11 Reasons the iPad counts, what you (may or) may not have thought about.

Then...

The New Family Entertainment?

I go way back with the Mac. I owned a Mac SE when PC’s were fast, and my friends with PC’s would tease the hell out of me. Times have changed. The introduction of first the iMac, and eventually the iPhone, has literally changed lives. Yesterday’s announcement of the iPad had mixed reviews, as with every Apple product launch. I only have my 11. Enjoy.

1. Entry into a brave new world
Apple is so damn good at this. I agree with @benparr. If there is one company that looks like the Jetsons cartoon life we pondered, its Apple. They continue to usher us into unknown territory. Suddenly we find ourselves as the person that waits in line to be in the front car of the roller coaster, raising our hands.

2. Students best friend
Having a partner in McGraw Hill, and opening an iBook store will break some parents and make students very happy. To have textbooks on a slate (oops I mean pad) means not carrying books and watching Hulu on breaks.

3. Family Entertainment
This is the one that rings with me the most. @scoblelizer mentioned, among his sons iPhone time cut into Xbox time. Photo album, portable entertainment system, you name it. Quoting @scoblelizer “laptops are ugly at a Thanksgiving table.”

4. Kindle Killer
For the future of the printed word, I’d consult @jeffjarvis and the summit he held in Aspen. But the future of newspapers and the such seems to hang in the clutches of some hand-held device. Amazon’s Kindle made a nice go at it, but again, the iBook store will rock. I give the Kindle 18months. Bye.

5. AT&T’s redemption
If I’d heard it once, I heard it plenty. iPhone users complaining about AT&T. AT&T complaining about Apple. Apple complaining about AT&T. Offering an unlimited data plan for 30 bucks with no contract is a big deal for them. It will be for me too!

6. Gadget Pron
The dedicated geek will at least have the $499 version. Just to have.

7. Showing Off
Walking down Peachtree street or Madison avenue, hanging out at Phipps Plaza, I need one of these to accessorize my Prada.

8. Designers
Speaking of showing off, I can see @ariesdesign now. With one of these babies, he will be working on, and displaying, design on a tablet designed for the designer.

9. Photographers
Photographers will now have a convenient way to seamlessly showcase between the web and local files. The accessories available for digital cameras is impressive.

10. Apple’s (yet another play) to stifle the Xbox
Another great point from @scobelizer. Insider Silicon Valley stuff.

11. Comics
Comics have never transitioned to mobile. The iPad will change that.

That’s my 11 cents.

This HAD to be reminded……

Ecc 3:1
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
Ecc 3:2
a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
Ecc 3:3
a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
Ecc 3:4
a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
Ecc 3:5
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
Ecc 3:6
a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
Ecc 3:7
a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
Ecc 3:8
a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
Ecc 3:9
What gain has the worker from his toil?

Relevance, Time & Exposure

Truth is, you need all three to successfully market. Clearly, in the above example, we have Kings in their class. And as a piece of art, the song is intact. However lacking these three major elements, you’re probably hearing it for the first time here.

1. Relevance
Being relevant in the marketplace is so stealth its often missed. Many marketers release products into the market based on loving it, and now how much others can relate to it. LL Cool J releasing a Michael tribute song was a great idea, you would think it was relevant due to MJ’s passing. Unfortunately it was not relevant to the audience that listens to rap records today, or the audience that listened to LL yesterday. A relevant product means customers see a reason to use it now, art included.

2. Time
We would all love to think we have a product that spans over decades. Although this may be true for a company like Coke, a company lik H&M (both on 2009 list of biggest brands), had to be launched at a time past coattails and top hats. Time means keeping up with where trends are going. Being outdated (or the perception thereof) is not sexy. Time also means what a market is familiar with (concerning you) right now.

3. Exposure
Often the 20 million dollar question: How do I expose my product to my potential market? As easy as this answer is not, it does have an answer. It begins with where you are strong (green lights), continues to where you need more strength (yellow lights), and evolves traveling into unknown territory (red lights). In the above example, if LL had used his two strongest vehicles of the day (television and movies) exposure would have been a lot easier, instead of competing with a gargling cat on youtube.

Never shortchange your product. True, you should love it because it is your baby, but if you send your baby out in the cold with no coat, she’s bound to come home frostbitten.

5 steps to understanding tribes & brands

We all have a tribe (sorry universalists), and if we don’t market to them, chances are we don’t have a shot at marketing period. Below is my collections of the steps that help. More forthcoming.

Man Hours…….
How much time does it take to build your brand online? You may be surprised.

Who is your Twaudience? (cultivate)
Find out who your tribe is, really.

Don’t Be Too Far Ahead………
Being ahead of everybody else. Is that a good thing?

Practice Makes Perfect….Still
You can NEVER escape rehearsal.

Brandbuilding Pt. 1, the Telephone….
Part 1 of my forthcoming series on building a brand.

Who is your Twaudience? (cultivate)

Later this year, I launch a property called twaudience. Its a marketing option coined “budget your market.” Of course it involves software. Of course its open source. Tight business strategy, as much internet guru-search (research on the giants I love) that can fit. With all of this, timing will be the reason I succeed. You see, just like a song ahead or behind its time, the same applies to business.

In music, even a dope song and video (see above), released at a time with stiff competition, uncultivated audience or old technology, usually fails. When I say failure, I don’t mean exposure, I mean relevance and continued revenue stream. In most cases people pay for what they need (unless your Starbucks), and take what they want. So being relevant becomes the deciding factor.

Just as cultivated land equals good crop, a cultivated audience will buy your product. Does cultivation=free? I won’t go that far….yet. I will say that perfect timing means meeting your audience where their brain-space is at the time you go to market.

In this age of analytics, we are finding out more about our audience, so that should help. When we launch, we’ll help you do the rest. Sorry for the shameless plug, lol.

Brandbuilding Pt. 1, the Telephone….

Most of us don’t see our phones as a brandbuilding tool. Actually, I think we take our phones for granted. We talk on them, forget to charge them, and lose them. I happen to think there’s more to our phones, so here’s some ideas:

1. There is no way (especially you iPhone users) to get by without at least three cell phone chargers. You’ll need one at home, one in the office, one in the car, no exceptions.
2. Customize your answering service, even if you have to pay a professional. You never know, and if you meet Bill Gates today, and he gets your message, what does he hear?
3. Know what you’re going to do if you have to leave the country. Most phone plans don’t include international. Yeah I know, I know, the internet works fine overseas, so does skype, iChat, blah, blah, blah. But trust me, there’s nothing like answering your own phone in Belgium.
4. Caller I.D. is there for a reason. If you don’t have an answer to a question, or your changing a diaper, you can see who’s calling and decide if they speak to you or your custom message (see#2).
5. Finally, don’t give your phone number to everyone, thats what e-mail is for.

Speaking of e-mail, that will be tomorrows blog. And please, feel free to comment!!

Practice Makes Perfect….Still

Although I haven’t heard it lately, practice still makes perfect. Doing A&R for many years, I was always amazed at how many times I gave the “craft speech.” The basic premise of the speech was just like a carpenter studies wood, and a welder studies metal, music folks have the same responsibilty to study what they do. As simple as it sounds, there is no question the lack of this study or practice has turned traditional radio into an earache!

We are at a place where performers are counting the soundcheck as rehearsal. The result is a sloppy performance. In our lil’ digital world of Blogging, Facebook, Twitter & brand building we too need practice. To just ‘jump in’ and think no practice necessary is a dangerous move. We must study. We must test. See what works, see what doesn’t. There are plenty tools we can use to do this.

This week I will be testing this very blog to list some of the ‘how-tos’ of brandbuilding. I will list steps, tools, process.

That’s my practice. What’s yours?

Man Hours…….

I, like most of my cronies, come from a world very different from today. A world of punching in at work, living for the weekend, and a serious divide between the two. If ever approached about ‘man hours’ those days, we would’ve thought it meant time spent in an office.

The internet is a whole new place, and an entire new set of meanings. I wrote this post because I recently found out the hard way how many ‘man hours’ it really takes to build a decent reputation online. I often tell my music comrades, do not use the internet to replace a non-existent street team. The biggest lesson I’ve learned about online presence? They want YOU. Not your team, not your ghost-writer, YOU. And that my friend, takes man hours.

Hard to say that even in the past week how many connections I’ve made by just being present and engaging online. But only if I put in the time/hours.

Dunno who I’m talking to, but I’m glad I said it to myself……again.

Don’t Be Too Far Ahead………

Around a month ago, I posted a blurb on my Facebook about being 21 years early with a song I wrote called “Talkin’ All That Jazz.” You see, I read on allhiphop that Lamont Dozier of Motown fame finally decided to collaborate with producers that sampled his music. I said this in 1988. As I sit in the very comfortable @genedexter Palace in Seattle, I am reminded that seven years ago, when he and I embarked on a record company venture here in town, we were also ahead of our time. I thank G-d for second chances, am so happy about the launch of my new record label soon, and have a lil’ advice.

Be ahead, yes. Just not too far, give people time to catch up.

No More Funny Vibe………

Racism, is a word we seldom hear in tech circles. Its commonplace that we look like the rainbow. There is no serial-type for folks like us. However, as we continue on in this ‘attention economy’, are we seeing ‘tribal outbursts’? Let me explain.

Often when we are afraid, we draw to the familiar. And even in 2009, there are few Americans with family roots on this soil. Times of crisis and stress, often, make our roots stand up like fraidy cats.

Just saying be careful. We started this idea stream together. Not one tribe can claim it. Please, lets keep it that way.