The Catalyst Code

Quick, someone grab a Websters.
Because I want to talk about the crux of my current conundrum with loyalty programs (as they are now architected). What are these programs trying to achieve anyway? My economist friends say that they are all about the “lock in” – so reeling in customers with the promise that sometime in […]

Starbucks announced its new rewards program designed to perk up (pun intended) its worst sales slump in 7 years. This program is designed to give consumers instant gratification – refills, complimentary flavor shots, free drinks with the purchase of coffee beans, and even two hours of free wi-fi (at their Starbucks cafes) so long as […]

Microsoft just announced that it’s giving cash rebates to consumers who use its search engine to find and buy products. That’s good news for consumers and advertisers and is just the direction the search-based advertising business should be going. Here’s why.
Today there’s no price competition among search providers for keywords—advertisers bid for keywords […]

My post last week Blah, Blah Mobile… Blah, Blah Mobile really prompted a lot of discussion about the topic of mobile payments – and maybe even touched a few raw nerves in the process. I thought I would follow up with a few observations given the discussions that took place last week on and off […]

Last week, The Capital Times, Madison Wisconsin’s 90-year old daily newspaper, stopped publishing the print version of its newspaper and announced that it will instead publish all of its news to the web. This move was made after it watched its circulation dwindle by more than half over recent years and its advertising revenue shrink […]

Embattled handset manufacturer Motorola has recently announced its intention to develop a digital movie initiative that would offer full length motion pictures reformatted for their multimedia devices. Paramount Pictures has reportedly signed on as a content partner with others not far behind. Some say that the service could launch in May – although pricing options […]

How many of you are growing weary of the same old proclamations from analysts on mobile payments? Citing “the need to work together so that everyone can win” Javelin remains bullish on NFC technology and cites contactless as the enabler for e-wallets that contain everything from cards to photos to medical records.
A recent […]

Amazon’s latest foray into the mobile shopping world has to be giving the bricks and mortar merchant a major headache. TextBuyIt allows a consumer to be in a store (or anywhere for that matter), text an item’s description or UPC code to Amazon and receive a free text message back with two product options, if […]

With its ejection from Piggly Wiggly (not to mention its bankruptcy), Pay By Touch is pretty much dead as a new payment system.
It all sounded so clever. People registered their finger and associated it with a method of payment. Then they could pay at participating merchants like Piggly by pressing their finger on a […]

eMarketer recently reported the results of a University of Iowa study that suggests that consumers who have only a little information about a product are much happier with that product than people who have more information. It’s kind of an interesting commentary in a world increasingly dominated by information from a variety of sources […]