Using a very intuitive and exciting tool called AppMakr, we were able to develop this app in less than a day and deploy it to the iTunes App Store within a week. Now it’s time to see the user reviews trickle in!

iPhone and iPod Touch Users	No iPhone?
Download from the App Store	Play with the App Online

• "Want to lose one million more jobs?  Just keep talking."

The ad is by the U.S. Travel Association and promotes the website Meetings Mean Business.

This ad really resonates with me.  Business is best achieved by in-person conversations, not email, not web meetings, and definitely not Second Life.  I preach this at our company often as our CEO.  In the age of BlackBerrys, iPhones, and Android, you have to struggle to remember that relationships are fostered in-person.  Most communication should occur that way, especially within a company.  Email is best for mass-distribution messages or very quick yes/no responses.  I would use IM over email any day of the week for a real-time conversation.  Even Facebook messenger is better than email, for the simple reason of having my face and the recipient's face IN the message, making it more personal.  The problem with many executive teams and CEOs is a lack of humility, and it is simply harder to be a jerk in person.  Email masks many cultural problems.

I remember watching Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, on CNBC while he was at the World Economic Forum in Davos.  I remember him ranting about his fellow CEOs of financial services companies not being there.  Being "in the bunker" instead.  Not doing their part to get their companies back on track, with the impact their CEOs could have at such an important event.  I couldn't agree with him more.  Don't be in the bunker. Business gets done in person. As Andy Grove wrote in one of my favorites, High-Output Management, meetings are the medium of management.

I understand how tough the economy is, but those that didn't show at Shop.org's Strategy & Innovation Forum, where attendance was way down as compared to last year's event, really missed out.  We had our best content ever (I serve on the Board of Directors and was very proud of how educational the content was this year).  At least you can read the blog entries.

I hope to see you at our Summit this April in Austin.  It is our single best training event of the year.  You will make far more impact in your company as a result of attending it, and the little money you spend on travel to attend will be an afterthought as a result.  Executives last year told me that it was the most actionable conference they attended all year.

And here's Jamie Dimon on the economy.  I think he's the real deal, and I'm listening to his interviews carefully:

Click here to view the embedded video.

While all of the findings are of interest (mobile, widgets, personalization, etc.), this year I was most struck by three big trends:

•  The global traffic share gains of YouTube, Facebook, Hi5, Wikipedia, and Orkut – all making the global top-10 for the first time.  I remember when Time selected "You" as the "Person of the Year" for their Dec. 2006 cover.  They may have called it too early.  Social connection online has truly arrived.  The growth of these sites are staggering, highlighting the power of community, user-generated content, and word of mouth online.
• The share gain of Amazon.com relative to large, multichannel retailers.  They led the way with customer reviews over 10 years ago, and have become a Wikipedia of sorts for broad, product-focused reviews.  And they continue to innovate at a staggering pace, spending over $3 billion per year on R&D.
• The uncharted territory we are in with the recession, truly making this our most important presidential election in history.  Although Bazaarvoice is growing at a very fast pace, beating our financial projections repeatedly, we are also cautious and watching the economy closely.  And I know that most, if not all, of our clients and partners are doing the same.

In case you missed the link above, you can read the full report here.

And if you have some more time this weekend, you may also want to check out Steve Jobs' recent keynote on the iPhone 2.  While I carry a BlackBerry myself (my wife carries an iPhone), the power of the iPhone's new programming language (and SDK) to deploy corporate applications as well as the new AppStore (reminds me of Salesforce.com's AppExchange) signal a new type of Apple.  With these moves, they are embracing being an "open" platform and focusing on B2B at the same time.  This should lead to an accelerated adoption of Macs in corporations, as the iPhone uses the same OS and user behavior historically shuns change (or seeks familiarity; heck this is human behavior not just 'user' behavior).  In any case, his keynote may lead you to believe that the iPhone 2 will be the dominant mobile computing platform for corporations in our near-term future.

We had the pleasure of hosting Andy Sernovitz, the founder of WOMMA and a Bazaarvoice Advisory Board member, at our office a few weeks ago. Andy gave a lunch presentation to our team, and something he said really struck me: “Advertising is the tax companies pay to sell poor products”. Google, Starbucks, and many other brave companies decided to buck the formula and invest in the product instead of “brand imagery” (i.e., advertising). Andy has countless examples, and wrote a fantastic book on the subject that has been endorsed by the likes of Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki, two of my favorite authors.

And then I met with a large apparel company a week later that is afraid of reviews. Prospect: “We tell the consumer how they should think about our products”. Prospect: “A hip woman in NYC may be turned off by a woman in Topeka, Kansas writing a review on a trendy fashion”. I’ll save you my lengthy and impassioned response.

As I write this, I'm on my flight back from London after spending a week in our UK office, speaking at the e-consultancy conference and meeting with prospects, partners, and press. And tomorrow is the 4th, so I'm feeling kind of revolutionary. So, here is my take on how advertising will evolve.

First, I would modify Andy’s quote: “At its best, advertising is a reinforcement for positive word of mouth, and it reminds a customer to buy”. Think about it for a moment. Do you remember most ads? Of course not. We all selectively filter information based on relevance to us at that point in time. But if you are shopping for a new phone-PDA, like I was recently when my phone broke, you are likely to call an expert. In this case, I called Michael Osborne, who is a gadget nut (check out his Bazaarblog post on the iPhone). He recommended the BlackBerry 8800 for a number of reasons: 1. call quality, 2. ease of use, 3. sexiness, and 4. built-in GPS. The last one really mattered to me, as I have always wanted a GPS when walking around a large city like NYC or driving a rental car. I bought one four hours later, after doing a bit more research (like talking to the sales rep in the store). Michael’s recommendation meant more to me than any amount of advertising ever could. And I can already say that the BlackBerry 8800 is the best phone-PDA I have ever owned. Built-in GPS navigation is a break-through in mobile phone technology (it will leave you thinking “how did I live without this?”, just like when you bought your first mobile phone).

Now let’s introduce advertising into this. Let’s say I wanted a new digital camera, and I had a longer lead time to look for one. I speak with the experts in my network. I read reviews online (both expert and consumer). I receive a range of different opinions. For my price range, I center on a Canon ABC or Nikon XYZ for different reasons. The Nikon has a slightly faster shutter speed and a better construction, but the Canon has slightly better software and is easier to use with more accessories. If I have multiple weeks to make this decision, advertising can now play an important role:

1. It can introduce me to retailers that carry these products (although I am already aware of the better ones since I read reviews online).

2. It can reinforce the positives that I already learned about via word of mouth and remind me to buy.

The best advertising is that which does a great job of highlighting real benefits in a concise and entertaining way. How many advertisements have you watched for cars driving fast on twisty roads? [Yawn!] We all know that very few cars are actually known for that. A Porsche, yes. That is real. But the majority of this advertising is almost completely useless. At its worst, it’s fraudulent. In this age of overabundance of media, it insults our intelligence and makes us want to tune out. We don’t like being lied to and the truth is more accessible than it has ever been before, due to the Internet. The best advertising is that which listens to real word of mouth and highlights real benefits.

This is easier than it sounds, again due to the Internet. Here’s the three-step formula:

1. Find a product that has a high velocity of positive word of mouth. No need to advertise a product that no one cares about. You are fooling yourself if you think you can get consumers to start talking about a boring, or poor, product. Better to put that money into better product development or invest it in your stores than waste it. But a product that a lot of people are talking about – that’s the sweet-spot. Wii ads everywhere – and highlight the revolutionary controller, please.

2. Research what people are saying in reviews, blogs, forums, and social networks. Word of mouth is now digitally archived, globally accessible, and available at the speed of your fingertips. Learn what the real benefits are. There are probably only three key benefits that everyone is passionately agreeing on. Don’t waste your money on a focus group; that isn’t a real conversation. That’s old school – it honors the days when marketers had to guess at word of mouth (i.e., when it wasn’t digitally captured for analysis). Today, nothing is more real than tapping into a C2C conversation – where there is no reason to share anything but the truth. No agenda – just social connection, good karma, and a little ego. If you haven’t searched your brand on Technorati, try it now – it’s a start and it's free.

3. Highlight these three authentic benefits in your advertising in an entertaining and concise way. Have you seen the recent Apple vs. PC ads (see above)? Pure brilliance. Entertaining, real, clever, memorable, and emotional.

Now, assuming you do a good job of placing the ad where potential buyers will see it, you will remind them of the positives they have already learned about and therefore increase the chance that they will buy it from you. That ad will drive the behavior that you are ultimately accountable for (i.e., sales).

Although this form of advertising is currently rare (i.e., most ads rarely highlight authentic benefits), I am convinced that this is how advertising will evolve. The Internet has made it mandatory. Everyone online now has near-immediate access to the real positives and negatives. It is becoming increasingly difficult to advertise to consumers in an inauthentic way because they are now hyper-educated. And as advertising evolves, advertisers and merchandisers will work more closely together (they have to) and we will tune back in.

Products will get better, too, but that is a subject for another time.

Steve Jobs set the blogs ablaze in January by announcing the iPhone and continued causing a word of mouth stir all the way through the interview with the Wall Street Journal. Looking back to my post in January, from day one the iPhone was a hit. The expectations were overwhelming and the dissenters numerous, but Apple adhered to one key rule in marketing – live up to the hype. Apple called their shot and told consumers EXACTLY what to expect, with demos and details metered out carefully, then simply released exactly that. Creating the buzz is easy, but nailing it on launch day is where some products have missed the mark. Not the iPhone.

The experience of getting one was great. The Apple store I went to in the Domain here in Austin had over 1000 in stock the first day, according to rumors in the line. Apple wouldn’t say exactly. The line was visited by Apple employees handing out free Starbucks' certificates and water. They told everyone that you could buy two at a time and they had more than enough in stock. This easily prevented the mayhem seen with the PS3 launch AND boosted the image of Apple to the crowd. People around me were talking about how great Apple was for two hours. Can’t get better than that. Also, they had about 30 employees in the store, they were processing the sale of the iPhone quickly and efficiently, then you bought your accessories in a separate purchase. All with handheld checkout devices to keep things moving and avoid lines. It worked perfectly.

Activating it worked through iTunes, making the purchase process faster and the activation process easy. This is certainly the new model for activating mobile hardware. I did it all from my house and had to call into their hotline only when my current plan didn’t allow for adding a second line on the same bill. Once that was fixed, I was talking on my iPhone in minutes.

The iPhone itself is exactly what you’ve seen on TV, blogs, Apple.com, and everywhere else for the past six months. The interface is fast and slick. The multi-touch input mechanism works really well. You won’t set speed records for text entry but it works – and for anyone but the fastest of BlackBerry typists it will be fine. The audio quality is great and notably better to the people I’ve spoken to on it so far. Text messages look great (resembles iChat). Videos look fantastic and the touch-screen iPod is fantastic. As others are already saying, this will change the way MP3 players and phones are designed. And everything is exactly as Steve Jobs said it would be back in his keynote in January.

If you want one, go get one, you won’t be disappointed. Last time I checked their website, stock levels were good. And enjoy being a part of the best product launch in a long time.

This past week saw the public announcement of what will be THE device of the year in consumer electronics – the Apple iPhone.  Regardless of your views on Apple, the Mac, or the now legally-embroiled Cisco iPhone issue, you will admit that this thing is cool.  The blogs that cover this space exploded on Tuesday with the announcement at Macworld by Steve Jobs.  The blogs that DON’T cover this space exploded just the same.  It seemed that everyone was talking about this 4.5” x 2.4” x 0.46” phone – that doesn’t really exist yet.   I found it interesting that no matter how hard people tried, you couldn’t really talk about it for the past 2.5 years – including Apple employees that were working on it.

Apple did something that they’ve had difficulties doing in the past – they kept the entire project secret.  Many blogs and interviews have covered the “how Apple did it” of this achievement, but what’s amazing is that they really pulled it off.  Even up to the day of the presentation by Steve Jobs the rumored specs, capabilities, and even photos of the iPhone were vague or flat-out wrong.  Do a quick search for iPhone on Google’s image search and you get seven wrong images before you get to the right one.  The first page of results is all wrong except for two.  Clearly the word of mouth about the idea of an Apple phone was extreme leading up to the announcement – and this allowed Mr. Jobs to announce only one other major innovation and still have a very successful keynote.  No update on the rumored Macbook + Macbook Pro form factor, nothing about Leopard or Time Machine, nothing about iLife ’07.  The Apple TV got some early spotlight time in the presentation but that was it.  This announcement was too big to let anything else get in the way.

So the world wanted to hear about it – and the markets were waiting to react.  This image is a snapshot of Apple (AAPL), Research in Motion (RIMM), and Palm, inc (PALM) showing their relative performance on the day of the announcement.
 

While the activity corrected a bit by weeks end, the results were Apple gained 7.83% with Palm and RIM losing 3.43% and 5.23% respectively.  Legitimately, the Apple iPhone is not a competitor of the Blackberry as it has no business-level email support nor any integration with Outlook planned (yet).  That didn’t matter – as the perception by the market and the word of mouth on how great this new device will be was enough to add BILLIONS to Apple’s market capitalization and erode hundreds of millions to billions for Palm and RIM respectively.  All because the word on the street about a device that exists in prototype only and won’t be available for six months was so very cool.  (Full disclosure, I will gladly be one of the first to try and buy an iPhone)

Even Mr. Jobs is being conservative with their estimates of how many they can sell – by saying that their stretch goal is 1% of the overall market.  That means ten million units, or a minimum of almost $5 billion in sales.  And to think that at one point the experts said that the iPod was a failure in the making.  Anyone predicting the same of the iPhone may have some fun looking back on their quotes in five years. 

What has generated such strong word of mouth for Apple, particularly in recent years, are the strong products they’ve released and revolutionary experiences they’ve provided for their customers.  Referencing some of the word-of-mouth training on WOMMA’s website, Apple doesn’t have “me too” products.  Their operating system OS X is very different than Windows and if anything Vista could be the “me too” product here.  Their design for the recent flat-screen, single-unit iMacs is completely different than anything else offered in the PC world and has remained that way for years.  The iPod was different in its controls, its link to a music store, and its constant innovation (the iPod nano, shuffle, video iPod, etc).  Their basic premise of creating great products, over and over again, has created the foundation of great word-of-mouth potential – which was realized completely this past week.  This has worked for a number of companies like Google and Starbucks, referenced back in September by Brett in his posting here.  But keep in mind that it can fail even for companies with great previous wins – if they don’t continue to innovate and deliver great products.  Anyone remember the Apple Lisa? Or the Newton?  The lesson is that companies which invest in greatness in their products and services instead of tons of additional marketing will win in the long run.

The buzz about this new phone from Apple shifted billions of dollars of wealth, scared a number of multi-billion dollar companies, and generated outstanding traffic and interest on the net.  All in a day.  I’m off to read more about what Apple will do next