There's a widget on your blog!

I spent 5 minutes tonight with iTunes and added an iTunes widget to my blog.

Why?

Because its great sales and marketing on Apple's part. And doesn't everyone care what music I listen to?

Hmm. Maybe not.

But it looks neat right?






So then its more about the viral marketing part. Apple hopes that you will come to my blog, like my music, click on the widget and buy some music from the iTunes store. Ok, I will buy that.

But I think it has more to do with the bottle water theory. You have heard that before right? People don't buy bottle water for the water, they buy it for the 'coolness factor' of being seen drinking bottle water.

Well then let's go with that in our kudos to Apple and their new widget. They increased my coolness factor by making this blog just a bit better looking, and my social status as someone who buys his music from the iTunes store. So as you read through some postings feel free to take a moment to admire my new widget.

Its cool. And I am cool for having it. Aren't you jealous?

Here is an idea for you....
With Apple's new widget they are definitely upping the exposure of iTunes to the few non-iPod owners. (Honestly I only know 1 person that doesn't have an iPod.) But in doing so they made it fun to do and increased my brand loyalty. So when was the last time you gave someone a reason to "tattoo" your brand? Sure we don't all sell music and movies, some of us sell a bit less interesting things like test assessments. But allowing your customers access to fun webpages to create a widget with your logo is a perfect way to bring viral marketing in through the front door.

So what is your idea to increase brand awareness?

Technorati Tags: Branding Creativity Product Placement iTunes Widget

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"Hi! great weather were having huh?" said the Best Buy associate, an excellent intro line (more on that here), I responded nicely and told her what I was looking for. Her response shocked me. "Oh, you walked right past it, they are up front, as you walk in." Giving her a look of amazement I turned and walked up front. Sure enough there was the 007 display.

I totally missed it.

I missed it because I was programmed in the "old school" way of merchandising. You know what I am talking about, stick the stuff everyone wants in the back and make them walk through everything else you are trying to sell to get to it. The hopes of course are to sell the everything else to the customer along with what they want. In case your wondering, that is why the milk and meat are in the back of the grocery store.

But Best Buy didn't do that. They put what I wanted up front. Puzzled? I was, then I thought about it for a bit...

Hmm...
placing a product, like a recently released movie, up front DOES a better job of customer service to ALL of your customers than any associate could do. That's it!
It has to do with these three little words--transfer of ownership.

What ToO means to your customer base:

• New customers: walk in, find it, and grab it. At this point they could walk out and in their amazement they would remember how EASY it was to buy at your store. If they were looking for something else, they could pick up and walk around with it, thereby increasing the likelihood of an additional purchase (transfer of ownership).
  
  
• Returning customers: walk in, and buy it, without having to walk around the store creating clutter for associates who are trying to sell to new customers.

Transfer of ownership? What?
Think back to the last time you purchased a pair of shoes, what did the salesperson do? (Assuming they were good.) When they came out with your shoes, they probably had more than one pair. after opening the pair that you wanted, they handed you a shoe, then laced the other shoe to put on your foot. What did you do when they handed you the shoe? I bet you admired the shoe, you thought about how cool and enviable you would be with these shoes. You didn't look at the construction of the shoe, but thought of how envious others will be because you have these shoes. The salesperson didn't say that, you did. And you are your own best salesperson.

So how does this relate to 007 being up front?
Best Buy, in their infinite wisdom, gave themselves the ability to transfer ownership of the movie to you right when you entered. Now that the movie is in your hands and the money has already been spent in your mind, you can look around for whatever else you may want.

Kudos Best Buy! This isn't a new technique, but its ideas like this that will continue to change the retail environment and the way a customer shops!

Technorati Tags: Creativity Customer Service Product Placement Retail Best Buy Casino Royal 007