NU6 - by ML New Applications for Permission Marketing R100022

New Applications for Permission Marketing
R100022

Permission marketing is in itself a fairly new practice. The term was actually popularized by Seth Godin (who is the author of the book I will be reporting about in my Special Report). Godin said that in traditional marketing, marketers have overwhelmed consumers with too much information and consumers have now become too hard to reach because they, or rather we, have become so used to advertising noise that we have learned to ignore these. Permission marketing is different from other more traditional forms of marketing because marketers obtain permission first from the consumer before proceeding with the actual marketing. We can see this in action in opt-in email newsletters, Facebook Fan Pages, and Twitter accounts where consumers can subscribe to updates about companies and its products. My ideas below take the concept of permission marketing further.

1. Ad subsidized downloadable movies/TV shows

Websites like iTunes.com and Amazon.com sell downloadable movies and TV shows online. In iTunes for example, movies usually sell for $14.99 and TV shows for $2.99 per episode. My idea would be to subsidize these downloadable files with advertising similar to how TV shows are subsidized by commercials on TV. These subsidized downloadable movies and TV shows could then be sold for a lower price than non-subsidized downloads. Consumers would then have the choice of buying either the subsidized movies/TV shows and watching the ads, or paying more for the ad-less version. They key here is not to force the ads on the consumers but to give them a choice. People who despise ads would be more than willing to fork over the extra cash while people who don't mind watching ads will most likely go for the subsidized version. This form of marketing can be targeted as well, since advertisers can put their ads on movies or TV shows which they think their demographic would be most likely to watch. For example, if an advertiser would like to target teenage girls, he could probably put his ads in episodes of Hannah Montana or the movie Twilight. :-)4

2. Subscription based product sampling

We all know that one of the most common marketing tactics of beauty companies are giving out samples of their products. However, sampling that is not targeted can be ineffective and inefficient. My idea is to give out samples to those who actually want them and those who will be most likely to buy such products in the future. I actually got this idea from a US based company called Birchbox. It is a membership company where women pay to receive random beauty product samples monthly by mail. I can set up a company similar to this here in the Philippines. For starters, I will partner with several beauty companies and arrange an agreement with them to distribute samples of their products. I will consider charging these companies for this privilege since I will be certainly doing them a valuable service by giving out samples of their products to potential customers. I can offer two types of subscriptions: high end (where subscribers can receive samples from companies like Shu Uemura, Shiseido, Bobbie Brown, MAC, etc.) and mid range (where subscribers can receive samples from companies like Lloreal, Maybelline, Cover Girl, etc.). Fees for high end subscriptions will of course be more expensive than that of mid range subscriptions. Each subscriber can also pick out product types that they are interested in (like lengthening mascaras or liquid foundations) as well as fill out a profile (like hair color, skin tone, etc.) to ensure that they will be getting colors appropriate for their type. 4

NU6 - A New Idea for Advertising by ML

A New Idea for Advertising
By: R100022

When I was a kid, I was fascinated with the flashing neon signs used for advertising that was dotted along EDSA. As I grew older however, these signs were slowly replaced by huge lighted billboards and LED screens. Now, we are bombarded with many forms of advertising, whether on billboards, on TV, on the internet, on magazines, or even on small screens inside taxi cabs. We have to face it... no matter what form they may be in, advertising is and will always be present in our daily lives. My new idea involves a new and different venue for advertising a company's products and services, which if used correctly has the potential to be very effective.

Most if not all airlines nowadays allow consumers to book and pay for their tickets online. After completing the transaction, an e-ticket will be sent to the passenger through email. Some airlines also allow passengers to check-in online several hours before the actual flight. In such cases, the passengers' boarding passes are also sent through email. In both cases, these emailed documents are required to be printed out by the passenger and presented upon check-in. The same goes to online booking for many hotels around the globe—customers complete the transaction online and the hotel sends the printable accommodation voucher through email.

This presents an opportunity for these establishments such as Cebu Pacific Air, Philippine Airlines, and Shangri-la Hotel, to offer ad space in their printable e-tickets, boarding passes, or vouchers. There is a ton of potential for this since most of the time these establishments already require some information about the passengers (i.e. gender, birthday, location). Since they already have access to this valuable information, they could therefore opt to offer targeted ad placements to advertisers which has the potential to be more effective than traditional ads.

For example, a Singaporean women's apparel store could buy ad space in all e-tickets/boarding passes of women headed for Singapore. They could place advertisements that come in the form of discount coupons to their stores. This would be a win-win-win situation for the airline (who would have earned from the ad placement), the passenger (who would have a discount she can avail), and the advertiser (who would have more customers).

To take this idea further, instead of individual companies looking for individual advertisers which could be time consuming and inefficient, it is also possible to create an agency, a middle man of some sort, to centralize this process. This agency would partner with the many hotels and airlines around the world and create a catalogue of advertising opportunities that could be presented to advertisers.  The potential for an operation like this is endless.4

NU6 by ML - A new way to shop using QR codes

A new way to shop for groceries: by ML

Many people are living very fast paced lifestyles that require them to take advantage of every waking moment in order to make the most out of their days. I would have to say that I am one of those people. I hate time wasters and I try to find more efficient ways to do my essential tasks. One of the most tiresome tasks for me is going grocery shopping. The entire process of going to the grocery, walking down numerous isles to search for the things I need, lining up by the cashier to pay for everything, and lugging my purchases to the car or taxi cab are so time consuming and tedious for me.

We can take advantage of QR codes, which most smart phones can read in order to make grocery shopping fast, easy, and effortless. QR codes are those two-dimensional visual codes with black and white matrix patterns. Here in the Philippines, they are usually posted on billboards and posters and used to link viewers to their promotional websites.

My idea is to create virtual grocery storefronts at places that people frequent like MRT stations, bus stations, malls, office buildings, basically any place where people are likely to pass by or hang out. These virtual grocery stores will be in the form of a huge billboard that will show a virtual display of grocery products each with a QR code at the bottom. These will work in conjunction with a mobile application created for iPhones, Android phones, Blackberry phones, and Windows phones, which are the most popular mobile phone operating systems nowadays.

The process of buying would be quick and simple... he would simply start the application on his mobile phone, scan the corresponding QR code using his phone's camera and enter how many units of the item he would like to buy. This is then saved to his virtual shopping basket and he can continue shopping by looking at the other products in the billboard and scanning the corresponding QR codes of the items he would also like to buy. After he is done shopping, he can save these purchases to his account which he can then review on his computer when he gets home or purchase them right then and there through his mobile phone, using a credit card preregistered to his secure account. No more fiddling with cash or credit card numbers. The grocery items are then delivered to his doorstep the following day. The virtual grocery store need not charge for delivery since it can offset its delivery costs with the eliminated costs of maintaining a huge grocery store and employing a lot of grocery attendants. Perhaps it can just impose a minimum purchase amount similar to what restaurants do when they deliver. Aside from this, they can charge merchants for premium product placement in its virtual grocery storefronts. This would create more passive income for the company.

I also have a few more ideas to enhance the mobile phone application to make it even easier for users to purchase items.

• The ability to create offline shopping list
• Location based reminders to notify the user when he is in the vicinity of a virtual grocery storefront
• The ability to save previous purchases for easy one-click re-ordering
• Promotional notifications sent to the user featuring discounted items and other promos
• Recommendation services where users can post reviews of items they purchased and read reviews for items they are interested in purchasing

This process could essentially convert our weekly or monthly grocery chore into something we can accomplish within a few minutes. With this system, we can even transform our grocery shopping into something resembling a just in time practice, only buying things which we immediately need and eliminating waste related to buying in bulk. All in all, this system would make grocery shopping almost enjoyable and certainly not tiresome for me anymore. 4 Who wrote this please?

Nu 6 by ML, Mobile Lifestyle

New Attitudes/Paradigms: Enabling a Mobile Lifestyle

by: R100022
We are undergoing a drastic change from being tied to the office or in front of the computer to a completely mobile and dynamic lifestyle. Technology is the big enabler for this rapid change in attitudes and paradigms and both hardware and software are developing and moving us into this new direction.  Below are some of my ideas on how we can take advantage of today's technology to become truly mobile.

Data on the go:

Becoming truly mobile starts with having access to the internet where ever we may be. For this, we need a mobile data plan. Ideally, we should have all our gadgets (i.e. cellphone, laptop, tablet, etc.) connected to the internet. However, subscribing to a data plan for each of these gadgets would be too much of a money drain. The best solution would be to have a pocket wifi device which can provide us with an always-on wifi hot-spot where ever we are. A pocket wifi device is small and unbtrusive, and we can easily keep this in our handbag or gadget bag while we are on the go. Both Smart Communications and Sun Cellular offer their own pocket wifi device and postpaid plans. These enables subscribers to connect up to 5 gadgets to the internet (which is sufficient for me to say the least) and they have different plans to choose from. Personally, I would go for an unlimited data plan for a worry-free mobile lifestyle.

Gadgets:

While before a mobile lifestyle meant having a pager and a huge mobile phone strapped to your belt, we now have at our disposal a slew of awesome gadgetry that can practically replace our secretaries to say the very least. Here are a few of my top picks:

• iPhone - aside from calls and text messages, the iPhone (or Android or Windows phone) can do so much more like email, GPS, social networking, music, videos, games, and many many more.
• iPad - if you don't do anything that requires sheer computing power, I could say that the iPad (or Android tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab) can replace your laptop. You can read and reply to emails, browse the internet, watch videos, manage your schedule, play games, view and edit presentations, documents, and spreadsheets, etc. 
• Amazon Kindle - book lovers can enjoy all their bestsellers in one compact ebook reader. The e-ink technology minimizes eye fatigue since it mimics printed text and the international 3G version can connect to local 3G mobile networks for free which you can use for downloading ebooks and reading popular blogs.

Cloud computing:

Cloud computing has been such a hot buzzword in recent years but I must say that this recent trend makes perfect sense. Storing our data and even our applications on the cloud (i.e. the internet) removes our reliance on local hard drives and enables our data and applications to be easily accessible from all of our devices. While cloud computing is still at the early stages of development, there are already a considerable amount of services we can use to get our data on the cloud. Here are a few of the most notable:

• Dropbox (dropbox.com) - this service synchronizes files across all user devices. It practically eliminates the need to keep usb drives since data can easily be accessed from any device that is connected to the internet, and is automatically backed up and synchronized. I currently use this service to store all files that I would need to access on the go. I have this application installed on my office pc, my personal laptops, and my iPhone. I have also encouraged all my MBA groupmates to create shared Dropbox folders where all the members of the group can edit and save files. This makes collaborating on papers and presentations so much more easier than sending files back and forth through email.
• iCloud (apple.com/icloud/)- this is Apple's new value added offering that takes advantage of cloud computing. This application allows you to seamlessly sync all your data (music, photos, videos, documents, etc.) across all your Apple devices. This is great and all but is limited to just Apple devices so if you're a "PC" or an "Android" you would be out of luck. This service is supposed to be launched today (October 12) and I'm waiting with bated breath to try it. :-)
• Amazon Cloud Drive (amazon.com/clouddrive/)  - I haven't tried this yet but many are saying this is similar to Dropbox. It's good to have options so I would also recommend those who would want to go mobile to consider this service as well. 

Traffic Monitoring:

And lastly, being mobile may also mean being at the mercy of the terrible Metro Manila traffic. To help us decide which route is the least of all evil, MMDA has launched a website (http://mmdatraffic.interaksyon.com/system-view.php), an iPhone application, as well as an Android application designed to show the latest traffic updates in many of the major roads in the metro. I have this application on my iPhone and I can say that it has been a lifesaver on more than one occasion, especially since my job often requires me to travel back and forth Metro Manila.

There are so much more gadgets and applications to enable a mobile lifestyle that it wouldn't be practical to discuss them all here. Let's just say that I only exposed the tip of the iceberg. However, part of the fun of converting our lifestyle into a mobile one is discovering what new technologies can help us manage it better. I encourage everyone to keep discovering and learning. Enjoy

3 for the MMDA traffic apps.  The idea behind NU6 is t make something your own.  To create not just give me menu or list of improvements

NU6 - by ML, Locker Store Concept

New Business Idea: Locker store concept as an alternative or supplement to online selling
By: R100022

We are all probably aware of the online selling boom happening right now in the Philippines. These online sellers utilize a variety of websites to post and advertise their items for sale (ebay.ph, multiply.com, facebook.com, sulit.com.ph, etc.). There are many advantages to selling online—there is little to no fixed overhead costs, the effort required to keep the business running is minimal, and it allows sellers to reach a huge audience without the need for expensive advertising.

However, there are disadvantages to selling online as well. (1) Buyers are not able to see the actual items for sale which may cause them to hesitate from buying the products. (2) Shipping adds to the price of the products which makes buying items, especially cheaper ones, not appealing. (3) There is a delay before the buyer gets the purchased items, therefore buyers would not get the instant gratification involved with buying the item. And lastly, (4) fraudulent sellers discourage buyers from taking the risk to buy online.

My new business idea will eliminate the disadvantages of online selling while maintaining its advantages. This was actually inspired by a recent trip to Singapore. While perusing one of its many malls, I happened to stop by a curious looking store. This store had glass shelves with different sized compartments. Inside these compartments were the most interesting things: bejewelled iPhone cases, tiny character replicas and action figures, one of a kind collectibles, hand-made jewellery, etc. It was a "locker store" where individuals can rent a compartment (called a "locker") to house their wares for sale. I realized this business model may also work here in the Philippines. This is because sometimes, when online sellers want to boost their sales or meet up with buyers, they join weekend bazaars. Doing so allows them to create a physical presence for their online store. However, bazaars are temporary—most lasting only a few days, and joining one is labor intensive since the seller would have to be physically present to conduct business with customers. My idea is to put up a local version of a locker store with online sellers as target tenants.

I can get a store space at a mall for my locker store and rent out lockers to individual online sellers. I would have to do more research to figure out the optimal locker size but I would have to offer different sizes and configurations since Philippine online sellers sell a variety of items like clothes, books, shoes, jewelry, etc. For a minimal rental fee, sellers can get a small piece of prime selling real estate. I can provide merchant services like sales associates, credit card transactions, and sales monitoring. In exchange for these services, I will also ask for a small commission on sales. Sellers can use their lockers as an alternative or as a supplement to their online stores. Since I will be putting these stores in high traffic areas, sellers will be sure that they will get a lot of exposure to potential buyers even without online advertising. However, they also have the option to advertise their products online and redirect their potential buyers to their lockers. This allows buyers to see the actual product in person before deciding to buy it.

With this concept, overhead will remain small, there will still be virtually no effort needed to keep the store running, and sellers can still reach a huge audience. Aside from these, the disadvantages involved with online selling will also be eliminated making this a win win solution for both sellers and buyers.