Alexa in Hotels

"Alexa, get me room service please."

"Dialing room service."

Is this what you want in your hotel?  Have I some news for you!

Me, I find the idea of a device constantly listening for you to talk to it to be a bit creepy.  Pass.

Read on:

https://gizmodo.com/alexa-for-hospitality-lets-amazon-follow-you-on-vacatio-1826947384

Here is a snippet from the piece:

For those averse to talking on the phone, hotel stays can resemble a war of attrition, testing your mettle to see how long you’ll go without calling the front desk and admitting you forgot to pack your toothbrush. But Amazon’s new Alexa for Hospitality service, which puts an Echo device in your hotel room, might let you avoid the conversation altogether, and let you bring a bit of your always-on, always-listening, always-spying smart home with you. So don’t do anything stupid.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Brands Feel Pain of Social Media

You would have to ignore all of the news, business or otherwise, not to recognize the struggles of social media today.  Not so well understood however is how this is impacting brands who utilize social media to interact with a large portion of their customers.

The Participation Age indicates brands are now co-created by potential customers.  That mostly happens through social media.  So if Facebook, Twitter, etc. are suffering?  Yeap.

Read more here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2018/06/brands-blamed-for-social-medias-shortcomings.html

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

BRotD - Entry 0259 Regulating Technology

Best Reading of the Day

"Robber Barons"

That's what they were called.

In the late 1800s they industrialists who used questionable methods to get rich came to be known as robbers. 

Here is a bit more on that subject:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robber_baron_(industrialist)

That is the language now in use to describe Google, Facebook, Amazon and more who have convinced the masses of the population to hand over their valuable personal data for free.  Time for regulations of these giants in technology?  There is an argument to be made.

Read more here:

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611425/its-time-to-rein-in-the-data-barons/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

When Mark Zuckerberg appeared before Congress earlier this year to discuss how the now-defunct political-data company Cambridge Analytica acquired data of up to 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge or consent, one of the few pointed questions came from Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina. “Who’s your biggest competitor?” Graham demanded. After Zuckerberg replied that Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft all had some overlap with various Facebook products, Graham chafed at the answer.

“If I buy a Ford and it doesn’t work well and I don’t like it,” pressed the senator, “I can buy a Chevy. If I’m upset with Facebook, what’s the equivalent product I can go sign up for?”

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Rethinking Your Brand App

The folks on the tech team over at Forbes have an opinion piece worth reading.

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Salesforce’s most recent State of Marketing report explains that marketing leaders are zooming in on the customer experience as a critical part of their marketing strategy. In the report, 68% of the marketing leaders surveyed said their companies are increasingly competing on the basis of customer experience and 64% are focusing more on providing consistency across every channel to accommodate changing customer expectations.

What can I say?  This "recent" report says the customer experience is critical?

Joking right?

Seriously.  Pulling my leg.

We have known for years you need to be where your customer is.  Starbucks has it figured out.

Still worth the read though.  Here is the full article:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/06/11/four-ways-to-rethink-the-brand-app-experience/#462f433d5e4e

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Technological Disruption and the City Taxi

I am fascinated by all things related to the ongoing entry in to the Information Age. 

A bit more than 100 years ago the street lamps in major cities were powered by gas.  Every evening a fleet of trained individuals would pan out across the city igniting the city's gas street lamps.  Every morning they would extinguish them.  Along came electricity and quickly those jobs were all eliminated.  Great safety and cost savings improvement for the city and the inhabitants therein.  Terrible for the people who lost their job and had no skills for anything else.

Technological advances always result in disruption of the status quo.  Today is no different.

What do you know about how taxi services are regulated in our biggest cities?  Nothing?  Count me there too.

City managers long ago recognized the need to regulate the number of taxis in a city boundary so as to prevent overcrowding of taxis on the streets.  These managers, however, also saw an opportunity to make money regulating that task.  Enter the taxi medallion.

A taxi is required to have a taxi medallion to do business within city limits.  New York, Chicago, all of the big U.S. cities do this.  A finite number are created.  As you can imagine when demand outdraws supply the price goes up (ECON 101).  Owning your own taxi medallion was the gold standard and a dream realized for generations of middle America.  The price could go north of $1 USM.  Yes, million, for a taxi medallion so you can drive a cab in city limits. People would save for years and take out a loan the size of, or larger than, most home mortgages.

With the advent of UBER and Lyft the value of these medallions is plummeting.  No longer able to compete and dragged down by a massive loan now underwater we are seeing a dramatic rise in suicides among long-time city livery and taxi drivers.

Disruption comes with a cost.

Read more here:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/shadow-uber-s-rise-taxi-driver-suicides-leave-cabbies-shaken-n879281

Interesting Reading.

J.W. Gant

Information Age DNA and Law Enforcement Detective Work

This is the technology blog and .I have an interest in all the ways technology is changing and impacting our lives, for better and for worse, as we enter the Information Age.

Have you heard the recent news of the Golden State Killer?

Wikipedia states the following:

The Golden State Killer is a serial killer, serial rapist, and serial burglar who committed at least 12 murders, more than 50 rapes, and over 100 burglaries in California from 1974 to 1986.

So, how was he caught recently and what does this have to do with tech?

Detectives work by creating a list of suspects and narrowing it down.  Once it is small enough to reasonably interview subjects of interest they hit the roads.

Start with a list of people likely to commit the crimes illustrated in that Wikipedia entry.  Males of the same race are the likeliest (we know this from analysis of history).  That is a huge list in California.  A certain age.  Great.  Still an enormous list.  The detectives on the case back in the 1970s and 80s didn't have enough to narrow it down more.  The bad guy wasn't caught, then he stopped.

Enter your DNA on Ancestry.com.  Here is CNN on the story:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/02/us/golden-state-killer-unsealed-warrants/index.html

Here is a snippet from that piece

...police tracked him down by comparing genetic profiles from genealogy websites to crime scene DNA, according to investigators.

Here is VOX on the use of ancestry sites, geneology, to catch bad guys:

https://www.vox.com/2018/4/27/17290288/golden-state-killer-joseph-james-deangelo-dna-profile-match

Here is a snippet from that piece:

Sacramento authorities confirmed Thursday that they used DNA profiles from ancestry websites to help them catch the Golden State Killer, also known as the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker (EARONS).

This is a really interesting addition to the toolkit for crime solving.  Tech.  It's everywhere and the Information Age continues to change fundamental aspects of our lives.  Some entrepreneurial detectives in California have helped create the new "fingerprint", the new method for breaking open cases, that utilizes information to catch bad people.  That's good for the rest of us.

Sleep easier tonight.  The good guys are out there catching the bad guys and all will be well.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Virtual Store Obsession

First, let's get the notion of the so-called "retail apocalypse" out of the way.

The Unites States is over-saturated with physical retail and it is feeling gravity pull it back to earth. Also, a few brands that have failed to keep up with the times are going under (Sears won't last much longer as the CEO enriches himself with its brands).

However, there is a whole new opportunity for retail and there is a gold rush to get there.

Next up is the virtual online experience.  Enter the Obsessed.

Here is a snippet from the piece:

"You can't sell fashion and art the same way you sell toothpaste," says Neha Singh. "But on the internet, that's exactly what we do: Toothpaste is sold the same way as beautiful clothes."

Singh is the founder of Obsess, a new online shopping platform that seeks to reinvigorate what she describes as the "boring and tedious" business of online shopping. Singh hopes to usher in a new era of online retail, where currently, items are almost always presented as two-dimensional thumbnails on a uniform scroll-through grid.

Here is the full story:

http://www.businessinsider.com/neha-singh-obsess-google-amazon-experience-online-shopping-2018-6

I love stories like this for the multi-faceted aspect of it.  This is retail, it is technology, it is innovation, it is the customer experience, it is all of that and more.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Games for Kids and Retail

I love games.

I've been playing games my whole life.

The basics, of course, but I was also riding the wave of the digital revolution.  The first ever electronic games such as 'Electronic Detective' or 'Stop Thief!' that married the classic board game with a digital helper.

Oh, there is a remake of that beloved classic if you care.  It is excellent.  Take a look here:
https://restorationgames.com/stopthief/

Hasbro has been rolling with the punches for a long time now and they aren't slowing down.  Read this piece to find out the newest version of Monopoly.  Hint, it resulted directly from customer feedback on the original.

https://www.clickz.com/hasbro-evolves-alongside-customers/214732/

This is pure Participation Age stuff folks.  Everyone is responding to the customer's input for a brand.  Are you?

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

PS  Did I mention I'm being published?  My game will be available soon.  :-) Don't worry though, I won't be marketing it in here.

BRotD - Entry 0258 Retail and the Startup Competitors

Best Reading of the Day

The ultimate goal for the creators of goods, manufacturers and brand owners, is the direct to consumer relationship disinter-mediating the retailer that has gained so much power and leverage the last 40 odd years.  I've been very interested in this for a few years now and new stories on the subject catch my eye.

Similarly you see pure digital retail companies starting up as well. Think Amazon.com as it started out, not the behemoth it has become.

Here is a great little write-up that intends to help retailers understand the "digital native" company and what can be learned from the approach.

https://www.mytotalretail.com/post/digital-native-brands-the-almost-new-face-of-modern-marketers/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

There's lots of buzz surrounding digital-native brands and what's making them so disruptive and relevant today. While the definition of digital native is evolving, they are companies that launch as web-only retailers with the belief that superior technology can be a differentiator. They often engender loyalty by projecting authenticity and effectively leveraging social media. More importantly, they believe in a few core operational traits that can serve as a template for larger companies to try to emulate.

The modern retailer has a whole new series of competitors and threats to it. The savvy management group will be looking at all of these and determining the firewalls to place, the areas to compete directly, and the technology investments to make (once the best people are in place) to remain competitive and give customers what they want.

Call it 'Bricks & Mobile' or all it 'Omnicommerce' or anything else you want just be where the customer wants and needs you to be.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Apple Car Play Finally Opening Up

Do you have a preferred map navigation program?

I admit I became completely hooked on Waze when you could select Elvis Presley for your navigation voice.

<Elvis Voice> Uhh Right hand turn comin up baby.<End Elvis Voice>

Not so much since it was acquired by Google, lost the Elvis voice, and the real-time traffic data began showing up on Google Maps.

My new car, a 2017 I bought last summer, has Apple CarPlay in it that I never use.  Why?  It works great if you stay within the walled garden of Apple programs.  Want a map program other than Apple's?  Nope.  Music? Just play from your iPhone (Apple Music) and it works great but Sat Radio?  No, not going to be friendly with that.

Finally some of that will change with the new version of iOS coming soon.

Here is the full story:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-carplay-ios-12-will-finally-let-you-use-google-maps-waze/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

**UPDATE** The big iOS update has quite a bit more to it.  Read on: iOS UPDATE DETAILS at CNET