”The app is split into three sections; each features four scenes to interact with. It’s a good showcase but not a useful shopping tool.”

The free app is designed to showcase the new 2011 spring collection in a fun, interactive manner. The problem is it does nothing to entice the shopper to buy and  will unlikely be any sort of revenue driver.

“It feels like a showcase, though, rather than a genuinely useful shopping tool. Tap on the shop button, and you’re simply sent to the RLX section of Ralph Lauren’s website, rather than the  specific item of clothing that you’ve been looking at.”

Small usability problems like this negatively affect sales. If a potential customer sees something they like, they should be able to get to that outfit easily so they can buy it. Sadly, these are the types of features that we see many companies focusing their time and limited resources on, since they are visually stimulating and “fun” to implement. These apps and new technologies are so new, that companies are exploring the boundaries and testing the waters.

But, do these fun gimmicks really make a difference to the bottom line? Probably not. People will not keep coming back to your site and be a lifelong customer just because you have a clever game on your site that incorporates some of your products. Of course, Ralph Lauren will be fine shoveling out the money that went into building this little app. But, what about the small to mid-sized companies that want to keep up with the times? We see these companies spending thousands (or tens-of-thousands) on nifty virtual try-ons,  24 hour video streaming, and flash  introductions which bring no additional sales to the website, and in some cases can actually hurt business by taking focus off of making the sale.

Be aware of what is entertaining and fun for you vs. what is actually going to set you apart from your competitors in the e-Commerce world. Websites need proper SEO and SEM implementation to bring in qualified customers. Customers need simple ways to shop via correct website/app. usability practices. And,  businesses need to bring in the sales. Make sure these fancy new devices and exciting technologies don’t drive business down. Simplifying is sometimes the best way to stand out. 

See the Full Article Here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2011/feb/28/ralph-lauren-app-review

Not using FB anymore…Today at 10:14am

In the (very) unlikely event anyone is interested as to why I’m pretty much not going to be using facebook anymore (apart from maintaining my Photography page) here’s why:

Well first and foremost, they’ve pretty much eliminated all the features that made it such a groundbreaking social networking tool, or at least made those features virtually impossible to use. Here’s some examples:

Pages and Groups:
The most important and powerful part of pages and groups has been removed, and that’s automatic notification of page and groups joins to all friends. It used to be so useful to see what my friends were joining. I would see a friend join a fan page for a new NYC restaurant and I could join too and learn about it. Same with groups. This no longer happens. At best, you can try to scan the highlights column to the right for any joins, but mine is pretty much filled with who’s thumbed-up someone else’s photos. It used to be so cool to see “Keith has become a fan of Surfing” and then maybe I would join, and then my friend Oren would see that I joined and he would post on my wall saying he’d just been surfing at some cool break in Cali and suddenly we’re all chatting. (For anyone who’d heard the term “Viral Marketing”, that’s pretty much what it refers to — a bunch of people getting excited about something and the word spreads through communication like that). Yeah, well that doesn’t happen anymore. Supercool functionality: gone. Somewhere I think this info is buried, but it’s virtually unusable.

Event Notifications:
FB used to automatically put up Event response notifications for all friends. I met up in-person with quite a few friends from this. For example, I would see that my friend Susan had RSVP’d to some charity event or whatever, and I would be free that night, so I’d RSVP too and we’d meet up and have a laugh. Maybe then one of my friends would see my RSVP and join us too. That functionality? Gone. There’s no more event notifications.

Friend notifications:
What happened to seeing when one of my friends friended someone else? I found half my friends because I would see “Nancy is now friends with John” and I’d know John too, and friend him. Functionality: Gone.

Photo comments:
It used to be fun to see when a friend commented on another friend’s photo. Maybe it was a photo that I hadn’t previously seen before. In the past, some of my friends and I all had a laugh for a few days checking out some old elementary school pics. That would never happen in today’s environment. Even when you post pics, they scroll off the bottom of the screen in 15 mins, and you never see them again.

So what’s left? Pretty much status updates. Pretty much, exactly what Twitter is. FB is now a scrolling list of what people are doing right now, and even that scrolls off the screen in 15 mins when new people post. All of the “collaborative” environment, information sharing, and ability for FB to connect people with various common interests has been completely eliminated. Taking a quick scan of my screen now, I see a few status updates, some results of “How New Yorker Are You”, and a Bejeweled high-score. No info on who’s attending what events this weekend, no notices that my friend John just became a fan of some new upcoming band, nothing.

Sorry for the bitter and frustrated tone, but I’m just really disappointed. FB was really on the cusp of becoming something great, perhaps one of the most groundbreaking pieces of collaborative technology in decades. I was personally getting a lot of satisfaction out of connecting with people in a meaningful way that affected my life not only on FB, but outside of it. For whatever reason, they’ve taken that away and I guess I just don’t see the point anymore.

Anyway, all emails sent to my FB inbox still go to my regular off-line emails, so if anything interesting is going on, def feel free to just shoot me an email. I’ll still be on now again to do some photography stuff (writing tips on my page)…

Take care,
Paul

Anyone with a Facebook or LinkedIn account has seen these groups built around hobbies, professional experience, or even location. They exist on large social networking sites as well as on a myriad of smaller, niche online communities. These groups are similar to the clubs that we belonged to in high school and/or college (i.e. chess club, ski club), and are where likeminded people can exchange information, ideas and ask questions. What social networking has done however is allow us to join groups on a large scale.

Why do people join groups? Mostly, people join groups as a way to express themselves. For example, I belong to multiple “online marketing groups” on LinkedIn, for two reasons:
1. To show anyone that looks at my profile that this is my passion and
2. Because I want to connect to likeminded people who are at the forefront of the industry, and I am interested in what they have to say.

For marketers, this provides an opportunity to communicate to a mass audience of people interested in their products or services without huge media expenditures. That doesn’t mean that targeting social networking groups is free. Successful, well thought out, focused social media campaigns take time and strategic thinking. When done well, they can provide businesses a great outlet to engage potential customers and reinforce their relationship with existing customers.

Not convinced? Let’s say your company manufactures ski equipment and you are holding a ski demo at Stowe Mountain in Vermont (for those who don’t know what a ski demo is, it’s where a ski manufacture provides free ski’s to customers for a day so they can try them out). If your company had groups on existing social networks, it’s easy to let them know about your demo. But beyond letting your own groups know, you can find other groups, related to Vermont Skiing and Skiing, and notify them of the promotion as well. It’s targeted messaging to exactly the group that would most want to hear your message.