I must admin that I’ve been baffled by Groupon’s success.  I’ve been a member for probably 6 months and only bought one Groupon – a discount to a dry cleaner that i already use, which I’m sure they were thrilled about.
Basically Groupon aggregates local email addresses – they are an intermediary.  In a world where every industry is constantly being disintermediated, why are we heaping praise on a new intermediary?
I could care less about the witty writing – I never read it.  I guess it makes for some …

Consumers are frustrated.  As innovations lead us to newer, better, faster, more powerful products and services, we keep finding a disparity between our purchase of those products and services and the rights we have to them.
Google and Amazon both recently announced online music “lockers” that allow consumers to upload music – that they have legally purchased – for backup purposes and to stream via a web browser or mobile app.   But the music labels think they should be paid to allow this type of service.   As a result, …

Four Hollywood studios are rolling out a “Premium VOD” service on DirectTV and some Comcast markets that allows you to rent a movie that was just in the theaters for $30.
Is $30 too high or too low?  Probably both.  On the one hand, I could wait to buy the DVD for $20, or wait to pay $6 for regular on demand service, or wait even longer to get it on Netflix.  On the other hand, paying for movie tickets, popcorn, drinks, and babysitters can be a lot more expensive than …

With this last post of 2010, I wanted to write about some of my observations of retailers and products during this holiday shopping month.
Charity giving at the register. When I was making a $50 purchase at the local Pottery Barn, as I was paying the clerk asked if I’d like to donate $1 to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.  I think this is a terrific way to raise money (and I said yes).  First, I’ve already taken out my credit card, so that barrier is gone.  Second, they didn’t ask me …

Some people stick their noses up in the air at the idea that a company “suggestion box” can be a source of practical innovation.   Amazon would beg to differ.
For those not familiar with the Amazon Prime program, members pay a $79 annual fee to receive free 2-day shipping on most products stocked by Amazon.  According to a BusinessWeek article, Amazon Prime might be responsible for 20% of Amazon’s US sales, which were about $16 billion in the last 12 months.  That means Prime could be a $3 billion dollar program.
Guess …

In the early days of the Apple App Store, there were free apps and there were paid apps.  With the release last year of the iPhone 3.0 software, Apple began to support “in-app purchases”, and there were great expectations (and a little trepidation) that it would help developers make more money off of their apps by offering them for free, and then charging for various things like new levels, hints, or virtual goods within the apps.
Apparently this simple pricing innovation is indeed reaping big rewards.

Two authors that I enjoy reading are talking today about Business Model innovation – a subject that I’m passionate about and often write about.   Idris Mootee wrote What Do You Know About Business Model Innovation?, and Stefan Lindegaard wrote about Business Model Innovation – Big Risk, Big Rewards.
Both articles note the confusion that people have when trying to define “business model” in the context of innovation and whether it is different from your “strategy”.  In my experience, if you disagree with someone’s definition of “business model”, the disagreement will typically …

In a recent post I wrote about a few of Register.com’s marketing strategies. The problem was that in my case the innovation didn’t work – they led me to register a domain name and only at the last second did they tell me it wasn’t available. This result was an irritated and resentful customer (me).
I was lucky enough to experience a similar innovation error with USAirways. (Yes, I realize the airline industry is often a target of my posts, but they’re creating this material – I’m not …

In a recent post I wrote about how I had no intention of paying the high fees that media companies were charging for the online versions of their magazines and newspapers.  Don’t mistake that position for thinking that I believe all content should be free – far from it.  I am ready to embrace micropayments, when the model becomes widespread and standardized, as a means to purchase unique, valuable content a la carte.
But the idea that I would pay more for the online version of a magazine or newspaper, or …

When I was in high school I would drive down to the local bowling alley to play pinball and video games.   I was experiencing the pay-per-use business model for games – keep feeding quarters into the machine if you want to keep playing.  In the decades since, a number of new business models for the industry have emerged, with different impacts to the seller:

Buy new to own.  This has been the most prominent model since pay-per-use.  Buy new games to play on a console, or on your PC, or even …