HEARD ON THE STREET - Part One

Today, heard on the street means a lot more than talk about the stock market. Walk along any street in America today, and you see people gazing into a small, handheld device and using their thumbs  in quick staccato, making a soft  tapping sound. With their heads bent and their fingers waving to a beat only they can hear , they seem like maestros of the streets.  The music these maestros are conducting is the growing beat of mobile marketing, a booming business sung to the tune of $6 Billion slated to be reached before the end of this decade. In 2010 mobile marketing generated $500 Million in sales. Certainly, music to the ears of early adopters to the mobile industry.

There's no doubt in my mind that mobile marketing is the future of enterprise growth. Mobile marketing has raised a whole new generation of business people learning  a whole new crop of words, including blue tooth transceiver (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe3lxzMo6gU&feature=related), app, QR code, geo-targeting.  Actually, I don't really care how the technology works -- I'm just excited to see what it does for business.

Recently, Ryan, a mobile marketing fan who works at Shamrock told me how easily mobile marketing  captures consumer attention -- and dollars. A gadget nut, Ryan purchased a blue tooth transceiver last year, played around enough to feel comfortable with the technology, and scheduled an appointment with one of our customers to demonstrate how mobile marketing can be used to generate profit for her business. They walked into the mall and an instant coupon for $5.00 off at the local vitamin store popped up on his phone. They walked into the store. Showed the clerk our online coupon and walked out with a good deal - for her, and the store clerk. She got $5.00 off - the clerk got a sizable new sale.

Mobile marketing should be called fast and furious marketing. Industry research shows that 90 percent of text messages are read in 4-minutes. The reason it's so timely is that most people have their cell phone on and right within reach for more than 16 hours a day -- and they respond more quickly to mobile messages.

At Shamrock we're so intrigued with mobile marketing and how it will change the way we all practice business enterprise, that we've invested hours of planning, learning and purchasing to set up a new mobile marketing division.

One Last Word

Look for the second part of this post in a few days, and I'll share some new mobile marketing ideas with you.

One Last Thought
I'd like to know if you've used mobile marketing for your company. Was the program successful? Did it meet your marketing goals? If not, why do you think it missed the mark?

UNDER THE KALEIDOSCOPE

Never thought I'd be writing a blog. Seems more like something my kids would consider. But there are some new ideas simmering at Shamrock, and I realize the best way to them, and what's new in the industry, is  a blog. Hopefully, this will give us a chance to engage in some problem-solving dialog, answer questions and talk about trends heading our way faster than a high-performance sports car at Le Mans.

A true story

Recently, I was walking through our building with a customer. He saw several kaleidoscopes on display, and asked me why I collect them.  I thought about it, and immediately realized why I'm so fond of kaleidoscopes. They're  so simply designed that, with a slight turn of the wrist, they create a pattern that pleases everyone who looks through it. A kaleidoscope really is just a simple tube with a circle of mirrors containing loose, colored objects such as beads or pebbles and bits of glass. But when the  viewer looks into one end, those pebbles and bits of glass come together to create a whole vision that is complex yet so simple in its balanced perfection. Essentially, a kaleidoscope simplifies chaos.

Aside from the complementary principles of complexity and simplicity inside a simple tube, what fascinates me about kaleidoscopes is how each particle inside this cylinder works as part of the whole to create symmetry and a uniquely perfect outcome. (Unlike my golf game, which, lately, seems to lack symmetry -- or anything close to perfection.)

Our problem-solving process is like a kaleidoscope. When a customer comes to us for help, we gather a group of smart people with individual talents. Think of this group like those small objects in a kaleidoscope, working in harmony. They may use the Raving Fans Theory, plus their combined talents and Shamrock's cutting-edge technology to create an individualized solution to a customer's problem. Not too different from the symmetry inside a kaleidoscope. 

  

One Last Word

In this era of business enterprise where solutions are defined  by  new technology, we try  to remember that it's the individuality and different talents of the team who solve the problems, to actually make  the technology work.

And One Final Thought

I've heard that the first post is the hardest.  I'd like this blog to be about you, your company and what you'd like to discuss. Anything, from innovative ways to use mobile marketing to the latest techniques in digital printing, to innovations in testing direct mail.  We'll do everything we can to get answers and share them in future posts.

Welcome to The Shamrock Companies Blog