Maybe I'm the last person to know about this, but my friend just told me about the Google url shortener. It works like other shorteners, you just paste in the URL you want shortened so it can easily be shared, emailed, or tweeted. But leave it Google to take it a step further. Goo.gl also provides analytics and a QR code for each link. Login to your Google account, enter the URL and follow the Details link to get to the QR code and the analytics. Nothing they are doing is new, but it's all in one place and the analytics for the QR code are easy. I love it!
Sunlight & Spending
It’s time for businesses to consider ditching those fluorescent bulbs in favor of sun lamps, because a scholarly study conducted by researchers at the University of Alberta and the University of Winnipeg in Canada, published in the November 2010 Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, has some compelling statements on the matter. In the study titled, “The effect of weather on consumer spending,” the authors cited years of similar research which shows that- as we all know from our own lives- exposure to sunlight can improve our moods, and that people in a good mood are more likely to spend money. They then built on these studies to propose that, “the effect of weather – and, in particular, sunlight – on consumer spending is mediated by negative affect. That is, as exposure to sunlight increases, negative affect decreases and consumer spending tends to increase.”
After performing a series of mixed methods studies, they stated, “we find that participants exposed to artificial sunlight are willing to pay significantly more for a variety of products than participants exposed to regular lighting only, and that this effect is mediated by negative affect.” They went on to suggest that retailers should consider both incorporating natural lighting and/or artificial sunlight, and also increasing lighting levels on days in which the weather is bad in order to reduce negative feelings and increase spending.
On the flipside, the researchers acknowledged that they conducted their study during the cooler half of the year, and also considered that “the effect of more sunlight on retail sales becomes negative when the weather is already warm (e.g., during the summer).” This just reinforces my hypothesis that the only stores seeing increased sales from consumers who are overexposed to sunlight are the ones selling aloe and painkillers.
Photo credit : (cc-by-nc-nd) Bruno Monginoux / www.Landscape-Photo.net : nature and urban photography, free stock photos
The Gas Can and the Egg
Ever wondered about the gas prices in other countries? Perhaps Moldova or Cameroon, or Norway? While answering a research question for a student, I stumbled on an enormous and freely downloadable report of gas prices for over 170 countries put out annually by GIZ- Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, which (if the Google translator is correct) roughly means German Society for International Cooperation.
“’International Fuel Prices’ is a long-time effort of GTZ on behalf of the
German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development to provide decision-makers with global data on fuel prices. The worldwide comparability of fuel prices helps implementing a rational energy pricing policy.”
Apparently the Germans are as good at engineering reports as they are cars. The full version of the 2009 report is 114 color pages packed with charts, graphs, maps, benchmarks, etc. If you need the most up-to-date data, then download the sample report of the current year, which includes a brief executive summary and two massive charts listing retail gas and diesel prices for the majority, if not all, of the 170 countries.
And you can play along too! At the bottom of the reports page, you’ll find this message and link: “Your Contribution - International Fuel Price Survey: In order to broaden the database and to provide data series throughout the year we decided to invite the public to participate in our study. Please assist us by completing the form on our special webpage.”
Being curious, I followed the link, which takes you to the Sustainable Urban Transportation Page, where at the bottom of the front page, you can click another link to provide information about your city. Then you are transported to a form where ou are asked for the following: “Who can help us? You can. And it's quite simple. By filling in the latest fuel prices - fuel (regular and premium) and diesel fuel - as well as the price of a medium-sized hen's egg, you can contribute to keeping our database up-to-date.”
This request seemed so left-field to me that for a moment I thought they were kidding (“We want a shrubbery,” anyone?) until I read in a later paragraph the explanation that, “The price of a medium-sized hen's egg is of great value to us in assessing local purchasing power. All reported prices should reflect "normal" conditions; one-day price spikes or purchases at top-end supermarkets shouldn't find their way into our database.” Learn something new every day!
IBISWorld Fatest Growing Industries
Last Wednesday we covered the dying industries so I thought we would cover the fastest growing industries this week for balance (and it's a little cheerier). These 10 industries have been able to grow by leaps and bounds even during the recession and the forecast is for continued growth through 2016. Internet growth, environmental issues, cost cutting and evolving technology are the four main drivers. The only industry that really surprised me was Corrections Facilities, but apparently the growth is coming from privatization of these facilities. Top 10 Fastest Growing Industries:
- Voice Over IP Providers
- Wind Power
- E-commerce and Online Auctions
- Environmental Consulting
- Biotechnology
- Video Games
- Solar Power
- Third-Party Administrators & Insurance Claims Adjusters
- Correctional Facilities
- Internet Publishing and Broadcasting
Google's Think Insights on Word of Mouth Advertising
Google's Think Insights recently published their study "Word of Mouth Advertising and the Internet". Based on the fact that there are 2.4 billion conversations per day that involve a brand name totally 3.3 billion mentions of brands, Google did a study to look at the effects of the internet on these brand conversations and the effect on Word of Mouth (WOM). They had 3,000 adults respond to questions on how they used media or marketing sources before the conversation (triggered or sparked the brand talk), during the conversation (checked facts, referenced a source, shared content), and after the conversation (shared more widely, took action, or to learn more). Here are some of their key findings:
- 94% of Word of Mouth still take place face-to-face
- Google was the #1 source for sparking WOM conversations and the #1 place for finding more information after the conversation
- WOM conversations that start with search are more 25% more credible and 17% more likely to lead to a purchase than that those stared with social media sites
You can see the full report here. It's interesting that vast majority of these brand conversations are still taking place in person. And, it makes sense because I see my closest friends, those that influence me the most, in person more than online. I'm not surprised that Google is the top site for sparking interest for these conversations, it is the top search engine. According to the study, search (and therefore Google) are still the most referenced sites used before, during, or after a conversation. Social Media is lagging back at 3.2%, do you think this will change in the next few years? Will my friends see where I'm shopping, eating, and what brands I "Like" and make purchase decisions based on that? Is it still Word of Mouth if we aren't really talking about it, just doing it and being seen? I still think search will be a huge factor after the WOM conversation for research. We know what Google thinks, what do you think?
Casual Friday: Decide
Are you in the market for a new TV, laptop, or camera but can't decide if this is the right time to buy? Will a new bigger, badder, lighter, faster model be coming out tomorrow? Is this really the lowest price or will the price fall next week? With these tough questions looming, it can be hard to decide when to buy. These are big purchases that we tend to keep around for a few years. Gain the confidence you need to decide when and what to buy using Decide. Decide uses fancy models to predict product releases. The predict future product releases "by matching hundreds of thousands of devices to their model lineages and applying advanced machine learning and text mining algorithms." Their price predictions will save you a ton of money by looking at billions of price movements in over 40 distinct factors. Use their mobile site in the store as you shop or set up alerts so you'll know exactly when to pull the trigger on that big purchase.
Right now there are only 3 categories, but you can vote on categories you would like to see added.
Doodling: Your Newest Crush Crutch
Remember how several years ago you thought, “Huh?” the first time your friends told you to start Googling for everything, and shortly thereafter you never remembered how you survived without it? Well if you’re not Doodling yet, you’re missing out.
Most of us have chaotic and packed schedules, so the resourceful people behind Doodle decided to create a digital lasso of sorts for herding us cats. You can register for a free account (but you don’t have to!). Just use their software to create a poll of time blocks in the increment(s) of your choice, send the generated poll URL to your selected contacts, receive email updates as they mark their free/booked times, book your own availability as necessary, view the results, and voila! You now know when everyone can get together.
One caveat: If all of your colleagues become Doodle addicts too, then you run the risk of inadvertently overbooking yourself by answering that yes, your Tuesday afternoon is free, on multiple polls. To mitigate this in the future, I sincerely hope Doodle figures out how to code extra time into my 24-hour day. When they do that, I will most assuredly buy a subscription to their premium service.
Depressing Wednesday: Dying Industries
I promise not to make Depressing Wednesday a weekly issue, but it seemed fitting since I want to highlight the IBIS World report on the Dying Industries. Some of them won't seem all that surprising. IBIS World gave this distinct honor of extinction to these industries because during the past 10 years they have experienced a sizeable contraction inrevenue and the number of establishments and their 5 year forecast predicts the same fate. Each of these industries has faced one or more of the three detrimental industry factors, including external competition, advances in technology and industry stagnation.
Here's the top 10, or should we say bottom 10:
- Wired Telecom Carriers
- Mills
- Newspaper Publishing
- Apparel Manufacturing
- DVD, Game, Video Rental
- Manufactured Home Dealers
- Video Postpr0duction Services
- Record Stores
- Formal Wear & Costume Rental
What is interesting is that no matter how dire the industries as a whole, IBIS World points out that not all individual players in the industry are about to succumb. According to their analyst, "Industry operators that protect their strengths in certain market segments, focus on niche opportunities and capitalize on the dwindling number of competitors often reap the strongest rewards of sole operation, market survival and profitability."
Get a WickedStart for Your Startup
If you are starting your own business (or your users are entrepreneurs), then check out WickedStart. The site serves as a free startup incubator to help you start a business. Users can create a free account and get a 10 step startup checklist, business plan template, guide to useful resources, and a blog to get guidance from successful business owners. WickedStart was created by entrepreneurs that understand how hard it can be to figure out where or how to start the process after the business idea. The template doesn't answer the questions, it asks the questions that need answers. It's a timeline and roadmap that can be tailored to a quick start with little cash or a larger endeavor. Wondering if you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? Start by taking the WickedStart questionnaire to see how you score.
Well, HelloFax
Everyone has the same problem with signing and sending electronic documents, you have to print the document, sign the document, scan the document and email it or find the fax machine (mine is in the basement of the office building). Ugh, I'm tired just thinking about it. So many wasted steps and so much wasted time. HelloFax is a new way to sign and email or fax documents. You can pick your own fax number and send and receive faxes from your computer. There are 3 levels of monthly plans if you will be doing a lot of faxing this is way to go. If you don't fax very often, go with the free plan and send up to 5 pages free (if you need to send more you can pay just 99¢ per additional page. Plus, all the plans include unlimited free document signing. You can use your mouse to create your signature (although that didn't work all that well for me) or you can take a picture with your smartphone and send it to them. I love the flexibility this gives me, and if I go with a monthly plan there is no long term commitment. Definitely going to try it out.
GrowthPanel is a Good Thing
While free fashion advice from your geriatric aunt would likely be unwelcome, free business advice from professionals with decades of experience in leading SMBs/SMEs would likely be met with open arms. Enter GrowthPanel.com, a “web-based marketing platform that blends marketing content with project management for intelligent marketing management.” I give them major kudos for giving away a significant host of free learning materials and tools to potential customers. You can download their Strategic Marketing Process ebook at no charge, plus their Marketing Exercises, spanning over two dozen functions that any business should be doing well, e.g. search engine optimization, developing brand architecture, etc. (Full disclosure: I did not discover GrowthPanel myself. Dr. Bailey at UT’s School of Information assigned the Develop Your Media Kit during a graduate Administration course I took from her.)
One thing’s certain- GrowthPanel loves lists. Bulleted overviews, check lists, short answer lists, these exercises are broken into readily comprehended and tackle-able segments that will have a working group thinking without being overwhelmed. The resultant material generated from the exercises can be applied by almost any institution, commercial or non-profit, for real world self-evaluation and use.
Hidden Treasures of Yahoo Finance
It's rare that I refer anyone to Yahoo over Google, but Yahoo Finance really has it going on. Two things I think are really great are their IPO Calendar and their Analyst Performance Center. On their IPO Calendar I can see who has recent filings and withdrawals as well as initial pricing and expected IPO dates. They've also got post-IPO performance over the last 3 months, 6 months and 1 year broken down by the best and the worst performers. You can research IPOs by company or industry and get the latest IPO news. Pretty handy stuff and it's all available for free.
I also really like their Analyst Performance Center. Here I can find a list of analysts from all the big investment banks. Their lists are searchable by analyst name, investment firm, industry and company stock. Knowing what analysts cover a certain industry can be really helpful in your research. For instance, I can go to Yahoo's page for Goldman Sachs and see which analyst covers the Hotel & Leisure industry and they'll show me what stocks he/she covers and in some cases even ratings for the analyst based on the accuracy of their earnings estimates or returns of their stock recommendations.
Newspaper Map
Check out Newspaper Map from Great Name. The map includes over 10,000 online newspapers from all over the world. And, most of the maps can be translated, so get the scoop straight from the local newspaper. The easiest way to navigate is to enter the name of a newspaper in the search-box. If you don't know the name of the paper, you can zoom into the location with a double click of the mouse. Click on a marker and then select your language of choice, and the local newspaper pops up in a new window.
Casual Friday: Plantable "Comic Books"
Happy Friday, Everyone! Planning to spend any time gardening this weekend? Or maybe reading comic books? Now you can do both with these cool, plantable "comic books"
MKY73VEMD5MX
The Market Value of Mother Nature
NPR’s Marketplace radio show recently aired a news report that, in spite of its brevity, was quite interesting. Called, “Paying nature to do it’s thing,” it touched upon the efforts of the Virginia Department of Forestry to restore some of the state’s farmland to forest by paying (in this instance) $1000/acre to the farmer who owns the property to allow his land to be taken out of farm production and planted with 1500 pine trees, because the forest would provide the valuable service of, “filtering out and preventing erosion and sedimentation; it also helps clean out the air.” The broadcast used the term “ecosystem service,” and I immediately became curious and decided do a bit of digging into the topic (no pun intended). Here are a few interesting points:
1. Susan Ruffo & Peter Kareiva concisely define the concept in an editorial called, “Using science to assign value to nature,” from the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment:
The idea of “ecosystem services” – identifying and quantifying the resources and processes that nature provides for people – gives us a framework to measure nature’s contribution to human well-being, and to understand the cost of its loss. It provides a credible way to link nature and people that goes beyond emotional arguments and points us toward practical solutions.”
2. Other states are also taking notice and calculating what their natural resources are worth. Case in point: New Jersey. Written after a two-year study, a report called, “The Value of New Jersey’s Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital," determined the individual values of the state’s wetlands, marine ecosystem, forests, urban green space, beaches, agricultural land, and open fresh water and riparian buffers, and concluded that the combined services provided these systems totaled to roughly 19.4 billion per year in 2004 dollars.
3. And on the global scale? “The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital,” published by a team of researchers in Nature in 1997, is arguably one of the foremost articles in this emergent crossroads where the ecologic/economic disciplines meet, and they concluded that- at a conservative estimate- the economic value of the entire biosphere averages out to $33 trillion per year. Plug that number into any inflation calculator now, and by today’s dollar value we should write our planet a yearly rent check for over $45 trillion.
4. Want to get in on the eco-calculating action? The Natural Capital Project is a patnership among a handful of prominent environmental institutions, and they have developed InVEST, a software that, "enables decision-makers to assess the tradeoffs associated with alternative choices and to identify areas where investment in natural capital can enhance human development and conservation in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems." E.g., "Corporations, such as bottling plants, timber companies, and water utilities, can use InVEST to decide how and where to make investments to protect their supply chains."
The more effort and green we invest toward maintaining our planet now, the more green our future ROI will be. Literally.
Photo credit : (cc-by-nc-nd) Bruno Monginoux / www.Landscape-Photo.net : nature and urban photography, free stock photos
Cities of Opportunity
PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Cities of Opportunity 2011 study compares 26 cities on over 10 indicators with 66 different variables - everything from ease of starting a business to end of life care to number of libraries with public access. PWC doesn't think of this study as a competition of cities. The "analysis of the trajectory of 26 cities, all capitals of finance, commerce and culture—and through their performance, seeks to open a window on what makes cities function best."
PWC Overall Score Top 10:
- New York
- Toronto
- San Francisco
- Stockholm
- Sydney
- London
- Chicago
- Paris
- Singapore
- Hong Kong
Use the PWC tools to create your own rankings or correlation heat map based on the criteria of your choice.
bizologie Favorite Apps: Broadway Edition
The Tony Awards are coming up on Sunday and we've got our tap shoes shined and our jazz hands ready. Let's take a look at a few apps that will help us navigate The Great White Way the next time we're in The Big Apple.
iBroadway offers show information including venues, scheduling and ticket information. On the opening page, their search feature allows you to narrow by genre so that you can search by musicals, plays, dance, comedy or drama. Once you've chosen a show, you can buy tickets, get a map to the theater, watch videos and find information about the cast. You'll also see details such as runtime and audience. You can also connect direct from here to iTunes if you'd like to purchase music from the show. iBroadway is free for iPhone. 
ILoveNYTheater from The Broadway League offers similar features and also includes a guide to restaurants and hotels in the Theater District. One cool feature of this app is that you can purchase tickets "direct from the theatres' official ticketing offices in real time without broker markups." ILoveNYTheater is also free for iPhone.
"At The Booth" was called "The best thing to happen to New York theater since the introduction of the TKTS booth!" by Entertainment Weekly. If you've never been to the TKTS booth in NYC, it's a big ticket center in Times Square where you can buy same-day, discounted tickets to Broadway Shows. "At The Booth" will not only tell you which shows are on sale and at what discount, but also how long the line is! Trust us, if you've never been to TKTS, knowing all of this information ahead of time is really handy. "At The Booth" is 99¢ for iPhone and Android.
Not jetting off to NYC any time soon? No worries. TheaterMania will tell you which Broadway shows are heading to your city. Cities include Boston, Chicago, DC, Las Vegas, London, LA, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle. TheaterMania is free on iTunes.
IDC Tech Talk: IT Productivity
In this IDC Tech Talk Bob Parker, Group Vice President, Manufacturing & Retail Insights, discusses IT Productivity in the Manufacturing and Retail Industry. Reviews of IT spending data collected over the last 10 years make it look like IT spending has been taking cuts, but as Bob points out it's really only that IT spending has not been growing as fast as revenue because IT departments can now do more with less. What investments in IT allowed for that increase in productivity? The big three are, virtualization, business intelligence, and longer refresh rates on hardware. What does the future look like? Bob thinks more IT productivity is yet to be gained with cloud computing, integrated decision environments, and smart devices (mobility). For a look at all 6 factors that drove IT productivity over the last 10 years, and the 6 factors could drive more IT productivity over the next years, check out the IT Cost Challenge for the Coming Decade.
Casual Friday: Cell Phone Cases We Think Are Fun (And One That Might Be Healthy)
The only thing more fun than finding new apps for your smartphone is buying clothes for it. Here are some cases we think are stylish, functional and one that might even be good for you. Like Kate Spade's cute handbags and dresses, her phone cases are cute and come in all sorts of fun colors that we think are great for summer. We really like the retro phone and the movie-themed ones:
If you're looking for durability and protection, you might want to check out Otterbox's Defender Series:
If you're planning to spend some time by the pool this summer, you might want to check out DryCASE for your phone or tablet. They keep your electronic devices waterproof up to 100 ft. We actually tested this one this past weekend by throwing our Nook into the pool in the DryCASE. Worked like a charm--thank goodness!
The Bounce Case from Case Mate & Pong, "reduces normal cellphone radiation measured in SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) by at least 60% by redirecting your cell phone’s electromagnetic energy away from your head. Once redirected, the radiation quickly dissipates and poses no threat to you or those around you.":
Happy Birthday Wolfram Alpha!
We at bizologie are big fans of Wolfram Alpa, as you can see here, here, here, and here. We heard through the grapevine known as the Wired Epicenter Blog that this new engine just turned two, so we decided to give it some attention in honor of its birthday, and discuss it in greater detail. For the uninitiated, what exactly is Wolfram Alpha? The FAQ page says, “It's a computational knowledge engine: it generates output by doing computations from its own internal knowledge base, instead of searching the web and returning links.” In Wired's entry, author Ryan Singel goes on to say, that the man behind the engine, Stephen Wolfram is encouraged by the fact that “…people are trying to use Wolfram Alpha for complicated things like comparing the economies of two countries.”
Type in a topic on which you want to know more, and Wolfram Alpha returns to you a shiny and concise report on said topic with key facts, statistics, charts, illustrations, annotations for how it derived the data, etc. Even better, you can save each segment of the report as its own image, or you can download the entire thing as a PDF file. (Oh, and the Random button on the homepage is both fascinating and addictive).
For business researchers wanting to learn what features it offers and how to learn the ropes of entering queries, visit the Examples by Topic page, wherein the Money & Finance, and Socioeconomic Data categories will make one hot and bothered.
To give a balanced perspective though, Wolfram Alpha does have its limitations. The takeaway for business researchers: don’t expect it to generate the several hundred/thousand dollar reports sold by the friendly neighborhood analyst company. For example, if you search: Smartphone Market, your current results page will have the utterance: “Commercial Products- Development of this topic is under investigation...”. It then comes as little surprise too that, while the engine touts itself as being great at comparisons, it has a hard time comparing public and private companies. Search: Hilton, Marriott, and you receive only the financial facts of Marriott (which is public). Search: Hilton vs Marriott, and you will get in return the digital equivalent of a blank stare.
Overall though, Wolfram Alpha is an ambitious entity that delivers very well on topics within its current scope of expertise, and bizologie will be eagerly enjoying its evolution. We wish Wolfram Alpha, "...and many more"!