Over the last few years there has been great buzz surrounding text messaging and how businesses can use it to market. Less emphasis has been put on how businesses can use it to actually carry out their business. However, Papa John’s, a popular national pizza chain, has found a way to use text messaging - to order your pizza.

Papa John’s already accepts online orders, and the neat thing about them and the text message orders is that they both appear on the same screen at the store - integrating methods of ordering. This integration technology is key, since the number one reason why most restaurants today don’t offer texting or online orders is because of the hassle to manage those orders, and the additional hardware that is generally needed.

Newspapers continued their slide in the third quarter of 2007, with 9% less advertising going to print.  While most newspapers added web properties to their portfolio in the last few years, that has not been enough to offset the losses in the print section.Newspaper classified ad sections suffered some of the worst losses, with that portion down 17%.  The three largest areas of the classifieds sections are:

Real Estate - The weak housing market has only added to the hurt of real estate companies shifting advertising to more interactive forms of advertising.

Market research has the power to make or break any business idea you have. You may be planning, for instance, a retail clothing store targeted at women ages 35-44. But, what if the location you chose has an abnormally low percentage of residents in that target market? The result most often would be a lack of business, potentially without your ever knowing why (and leaving you erroneously blaming your logo, for instance).

Luckily, the U.S. Census Bureau tracks just about every useful detail about our cities. Whereas it would normally be a major headache to sift through all of the data, I use a site that cuts down my research time to just a few minutes.

Coca-Cola, the world’s largest beverage company, has just won an award from Consumers International (an international consumer group with 220 member organizations) for its Dasani brand of water.  The award given is the “Bad Drinks Marketing’ award, for trying to sell off Dasani as anything other than the bottled municipal tap water that it is.

Dasani’s packaging includes marketing messages like:

‘Filtered for purity using state of the art processes’ and ‘enhanced with a special blend of minerals for a pure, crisp, fresh taste’

Apple announced today that it has sold 1 million iPhones in just 74 days, in a move that has the industry buzzing about the effect on software developers, cell phone manufacturers, and wireless service providers.

Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, stated that it took 2 years to sell the same amount of iPods. 

This development comes just a week after Apple shocked everyone and lowered the price of the iPhone to $399 ($200 off the original price).  That switch, while angering some past purchasers of the iPhone at the original price (who were eventually offered a $100 credit with Apple as appeasement), also allowed Apple to move more aggressively into the cell phone market.

A few years back, I consulted at a restaurant which was having trouble making rent. The total space was small to begin with, and gave off a stuffy feeling. On one side was a row of refrigerated display cases, sporting an assortment of salads, poultry and beef.  Across the walking space was a row of bar-type seating facing a wall.  The theme of the mostly takeout restaurant was Mediterranean food in a homey atmosphere, and behind the register were large jars of pickles on display.  On top of the soda machines were wicker baskets (used as centerpieces) that were being stored for the occasional catering job. 

CompUSA, a nationwide computer and software chain, grew immensely in popularity in the late 90’s and seemed poised to own a significant market share in the personal computer and software market for the foreseeable future.  Last week however, CompUSA announced it was closing 126, including ten out of eleven stores in New Jersey, a major market for computer sales.  This massive change in market placement didn’t happen overnight though, so what happened?

Dominance
Early on in CompUSA’s existence, a different chain named “Computer City” challenged CompUSA.  CompUSA, which had the better brand name, and offered special “free after rebate” sales, beat down Computer City, and eventually bought up the chain at a steal of a deal.  One down, many more to go.

It’s amazing that we are in the 21st century and we seem to have solved many of life’s mysteries, yet can’t seem to get our hands on quality customer service. I have therefore decided to make a short step-by-step guide for companies that find themselves in trouble with customers. They need to engage in what I call “Recovery Customer Service”, or recovering the trust of expectations that they lost due to their error. The following are three main rules that executive officers of corporations should memorize, and instill in their customer service departments.

Recently, a lot of media attention has been focused on the threat that internet video is posing to traditional TV and cable.  While there is research that shows that users of video sharing sites watch less TV, I think it is important to look at the current challenges internet video poses before it can dethrone traditional TV and cable.

Environment

JetBlue Airways, founded just over seven years ago, was created for one purpose: to provide low cost American flights with top-notch customer service.  Their dedication to that goal made them one of the only profitable airlines since the 9/11 attacks, receive satisfaction rates that pummel their competitors, and even got them featured in a wildly successful business book.

On the stormy day of February 14, 2007, none of that mattered. Their most valuable differentiation between all other airlines, their “customers come first” attitude, was severely tarnished.  JetBlue Flight 751 kept passengers on board a stuck aircraft for over 8 hours, as well as cancelled around 1,000 flights over the next few days.  Passengers had trouble breathing on the plane and the attendants actually had to open the doors several times to let some air in.