users on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr, comparing the numbers from 2013 through 2015 and predicting those for 2016.

The article further breaks down the usage by age groups.  For example, one of the predictions is that by next year, there will be 4.9 million social network users younger than 12, a number that will have consistently increased by 300,000 over the previous years. With 3 million users, this demographic is most active on Facebook. eMarketer predicts that number to increase incrementally, though the youngest Americans' presence on Pinterest and Tumblr will stagnate.

Not sure how others feel, but a 9 year old chatting away on Facebook?  What's wrong with that picture?

Bud Light Offering Delivery Service Just in Time for the Super Bowl

There is an article from ClickZ that talks about Anheuser-Busch's plan to introduce a home delivery service for its Bud Light brand (already rolling out in the DC area). The "Bud Light Button" is a new app that allows users to order drinks on their smartphones.  Anheuser-Busch has made enjoying a Bud Light during the Super Bowl easier than ever by creating a new app that allows Android users to order beer delivery on smartphones.  iOS version to come.  Customers can use the app to order between one and 100 cases of Budweiser or Bud Light and expect delivery in an hour or less.  The Bud Light Button relieves a major pain point for consumer: missing key moments of the big game to make a beer run.

It may seem like a good idea to a lot of the folks and I am certain an enormous amount of research was invested in the idea and the execution of it.  But to me, other than the last quarter of these games, some of the most memorable moments of past super bowl parties involved "beer runs" with friends.  Why take the fun out of it?

We will find out if it is a good idea or not in about a week...

Link to the original article