Amazon.com (AMZN) Disciplined Over Toys & More…
An Airline Marketing Idea
Before we launch into a breath-taking, cross-channel, multi-topic discussion, I will share with you a marketing idea that I gave a friend of mine who works for a major airline. Actually, there were two ideas. One will remain a secret until the airline implements my idea and then rewards me with unlimited free tickets and upgrades. So, here’s the concept; the airline goes to a a local zoo and kidnaps a baby bear in broad daylight. Then they take the ursine captive, put it in an airplane and fly up in the sky. Once they reach the clouds, they announce a new initiative called “the mile high cub”.
Amazon Gets a Wedgie
And now we get onto business. Yesterday, AMZN took a pounding. Not from me. From the shareholders. What gives? It has a lot to do with Toysrus; something I have not shut-up about. Read this article. Investors are concerned about two things; 1) the operating profits are down. Duh. TRU was paying huge service fees to the rain forest. Another issue is that AMZN said they would “invest heavily” in its new online toy store and cut prices “aggressively” to attract more customers. Yet another ripple affect of the TRU saga. Total price tag: $3.06 billion in stock value.
Google Checkout gets Centerfold Slot
Google is promoting their checkout service on their homepage. This should attract more folks to sign up. The promo links to a Learn More page; pretty much an info page, with participating stores, coupons and a few fine items for sale, including the Google lava lamp. If I knew when Terry Semel’s birthday was, I’d send him one of these mobile lighting devices as a gift. Of course, there will always be the early adopters; those who jump right into something. The advantage is that these particular merchants are getting a luxury-yacht-load of FREE PR from Google. BTW, it appears that Google Checkout is no longer in Beta! (unlike the myriads of other Google Beta products…)
Also, while Google is promoting checkout on their homepage, I am surpised there is NO mention of google checkout on the Froogle homepage! (which of course is STILL in beta 
Walmart.com is Two-Faced
Anyone have contacts at Walmart.com? There site needs a tune-up. Same problem that TRU had last week. When you type in www.walmart.com is your browser, it works fine. However, when I skip the “www” I get an ugly page telling me the site is down. Both in Firefox & IE. What gives? We’re a fast food nation. Who has the time for the “www”? Not me! Let’s see how long it takes this blue-chip corporation to fine-tune this error.
Google and Darwin
Curious about the evolution of a search engine listing? On Monday, 07/24, I blogged about Piperlime coming out of the cyber-closet. Guess what? That next day, I noticed that for the first time ever, the actual piperlime site had been indexed by Google. Up until then, my previous blogs were the only results returning for “piperlime“. What about the other search engines? MSN search has yet to index the piperlime site. I did however find a posting by a Gap recruiter, looking to hire someone for piperlime. So far, Yahoo has not indexed the actual piperlime.com site either. Neither has ask.com. This is a practical demonstration of why google is the leader in online search…
