Jul
9
2010
We’ve grown up to view online business reviews and recommendations as something that gets accumulated into organized sources of browsable content. TripAdvisor and Yelp represent two highly successful cases-in-point of the power of critical mass to reviews.
The dominating model of shopping behavior goes something like this…
search > initial select > search again for opinion to test your decision > transact
As noted in Search Engine Watch, “the search continues because search engines aren’t the consumer’s most trusted source of advice”. As we all know, we’re spending more and more time socially connected. This creates a new whole stepping off point for shopping behavior. In theory, the potential exists to invert the experience and infuse trust and recommendations into the front end of shopping.
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Apr
5
2010
A few people have been asking about my thoughts on GroupOn. This post presents some general observations on their business model and the impact on local promotion marketing. Soon, I’ll take a look at how we view and apply this learning in our business model at Closely.
As a consumer, and as an entrepreneur, I love GroupOn. They have build real velocity into a large market need and space, executing exceptionally well on a quality business model. I also am impressed how they have backed their brand strategy with real attention to customer service. For those not familiar with GroupOn, explore here.
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Mar
16
2010
You may know I’ve been working on a new start-up for the past 6 months, pretty much heads down – stealth by default, not design. Actually we’ve been very active in our market, just totally focused on product, not business cards or websites!
In a couple of days, we’ll be taking the wraps off. We’ve been chosen to launch at the DEMO Conference, which is a great venue to jump off the ledge with new products. I’ve done this once before; it’s a pretty intense and fun launch pad!
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