January 13, 2010
Businesses all over the world ask themselves the same questions every day. Or, if they don’t, they probably should.
“How can we make our company better? Run smoother? More efficient? Make more money?”
Often times we look outside the company for help or advice. Sometimes we think that we know all the answers and we don’t need help from anyone. And much of the time I am sure that we just expect things to get better without trying at all.
But take this new idea from the struggling publisher, Conde Nast. They are offering their employees a $10,000 prize for whoever comes up with the best idea to improve the company.
Sure this is probably a sign of desperation more than anything else, but it still makes sense. The reason companies hire people is to move forward. In essence, you want every employee to not only do the job that they were hired for, but to bring new ideas forward and shake things up. Every entrepreneur from an early point in their lives learns that you are suppose to surround yourself with people that are smarter than you to help you succeed.
Why don’t more companies look internally for help when looking to create a change? And why don’t more companies have rewards in place (maybe not $10k) for employees that take on that challenge?
I am a strong believer that innovation most often comes from within.
2 Comments | 
Theory, change | Tagged: Conde Nast, incentives, innovation | 
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Posted by Zach Heller
January 8, 2010
This piece from Wired.com is yet another describing the futile attempts by people who are uneasy about the changes brought about by digital content.
In this latest one, it appears that the French Government has decided that it might be a good idea to tax successful online companies in order to help unsuccessful companies. They think that taxing a company like Google, who has figured out what people want to do, and need to do online, is the way to help other companies who have failed to see the wave of the future and continue to lose money because of free content.
Let’s face it people, there will always be some who do not like change. But this is the way the world is moving. I have written about it on this blog. Many others have written about it on their blogs.
If a company exists that used to make money because they produced highly sought content, and is now losing money because of competition, why does the government or anybody else have any right to just give them money. Either figure out how to compete in this new market, or fail. Those are your options.
Besides the fact that what the French government is trying to do might be illegal, its just plain stupid. Competition moves us forward. Free content is working. Don’t punish the people that have seen the future and moved us there for the sake of saving the near-sighted companies that thought the world would never change.
3 Comments | Politics, anti-innovation | Tagged: change, digital revolution, France sucks, Free content | Permalink
Posted by Zach Heller
December 31, 2009
Do it in style!
Happy New Year to all.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: 2010 | Permalink
Posted by Zach Heller
December 30, 2009
There is a local brewery near my home town in New Jersey that continues to email me. Here is the story behind that email.
I went with a friend to the brewery, which offers a small casual style bar where you can come in and try to featured beers. There were a few small groups of people there, the servers were friendly, and they love to talk about beer.
As we were leaving, we were offered the chance to join a mailing list by simply our email address on the bottom of our check. I was happy to do so.
Now, whenever they plan a new event, or come out with a new brew, I get an email from them telling me all about it. It is a short email, usually one paragraph in length, that gets directly to the point. And they don’t email me when they have nothing to say. It’s perfect. And even though I no longer live in the area, I continue to stay on the email list because I visit from time to time.
It’s that simple. If you are a restaurant, a bar, a retail store…anything where people might visit you again and again, why not have a mailing list like this. The cost to do so is minimal, and the reward can be huge. It allows people to keep up to date with what you are doing without harassing them when they don’t care. It can increase customer loyalty, meaning that more of your customers will give you repeat business. And guess what, they will probably bring their friends in too!
Even this blog offers Email Updates to anyone that wants them.
Leave a Comment » | Success | Tagged: brewery, Email, Mailing list, opt-in | Permalink
Posted by Zach Heller
December 28, 2009
Here is an op-ed piece in yesterday’s New York Times about “Search Neutrality“.
Before I respond, its only fair to say that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and so Adam Raff is not wrong for writing this piece. A lot of his points, upon further investigation, are wrong.
It does not take long, only a couple of paragraphs, to discover that Adam Raff is not in favor of Google for a reason. He blames the failure of his company, Foundem, on Google’s “decision” not to rank them near the top of search results for product comparison. More likely, the website was not favored by people on the web, or was not refined to show up for relevant searches. I doubt very much that Google took the time to single them out and destroy their chance at success. But that is not for me to say.
Here are a couple of other issues I have with Adam’s rant:
1. Google only controls so much of the search market because their service is better. People have a choice when it comes to searching the internet, and we choose Google because we like their results more than others. Why mandate changes to those results when they are the reason people choose them over competitors?
2. Youtube is the most popular video sharing site. Why shouldn’t that show up over other videos? Google was smart enough to buy them.
3. Google being innovative has really nothing to do with the companies they have purchased. They just have better business sense, and the ability to foresee how we will use the internet, than other companies. Their ability to incorporate all of these services in their core business, and make it both free and easy to use, is what makes them far more innovative than Mr. Raff gives them credit for.
4. Google Maps is better than MapQuest. If it wasn’t, Google would not be able to use it the way they do. The same is true for almost all Google services when compared to the competitors that they successfully “took down”.
Don’t penalize Google for being the best. And definitely don’t force your opinions on us just because you blame Google for your failure.
Leave a Comment » | anti-innovation | Tagged: Adam Raff, Google, NY Times, NYT | Permalink
Posted by Zach Heller
December 27, 2009
I operate a couple of different blogs, including this one, and I can’t help but think that “Avatar” is spamming me all over the place.
It has become one of the latest “spammy” things to do, comment on millions of blogs with links back to your site within the comment or the “name” field. If the comments don’t go through an approval process, they go live on the web for all search engines to see. Links back to the site help overall search engine rankings and the practice is a success.
As a blogger, I find the practice disgusting. But as a marketer, if it works, it works.
And no one is beyond it. Lately I have been getting hundreds of comments about the movie Avatar on multiple blogs with links back to some various fan sites and movie reviews. Who is behind this? Do the people promoting the movie even know about this? If they do, are the happy with it?
I wish there was a website that announced to the world what companies were doing this and created a massive blacklist of comments to erase from the web forever. I was never going to see the movie Avatar, and now even more I will go out of my way to stop others from seeing it as well.
Stop the SPAM!
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Zach Heller
December 23, 2009
It’s funny. I have owned this website, zachheller.com, for two years. I used to blog at a very good pace, averaging a couple of posts per week. I was getting really into and then all of the sudden, back in September when I started my new job, I just stopped. I had less time on my hands and I lost the will to really commit to writing new posts.
Then, a few days ago I got an email reminder from GoDaddy. The domain was about to expire and I had to decide whether or not to commit to it again. Since it is relatively cheap I decided to renew, knowing that eventually I would want to own the website again.
This morning I logged on for the first time in months, and low and behold the traffic to my site is up. It’s been going up the whole time. The date of my last blog post was September 22nd, and since that day I have had 4 of my most active days yet. Traffic in November and December are up over this time last year when I was writing very frequently.
So my advice to anyone trying to start their won blog is just do it. Just write something. People will come.
Obviously that is terrible advice but it works for me. Thanks to all my readers and happy holidays!
Leave a Comment » | Theory | Tagged: GoDaddy, Holidays, Zachheller.com | Permalink
Posted by Zach Heller
September 22, 2009
I am a big fan of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and because of that, I am now a big fan of the FX Network’s strategic team.
For those of you that were not witness to the super secret sneak preview of FX’s new animated show, Archer, I recommend checking it out. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to do so until the season officially premieres in January.
FX decided to silently unveil it’s new show following the season premiere of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia last week. This is a popular move by many networks because they feel that they will have a strong audience, the reason the show directly following the Super Bowl is such a coveted spot.
But what FX did that was so interesting was that they never told you what the show was going to be. They had coded messages saying, “Stay tuned for a secret sneak preview of our new hit show”, running throughout the Sunny premiere. Even the TV Guide Channel, and most guides on digital cable providers showed the spot after Sunny as blank to To Be Announced.
What this successfully did was add to the hype. Why wouldn’t I stick around and check out the show? I was curious. They did their job.
I watched, and I loved every minute of the dark, racy animated comedy. They had the right audience at the right time. And then they dropped another bombshell on us, this was just a pilot and the series would not officially come out for another 4 months. Now it’s time for the hype machine to get started, and if it goes the way FX hopes it will go, the January premiere will be huge.
The anticipation and conversation has already started here, here, and here. This was a great way to get the word out on a new show, one that is creative and most likely will be copied by other networks.
Leave a Comment » | Success | Tagged: Archer, FX, innovative marketing, television | Permalink
Posted by Zach Heller
September 17, 2009
Post is not a company that you would expect to innovate much. Their variety of cereals are very standard and they make a nice profit putting out the same products that they have put out for years. They recently played on that by releasing this commercial, exclaiming that “We put the NO in innovation”.
I would argue that Post has probably made some big changes over the years in terms of production and distribution, perhaps even in corporate structure and ethical standards. I don’t know if any of these can be called real innovative moves, but change is necessary to keep up with the times. I get the whole “we don’t change our products because they are already what consumers want” message, but let’s not call an end to progress and innovation altogether.
All in all however, it’s a pretty decent commercial.
Leave a Comment » | Branding, anti-innovation | Tagged: anti-innovation, Commercials, Post | Permalink
Posted by Zach Heller
September 15, 2009
It’s been awhile since I last posted and I apologize for the absence. In part it was because I was busy looking for a new job, and in part it was because I became slightly detached from what was going on in my area of interest.
Alas, I am back among the employed after landing a great new job in NYC. I am the new Marketing Manager over Distance Education Company, responsible for schools like the New York Institute of Photography and the Sheffield School of Design.
And during my absence, a lot has happened in the world. One thing that I just found out about today that is worth commenting on is the acquisition of Mint.com by Intuit.
Intuit, the company responsible for Quicken, clearly sees the value in adding this highly popular personal finance tool.
Mint, for those of you that don’t know, is a web-based tool that allows you to track all of your personal finances from one place. You can add all of your various accounts, take care of bill paying and budgeting, and even use tools to help you better prepare for the future. Since it’s founding in 2006, the service has grown rapidly, with new services and features added almost monthly.
In the email I received this morning as a Mint member, I was informed that the acquisition will not directly affect the service I receive as much as it will help to grow Mint’s coverage and popularity more quickly and efficiently. Sounds like a strong play for both companies to me. As more and more people shift their daily tasks to the web for ease, companies like this will flourish.
Leave a Comment » | Tech | Tagged: acquisitions, Finance, intuit, mint, technology | Permalink
Posted by Zach Heller
