Shopping More or Less This Year?

As millions race around today to do their final shopping and preparations for the big day tomorrow, some interesting statistics were released last month from Nielsen.

Of the online survey participants from fifty-six countries, almost half planned on spending around the same on Christmas as last year and a quarter expected to spend less. Eleven percent claimed they will spend more than they did in 2010.

Some More. Some Less. Some Same.

Of those who expected to spend more in 2011 for Holiday gifts, the majority are in the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions while Europe dominates the top countries where survey participants were planning to spend less this year.

Asia Pacific participants listed technology, apparel, books, vacations and jewellery. European participants listed books, toys, technology, apparel and vacations. Latin America included apparel, vacations, technology and bedroom/bathroom accessories.

Middle Easterners and Asians had technology, apparel, books and bedroom/bathroom accessories. North Americans listed toys, gift cards, technology, apparel and video games/consoles. And online shopping continues to increase which may surprise you if you are shopping today in the last mad dash so be careful out there!

If you celebrate, have a great Christmas!

Kneale Mann

image credit: Nielsen

Social Media FAQs

It Is Not About The Numbers.

You may have them, asked them or answered them but I am asked daily about social media. One of the things I do for clients is help them navigate the space that is full of butterflies and unicorns.

It's scary and exciting and big monsters are there to eat you and you don't know where to start. The best place is with your personal or business strategy. You don't need to embrace it all, you don't need to be everywhere and frankly no one can.

I was going to list some common questions I get with regards to social media but it may be best to start with something from a smart dude. His name is Gary Hayes...



If you are even more confused, breathe and have a look at your strategy. You don't need to boil the ocean, you simply need to find your voice and speak to your target audience.

The purpose of showing you Gary's work is so you can show it to those who don't 'get' social media. It's not about getting it, it's about accepting its existence and figuring out what you will embrace for your needs.

How does all this make you think differently?

@knealemann
strategy. marketing. social media.

photo credit: Garys Social Media Count

Clock Management

Minutes To Go - Time Out.

It’s amazing what can happen in the last minute of a sporting event. This is when the coaches on either side of a basketball game seem to call endless time-outs. It’s when we expect heroics during the last ditch effort from the quarterback.


One team pulls their goalie for an extra attacker and often it works to tie the game and send it in to overtime.

You are reviewing your presentation in the hotel room before hitting the showers. The same presentation you have been working on for days, if not weeks. And you just want to have one more look at it.

Why do we do that? Why do we wait?

Why don’t we manage the clock better when we have hours, days, weeks, even months to prepare? Why does the coach not call a time-out and get his team pumped for a 90-second touchdown drive in the third quarter?

Why doesn’t a coach pull the goalie in the second period to see if it can boost her team? Why don’t we trust our abilities in the presentation and have a calm breakfast before heading to the client’s office?

Because we are human.

Think back to school and how many times you crammed for exams or did the project on the Sunday night before the deadline. We do it to ourselves and cause additional unneeded stress. Or is it the juice we need to get the job done right?

Can Convenience Help?

I can remember when I first started banking online. A bill would come in the mail and I would immediately pay it. In the “olden days”, I would have to find a stamp and write a check to the company. Inevitably, I would be writing it a day or two before the deadline hoping the mail service had a monumental day and got it to the payee in record time.

So if we know that most of us operate like this, how do we increase our chances as business partners and colleagues? What can we do to help each other manage the clock better?

@knealemann

Stuff For Your Stuff

Are you satisfied with the content for your gadgets?
I’m sure you have a few gadgets in your life. You probably have a computer, PDA or cell, mp3 player, digital camera, printer, television, and other electronic entertainment equipment.

There’s Nuthin’ On!
The Holidays are officially over and you may have realized something startling. We seem to have to weed through a lot of crap to get to the stuff we want. Years ago Bruce Springsteen had a song entitled 57 Channels and Nothing On which can be said about most of the gadgets in our lives. Some days there are 300 channels and nothing on!

The Google Stare
Perhaps this has happened to you. Over the Holidays whilst trying to digest more bad food, I was often stuck not knowing where I wanted to go. So out of habit, I would check Twitter and Facebook, then Google Reader, perhaps a music site and the cycle continued. There are billions of sites to visit but why do we get stuck?

Perhaps we still don’t feel we have enough control over our environment – despite our spoiled existence? And that includes living through these tough economic times.

Thingamajigs and Doohickeys
One of the most popular sites in the world is Gizmodo. It has all the newest coolest toys available. It's cool that you can buy a Bugatti for a million bucks, but what good is it if your route to work consists of urban gridlock? And do we really need a toaster radio?

Everything we own depends on other things to make it work. No power, no service. No content, your laptop is landfill. If you are out of cell range, your phone is rendered useless.

What is Stuff?
Stuff is content. Stuff is the device we need to access that content. Stuff is tools for work, games to play, words to read and music to enjoy.

It is fun to play with all applications on your iPhone or Blackberry but once that novelty wears off, what do you do then? You must then search for stuff to put on your stuff.

Possibilities
The great news is we can create whatever we want. If we don’t know how to write that computer code to make that cool thing dance on that website, we can find someone who can do it. If we want to gather a group of people to create a new concept or project we have that ability. The first stop is to ask ourselves - what we want to create?

Are you satisfied with the stuff on your stuff?

km