CapsuleBlog

Post holiday blues

Is anyone else suffering from a bad case of post-Festivus blues? Now that the tree is wilting, the once pristine cookies are gathering mold and the anticipation has fizzled, it's really tough to get back into the swing of things. The worst time, though, is yet to come - right now, you see, we still have New Year's Eve (and another day off) in our midst. You just wait til this time next week.

In the meantime, though, what did you get for Christmas? At the recommendation of Brian Adducci and Dan Baggenstoss, I bought my significant other the ever-so-sexy gadget Jambox by Jawbone. It looks gorgeous and sounds decent - once you are able to rip it out of the armageddon-proofed packaging. It didn't quite ruin Christmas, but the ten minutes it took to figure out how to wedge the damn thing out of the plastic box was a buzz kill.

The one other time I had a serious issue with plastic clamshell type packaging involved me, a tent in the northern Minnesota boundary waters wilderness area, a large unidentifed animal prowling the campsite and an indestructible bottle of bear spray that I could not, for the life of me (literally), remove from the plastic packaging. Please, don't ask me to relive the whole story. Let's just say I am still here, still functional and willing to carry a pair of scissors on my next canoe/camping trip.

So sue me

As it often does, the New York Times raised an especially timely issue yesterday. We've all heard the wonders of social media extolled almost ad nauseum. It provides opportunity at a level never before seen for brands to learn more about their customers and in turn, sell more of their particular product or service. In the reverse of the equation, it also enables consumers to access more information - and particularly more uncontrolled information - about the brands. If I'm left feeling significantly dissatisfied with an experience with a brand, and the brand has had the chance to make it right but didn't, you're dang right I'm going to get online to warn other people about it.

Case in point: there's a great story here from Ken Peters of the Think B.I.G. blog about his less than satisfying experience with the Nook reader device. Well worth a read.

But do you think Ken worried about being sued when he opined on his blog, and then saw his story reTweeted and referenced around the web?

The NYT article discusses the implications of this wonderful new world of transparency and free speech, profiling a disgruntled Kalamazoo student who founded a Facebook group to complain about a Michigan towing company. Within two days, the group had 800 members and the towing company well, freaked. In the form of a $750,000 lawsuit against him.

As America was founded on the principle of free speech, this seems more than a little ironic. Thankfully the law seems to agree. The NYT calls this an example of a "decades-old legal maneuver known as a strategic lawsuit against public participation, or Slapp". Perfect name, isn't it?

"The label has traditionally referred to meritless defamation suits filed by businesses or government officials against citizens who speak out against them. The plaintiffs are not necessarily expecting to succeed — most do not — but rather to intimidate critics who are inclined to back down when faced with the prospect of a long, expensive court battle."

Instead of viewing this an especially powerful opportunity to respond to the customer in question - in a public and powerful way - the towing company is being incredibly short-sighted about this by reacting with a good old-fashioned knee jerk. It is a towing company, after all. Perhaps we really need the social media titans - the Best Buys and Dells of the world - to keep setting the bar until the others catch on. Hopefully it's not too late.

Twitter twitter everywhere?

Is it just me or has Twitter truly become a behemoth in the past month? Before now it was just something that a random person here or there used - I'd see a link to a Twitter account on a blog, or Facebook, and think hmmm, now this Twitter thing I am not understanding - why so enamored? And now, Ashton Kutcher has a million followers (if you haven't heard that, where have you been?), Britney supposedly tweets while on tour, Oprah just accidentally screamed in all caps in her first tweet, and every corporation and its dog has an account that is used to "engage" consumers.

I would kill to own a crystal ball now... will Twitter reach Facebook status? Has anyone actually ever won new business because of it? Like Fox Mulder, I want to believe. I'm just having a hard time.

iPhone for everyone

I held out for a long time when it came to getting a handheld wireless device - ie a Blackberry (who?) or an iPhone. I have a laptop at home, so I can log in to work emails remotely whenever I need to, and I didn't like the idea that I'd always be "connected". That just didn't appeal to my occasionally anti-social ways.

Ha.

Who was I kidding?

I received my first ever iPhone last week and haven't looked back. I was a fool - how did I survive without Yelp? The Weather Channel? The multitude of ringtones?

If you also work in an industry even remotely creative, you'll know that the iPhone is THE object you MUST own. Blackberry has lots its cool. If you're a designery type, it's Apple all the way, lest you want to risk much mockery. The Capsule designers will verify this with a sneer, should you have the guts to inquire. I was lured away from the Blackberry and into the clutches of the iPhone by the promise of all those applications.

So yeah, now I do check my email at 3am if I happen to wake up. I do look for reviews of the restaurant we're about to walk into, I also listen to the npr on the bus home, and write dumb status updates on Facebook.

Big business has not ignored these technological developments - in fact there are now about 100 branded iPhone applications. Most recently, Kraft Foods created the iFood Assistant, a recipe finder database that helps you build recipes (mostly recipes that require Kraft ingredients - surprise!).

According to Brand Week, an application typically costs around $50-100k. A lot of money for a small business, yes, but peanuts to the goliaths out there like Kraft.

Much of the focus so far has been on either commerical applications that encourage us to buy more, or entertainment apps (iFart, anyone?) that are a waste of time. I'm looking forwad to the time when it becomes more affordable for anyone to create apps, when non-profits can come onboard with new ways to help us contribute more to our communities.

I'm a big fan of the Best Friends Animal Society - what if I could login to see a webcam of the animals I sponsored? Or get updates on their progress and their (hopefully) adoption?

There are so many ways that the new social media can help those organizations that truly need it. Just like the internet has, I really hope the possibility presented by iPhone applications can too.

Capsule wishes you a GREEN holiday season.

Thanksgiving weekend has come to an end. That means a couple of things: you've already finished your Christmas shopping by 8 o'clock the morning of Black Friday, the elastic waistband pants have been put back in the closet until Christmas, and it's time to set up the holiday decorations.

In case you've been living under a rock this year, you might have noticed that there's a big push for sustainable and eco-friendly products and services. This year's Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center is sporting LED lights powered by solar panels-- so 2007. Aside from consuming less energy, LED's (Light Emitting Diodes) contain fewer chemicals and never get hot. Good news if you've ever had that Christmas tree go up in flames before. They may cost more, but their lifetime is about 100,000 hours (that'll last you a couple holiday seasons).

Check out the following sites for deals on LED lights:
Christmaslights.com
Environmentallights.com

Happy Holidays!