Retailers want to sell you gadgets, buy them back later, and then sell them again

Isn’t this what is commonly referred to as a lease?

Rogers said that brick-and-mortar retailers increasingly feel threatened by online commerce and are strategizing ways to keep consumers coming through the doors. Best Buy’s program, for one, requires customers to come into the store to sell back products.

“The brick-and-mortar, big-box retail store is experiencing some difficulty these days,” said Rogers. “It’s real easy to buy online, so these buyback programs are really a great way to get you into the store.”

Under Best Buy’s program, the consumer who buys a gadget pays an upfront fee, which varies on the type of product, to participate and is guaranteed a resale price of 10 percent to 50 percent of the item’s original price. Most gadgets, except for televisions, have to be sold back within two years to qualify for a resale. Televisions have a four-year window for re-sale.

Best Buy then resells the products through its outlet center, through other online channels, or recycles them. Read more…

I actually laughed at those commercials when they first came out. The person is there with their brand new piece of electronic equipment that they just bought, and they see an ad for the next model of electronic equipment that effectively makes theirs obsolete. Obsolescence is not non-functional…the equipment still works, but it is no longer the latest. This is going to happen no matter what. Until we get programmable matter or claytronics this will be a fact of electronic life. If, like me, you tend to use your electronics until they either break or are no longer able to run the programs out there you want them to, then the inevitability of obsolescence won’t really bother you. If obsolescence does bother you then programs like the one at Best Buy are good news.

Has Facebook Killed Your Brand’s Personality?

Everybody uses the same tools, with the same goals, to the same audience…competition. Just like NASCAR: the same basic car (yes, there are minor differences but the overall effect is the creation of the same car) same aerodynamics, same power, same fuel, same tires, etc. The difference is the skill of the driver and team.

I’m as big an advocate as anyone when it comes to marketers using social media to engage their customers.  In fact, I’d challenge you to point to a major brand that hasn’t jumped on the bandwagon.  I can tell you that my own agency built social media strategies into nearly every communications plan we developed for our clients in 2010.  Yet, despite all of the momentum in the space, one thing has been gnawing at me—regardless of the platform, brands are all starting to look the same.

The proliferation of Facebook combined with the continued integration of other ubiquitous social media platforms, including Flickr, Twitter, Youtube as well as common promotional platforms such as Wildfire, ShareThis and Shoutlet, are making brands virtually indistinguishable. Read more…

If all cars wanted to be as aerodynamic as possible, they would all look the same: elongated teardrops with large rear overhangs and small front overhangs. With a fuel sipping engine under the hood they’d be great on gas mileage but not much to look at or drool over. The answer is to make them as aerodynamic as their hype needs and use what’s left to individualize themselves. Facebook is one thing and one thing only, despite what they say: it is a place to meet people like you whom you ordinarily would not have met for one reason or another. Yes, you can keep in touch with your family, but they have their own circles as well.

A business wants to be everyone’s friend because they want you to buy or use their product(s). A seafood place may be warm and friendly but their focus is seafood. Any other seafood place that is warm and friendly will basically be the same no matter the differences in menu. That is not a bad thing. For all their differences, humans are very much the same: the same basic body layout, the same parts (with minor variations), and the same basic needs (air, water, food, shelter). No two people are exactly alike, however…even identical twins have differences. They will have different friends because there is a spark in one that is in a different place in the other, and the location of the spark creates the attraction. I guess the easiest way to say it is that while Wendy’s, McDonald’s, and Burger King are basically the same thing, fans will claim otherwise…vociferously.

Phone Carriers Tout Tool to Stop Texting and Driving

I still don’t understand how this works. It seems to me that these two are mutually exclusive; unlike a call, which requires ears, texting requires the same major sense that driving does…vision.

Distracted driving is a big worry for many parents, but one start-up is betting that its technology will help alleviate some of those concerns. California-based Location Labs is selling a tool that detects when the phone is in a moving car and limits the owner’s ability to make calls and texts.

The system locks the driver’s cellphone screen, redirects calls to voicemail, blocks text message alerts and lets parents log on via the Web and see what is happening with the device while the teen is driving. In case of emergencies, parents can set three key contacts who are allowed to get through. And teens can override the system if they’re a passenger rather than a driver, but Location Labs will alert their parents when that happens. Read more…

Texting also requires at least one of your hands but in this day and age of the automatic transmission (the “flappy-paddle” is an automatic that waits for you to tell it to shift) you pretty much only need one hand to keep the vehicle on the road. To stay on the road safely, IMHO, requires two hands, but many would no doubt argue with that as typically the inboard hand (right hand with left-hand drive vehicles and vice-versa in Great Britain) is used for shifting gears, windshield wiper controls and anything else that does not require a hand on it at all times. The outboard hand is, of course, typically occupied with the steering wheel.

In all fairness, teens aren’t the only ones for whom this system should be active. My problems are: when will this become mandatory on mobile phones and what’s to stop a spouse or girlfriend/boyfriend from installing this on an “I Love You” gift phone?