Author Archives: afairchild

… a great piece of digital real estate…

18 Tuesday Aug 2015

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

As I dig into my mailbox this morning, I am reminded by one of my mails to make sure I use my email properly, in that “Your email signature is a great piece of digital real estate you can use to introduce yourself further and keep people up to date…”

Self-branding has gotten to be huge in terms of volume of the message these days. You need to stick and label yourself where ever possible to let people know who you are and what you do. We can define this as digital real estate, or measurement of the digital footprints you leave when you stomp all of the Internet. What used to be mind share is now digital real estate impact (a la Trump or Kardashian).

As I do several things, I was recently challenged personally by one of the better self marketing gurus to create a tag line for the bottom of my mail to sell myself best in one sentence. I did that, and now you see my one liner:” I have a finely honed sense of strategy after 20 years as a market analyst, and can help you cut through all the slideware to get to the specific message you want to get across. ”

As someone who has loved stand-up comedy, I associate a one liner with a good joke.

Is digital real estate a good joke?   Like many, I have created digital real estate to help sell me and my narrative out in the vast internet wilderness.   If you do not, it is hard to make an impact.  But if you do, then like real estate it needs to be properly managed and maintained.

Can your digital real estate get so large that you cannot manage it?  For some rock stars and politicians, this may be the case.  Reputation management is getting to be a good business to get into.

But I am focusing on refining my message, and need to upkeep my digital real estate more often in this era of instant messaging and messages.

But this intrigued me into looking at digital real estate measurement (as a good economist, I like a nice index), so I am examininig how digital real estate can be measured.

If you have seen a good measurement, let me know.  I am starting with this article as a basis for discussion.

 

Next XaaS – Robot as a Service (RaaS)

11 Tuesday Aug 2015

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Doing some interesting research for an upcoming report on intelligent hotels. While reading about Aloft’s Botlr and Crown Plaza’s Dash, as well as Japan’s robot oriented hotel, I came across Savioke.  Both Dash and Botlr were built by Savioke, which is based in Santa Clara.

In a recent Hospitality Technology article, Savioke describes itself as a “”Robot as a Service (RaaS)’ company that is leading the market in autonomous delivery robots, starting with the hospitality industry. Savioke further plans to revolutionize the way things move in hotels, elder care facilities, hospitals, restaurants… anywhere people sleep or eat.”

Will robotics increase the productivity of the hospitality industry? I believe it is a complementary activity, providing a faster level of service than throwing more manpower at non value added positions.  Just like the PC became a tool to improve productivity, becoming a gateway to another way of working, the robot as a service delivery mechanism enables new models of customer service. And this may change how we perceive customer service as a whole.

One of the pictures shown in the advertisement is a woman in her bathrobe getting something delivered by the robot.   Not having to worry about what you are wearing to get service is one comfort, I suppose.  😉

 

SMACS of trendiness

07 Friday Aug 2015

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

SMACS (social, mobile, analytics, cloud and security) are trendy topics for most ICT marketing bumph these days.

The real issue is how digital has transformed how processes work and what outcomes you should expect. It’s not an analog world anymore and every digital footprint can tell you something or add value to the experience of the user.

I wish that the marketing was more about the user experience and the added value of the solution, and less about coined phrases like social and cloud.

Just my two Euro cents. 🙂

Smarter hotels and IoT – researching the business model evolution

06 Thursday Aug 2015

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

In a follow-on from my post of yesterday, I am currently doing research in #IoT on smart spaces in the corporate world, looking at how devices and objects can create a better working environment for mobile workers.

One area of interest of mine is smarter hotel rooms, and how devices can make the room even more profitable and efficient.  This goes beyond energy management and into a level of personalization that a guest can opt-in to share their data (with appropriate privacy clauses) to enhance the experience. This goes beyond temperature preferences and pillow choices, but can add when they like the room cleaned, what kind of amenities they prefer, etc.   And for the hotel, the room can become even more revenue productive.  For example, if the hotel knows how much WiFi bandwidth you consume and when, and make the assumption that you are watching a movie on your laptop given the time of data and the data flow, they could create a movie bundle that included video on demand, soda and popcorn and/or a pizza delivered from room service.

I also believe that hotels can become the location of choice for mobile workers, if they can create work spaces for travelers that surpass what a coffee shop would offer in terms of amenities to work while on the road. There is a lot of conference room space in hotels that could be utilized as coffee shop alternatives for mobile workers.

Two good examples of hotels that understand that a stay is an experience that can be enhanced by technology are Starwood and Premier Inn.

Let me know if you want to reach out to share some of my business modelling on the subject with you.

What is an Intelligent Room?

05 Wednesday Aug 2015

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Like many analysts, I am fascinated by the integrated possibilities that the internet of things (IoT) might be able to bring us.

Unlike many, my interests are more corporate in nature. I find the concept of a connected workplace very interesting, as it incorporates many roles and functions, more than a consumer space.

One example of this is the intelligent room. I define an intelligent room as a room that can make decisions on your behalf on the basis of sensors and role profiles. This goes beyond temperature, lighting and ambiance, and includes rerouting of communications, preferences of the occupants of the room at the time, and the rules of the organization in which the occupants represent.

Rerouting of communications may also impact mobile devices in the room at the time.  For example, if the rule is no interruptions, then calls coming into the room are rerouted to voice mail.  Or if the room is using the VOIP for a concall, any incoming calls to that number are rerouted to a human or voice mail as the users prefer.

Occupant preferences are role-based, and rules-based.  If there are several occupants, then the role of the most senior occupant takes precedence. The rules are an interesting aspect, as a more common working space in an airport, hotel or business center may have to program parameters for several kinds of organizations. Which applications are enabled for the room may be both rule based and organizationally adapted.

One company that is on trend to get to this point is Robin. Their view is: “Remarkable things can happen when a room knows who is using it. We believe buildings in the future will be like another device. You’ll install apps onto rooms instead of screens, and walking in will log you in.”

My own view of this is that facilities management as a function going forward will be one of added intelligence on how facilities work in terms of efficiency, as well as how intelligent rooms add value to the organization. My own research work highlights the needs of organizations going forward in terms of intelligent office space, and how general contractors will have to specify intelligence in the leased office space market.  The concept of connected real estate will take on new meaning for leasing companies who will need to highlight the services provided in a whole new way.

How smart is your office space now?

 

Private sector steps in where public sector fails

31 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Two articles I read this morning really hit home for me on the failures of the public sector.  One on Facebook creating drones for internet access in remote countries  and one about private education in Africa stepping in where government is failing.

The private sector senses opportunity here, and lacks the mandate to have to offer citizens choice and resources as their rights of citizenship.  So citizens may have to give up privacy, data and choice of educational services to get what they should already have access to as a right.  But you can also say that it is good that Zuckerberg and Gates are taking their success and reinvesting to help others.

So why does government fail to do what private sector companies find so easy to accomplish? If education and access to utilities (such as electricity, internet and water) should be basic resources for a citizen in a developed country, why not reinvent the government as a competitor to the private sector? This is instead of having third parties running the show, as The Economist article suggests at the end.  For example, making teaching a decent paid job, yet competitive to get the decent pay.

Can governments be competitors to the private sector?  Might be worthwhile thinking about this…..

Opening the door to old age

30 Thursday Jul 2015

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

I had to stop by my doctor’s office yesterday afternoon, and was waiting with a whole truck load of other people for his speaking hours (first come, first serve – something nice in the Benelux to quickly see your GP / physician).   And my doctor is starting his retirement shortly and had posted a notice on the changes in the practice in the waiting room.

What was particularly striking to me was how many older patients he had, as we all started discussing how long we had been with the practice when we were reading the note.  The majority of his patients were well over 50.  And as a marketer, it occurred to me what a vast population of over 50s exist in my geographic area.

But as I said in a previous post, unless you need long term community care, most of the health needs of the 50-65 year old set are not obviously marketed to in Europe.  This is not the “ask your doctor” ads of the US pharma industry, but advice and services for folks who are still working and have viable incomes to pay for services.

Missed opportunity?  I think it is time that we opened the door to old(er) age as a great target audience for services.

 

Methods of communication

25 Saturday Jul 2015

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

I really enjoyed this article from Regus this morning, as it is a point I have been making to my clients for quite a while.  I have learned that you have to direct communication to individuals in the manner that they wish to receive it.  And there are some communication issues that have to be done in an analog manner (i.e. giving bad news to someone) for sensitivity and nuance.

Too much communication these days is superficial and impersonal.  In an age where personalization is easier than ever, many do not take the extra step to add value in a message to make it resonate that much more and make it memorable.

 

Establishing your personal digital consumption

24 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

I have been seeing a number of slide decks on the digital economy as of late.  One of them resonated with me but not for the reason the presenter intended.  The deck was from PA Consulting’s Innovation Lab, with a focus on “building your digital business” and discusses all the different “spaces” you can manage, i.e. working space, living space, transit space, etc.

My interpretation of this is more on how we as individual manage our digital consumption.  How and where (and maybe even why?) we consume digital content and when we do not do so.   For example, in your living space, what portion of your space is digital content enabled, and what is not?   In our social space, what portion is digital interaction, and what is good old analog conversations with fellow humans?  What portion of our day is spent with digital commerce, and what portion of it is spent with more offline transactions?

I am starting back to serious training, and now have to go on a MUCH stricter diet.  And for me, the same will be for my digital consumption.  I feel I have lost some of my offline consumption habits in the last few years, and my time off work has shown me what part of my digital diet needs to be cut back for being with real people and interacting with society versus my devices.

As an individual, you have control over your own consumption on the basis of your economic condition.  And in the digital world, this should also hold true based on the decisions you make. Digitally eat well, and avoid the junk!

 

The Lost Demographic…or missed opportunities?

23 Thursday Jul 2015

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Today, 11,000 visitors will physically stream into Belgium for Tomorrowland, with many more attending virtually. And as I see all the local marketing efforts towards them, I really start to realize that I am part of the Lost Demographic.

I am at the very end of the Baby Boomers, and a good 15+ years from retirement, but find that my demographic is not interesting to marketers anymore.  I am not retiring, still having my teeth, hair and (somewhat) eyesight.  But going to a weekend festival with a tent is not for me either. I have a decent middle class income, and between myself and my husband, a decent joint income.  But products and services are not customized for my needs, and frequently ignore my existence.

In searching on this topic, I found an interesting Canadian article from 2006 that highlights the issue.   We are somewhat between empty nesters (adults 50+), and  wealthy baby boomers (40-60+).  We do not necessarily have that much disposable income (thank you banking crises), but spend our money on experiences and valuable products/services that are not cheap and flimsy.  We like to be pampered, but disdain ostentatious trappings of wealth.

I see a missed opportunity here for marketers. They forget that the baby boom spanned 18+ years, and assume we are all pining after the same things.  This article calls us “Generation Jones”, and illustrates our feelings that we should be saving for retirement, but with so many current requirements, there’s nothing left over and most of our spend goes to consumer goods.

Any one for a missed opportunity?  😉