Mark Kolier’s Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Wall Street Journal’

The last of the major airlines to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy, American Airlines is reportedly http://nyti.ms/yKLPAc on Delta Air Lines/TPG Capital’s radar for acquisition. In case you are not aware Delta Airlines is now the world’s largest airline. US Airways is also considering a bid. What I first thought was ‘how far the mighty have fallen’.

I was never a huge fan of American Airlines but that’s mainly because I had a few bad experiences a number of years ago that made my shy away from them whenever possible. Today that’s an impractical approach to air travel as trying to avoid an airline only serves to offer the customer fewer options and likely higher prices.

Flying commercial airlines in the U.S. today is akin to getting on a bus or train. Few airlines distinguish themselves and if you are flying economy they all appear to be the same to me. Remember Jet Blue and their original appeal? Leather seats, individual Direct TV in your seat and snacks that were a bit different than other airlines. Jet Blue also tried to be fun with glib flight attendants and pilots. Today Jet Blue (to me) is pretty much just another airline. The leather seats are nice but wearing a bit. The Direct TV thing is pretty good but I’ve been on flights where my individual screen did not work.

Is there any domestic airline that distinguishes itself? Virgin America has made a concerted effort although their fares are notably higher than the competition. Since the airlines have decided to make air travel akin to mass transit it’s a game where the lowest fare wins and damn everything else. In fact I don’t know about you but I’ve noticed that most (not all) flight attendants seem to just be going through the motions and look like they’d rather be someplace else. The airlines constant labor disputes and troubles have taken away flight attendant’s smiles.

There are a host of well-known and not so well-known aggregators and an article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal highlighted the craziness when it comes to fare shopping – http://on.wsj.com/xJ9qdQ. Also this week in a response to sites like Kayak, Priceline and Travelocity, the several airlines introduced a collective fare buying platform of their own that will launch later this year. This is in response to the airlines dissatisfaction with the aggregators taking too large a portion of the airfares for the airlines’ liking.

The race to offer the lowest price with the least amount of service appears sure to continue.
If you have a favorite airline is it only because of the ability to stockpile miles and rewards? Or do you really have a favorite airline because you perceive that airline to be better?

I have made no secret of my disaffection with QR (Quick Response) Codes. You know them as the funny looking little square that you’ve noticed popping up in advertisements in print, billboards, the web and even on television. Although the technology is new to many Americans, it has actually been in use since the 1990’s having been used in Japanese automobile manufacturing factories as an inventory control tool.

In my experience QR codes are clumsy, and don’t work as often as they do work. The smartphone QR code readers are not great and I frequently have to shoot a QR code multiple times in order to get it to ‘register’. For marketers and companies that wish to more deeply engage current and potential customers, QR codes can end up being more harmful than helpful. And asking your prospect or customer to make excessive efforts in order to get information on your company or offer is hardly a path to a consumer-friendly experience. I’m not saying QR codes do not work at all – just that they do not work well.

So if QR codes are to meet their demise something has to be there to replace them – and it has to be better. Near Field Communications (NFC) very well could be the answer. From http://www.Wikipedia.com: ‘NFC, allows for simplified transactions, data exchange, and wireless connections between two devices in close proximity to each other, usually by no more than a few centimeters. It is expected to become a widely used system for making payments by smartphone in the United States. Many smartphones currently on the market already contain embedded NFC chips that can send encrypted data a short distance (“near field”) to a reader located, for instance, next to a retail cash register. Shoppers who have their credit card information stored in their NFC smartphones can pay for purchases by waving their smartphones near or tapping them on the reader, rather than bothering with the actual credit card’.

David Pogue in his excellent column Thursday in the New York Times discusses the relationship between NFC and Google Wallet – http://nyti.ms/nPdh7C. It’s interesting that NFC technology is nearly ten years old and is still being finessed. In fact in the U.S. the current generation of NFC technology is only available on Sprint’s Google Nexus – and admittedly this is NFC 1.0.

For those of you that prefer Katie Boehret’s video review (she also has a written column from Thursday’s Wall Street Journal) that can be found here – http://on.wsj.com/oK7we8
But there have to be many people who like me would welcome the day when we could use a digital wallet and have our phone (which is with us all the time anyway) be able to do so much more when it comes to purchasing goods, receiving timely offers, as well as to request information easily and in a timely fashion.

It’s the wave of the near future. Are you ready?

Although I was not a charter invitee to the Google+ trial universe I have been playing around with it now for about a week. Google+ is throwing the gauntlet down at Facebook offering its version of a social network. It’s easy to get started and to use. My question is will it make an impact on people in choosing Google+ over Facebook or considering switching to Google+ from Facebook?

The current field trial of Google+ allows Google to hear the noise and then tweak what they feel needs tweaking. The crash and burn of Google Buzz has learned Google a few things as the saying goes. Katie Boehret of the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday did a nice job of laying out her viewpoint on Google+ and I agree with many of her observations here – http://on.wsj.com/qnCmdR and an accompanying video here http://on.wsj.com/qTnaFB.

One of the most attractive features of Google+ is the ‘Circles’ aspect. I like the way you can organize friends, colleagues, family, enemies, or whatever into their own circles. Nobody can see what circle or circles you’ve put them in but it offers you the categorization of relationships that continues to be lacking on Facebook.

I am sure there have been many times when some obscure professional or work acquaintance ‘friend requested’ you on Facebook. The normal reaction is to shake your head and then click ‘Ignore’. But what if your boss sends a ‘Friend Request’ on Facebook? With Google+ you can share what you want to share with any particular circle. Or not. BIG +.

I haven’t used the Google+ ‘Sparks’ feature as yet, nor have I used the group video chat module called ‘Hangouts’. I can see the value of both and the Hangouts group chat (up to 10 people) could become popular among some users (but probably not me). The Google+ mobile feature offers group texting (it’s called Huddle) and I can see that being useful and another separator from Facebook.

So overall I feel Google+ has done a good job of taking the things I like about Facebook and enhancing them. But unless the people I interact with (my friends and family) on Facebook migrate en masse over to Google+ I personally don’t see myself giving up my Facebook account nor do I anticipate many other people doing that either. And the thought of having to manage two social network profiles will be a non-starter don’t you think?

I will continue to use Google+ for a while at least. If you’d like to be invited to try it, just send me a note and I will invite you to try it as well. But if you do I’d love for you to come back here to my blog and let everyone know what you thought. It’s all about the conversation isn’t it?

If you had not yet heard starting in January of 2012, light bulbs have to be at least 25% more efficient than the ones we’ve been using for years invented by Thomas Edison way back in 1879. Bulbs that have been inexpensive and disposable will be disappearing by 2014. An excellent article last week by Gwendolyn Bounds of the Wall Street Journal http://on.wsj.com/lpUdSB outlines the features and benefits of the new and old bulb technologies.

In our discussions with Chinese companies we’ve explored the idea of helping them bring LED light bulbs into the United States. So far there has been a great deal of hesitancy on the part of the Chinese companies we have met with to lead with LED light bulbs to be marketed to American consumers. Part of the reason is that sales of building-wide lighting systems are substantially larger and easier than selling individual light bulbs to individual American consumers. However we firmly believe (as the article supports) Americans will be VERY receptive to LED light bulbs once the prices come down which they are predicted to do in a relatively short time. It is our belief that direct-to-consumer marketing of LED light bulbs would allow for lower pricing to happen even more quickly.

Compact Fluorescent Bulbs (CFL’s) have been a step in the right direction but as I have noted before (link to your previous blog post) the trace amounts of mercury found in them is of great concern and for the most part they are not dimmable which is a major drawback. That they are odd-looking unless housed in an outer bulb is more of a minor issue.

The current pricing for LED light bulbs are $20-$55 each. This is in stark contrast to traditional incandescent bulbs which are priced at 25-50 cents each or even CFL’s which average $2 to $5. We are talking 100 times the cost here! The life spans of LED are not 100 times as long as traditional incandescent – more like 25-30 times. The annual operating costs of LED bulbs however are less than 25% per bulb as compared to traditional incandescent bulbs.

Once prices for LED bulbs come down into the $10/bulb or less range the idea that they last 25 times longer and use less energy will have people clamoring to buy them. And they will have to come down in price since I wonder about how people will feel when they drop and break a $20 or even $50 bulb. Dropping and breaking a $ 0.50 bulb is mess. Dropping a $ 20 or even $ 50 bulb is a catastrophe!

What would it take for you to ‘switch’ over to an LED bulb? Is there a price threshold? Would you miss 132-year old technology?

Now that I am back in the good ‘ol USA after a 22 hour travel from my Shenzhen hotel back to my office, I can reflect a bit on my latest trip to the Middle Kingdom. This trip far exceeded my expectations both professionally and personally. As much as I enjoy Chinese food (and I truly to enjoy it) I have yet to satisfy my hankering for a cheeseburger. I will work on that today.

Although my first trip to China last fall was interesting and frantic (as was this one) I felt that I had more of an opportunity this time to spend time interacting with great Chinese people to a much larger degree. Here are four things I learned that I have as a quick takeaway:

1) Chinese people have more variety on their table at every meal than anyplace I’ve ever been I had a series of banquet like events some with more than a dozen courses. There were a number of times I was not sure what I was eating right away. Unusual things I ate – sharkskin soup, honeybees and yes – scorpion. All the meals had a few varieties of steamed greens (even breakfast). Meals in China are at a much slower pace than in the USA. I also will have to get used to drinking the warm water as that’s the way it’s served.

2) Chinese people will consistently go out of their way to help. This was evidenced by so many different people, from driving me around to taking me out for meals (I only paid for 1 meal in China and had to fight to do that). I will keep that in mind when my Chinese friends and associates come to the USA since I will want to pick them up, drive them around and take care of them in the same manner. Not something that is a custom in the U.S. but it really helps grow a personal and then professional relationship.

3) China is under construction and dustier and less hygienic than the USA. I did not notice the amount of construction going on last time I was in Shanghai, Beijing, and Wuxi. Shenzhen is also growing like mad and building goes on 7 days a week. Bathrooms in China are not always all that clean (that is also true in the USA) and there are seldom towels with which to try your hands.

4) If you want to do business in China you have to be there. My second trip has demonstrated that even more clearly to me. I left with a number excellent business opportunities and will be following up with some proposals but in order to have a chance to make those deals happen I will have to present in person on my next trip which I expect will be in 3-4 months. Our company can really help Chinese companies in marketing to the west and the USA in particular. I felt the many CEO’s at the companies I met understood that (for example I met with the CEO of the largest television manufacturer in China – Skyworth) but also encouraged me to come back which told me that they need to see my commitment to China by returning again soon.

There are many other observations I have on my trip and I will detail things to a larger degree once I have had a chance for the experience to settle in a bit more. I really like going to China and look forward to exploring more of its culture, its people and its history.

By the way I read an interesting book on my Kindle on the way to China – ‘Big in China’ by Wall Street Journal writer Alan Paul. He and his wife Rebecca who works for the WSJ moved their young family to Beijing in 2005 for 3 ½ years and he describes the experience. Worth reading if you want to get a sense of what it is and was like living in China for an American.