http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/08/google.goggles/index.html

“It is our goal to be able to identify any image,” he said. “It represents our earliest efforts in the field of computer vision. You can take a picture of an item, use that picture of whatever you take as the query.” – Vic Gundotra of Google

Wow. Just think of the possibilities with:

• FACIAL IMAGE search…imagine being able to quickly identify everyone based on a quick snapshot…there goes anonymity
• Imagine being able to identify someone’s face and quickly checking their background criminal records, their friend connections, their finances, and even health history.
• Imagine being able to quickly identify someone’s PREFERENCES by seeing their TWITTER/FACEBOOK updates just by seeing their face!
• ..alright this is huge!
  

Formula 1: “The Basic or Foundation”

1. Reason Why
2. Dream
3. Research
4. Create a game plan
5. Perform a wide test
6. Perform a specific test
7. Get a clear wide vision
8. Get a clear specific Vision
9. Recruit the right team
10. Roll-out
11. Kaizen

Formula 2: Arbitrage Exploitation

1. Find a business model
2. Identify arbitrage
3. Exploit arbitrage

Formula 3: Consolidation

1. Find a good business model
2. Consolidate models

Formula 4: Joint ventures

1. Identify good business with complimentary skills
2. Match good businesses

Formula 5: Trading/Bartering

1. Trade desired items with less desirable item

Formula 6: Brokering

1. Perform a service, or provide goods for a transaction/administration fee

Even if you’re extremely well known through massive branding, consumers will select your competitors based on either indirect or direct reputations, which you can establish in mere seconds.

How do you establish a fantastic reputation? The following are some examples:

1. Do what you say you will; be on time and early
2. Go above and beyond
3. Create fantastic communication
4. Draft agreements with integrity; don’t screw people over
5. Be more transparent
6. Find a win-win and don’t be greedy. Think about the other person’s interests.

Where’s the empirical evidence? Brand advertisers. Ideally, I’d provide empirical evidence, but I’ll use the following shortcut instead:

I estimate more than 95% of ad campaigns lose money by beginners. For experienced marketers, over 50% of campaigns still lose money. It’s not even a 50/50 bet.

If you’re new to advertising, you will lose your shirt unless you do the following:

1. Generate a strategy with measurable revenue per acquired lead
2. Hire the best designers that understand direct response. Never hire a team of “creative” designers who focus primarily on aesthetics instead of sales process, although they are not mutually exclusive
3. Make sure you have a solid sales process so you don’t have cash leakages (eg. unclear forms/hard to navigate)
4. Create a scientifically significant test using a statistically significant sample using your desired confidence interval
5. Analyze the test
6. Keep tweaking the process until your revenues exceed costs
7. Roll-out slowly.
8. Monitor
9. Roll-out more and so on…

It’s amazing that big companies like car manufacturers spend millions on testing vehicles and try to get “lucky” the first time with their ad campaigns, with little to no testing involved.

Respectfully, I don’t care how much money you’ve made, who you are or whether you’re Donald Trump, Warren Buffet, or Bill Gates. Branding advertising is a waste of time.

Lastly, I agree there are exceptions to all rules. Still, generally brand advertising is abused and not used cost effectively.

Viral marketing is another inferior strategy and it’s also like gambling as a business strategy.  If you had a limited budget of $50,000, for example, would you put it on a hit or miss viral marketing campaign?

Why would companies spend ridiculous sums of money on non proven campaigns?  Viral marketing and brand advertising are siblings.  In my opinion, they both involve an assumption that spending money on non proven factors will benefit the company.  In reality, and to be blunt, they may only impress your boss or be funny.  Funny doesn’t necessarily translate into bottom line results.

To be fair and balanced, I didn’t state that branding is completely a waste of time. A brand, as you know, is similar to a reputation.

Important Discovery Based on Empirical Data: People are not nearly as brand loyal as many brand advertisers would have you believe.  I commonly hear this human misjudgement that if you creating a popular brand, humans will stay loyal to it. On average, I’ve found consumers extremely fickle and interested in trying new things.  Similarly, I believe measuring “share of mind” is unproductive.  Who cares what a consumer has in their head at any given point?

Regardless of what even some of the brightest minds state, people will try new soft drinks outside Coca Cola.  People will try new fast food restaurants outside McDonald’s. People enjoy variety and trying new things.

I like the format of twitter for more regular posts and using this blog for detailed explanations where I can elaborate in depth

Also, I’m lovin’ my iPhone 3GS; however, there’s an extremely high chance I’ll supplement it with an Android.  Why? First, I’m in the mobile industry and want to stay in the loop.  Second, I like to see what I’m missing.  It’s like a whole new world and I love having this information at my fingertips.

Shop Saavy is a cool feature through the HTC Dream or HTC Magic is a fantastic practical example.

Looking for the best deal on any product with a bar code?  “Use the camera to scan any bar code and if ther is a better deal to be had, Shop Savvy will find it – online or in town”

I just bought an iphone 3GS. I was torn on the two phones for a while and decided to go with iPhone because it’s more proven and has more immediately high-utility apps (I just had a flashback to utility curves in Econ class…and my professor who seemed like an alcoholic, as theorized by a college friend). I know that the HTC will eventually kick iphone as in it’s entirety and I’m rooting for HTC/Google to do so because open source is the future.  Just look at facebook and it’s Friend Connect and OpenSocial integration…it has created a massive wave of sites that plugin to Facebook and further increase it’s total impressions.

If you’re like me…you want it all now yesterday.

Since they compete head to head, and it’s a zero sum game in this scenario, it’s apparent to me that someone’s making a bad decision. Specifically, I believe one of the following two scenarios is taking place:
1) Microsoft is taking advantage of Google’s underpriced advertising and is successfully acquiring customers at Google’s direct expense OR
2) Microsoft is overpaying for advertising and not acquiring customers at <= their worth

From data I’ve gathered, I strongly believe 2) is taking place. In my humble opinion, this is another case where a big company is performing “window dressing” to make their company look more competitive than it is. Some would say they are spending SHAREHOLDER money to impress shareholders instead of using shareholder money to make them money.

The Hard Evidence:
1) From observation, Microsoft is advertising with mediocre branded campaigns in attempt to change someone’s behavior.
The following evidence explains why:
CASE 1) Microsoft is advertising on Google owned properties like YouTube

Bing and Decide Ad

2) People who click go here:
http://www.bing.com/?FORM=M00FCA&Publ=GOOGLE&Crea=STND_SEARCH_OVERLOAD_IS_O_300×250&cc=ca

Okay great! I’m looking at a Youtube video. Am I in the headspace to begin searching just because you say “From now on Bing & Decide?” No. Consumers don’t CARE! They CARE about ACCURATE, FAST, and RELEVANT search.

CASE 2: Microsoft is massively overtaking internet inventory, paying well-above market prices to ensure huge delivery.  In fact, Microsoft launched a huge company on several big properties including Facebook to ensure it could guarantee its delivery.  Some would argue that’s fine at face value.  However, it wasn’t necessary for them to do this.  In reality, for example, the could have easily paid the market price like everyone else and bought a similar volume of impressions spread out over more days. There was plenty of inventory for them to buy without resorting to this.   (Note: I believe I’m not explaining this as eloquently as possible but I’m in a rush).

CASE 3: Bing lacks a solid retention program to be effective. Okay. So, I’ve searched on Bing.com. Now what?

On their landing page, they have a small blended-grey text that says “Add Bing to your browser.” The truth is that many Americans simply will glance over it.

Parting words (I want to wrap this up quickly and get back to work)…

Yes, there are several other companies who are smoking Microsoft in their ability to attract new search clients. It’s also easy for me to sit here and criticize without providing examples of companies who are outperforming them. I’ll finish that part later and/or upon request.

Why? As the value of American/European currencies–plagued by massive debt obligations–diminish, Asian goods/services will be relatively more expensive.   In other words, it will become decreasingly attractive to buy globally than domestically. Therefore, their buying power will be diminished and the huge arbitrage opportunity, which has lasted for decades, may become less lucrative for importers of cheap Asian products/services.

What are the implications to you as an individual?

If you’re seeking financial protection and stability, you should consider using inverse ETFs on the US dollar and/or buying foreign indexes to profit from the current and intensifying wealth redistribution.

If you’re an entrepreneur/marketer, there’s now an increased incentive to sell overseas because foreign Asian currencies will be worth relatively more.

If you’re seeking employment, you should consider increased education and/or jobs that expose you to doing business with Asian countries.