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September 29, 2006

Sirius Introduces New Portable Stiletto 100

This week, Sirius Satellite Radio’s much awaited portable music player and recorder, The Stiletto 100, is finally available to the masses. As Sirius heats up the already flaming competition among MP3 players, iPods and XM’s portable satellite devices, the fate of traditional radio is in question now more than ever before.

Most critics say that portable satellite radios pose an increasing threat to terrestrial radio because of their ability to record and store copies of songs from a live audio stream. The Stiletto comes equipped with a “love” button that can store up to 10 hours of music. When listeners hear something they “love,” they can record it to the Stiletto’s 2-gigabyte memory at the touch of a button. The Stiletto also allows users to schedule the automatic recording of 100 hours of audio content in up to 6-hour blocks, so no one has to worry about missing their favorite acoustic tunes on “Coffeehouse” overnight.

The introduction of the Stiletto marks Sirius’ first iPod-sized radio receiver, and is even smaller and more streamlined than XM’s “Inno” and “Helix” portable devices. Another feature that sets the Stiletto apart is its Wi-Fi capability. If a listener happens to enter a building where the Sirius signal is blocked, the Stiletto’s Wi-Fi capabilities link to Sirius Internet Radio to ensure a relatively uninterrupted audio experience. The device also comes equipped with the ability to pause, rewind and replay up to 44 minutes of audio, a 2.2 inch full-color display, and a “GameAlert” feature, which notifies listeners when the score changes at their favorite games. Retail price is about $350.

So it seems that the Stiletto has thought of everything –- users can even store their own MP3s and “bookmark” songs to purchase later via the Yahoo Music Jukebox. Many say new portable satellite radio devices like this one will draw in a much younger market. Six years ago when satellite radio launched, the 18-24 year old demographic didn’t bite. Some argued it was the monthly subscription cost that kept the younger market at bay, but it soon became clear that the younger demographic prized one thing above all else when it came to music: mobility.

What do you think? Now that satellite radio has wheels will terrestrial radio suffer? Or will iPods and regular AM/FM radio continue to prevail?

Posted by Kathryn Tuggle at 4:19 PM | 5 Comments

RVing

Excellent piece in today's New York Times, "Over the Top and On the Road," about 38th Annual Pennsylvania R.V. and Camping Show in Hershey, PA.

If you've never visited GoRVing.com, do so, as you're in for a real experiential treat. The site is sponsored by The Go RVing Coalition, which consists of the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA), Recreation Vehicle Dealers Association (RVDA), National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds (ARVC) and other state RV and campgrounds associations.

According to PA's RV association, the PRVCA:
"There are nine million RVs on the road with an estimated 25 million Americans traveling in them. A recent University of Michigan Survey Research Center study shows the number of RV-owning households at an all-time high of 9.3 million, or one in ten of all U.S. vehicle-owning households."

That's quite a segment of the U.S. population. Interesting, the greatest goods-commoditizing operator on the planet, Wal-Mart, and the epicenter of the Experience Economy, the city of Las Vegas, represent two of the most RV-friendly (parking lot) destinations to be found. They both understand the buying power of these 25 million in-motion consumers.

See:
"This is Nowhere" (Camping at Wal-Mart DVD)
and
Wal-Mart Locator (RVer guide)

also:
Casino Camping (RVer guide)

Yahoo answers (message board)

Posted by Jim Gilmore at 2:03 PM | 1 Comment

Halloween Be Thy Game

As we approach October, brace yourself for untold stories about various haunted house experiences and the like. The L.A. Times just put forth this story, "Theme Parks Are Dying to Feature Halloween," kicking off the season.

Such paid-for Halloween experiences are obviously part of the Experience Economy landscape -- and offering this insight for all businesses: one often needs to layer events atop places to generate demand. But in doing so, remember the venue and/or the happening are not the experience; they're merely the set and the script for the experiences that occur inside each one of us.

As for me and my household, we'll forego the admission-fed haunts and trick to for-free trick-or-treating. Although, there's always a cost, in this case in the form of the candy we'll dish out. Ah, even here, the experience drives the demand for goods!

Posted by Jim Gilmore at 1:36 PM | 1 Comment

Wit's End: Your Stories Needed

Do you have a psycho boss? Or a great one? Or did you, once? We’re looking for real-life tales from the workplace—your actual stories about bosses you’ve known and loved (or not). We want stories that are human, funny or sad, and (importantly) true. We’ll pick the best one to be published—in comic-book form, in the pages of Fast Company. The winner will get a frame-worthy print of the cartoon, signed by the artist Michael Kupperman.

Send your stories to wits_end@fastcompany.com.

Posted by Keith Hammonds at 11:08 AM | 5 Comments

For-Fee XM Radio and the Enjoyment of For-Free Experiences

I've spent a lot of time this week, at the urging of FC, commenting on various news items that struck my fancy. Do please allow me now to share a somewhat lengthy story of a more personal nature. (I trust the indulgence worth the eventual economic observation.)

Last night I went with my family to see the Cleveland Indians take on the lowly Tampa Bay Devil Rays at HOK-designed Jacobs Field. Both teams are out of contention for post-season play, and it had been an overcast and rainy day all Thursday, but we nevertheless dragged ourselves down to "The Jake" for the final game of our season ticket package. The late September game was meaningless and the night air chilly. Well over half the 14,000 in attendance left the ballpark during a brief rain shower that hit in the middle of the sixth inning. But we stayed the course and watched the Indians come from behind to win 5-4 in an error-free game that featured a game-winning RBI by rookie Ryan Garko (his 33rd since Aug. 20). I turned to my 10-year old son with two outs, bases loaded, the top of the ninth, right before relief pitcher Rafael Betancourt recorded the final out, and said, "Evan, the folks here right now....these are real baseball fans."

We had been scoreboard watching all night long as the Baltimore Orioles had a no-hitter going against the loathsome New York Yankees. But when the Indians game ended, the scoreboard shut off, only to be replaced with multicolor, motion-filled graphics of the most experientially-gratuitous kind (ruining our scoreboard-watching experience). So we hoofed to the car, tuned in the end of the Orioles-Yankees game, only to learn that the Yankees had had a hit in the bottom of the ninth inning. Rats!

We switched the XM dial to the Royals-Twins game, a game with real meaning in the standings. The Twins were down 1-0 in the ninth as we arrived home and pulled into our garage. My wife and daughter quickly dashed inside. But my son asked if we could listen to the end of the game together while parked inside the garage. I said fine. So Evan crawled forward to the front, we reclined both seats all the way back, and listened in the dark to the final moments of the game. I kid you not: Evan proceeded to call the Joe Mauer game-tying home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Extra innings! Then in the bottom of the tenth, right before Jason Bartlett's game-winning single with the bases loaded, Evan turns to me and says, "Dad, this is great. We're bonding...whatever that is."

Not priceless. Precious.

Continue reading "For-Fee XM Radio and the Enjoyment of For-Free Experiences"

Posted by Jim Gilmore at 10:58 AM | 7 Comments

ESPN Hangs Up Its Mobile Phones

ESPN evidently plans to pull the plug on its mobile phone venture with Sprint Nextel. (You've seen the ads for it featuring a faux fan outside ESPN headquarters.) It gave me pause: Just why didn't the offering work? It would seemingly fit much of what I advocate, charging a premium for a sports-themed experience.

It can't be that it wandered too far from its "core competencies," as ESPN has been very successful with its ESPN Zones and ESPN Skate Parks, and before entering those domains the company could hardly have been seen as expert in either restaurants or recreation-centers. So it isn't a case of moving too far from its heritage. No, the mistake I think was in what it decided to move to.

The key to picking fertile turf for experiences resides in one's ability to create a destination. Any communication device only serves as a conduit to reach various destinations. That's why ESPN's licensing of sports content works; each piece of content becomes a destination in an of itself.

The triumph of destination over devices also explains the up-and-down history of America Online. As long as AOL existed in the minds and (keyboarding) hands of customers as a destination, it continued to attract new people to the experience. (Way back when -- before MySpace, before YouTube -- at the height of its popularity, over 50% of the time consumed on AOL was in its chat rooms!) But as more and more content became available at non-AOL websites, AOL suddenly became merely a means to access these other content-destinations. And it lost customers as they sought cheaper conduit. (Thus the merger with Time-Warner, as a last-ditch effort to add more content.)

This has important implications for anyone seeking to stage experiences, for you must work to ensure your customers view your offerings as destinations. Consider all the Customer First award winners: they're all destinations.

Posted by Jim Gilmore at 10:50 AM | 1 Comment

September 28, 2006

A Decent Battery

They don't make rechargeable lithium-ion batteries like they used to.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced today that Lenovo and IBM are recalling an estimated 526,000 battery packs, after an overheated battery caused a fire with enough smoke and sparks that a fire extinguisher was needed to put it out.

Joining the ranks of Apple, Hewlett-Packard and Dell, Lenovo is the fourth major manufacturer to announce a battery recall in the last five months.

The complication in Lenovo's notebooks comes from the battery cells made by Sony. The liquid inside them is flammable, and if there is a short, a chemical chain reaction occurs that can melt the battery or even make it explode. As manufacturers strive to make batteries that will last longer, more of the flammable liquid is packed into the small space.

Does it shake your confidence in a brand when something like this happens? Does it shake your confidence in an industry when it happens to four brands? Or with technology advancing so fast, are mistakes like this accepted by consumers -- even expected?

Posted by Peter Hoy at 3:29 PM | 3 Comments

The Bus of the Future

Imagine if Batman drove a school bus. It would probably run on autopilot and have sensors that detect obstacles a quarter of a mile up the road. It would probably be able to switch between regular roads and specially designed tracks where he could crank its speed up to 155 mph. It would probably be low to the ground, black, and have headlights that look like lightning bolts.

Well, that's exactly what can be expected of the Superbus, the high-speed public transportation system being developed by the Netherlands' Delft University of Technology. Highlighted in this week's Economist, the Superbus is a something of a hybrid between a charter bus and a maglev train.

Continue reading "The Bus of the Future"

Posted by Peter Hoy at 12:40 PM | Add Comment

A List of Our Own

Since my October 2006 hardcopy issue of Fast Company just arrived in yesterday's mail, I like to bid farewell to the September issue -- and its stellar list of Customer First award winners, honorable mentions, and local heroes -- with some commentary my own portfolio of exemplary businesses (which as you'll see, overlap with FC's chosen few).

Let me note that FC's Customer First winner American Girl was the recipient of our (Strategic Horizons LLP) first ever Experience Stager of the Year (EXPY) award back in 1999. (Actually, its flagship experience, the first American Girl Place in Chicago, was honored with the award.)

We announce the EXPY winner each year at our annual thinkAbout event. Here is a list of EXPY winners to date, which I share as a means to encourage you to learn more about these exemplary experience-stagers.

1999 - American Girl Place

2000 - Geek Squad

2001 - Joie de Vivre Hospitality

2002 - The LEGO Company

2003 - Cerritos Library

2004 - Charthouse Learning

2005 - HOK Sport + Venue + Event

2006 - Cereality
Cereality, our EXPY winner this year, was picked by Fast Company as (understandably) just a Local Hero, as the company only has three outlets to date. Indeed, Joe Pine and I have a tendency to risk making premature picks, before waiting to observe actual commercial success, as we want to practice what we preach in terms of experience innovation. Mattel had just acquired American Girl in 1998. Would the giant maker of plastic toys spell the demise of the education-based doll maker? (So far, so good.) The Geek Squad had less than two dozen special agents at the time they won the 2000 EXPY; today, over 12,000 agents roam the globe helping to alleviate the world's computer problems. We awarded Chip Conley's JDV the 2001 EXPY less than two months after 9-11, knowing full well that the hospitality industry would be hit hard in the economic aftermath of that horrific day. LEGO was being trashed in the media in 2002; we saw their new portfolio of experience offerings as a move that would pay dividends down the road. (Indeed it has.) A public library? You have to visit the place to fully comprehend the impact that the Cerritos Library has had in its community. Seattle's library may have attracted more architectural press, but Cerritos is clearly the leading exemplar of staging compelling library experiences, not just erecting acclaimed buildings. Charthouse's Fish! offerings can be wrongly forced down employees necks, but Charthouse truly points the way in helping to stage more compelling human performances. And just when one thinks HOK has seen the end of its run in innovating large-scale assembly venues, it goes off an invents the first retractable field in the (now) University of Phoenix Stadium for the NFL Cardinals.

Viewed together with FC's lists of exemplary businesses, all these wonderful enterprises merely scratch the surface in depictig the experience innovation entering today's marketplace. Be such a company. Fast.

Posted by Jim Gilmore at 12:08 PM | Add Comment

Turning Everything Into Tourism

Today's Wall Street Journal has a page B1 article, "New Company Aims to Send Tourists to Space", highlighting the entry of rocket scientist Jim Benson into the space tourism field and competing with the likes of Sir Richard Branson and Paul Allen. The piece fails to mention my favorite space tourim firm, Eric Anderson's Space Adventures.

Many may wonder: Are these space experiences really happening? Indeed they are, beginning with Dennis Tito's groundbreaking launch (and record-breaking fee for an experience) back in 2001. One can monitor the industry at SpaceDaily.com.

Let me also note that the Rochester Institute of Technology now offers the first ever space tourism development course for undergraduates. What's next? Perhaps a full major in the field!

Let me conclude with a lesson that can be applied to most every industry: One way to think more richly about experiences is to offer one's output in the form of tourism. Go google "medical tourism", "culinary tourism", "film tourism", and the like. New generes of experiences are emerging at every turn. In my travels, I've met a kitchen-and-bath remodeler charging customers $250 for a "Shopping Cruise", basically a great date for a couple in which the remodeler rents a limo and acts as chaperone over the course of visiting a dozen or so stops in the design process. Call it "retail tourism". I've met a golf pro who charges $2,000-$3, 000 for but two rounds of golf, one in Atlanta and another in Vegas, complete with private jet transportation and two nights at Mandalay Bay between rounds.

So consider how you can embed your offerings within some form of travel. People spend more when they're in motion.

Posted by Jim Gilmore at 10:59 AM | 2 Comments

Tappa-tappa-tappa

One of the biggest conundrums facing cell phone makers these days is how to cram an entire keyboard into an ever-shrinking plastic case. As more and more people are looking to their cell phones for more than just talking, the need for a functional QWERTY keyboard, or at least a simulacrum, becomes all the more apparent. I recently tested out two new devices whose makers have come up with two different, and interesting, strategies to combat the form-factor problem: The LG AX490, and the Blackberry Pearl.

The LG phone uses the remarkably ingenious FasTap design which separates the letters from the numbers, placing the former on raised keys at the corners of each of the number keys. When I first saw it, I immediately felt like smacking my forehead. "Why didn't I think of that?" I said to myself. Apparently, the Canadians have had these phones for about two years now (time to move to Toronto?) It was such an ingenious design that I couldn't wait to start texting my friends. That's when I ran into problems.
After several days of sending text messages, I still found myself hunting for letters and, when I was really in a groove, constantly typing the same wrong letters, which I thought was bizarre. After all, there's no triple-tapping involved, and all the letters are right here, in plain sight, and in the same basic layout as any other phone. So what was the problem? As I see it, going from a triple-tapping to single tapping, my mind subconsciously switched from phone-typing to computer-keyboard-typing mode, which, of course, is all about the QWERTY layout, and I suddenly became as good a speller as I was in the second grade.

The second "don't-call-it-a-phone" device I tried out was RIM's BlackBerry Pearl, which was designed to make sure that executives aren't going to be the only ones tethered to their email wherever they go. This is the most un-BlackBerry BlackBerry out there (which is a compliment, guys). It looks like a phone, feels like a phone--it even has a little camera that takes halfway decent shots--but I'm here to talk about how it types.

The Pearl, so named because it features an illuminated white trackball, replacing the venerable thumb wheel, has a modified QWERTY keyboard layout. Each key is assigned two letters, along with a number or symbol, depending on its location. The idea is, you type just as you would a regular keyboard, and its SureType application automatically figures out what word you're trying to spell. This works fine in most cases. The snafus come when the same keystrokes can be used for multiple words, or you're trying to type in a URL or email address. In the first case, say you're trying to type the word "are," which happens to be the same keystrokes as "see." The software presents you with a drop-down list of possible words, and you pick the one you want. The real problems come in the latter case, when you're trying to email someone. SureType comes up with some crazy combinations when you're typing in an address, and you have to revert back to double-tapping to get what you want.

So, what does this all mean? Two valiant attempts to deal with two converging, conflicting needs of a full keyboard and a small phone. All in all, the BlackBerry comes closer than the FasTap phone, even though I liked the design--at least aesthetically--of the latter. Are we doomed to the tyranny of QWERTY? Will human evolution result in smaller fingers to be able to press increasingly microscopic buttons? Do you have either of these devices? What's been your experience?

Posted by Michael Prospero at 10:55 AM | 1 Comment

September 27, 2006

Apple's World Power in Question

Apple’s dominance in the music world has prompted this week’s heated negotiations with a number of European governments and consumer rights organizations.

The negotiations have taken Apple executives to Paris, where government representatives from Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland have come to discuss iTunes’ dominance in downloadable music. Representatives argue that Apple’s music sale methods are unethical, citing that the sale of music or video in formats exclusive to the iPod product is a violation of art, and threatens both the sharing and longevity of cultural materials.

The accusations against Apple were led by French legislators who promote “interoperability” in music –- they feel that music should not legally be sold if it is compatible with only one product. Legislators from several European countries are seeking to stop the sale of Apple-exclusive iTunes and promote music and videos that can be enjoyed on any digital device.

Of course, Europeans aren’t the only ones angered by Apple’s monopoly; many in the United States feel strongly about the universal exchange of music, and for the past two years, the European Commission has investigated inflated prices of iTunes in the United Kingdom.

The proponents of music interoperability have a good point -- if digital media is made available in a universal format, artists and consumers alike stand a better chance at getting what they want. The market for artists will be healthier, and the selection for music and video purchasers will be broader.

However, some say this debate could result in government-controlled music standardization, resulting in a technology blockade that could prevent would-be artists from breaking onto the scene.

What do you think? Does Apple have too much of a Monopoly?

Posted by Kathryn Tuggle at 5:52 PM | 7 Comments

In Today's Papers:

For bookmarks, digg, and del.icio.us:

• Sony Reader Fosters Hand-Eye Coordination
  "The Sony Reader, a hand-held portable device for reading electronic books, went on sale online yesterday after months of delays and technical tweaks."
• Why IM When You Can Ping Me? "IF instant messaging has you thumb-tied, maybe Pinger, a new service from a start-up company, could get you interested in exchanging brief messages by cellphone or computer."
• What Detroit's Pain Means for Auto Buyers
  "Detroit's pain is translating into lower sticker prices for the new model year, though not necessarily better deals across the board for car buyers."
• Inquiry of H-P May Face Setback; Computer Apparently Is Destroyed
  "A Colorado man suspected of surreptitiously obtaining telephone numbers in the Hewlett-Packard Co. leak investigation told an investigator last week that he had destroyed his computer, according to a person familiar with the probe."
• Berlin resolves Mozart opera spat
  "A controversial Mozart opera adapted to include a scene showing Mohammed’s severed head on stage appears set for a new run in Berlin after the German government said the show must go on as a “signal of closer dialogue” with the country’s 3.4m Muslims."

Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 4:02 PM | Add Comment

Charge Admission!

Note the ouster of The Sharper Image founder Richard Thalheimer:
Sharper Image’s Founder Is Out in Shake-Up

Not too long ago, okay maybe it was a long time ago, Thalheimer might have been properly seen as a pioneer in experience-staging. When Sharper Image stores first opened, it was not unusual for rope lines to form outside just to regulate the traffic flowing into the venues. But over time of course the novelty wore off and the places became just another ho-hum outlet in the experiential retail landscape.

And that's the problem: It was experiential. Experiential. I loathe that adjective. Experiential marketing. Yuck! Experiential stores. Phooey! To be an economic experience (the noun, my friends), an experience offering, one must find ways to charge explicitly for time. For time is the currency of experiences.

And it's high time to revisit the advice we advanced in The Experience Economy: Charge Admission!

Regardless of what business you are in, ask yourself: What would we do differently if we charged admission? (Yes, just to spend time with us!) Even if one does not end up charging explicitly for such time, the question will force thinking more creatively about the experiences being staged. For the experiences will need to be worthy of a fee in order to command a fee.

For Sharper Image, that might involve showcasing various experiences at appointed "show times". It might mean charging a nominal fee that is then good toward the price of certain merchandise. It might mean charging membership fees or subscription fees to access certain lines of merchandise. It might mean offering actual gadget-based experiences (adventures, vacations, etc.) instead of just the gadgets.

Posted by Jim Gilmore at 12:31 PM | 3 Comments

Wilson vs. Woods

If you haven't yet read the Sept. FC "Open Debate" between Steven F. Wilson and George Wood regarding private sector involvement in (or in lieu of) public education, I'd encourage you to do so.

I only wish to chime in with a comment about the University of Phoenix: Many people view Phoenix with some level of disdain, pointing to its rate of non-graduating students. But its a mistake to only look at Phoenix vis-a-vis other colleges and universities. A more relevant way to view Phoenix is with respect to high school education. Phoenix is offering not so much an alternative to other colleges and universities but remedial education to overcome the deficiencies in our public school systems. Phoenix's $2.3 billion in revenue -- along with the revenues of Wilson's Advantage Schools and hundreds if not thousands of other private-sector educational businesses -- is one way to begin quantifying the cost of public education's shortcomings.

Students often go to Phoenix to get what they failed to learn in high school. And frankly, even its non-graduates can often make for better employees that many non-students graduating from "finer" colleges and universities.

All of this is really my way of disguising yet another sports-related entry here on Sports Wednesday at FC Now. Yes, the University of Phoenix has just paid $154.5 million for the naming rights to the new NFL Phoenix Cardinals stadium:

University of Phoenix gets naming rights to Cardinals' stadium.

The Cardinals move out of ASU's Fiesta Bowl for this? The irony!

Posted by Jim Gilmore at 11:29 AM | Add Comment

Accessing sports experiences

The Wall Street Journal has article today (p. D1), "Baseball-playoff Seats Get Harder to Score."

The piece concerns the difficulty in obtaining post-season tickets in these experience-hungry times.

While the article makes reference to well-known alternative ticket sources of StubHub, TicketsNow, and eBay, it was in front page article of my local Cleveland Plain Dealer paper that I read about a truly innovative ticket offering called TicketReserve:
www.ticketreserve.com
The site sells the "rights to buy" tickets should your favorite team advance to certain championship contests. They're basically selling ticketing options, which then fluctuate in value based on the prospect of various teams actually advancing.

Full PD article at:
Buy, sell, hold: sports tickets

Are your company's experiences attractive enough, and inaccessible enough, to foster the emergence of secondary markets?

Posted by Jim Gilmore at 10:52 AM | Add Comment

Now this is customer-generated content

Perhaps my favorite example of customer-generated content ("user-generated" sounds too goods-related to be an appropriate description, and I don't want to force "guest-generated") is how the Schaumburg Flyers minor league baseball team this past season allowed fans to vote on their team's starting lineup.

See:
http://fanclub.msn.com/
Via:
http://www.flyersbaseball.com/

I once wrote a column (for now defunct Context magazine) about how Major League Baseball ought to auction the experience of managing the All-Star Game, with the two highest bidders managing the AL and NL squads. (I wrote this after the Tie All-Star Game, as no fan could screw things up as badly as that fiasco.) The Schaumburg Flyers certainly make the idea seem much more plausible.

Posted by Jim Gilmore at 9:36 AM | Add Comment

Football, User Ads, Frito-Lay and Chevrolet

TV commercials have long ago abandoned emphasizing functions and features, uses and benefits, even cues and sensations. Desperate for finding some new means to engage prospects with their clients' offerings, it's no wonder that The New York Times reports today about agencies experimenting with "user-generated" ads for airing during the next Super Bowl.

Super Bowl Glory for Amateurs With Video Cameras

I suppose we can trace the origins of the whole genre of experience back to The Blair Witch Project (the film itself, and its pre-show website). Just as postmodern theorists speak of a "socially-constructed reality", businesses today are awash in attempts to gain stature by authentically constructing brand images. Having customers (or contestants in the case of Frito-Lay and Chevrolet) create ad copy, instead of the official "cultural creatives" on Madison Avenue, certainly has this aim.

It strikes me that the significant point here is that marketers and their agencies must become less involved in generating final content and more skilled at establishing enticing platforms for customer to stage their own content-creating experiences.

It's already happening online of course. One of my favorite examples: the fan-created films in praise of Converse shoes at www.conversegallery.com.

But the best of breed my not be a platform for commercials (or short films), but of packaging copy. I'm referring of course to Jones Soda labels.

www.jonessoda.com/gallery/

At first, this may strike some as an example of mass customization, but its not so much about allowing customers to create "mine" but "ours" through participation in a collective, collaborative, or contributive process that directly affects the final manufacturing output.

Posted by Jim Gilmore at 9:30 AM | Add Comment

September 26, 2006

Power Hungry Machines

At today's Intel Development Forum, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) engineers will present a white paper on power efficiency, according to The New York Times.

Google engineers have been publicly concerned about the high cost of power and low efficiency of computers for some time, warning that if performance-per-watt stays where it is now, power costs could eventually overtake hardware costs. The search giant even builds its own servers, among other reasons, to save money on power consumption.

Continue reading "Power Hungry Machines"

Posted by Peter Hoy at 1:14 PM | 3 Comments

Speaking of McDonald's...

The characterization of today's jobs as "only" being those at McDonald's brings to mind the recent announcement by the Oak Brook giant that it may start selling breakfast all day long. The competitive force driving the possible change? Why, experience-staging Starbucks of course.

See:
http://www.food-business-review.com/article_feature.asp?guid=D4D6BBA0-5FCB-4970-A3F9-4A0F36505263

This reminds me of the joke (I've heard attributed to both David Brenner and Steven Wright) about the man who pulls up to a convenience store that has a sign outside reading, "Open 24 Hours". But as he approaches the entry door, the store's manager is locking up for the day. The man protests, "You're sign says 'Open 24 Hours'" -- to which the worker replies, "Not in a row!"

Maybe the move to all-the-time breakfast will prove to be some help to McDonald's. Who's to know? I do know this, however: the move to a 24/7 world has a homogenizing effect on the perception of value by consumers. In retail, the very processes by which companies grow their businesses -- establishing more and more outlets with more and more hours open -- are the very same processes that kill brand, as Sameness creeps in. (Interestingly, Starbucks continues to forestall this happening by mass-customizing its decor and operating hours.)

To be available all the time destroys any sense of being exceptional, turning one's offerings into mere utilities. I truly believe that not being available at every single moment may actually endear oneself to customers. Such accounts, for example, in the real appeal of Chick-fil-A (a past winner of FC Customers First award, btw) being closed on Sundays. It's authentic in its walking away from eking out every last nickel from the enterprise.

Now, it would be interesting to see how my contention might play out online? Image a 24/6 online merchant? Or one that shuts down ordering each day at 8:00 p.m.? Well, I could see a local toy merchant’s website modifying its homepage each evening, saying it's closed for the night and advising parents to go "Read to their bunnies" and tuck them in for the night. ( I don't think Target would ever do that.)

Posted by Jim Gilmore at 11:42 AM | 7 Comments

Where's the (Airline) beef?

Today's WSJ has a piece on airlines courting the most profitable international travelers., "Airlines Beef Up Offerings to Woo Profitable International Travelers":

Let's hope the pursuit of these international lanes by U.S. airlines does not result in exporting our poorer experience standards to overseas travel (I'm amazed at how Continental -- an airline I actually find doing a decent job at staging experiences -- has managed to differentiate itself among today's domestic carriers simply by not removing peanuts and pillows from flights!)

While the move to woo international passengers becomes the aim of U.S. airlines, I'd like to see U.S. policymakers woo foreign airlines by lifting the ban that prohibits them from operating domestic routes in the United States. Such competition would invariably lead to better service and more enjoyable experiences. Of course, the economic naysayers lurking here will undoubtedly find such a threat to the job security of domestic airline service employees.

Posted by Jim Gilmore at 11:12 AM | 4 Comments

In Today's Papers

Reading and ripping:

• Arriving Late, Can BlackBerry Hook Japan's Mobile Market?
  Why the popular handheld might get lost in translation overseas
• Employees Forsake Dreaded Email For the Beloved Phone
  New trends in workplace communication
• Following an Electronic Voice Through the Back Roads of Kansas
  SWAK, GPS!
• Hoping to Be a Model, I.B.M. Will Put Its Patent Filings Online
  "I.B.M., the nation's largest patent holder, will publish its patent filings on the Web for public review as part of a new policy."
• Managers Rate Themselves High, But Workers Prove Tough Critics
  Seeing yourself through rose-colored glasses
• Therapy That Keeps On the Sunny Side of Life
  "Rising Number of Therapists Focus on the Positive Instead Of Bad Parents, Other Demons"
• With 'Reality Visors,' Officers Try New Tack To Face Mentally Ill
  "In Sensitivity Classes, Police Get Taste of Schizophrenia; Asking, 'Have You Eaten?'"
• Yahoo to Close for Holidays
  To cut costs, employees must take vacation days

Posted by Heath Row at 9:22 AM | Add Comment

Our Home. Our Team. Be a Saint.

Well, the news did not make the front page of today's Wall Street Journal and New York Times, but it did make the cover of my Cleveland Plain Dealer and I suspect most other local papers: The New Orleans Saints returned to the Superdome yesterday to defeat the Atlanta Falcons 23-3 on Monday Night Football. It was impossible not to watch the pre-game show, the doors opening, the saints marching in, and the Saints winning without being thrilled for the people and city of New Orleans. And to hear ESPN's Chris Berman recite Steve Goodman's lyrics, "Good morning America, how are you? / Don't you know me, I'm you're native son..." capped off the night in a most fitting way.

Some $185 milliion dollars in repairs were spent in repairing the Superdome stadium, and while I generally think the value of NFL football to a city is overstated (it's only eight home games per year, after all), I couldn't help but think about how the reopening of this large-scale experience venue proves that economic experiences hold the key to economic development in not only New Orleans, but other communities as well.

It's about time that we recognize that the most powerful community-building ventures are commercial experiences, not manufacturing plants and service centers.

Posted by Jim Gilmore at 9:18 AM | 2 Comments

September 25, 2006

The Greening of Rupert Murdoch

Attendees of last week's meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative were asked to make specific commitments toward advancing solutions to global problems such as poverty, religious and ethnic conflict and climate change. While Richard Branson's planned investment of approximately $3 billion in renewable energy initiatives has taken a large share of the press, companies not immediately identified with humanitarian or green causes also accepted Clinton's challenge.

Wal-Mart plans to leverage its purchasing power to reduce waste by encouraging environmentally friendly packaging. In Nicaragua, Merck plans to immunize 600,000 infants a year against rotavirus. But no global problem-solving plan was more surprising than Rupert Murdoch's announcement, reported in the Financial Times, that he aims to tackle climate change by making News Corp. carbon neutral.

Continue reading "The Greening of Rupert Murdoch"

Posted by Leslie Taylor at 6:20 PM | 5 Comments

Hollywould. Would that FC advertisers do in kind...

Today's Wall Street Journal (9-25-06) Small Business section features a lead article on "How to Get Attention in a New-Media World", highlighting the success of a fashion clothier called Hollywould in gaining awareness and publicity through designer Holly Dunlap's blog ("Holly's Diary") at www.ilovehollywould.com. The online buzz has proven more worthwhile than monies spent on traditional P.R. agency efforts. The piece makes one wonder how some of the FC advertisers listed in my previous entry might gain similar attention through more creative experiential marketing efforts....

-- Car companies Saturn, Jaguar, and Land Rover -- customer diaries of driving experiences (Holly would haul)

-- Marriott -- guest diaries of sleepful stays (Holly would nights!)

-- Budweiser -- drinkers tell tall tales (Holly would hangover)

-- Copystar -- workers sharing photocopy art (Holly would humor)

-- New Orleans CVB -- turnaround testimonials (Holly would help)

-- USO -- actual handwritten notes available online (Holly would hail)

Let me suggest a new advertising imperative: Run no ads that do not point to an actual customer experience to be had online or face-to-face someplace. I'd argue that the existence of such experiential offerings would force more creative ad copy than much of what passes itself off today as "Creative".

Posted by Jim Gilmore at 2:57 PM | 1 Comment

Wal-Mart, Target and the value of the yuan

See page one article in today's Wall Sreet Journal (9-25-06), "Seeking Growth in Urban Areas, Wal-Mart Gets Cold Shoulder".

Those who bash Wal-Mart usually fail to comment on the billions of dollars Wal-Mart annually saves consumers in the cost of goods (and increasingly of services), freeing up monies for consumers to spend on various experiences. Dollars saved on clothing, food, home furnishings, and the like allow many consumers to take in a NASCAR race now and then, make a once-in-a-lifetime visit to American Girl Place, join a Life Time Fitness club, or splurge in a Mac Cosmetics make-over before their (thousands of dollars) weddings.

It's most interesting how Target manages to avoid much of the venom directed Wal-Mart, when Target represents just as significant a force in the commoditization of goods and demise of local goods merchants. When a Target opened near me in University Heights, Ohio a few years ago, it led to the closing of locally-owned John's Furniture & Toys (at least the proprietor had claimed), much to the disappointment of many of my Shaker Heights neighbors. But John's never progressed from selling goods to offering services and experiences that might allow it to successfully compete in the toy business, say by selling memberships to a John's Toy Club or staging homespun birthday parties. Frankly, it deserved to close. And I, like many others, in the process benefited from the reduced sales prices that accompanied the closing, stocking up on future gifts (for all the birthday parties my kids go to) and everyday items (for us, whiffle balls) and other toy supplies, as discounts rose from 25% to 50% then 75% and finally 90% off over a multi-month period.

Indeed, Target seldom meets with the opposition that Wal-Mart so often encounters. As the Journal points out, credit Target with a greater appreciation for design and the esthetic value required of retail experiences today. (The nearby Target mentioned above came complete with an innovative escalator designed for one's shopping cart!)

Also appearing in today's Wall Street Journal is an op-ed piece written by U.S. Senators Schumer and Graham, complaining about the artificially low value of the Chinese yuan due to Chinese government intervention. Those who complain about such behavior on the part of the Chinese, like those who complain about Wal-Mart, usually fail to comment on the billions of dollars saved annually by consumers in the cost of goods from China. An artificially low yuan benefits U.S. consumers by further freeing up monies to be spent on various experiences.

These two pols, like so many others, mistakenly look to protect U.S. manufacturing jobs, when the preponderance of new economic output and job creation in the years to come will result from the emergence of new experience-based business. One simply needs to read the current issue of FC for testimony that such is truly the case.

Posted by Jim Gilmore at 1:59 PM | 8 Comments

Looking at ads

I must confide that I learn as much from a magazine's advertisements as I do the articles themselves. I don't read them as a consumer, rather as an observer of the passing business parade (and contemporary ad agency thinking). After our milestone July-August 1998 HBR, "Welcome to the Experience Economy", Robert Jones of Wolff-Olins wrote in a (Nov.-Dec. 1998) letter to the editor: "a brand is nothing but the promise of an experience." Yes indeed, but too often the actual experience fails to fulfill against the promise.

Print ads are usually the worst culprits in making unfulfillable promises. Or worse, immersing the brand promise in imagery of the most fake kind. In the spirit of that observation, let me share some observations as I flip page by page through FC's September issue:

--Saturn Sky: "Like never before. There is a way to deliver a primal sports car experience..." This strikes me as an appeal to authenticity via originality of design ("Like never before"). And the scenary in ad makes an authentic appeal to driving in a natural setting, but most roadsters will seldom spend time in such scenic settings. Why not show real-world driving conditions? But my main complaint: I cannot get past the horrible formulation of "deliver....experience" when in fact one delivers a service and stages an experience. Whenever, I see "deliver an experience" I know the company just doesn't get it. I do like that one can "Build Your Own" online.

-- Adobe: "Work Together Naturally" with picture of a hippo with a bird on its back. A hippo! Who comes up with this stuff? (A feeble appeal to authenticity via nature.)

-- CapitalOne: "I've passed kidney stones..." An appeal to authenticity through exceptional treatment of your small business.

-- Marriott: "...experience our new bed today." An appeal to authenticity via a referential image of lazily sleeping in.

-- JAGUAR: "Gorgeous plays HARD TO FORGET." Ah, experiences are memorable events. Too bad its hard to forget that its Ford that now makes Jaguars.

-- Budweiser SELECT. the very term "Select" is an appeal to exceptional authenticity.

-- Microsoft. Does any Microsoft print ad ever entice? Yawn.

-- Cingular: "Wireless e-mail". What's more effective, this ad or a Nokia Experience Center (a Customer First honorable mention) where one can actually test functionality?

-- Visa. Note the real-life situation depicted -- although it seems rather "staged". Wouldn't a real photo, say one posted at a Visa web site soliciting such, by a consumer of an actual multi-tasking moment be more credible because more real?

-- NRDC. A referential appeal to natural authenticity.

-- RSM McGladrey. The use of black and white is an appeal to authenticity.

-- Copystar. The contrived male and female workers matches the awful colors in the ad (a real business scene rendered fake in its photography). it doesn't help to be placed opposite the interview with Diego Scotti, with its rich color scheme (a fake business scene rendered real through its photography).

--Hertz. Again an open road in natual setting. Too bad the image is so far removed from the typical environments where one rents and drives a rental car.

-- Natural American Spirit cigarettes. I'm always impressed by how this brand renders natural authenticity

-- Great-West Healthcare. Note use of earthy "pay dirt"

-- Right Now Technologies. Might not the ad be more effective by making referential to Animal Hosue scene with devil and angel, verus having devil and devil?

-- New Orleans CVB: "Creating an exceptional business experience..." It's nice to see NOLA back in business. Truly? But wouldn;t the ad be rendered more real if it made reference to coming back from Katrina, at leastin the five lines of text that center the ad?

-- North American Conference on Customer Management and Sarasota Design Summit. I'll leave it to you to decide which ad comes off as more real!

-- E-trade. E-nough already!

-- Range Rover. It's worth visiting landroverusa.com pointed to by the ad. Clickon "Extraordinary Perspectives" and then "The Artist:" and "The Experience". Why does this extraordinary material get lost in (indeed not match) the print ad?

-- Target.com/careers. I had a conversation just last week with Robert Stephens, founder of The Geek Squad, at our annual thinkAbout about how employment ads may provide companies with greater brand-building value than ads promoting product. Ads seeking workers can be crafted as statements about the brand without making promises about the actual experience. Target's ad here may provide a remarkable illustration. While not pitching for one to shop at Target it actually serves to make on go to Target. not for a job, but to buy something.

-- Iowa: "life | changing". I once held a chaired position at Iowa State University, although in the College of Family and Consumers Sciences and not the Virtual Reality Application Center depicted in ad. I'ts a most interesting ad, but I'd think that at least an outline of the state's boundaries, say around the "Iowa: life | changing" logo/text would help acknowldge we're talking about Iowa here!

-- Wait, an Microsoft ad that holds my attention. It might prove an interesting exercise to compare and contrast the two Microsodt ads in this issue. What works? What doesn't?

-- National Pulic Lands Day. Another appeal to natural authenticity.

-- IBM: referential to "Arm and a Leg" gasoline prices. A smart move?

-- USO: "Until Every One Comes Home". The use of handwritten font strikes me as an appeal to authenticity.

-- Hitachi: "Projector Networking Tools". Great concept, and I love the idea of "confidence room"

-- Mastercard: "priceless". Consider how the print version of the "priceless" ads fails to engage as well as the TV version. Similarly, the TV ads fall short of the potential that could be had via 3D experiences.

I share all this as fodder for additonal comments on ads....

Posted by Jim Gilmore at 11:44 AM | 19 Comments

Authenticity

In his FastTalk interview in the Sept. 2006 issue of FC, Diego Scotti, VP of Global Advertising for American Express, says, "Authenticity is the thing consumers respond to the most." Amen! For the past three years, Joe Pine and I have been working on our next book, focused on this very subject, namely authenticity as a new consumer sensibility. (We resubmitted our post- peer review manuscript to our editor three weeks ago.)

In the Agrarian Economy, the dominant purchase criteria was Availability (price being set by supply-and-demand, and only influencing the quantity of materials purchased in the marketplace). In the Industrial Economy, Cost became the dominant driver of purchases as Mass Production made more and more goods affordable to the masses. In the Service Economy, Quality come to dominate, with the performance of offerings became most important as consumers increasingly rely upon others to perform certain activities on their behalf. And now, in the Experience Economy, in an increasingly unreal world of staged places and mediated events, consumers want Authenticity. Thus AMEX desires to "be associated with people of substance, whose success is based on real achievement" and entices celebrities with the opportunity to craft their life-stories (as a commercial) and not just monetary compensation. (Indeed, selling out for the big bucks is not "being real".)

I don't want to turn this entry into an outline of our forthcoming book, but would be willing to respond to any comments on the subject that this entry prompts.

Posted by Jim Gilmore at 11:09 AM | 2 Comments

Customers Last?

The Customer First Award issue of Fast Company is always my favorite FC read each year. The selection of winners, honorable mentions, and "local heroes" always provides an insightful glimpse into the manifold goodness that is happening in business today. I'm particurly delighted that this year's collection of winners has a particularly experiential bent, as many past winners were properly understoood as merely delivering outstanding service. Indeed, Manadarin Oriental Hotel Group, NASCAR, American Girl, Burton Snowboards, Life Time Fitness, and Mac Cosmetics largely dinstinguish themselves by staging compelling experiences, not delivering exceptional service. (And in the case of Life Time Fitness and Mac Cosmetics, arguably on the basis of guiding life-altering transformations).

Yet I do not believe that any of these companies have achieved their success by first putting "Customers First." Instead, I see them as first and foremost pursuing Self Actualization, or putting Self First. Mandarin, like any better hotelier, has its own particular view of how (a luxurious) life ought to be lived, one without which there would be no loyal customers to put first. FC is correct in pointing out that NASCAR's "technololgy and merchandising would mean nothing if drivers don't deliver in person." And make no mistake: these indispensible drivers are in it for their own fame and fortune. Having an American Girl Place just off Michigan Avenue in Chicago was the childhood dream of Pleasant Rowland; that is why it came into being. Burton's "riders talking to riders" provides an outlet for rider-employees to share their snowboarding enthusiasm. (Aren't the best retail associates always those who consider the wares they hawk an extension of self?) Life Time Fitness seeks to be "your neighborhood's de facto community center"; no customer is crying for such. And Mac Cosmetics' make-up artists? What could be more self-actualizing than business as art, to borrow a phrase from the title of Stan Davis' most recent book.

A management mantra of "Customers First" without a self-actualizing motivation for being in business only leads to the kind of nightmarish encounters all too often suffered by the likes of Lewis Black (and us all). Indeed, putting "Customers First" should never be an end in itself, but only a means to some greater end.

Posted by Jim Gilmore at 9:58 AM | 1 Comment

Customers First: Welcome Guest Blogger Jim Gilmore

I'm extremely pleased to welcome the dean of customer experience, Jim Gilmore, to this forum this week. Gilmore and his business partner Joe Pine co-wrote The Experience Economy in 1999 (!) and its ideas continue to ripple through the business landscape. I remember seeing Mr. Pine speak at a web personalization conference not long after the book's release and reading the book soon thereafter and being captivated by the audacity of their ideas. Gilmore has been extremely generous with his time with me and my staff as we thought about this year's Customers First package, and his ideas are no less audacious and thought-provoking today. In fact, if anything, consumers are starting to close the gap with Gilmore and are demanding better experiences from the most everyday transactions. Now if we can just get more companies to think these thoughts more meaningfully. I look forward to Jim's contribution to our month-long conversation. He's batting cleanup, as he should be.

Posted by David Lidsky at 5:53 AM | 9 Comments

September 22, 2006

Hollywood vs. Bentonville?

Report just in: A dark tide appears to be looming over digital movie downloads, as word came today that retailer colossus Wal-Mart has issued warnings of retaliation to some of Hollywood's key players, should they elect to sell movies through Apple's iTunes service. Wal-Mart last year sent back "cases and cases" of DVDs to Disney after the animation company announced it would offer episodes of its hit shows "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" on iTunes, according to a report from the New York Post. Fair? Unfair? Typical? Just one more thing...

Posted by Kate Newlin at 8:35 PM | 6 Comments

New York's OneWebDay Celebration

Today's OneWebDay event in New York's Battery Park was disappointing. Perhaps because I read a lot of blogs, and many bloggers require little coaxing to wax rhapsodic about how the Web has transformed their job/social life/sense of community, I expected a more enthusiastic, if not a larger, crowd.

It was a perfect, sunny, fall day in Battery Park and I expected to be in the company of a bunch of my peers, reminding myself about the potential of the Web to change the world. At the very least, since the park was set up for wireless internet access, I imagined I'd catch a glimpse of one or two of New York City's bloggers in action.

Yet, surprisingly few people turned up for the event. It was a lackluster group that listened to web celebrities Craig Newmark and Meetup's Scott Heiferman speak. Granted, Craig and Scott each only spoke for about five minutes apiece.

Continue reading "New York's OneWebDay Celebration"

Posted by Leslie Taylor at 5:12 PM | Add Comment

More Bucks for Starbucks

You'll be spending a little more on your daily grande non-fat iced caramel macchiato with whip from Starbucks come Oct. 3 -- 1.9 percent more to be exact (or roughly $0.05). The coffee chain is also raising the price of their whole coffee beans by $0.50 a pound. It seems that it isn't only the little guys who are getting hit by rising fuel and energy costs.

The price increase will affect the approximately 6,000 company-operated stores in the U.S. and Canada. The price increase will be consistent, regardless where you live or what kind of milk you prefer in your overpriced cuppa joe.

The rise in expenditures hasn't slowed the virus-like expansion of the brand, however. According to the AP, the coffee retailer has said it expects to open 30,000 stores worldwide.

Is $0.05 really a big deal? Are people going to stop drinking Starbucks coffee? Probably not. If you don't care about spending between $2.70 and $3.40 for a tall (small) mocha drink then the extra five pennies won't matter. But with a company as large and successful as Starbucks is it really necessary?

Posted by Melanie Brooks at 2:54 PM | 1 Comment

Marx and Today's Retail World

“The worker becomes all the poorer the more wealth he produces, the more his production increases in power and range. The worker becomes an ever cheaper commodity the more commodities he creates…Labour produces not only commodities; it produces itself and the worker as a commodity...” Isn't that an amazing description of today's retail landscape. The sales "help" and "service" staff are viewed by their employers, their customers and, occasionally, I suspect, themselves as commodities. Plenty of 'em out there. Go with the cheapest. Interchangable parts. Odd to think that Marx nailed it. But harder not to notice, even in our own behavior, how much easier it is to deal with an ATM than a teller. We want a convenient transaction, not the give and take of a relationship. The self-check out grocery, convenience, and mass merchant moment is arriving. We won't need to deal with anyone.

Posted by Kate Newlin at 12:14 PM | 2 Comments

In Today's Papers

From the clip file:

• 1,100 Laptops Missing from Commerce Dept.
  IT folks' incessant snooping for serial numbers might be irritating, but -- zoinks -- maybe this is a sign that asset management really is important.
• From Roadside Stand to Produce Empire
  "Until E. Coli Outbreak, Natural Selection Foods Was a Model of Farming Achievement"
• Innovator Devises Way Around Electoral College
  A board game inventor -- and co-creator of the scratch-off lottery ticket -- turned computer scientist has some big ideas about how the election process works.
• Now, Virtual Fashion
  "Second Life Designers Make Real Money Creating Clothes For Simulation Game's Players"

Posted by Heath Row at 10:39 AM | 1 Comment

September 21, 2006

JCPenney is Losing its Shirt

-- Literally --

Today JCPenney announced the largest private brand launch in the company's history, a 2007 release of a private label Lingerie line called Ambrielle.

Capitalizing on what many say is an underserved market, JCPenney will promote Ambrielle in a boutique-like setting in stores nationwide.

Currently, the U.S. lingerie market is dominated by Victoria’s Secret, which holds only 30 percent of the intimate apparel market. Thus retailers like Target, Wal-Mart, and now JCPenney are stepping up to the demand.

In the past five years, the intimate apparel business has boomed, with store-front and catalog retailers alike offering their own lingerie lines. Stores with a teen-focus like GAP and American Eagle are capitalizing on the popularity of undergarments too, with the GAP Body line and American Eagle’s Aerie opening later this year.

JCPenney is no stranger to the lingerie world- their current store brand called “Delicates” has been around for almost 10 years, but has been less than successful. However, the department store has developed a reputation for its wildly successful store brands, such as Arizona and St. John’s Bay- both billion-dollar brands.

When the Ambrielle line launches next spring, customers can explore 5,500 square feet boutiques in every JCPenney, and browse through a total of 4,000 intimate apparel items. The Ambrielle line will be broken into three sub-brands that appeal to different generations and styles: Smooth Revolution (modern and smooth), Mystique (sexy and enhancing) and Essentials (understated and natural). Each line is expected to be promoted as sensual and attractive, not risqué.

Posted by Kathryn Tuggle at 6:18 PM | Add Comment

Always Low Prices -- Is There Always a Catch?

Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) announced this morning that it will begin to sell 291 types of generic prescription drugs -- charging only $4 for a month's worth of prescriptions that would otherwise cost as much as $30. The news leaves me wondering why, exactly.

Wal-Mart has been assailed in recent years by consumers, the media, and activist groups for not providing adequate health coverage or high enough wages to many of its employees. The advocacy group, WakeUpWalMart.com, reports that of Wal-Mart's approximate 1.39 million U.S. employees, only 43% are covered by the company's health care plan.

So, is Wal-Mart responding directly to the longstanding criticisms of its health care policies? Are the low-cost generic drugs an answer to its employees' healthcare woes, as well as its consumers'?

Continue reading "Always Low Prices -- Is There Always a Catch?"

Posted by Peter Hoy at 4:07 PM | 16 Comments

In Today's Papers

A light day today: