Target, Walmart and Staples are preparing for a mass flood of shoppers the day after Thanksgiving. However, Best Buy has stood out among many consumers due to the expectation of personal electronics and house appliances to be included in the sales.
The ad detailing Black Friday offers finally leaked via a website featuring holiday listings from multiple retailers. ...
Gottadeal.com, one of the oldest Black Friday websites, has leaked the first Black Friday ads for the upcoming holiday shopping season just last week. With Black Friday 2011 approaching in just a few weeks, consumers are undoubtedly scouring the Web for the best deals and price mark-downs of the season. The website, founded in 2003, opens every year from September to December. Gottadeal.com helps consumers find exactly what they are looking for by obtaining leaked copies of sale advertisements and publishing them for users to browse, and attracts millions of visitors each year. ...
A confused game
Imagine a superhero who epitomizes soppy and absolute virtue. His chivalry wins him the woman’s affection. His brutal physical strength is fuelled by a blue H.A.R.T (Hertz advanced resonance transmitter), also what the Iron Man wears. He can stop speeding trains with his bare hands. His maker quotes Mahatma Gandhi and V Shantaram. Above all, he has a heart---ah, the maudlin heart. ...
Upcoming Black Friday 2011, the day after Thanksgiving, is the biggest shopping day in the US. Many stores are offering deep discounts on their items, even bigger than their normal clearance sales. Big ticket items such as computer, laptops, cellphones, flat screen TVs and gaming consoles are up for grabs at fantastic prices. However, the competition can be just as big as the discounts. If you want to catch a particular deal or item, you’ll have to prepare for it. With a little bit of preparation, you can snag that item you truly want....
Note: Cross posted from Black Friday Deals - The Official Black Friday 2011.Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year, which is the Friday following Thanksgiving. Many retailers offer door buster deals to entice shoppers to visit their store. Retailers should be taking advantage of mailing lists and direct marketing as a means of getting the word out early for holiday specials to their local residents.. A direct mailing campaign is a great way to get a tangible offer in the hands of their potential customers and will be a reminder of the retailers coming deals for this incredibly profitable day. A highly targeted mailing list can allow any retailer, whether it is an electronics store, pet store, etc, to market towards their specifically tailored audience. When done properly, a direct mailing campaign can be the most cost effective way to promote your product or service to anyone, anywhere in the country.
There are quite a few different direct marketing lists available. These include:
Business Mailing Lists – this list is able to be targeted by industry, sales volume, employee sizes, and more. It also allows you to target specific decision makers by title within each organization. The database can include business name, address, phone number, contact name and title and more.
Residential Consumer List – this file would be targeting people at their home address. There are many ways to create a targeted consumer list including age, income, gender, and more. You also have the option of simply targeting everyone within a specific geography.
Home Owner Mortgage Marketing List – this database would include all individuals that own their home. The majority of this file comes from county tax offices and is selectable by mortgage information including year home was purchased, home value, interest rate, interest rate type and more.
New Movers Lists – this file is comprised of people that have newly moved into an area. This is selectable by anyone moving into an area and can be further segmented into new home owners and new mover renters.
Specialty Marketing Database – these records would include magazine subscribers, specific professional titles, and other databases created through online surveys and more.
It is always important to make sure you are using an updated quality list. The mailing list is the main component of the entire direct marketing campaign. The easiest way to obtain a mailing list is to purchase one through a mailing list broker. Marketing Lists Direct is proficient in providing accurate mailing lists that have the highest deliverability guarantee. Telemarketing lists can also be created from these mailing lists.
The marketing message is also extremely important. Be sure to make your promotion simple, clear, and easy to understand. You want the people who receive your mail piece to look at your marketing piece and know who you are, what you are offering, and how to respond to your offer without having to do any intense research. Your offer should include a call to action. For example, “Be at our location at a certain time and day for this special promotion offer”. A specific time line for the call to action, such as an expiration date or exact time also creates urgency. Also, make it easy for the receiver to respond by phone, email, internet, mail, or in person. People are attracted to free samples, giveaways, guarantees, and great holiday deals.
A direct mailing list campaign will create a buzz, long lines and a sales boost for your retail business for Black Friday and anytime of the year. It is essential to start getting your message out early and frequently. Direct mail is still the most effective way of marketing because of the ease to focus your promotion to as many or as few recipients as your budget allows. By following these few easy suggestions when developing your mailing campaign for Black Friday and the holiday season, you will greatly increase your response rate and your return on investment.
Note: Cross posted from Black Friday Deals - The Official Black Friday 2011.While some are hesitant to cross over to the darkside and giving up their freedom with a smartphone, there’s no denying that they’re becoming the norm for most cell phone users. Unfortunately, when it comes time to choosing one, the choices can be pretty overwhelming.
Carrier
Many phones are carrier specific. This means certain phone models are bound to one cell service provider. In the past, this has caused quite a stir, particularly with the iPhone, as it was once bound solely to AT&T. It has since been made available on the Verizon network, though there are significant differences in the two phones. If you live in an area that has bad AT&T coverage, you may want to look into getting a phone on Verizon or T-Mobile. You can do a search online for cell phone coverage by provider in your city to help you make your decision.
Operating System
Smart phones are essentially mini-computers, and thus each comes with its own unique operating system. Currently there are about seven operating systems available: Android, iOS, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone 7, Blackberry, Symbian, and webOS.
Android: Available on a wide variety of phones across multiple carriers, Android is Google’s operating system and currently the most popular smartphone platform in the world. It syncs with your Gmail account, which is required to use the OS, and features a number of Google features such as Google Maps.
iOS: Native only to Apple mobile devices such as the iPhone and the iPad, iOS is based on the Mac OS X operating system, and thus an ideal platform for those already familiar with the nuances of Apple’s operating system.
Windows Mobile: Windows Mobile was an operating system developed by Microsoft, but with the introduction of Windows 7 smartphones, Windows Mobile has fell into disuse and is rarely found on newer phones.
Windows Phone 7: The Successor to Windows Mobile, Windows Phone 7 is a brand new interface that places a focus on total integration. Early reviews have been positive, though some have complained about its lack of certain ”deal-breaking” functions, such as multitasking.
Blackberry: The BlackBerry OS, designed by Research in Motion, is available only on BlackBerry devices. While popular among some, it is found primarily in corporate settings due to its support for corporate email and synchronization with popular pieces of software such as Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise.
Symbian: Symbian is a proprietary operating system designed for use on Nokia smartphones. Like Windows Mobile, Nokia will be migrating to Windows Phone 7. As such, most new consumer phones won’t have Symbian installed.
webOS: Developed by Palm and acquired by Hewlett-Packard, webOS is a Linux-based operating system found on a small set of smartphones and the HP TouchPad. On August 18, 2011, however, it was announced that production on all webOS devices and software would be stopped.
With most new pieces of software, the best thing to do is ”try before you buy.” Spend some time in the store playing with each time of phone available to see what operating system suits your needs. Most carriers allow a grace period where you can return or exchange the phone if you don’t like it.
Speed
Most smartphones are pretty fast, with many of the newer models containing processors that clock in at around 1 GHz or more. Most new smartphones that use Android, such as those made by Samsung and HTC, are some of the fastest on the market. While faster is clearly better, the performance of a smartphone is often less dependent on the speed of its processor than the number of programs running in the background.
Storage
Smartphones come with varying storage sizes, with some clocking in as high as 32GB (iPhone) and others as low as 512MB. On most smartphones, however, storage expansion in the form of microSD cards and other memory formats, are available. If you’re a fan of watching movies or storing music on your phone (as a substitute MP3 player), then you would want to go with one with lots of storage.
Size
Most smartphones are small enough to fit in the front pocket of your jeans, with some of the larger ones, such as the Droid X, are slim enough to compensate for the added size. The average smartphone screen size is around 3.7”, with the low end clocking in at around 3.2” and the high at 4.3”
Features
Smartphone features are often dependent on the brand of the phone and the operating system. Do you prefer a physical or a virtual keyboard? A good camera? Tethering ability (sharing an internet connection on a phone with other Wi-Fi enabled devices)? Bluetooth? FM Radio? The options are endless, and while every phone comes with a wide variety of features, each one should be researched fully before making a final decision.
Applications
One of the deciding factors for many smartphone buyers are the availability of applications. Currently the Apple App Store and the Android Market are the two most popular, with over 500,000 and 200,000 apps available, respectively. Many websites offer applications to take their website ”on the go,” though these are often limited to certain operating systems, primarily Android, iOS, and Blackberry.
Battery Life
With most smartphones, the battery life is typically dependent on your settings and how many applications you have running at any given moment. Over time the amount of power the battery can hold will diminish. Many new smartphones have faced criticism over their supposed lackluster battery life, with many claiming they can’t hold a charge beyond a single day’s use.
Bottom Line
Smartphones can be a tricky beast, though if you’re inclined to stay caught up with the latest gadgets and technologies while taking advantage of the many options available, then stick with an iPhone or an Android-based phone. While the iPhone remains pretty much the same each year, new Android phones by various companies (Motorola, Samsung, etc) are being released every year, so make sure you do your research. What was the best three months ago might not be the case today.
Note: Cross posted from Black Friday Deals - The Official Black Friday 2011.Millions of BlackBerry users remained without service on Wednesday as a three-day network outage spread to North America, causing massive frustrations for people who rely on these smartphones for business and personal communications.
"BlackBerry subscribers in the Americas may be experiencing intermittent service delays this morning," Research in Motion, maker of BlackBerry smartphones, said in a statement. "We are working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible and we apologize to our customers for any inconvenience. We will provide a further update as soon as more information is available."
The outage now impacts people on nearly every continent, according to the company's statements.
An "extremely critical issue" on the BlackBerry network caused the outage, Stephen Bates, RIM's managing director in the U.K., told CNN's Richard Quest. He added: "We're putting all of our focus with all of our engineers and all of our network specialists on trying to understand the nature of why this backup system didn't work as it should have ..."
The service outage started on Monday with customers in the Middle East, Europe and Africa, before spreading to South America and Asia on Tuesday. On Wednesday morning it appeared to hit the United States and Canada. The outage appears primarily to affect text messaging and Internet access from the mobile phones, not necessarily their ability to place calls.
No customer e-mails have been completely lost, and they will be delivered eventually, RIM said in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, according to CNNMoney's Julianne Pepitone.
In a statement released Tuesday, the company said the "messaging and browsing delays being experienced by BlackBerry users in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Brazil, Chile and Argentina were caused by a core switch failure within RIM's infrastructure. Although the system is designed to failover to a back-up switch, the failover did not function as previously tested."
The company said it is working "around the clock" to fix the problem.
"A large backlog of data was generated and we are now working to clear that backlog and restore normal service as quickly as possible," the Tuesday statement said. "We apologize for any inconvenience and we will continue to keep you informed."
There are about 70 million BlackBerry users worldwide. RIM has not commented on how many users are affected, but reports suggest the number of users without some sort of service has climbed into the millions.
BlackBerry users, many of whom use the devices primarily for business purposes, were angered by the outage.
Overheard on CNN.com: BlackBerry outage not all bad
Many people took to Twitter to both complain about lost productivity and to make light of the situation.
"COME ONNNN. Sort it out #blackberry. This is ridiculous in this day and age," a Twitter user named @Suzy__G wrote.
"OK, this #Blackberry business is now SERIOUSLY pissing me off," CNN's Piers Morgan tweeted.
Later, he said: "One positive of the #Blackberry crisis - my personal trainer can't get hold of me. #OrderingBurgers."
"#DearBlackberry I can't work, I can't study, please, please come back from that coma!" @marianaae wrote.
"What did the one #Blackberry user say to the other?..........nothing....," said another Twitter user, @giselewaymes.
"And iPhone users everywhere smile smugly and search for the 'I Told You So' app," wrote another.
A website called isblackberrystillbroken.com popped up to track developments.
People who visited the site on Wednesday afternoon were greeted with a red screen and a giant word: "Yes."
This is not the first time RIM has faced a major service outage.
"I have been an analyst for 25 years and have watched RIM wrestle with this same outage problem time after time. Every few years we get pinched by yet another major problem," tech analyst Jeff Kagan said in a statement.
This outage, however, comes at a particularly bad time for RIM, since it faces increasing competition in the smarpthone market, Kagan says. Apple's iPhone and phones on the Google Android operating system have been gaining ground, and the new iPhone 4S goes on sale Friday.
The tech blog Electronista wrote:
"RIM's outage is now one of its largest in recent memory and is now edging even closer to the iPhone 4S launch than before, leading to a possible temptation for those already looking to upgrade their phones. Commentary on Twitter has shifted gradually from frustrated patience to open anger and has led some to remark that they're now likely to switch to the iPhone, Android, or another platform."
