Ok, I Talk !

"Any similarities to real life.. a mere coincidence"

Carnaval in Brasil !

Yep. Brazil is written with "s" in Portuguese, our native language.

This weekend Carnaval started in Brazil, it goes 'til Tuesday, Wednesday is the day to recharge batteries to be back to work on Thursday! The entire country stops for Carnaval party.

In this video a documentary of Brazilian Carnaval...

Pricing Strategy for Digital Music

Apple announced early January 2009 that its iTunes store will change current pricing strategy to adopt variable pricing. This decision was based on negotiations with major music labels, who believe this pricing strategy would be more profitable (to them ) and fair (to consumers). In return, iTunes will be able to sell DRM-free music.

Curious enough to know that despite the implementation of DRM, Apple increased sales through selling songs individually and at a fixed price ($0.99 USD) and became the leading online music store in the world.

The new variable pricing strategy on iTunes is a typical first-degree price discrimination where songs are valued at three price points: US $0.69, $0.99 and $1.29. Interesting that the average price point remains the same (US $0.99). So it seems to be a bet on price elasticity and higher profitability.

The major music labels say this strategy will let them sell music at a lower price. Of course, the converse is also true: selling in-demand music at a higher premium is really what the industry is after. But price differences stimulate thinking and change perceptions. Pricing definitely sends a signal. People might come to believe that "you get what you pay for". With that in mind, variable pricing would imply that the cheaper product is worse? Possibly yes.

This argument does raise another interesting point. Ultimately variable prices rely on supply and demand. It doesn't take an MBA to realize that popular tracks would increase in price and unpopular ones would decrease. But because we're not dealing in physical formats, why should higher demand mean higher cost? After all, there's no scarcity of stock for popular music sold on iTunes: in theory, it can be downloaded by an infinite number of people. Will Yield Management be the fate of digital music?

I was curious about what the financial markets thoughts were during the announcement (CEO presented the strategy around 12:30) and extracted the day trade of Apple that day. Guess what, analysts did not like the variable pricing idea. The stocks started to tumble right after Keynote speech finished.


If variable pricing is a risk, these alternatives come to my mind..

• Re-bundling: implementation of incentives for album purchases (Rhapsody does that);
• Effective Yield Management;
• Boost sales through mobile devices, such as the iPhone, via 3G networks. Mobile buyers are those that usually buy by impulse and less price sensitive, which means more profitability. The real issue in this modality is billing. People are much more comfortable with paying through a carrier, but the iTunes store provides the ideal and safe platform to buy without have a third intermediary (carrier).
  

Just to understand your view, I'd like to invite you to take the following poll..



Practical example of pricing


Did she take a Redbull before the show?!

Didn't Click ?!?!?!?

In blogs, there are a lot of sponsored links.

86.7% of visitors of blogs clicked on these links and made great business online. Don't be the last one to take advantage of it!!!

In week 6, I just remembered how I love Dilbert...

[click on the strip to zoom]

Analytics Rulez, Hammertime!

Click here and learn how to install Google Analytics..

If future is not Mad Max..

..there will be a lot of interesting stuff out there. There is a blog I use to read, wrote by Mac Funamizu, an in-house web/graphic designer working in Tokyo, Japan. He has some "disturbing" ideas about the future of search and electronic devices.

I post below some images of Mac's work so that you can reflect about what internet marketing possibilities will be in the future.






You can find more @ Petit Invention

I was wondering if the high tech developments go in this way, computer and mobiles will truly converge into one device. Are the advertising investments moving the same way?

In December 2008, Frost & Sullivan estimated that mobile subscriptions would just pass 50% worldwide in 2013.

and ad spending is going towards search and video..



...in mobiles (wow!)...


..and the ad spending split on mobile advertising...

This table does not include the ads on games, which is becoming very common now. In the last 2 weeks I have been witnessing ad banners in my free iPhone apps (including games). So now the free apps' business model makes sense financially.

Last but not least, a little bit of Mad Max!

Off-Topic: Brazil vs Italy

Amazing to watch the game live at Emirates Stadium today! ...then a good pizza to celebrate the victory over Italy :-)

Brazil 2 x 0 Italy

Does Size Matter?

Last week I took some time to explore Google Analytics in further details and learnt a lot about my blog and its readers. First I was surprised by the number of unique visitors, which exceeds the class size by far.. and 600+ page views. Guinea Pig is very grateful for its loyal readers!

Well, in one day Guinea Pig published a long post (although it's difficult for him to type as you may see in the profile picture) and put a very popular Youtube Video. The result? 24 new unique visitors, 56 page views with a record time on site of 10:27. So, the million dollar question is: Did it happen because of the video or the larger post?

A consultant would say "It depends" and actually he will be right. There is no "one-size-fits-all" for blog posts' size and from what I 've been reading online, it will depend a lot on the type of blog, content, readers expectations and so on.

Some hugely popular blogs post 1500 words less often while equally popular blogs post several 200-300 word posts in a day. It’s about matching the content/reader/writer in a way that works. In fact some blogs are wildly successful with 150-word posts [negotiable?]. Again, sometimes, less is more.

Conversely, long posts (over 1000 words) should be used sparingly and formatted carefully. It’s proven fact that it’s hard on the human eye to read long articles online. Contrast on a computer screen is lower than for print pages. Your eyes get tired faster. It’s harder to concentrate. Long expanses of text should be broken up with short paragraphs, bullet points and images

In the end, some blogs' size will not matter at all! Value in these blogs comes in all shapes and sizes, but only in 3 flavors:

• Massively informative
• Hugely entertaining
• Deeply insightful/inspirational or provocative

Week 5 notes soon available.

Should I finish the post with a question to boost comments or a video? The video answers our question....

Two Rabbits With One Shot

1) An example of Overlay Video Ad sponsored by Amazon.com. It starts at 00:10.

Overlay Ad – an ad that appears in the bottom 20% of the video window. Click action generally initiates a linear video ad spot or takes the user to a website; also commonly referred to as an Invitation Unit.

2) A response to the comment "virtually" accusing me of click FRAUD!

click here