I am headed out on the road in the coming weeks. Part of the upside, and downside, of keeping up with the interactive marketing industry is the travel to conferences such as the annual eTail conference out in the desert. Some great speakers and topics are lined up this year including a great session on the merging of social networking with ecommerce. There are also a slew of “new ideas” and “groundbreaking tactics” that will be discussed which caused me, an occasional contrarian when the mood strikes, to wax nostalgic on the subject of retailing. This helps me crystalize how I see the “future” of ecommerce, now that present day ecommerce has evolved into a mainstream activity.

Remember department stores? Sears and JCPenney’s ring a nostalgic bell for some of us, even while they continue to stay in business. Higbee’s, Polsky’s, and Marshall Field’s for some of us northerners have a special meaning if we are old enough to remember them. The Higbee’s in Public Square in Cleveland was the site of the opening scenes in A Christmas Story - ahhh good times. The good times didn’t last much longer for the department stores, as they soon saw crested their hill and began the descent to their nadir.

Multiple forces have caused them to diminish in importance over the years. Suburbanization played a part, with the rise of Target and Walmart and the continued displacement of their original customer base away from their existing stores. But specialization did the most damage, with shoppers seeking to buy items both large and small from companies that focused on one type of product. Such stores as Best Buy in electronics, Gap in clothing (remember when all it did was sell Levi’s?), Home Depot in tools, and so forth, found that many consumers wanted both more choice and a unique shopping experience for each type of item they shopped for.

The mainstreaming of ecommerce over the last ten years has continued to buffet the department stores; and they have found it difficult to match even their diminished real world market share online. Meanwhile nouveau department stores such as Amazon have become an effective, if not terribly profitable, purveyors of a range of goods online. Starting out as a vertical play in books and quickly expanding ever since, they have become a modern day department store without the Muzac and crowded parking lots. The Gap has spawned further offerings at their sister companies such as Banana Republic and Old Navy both offline and online. Despite this, there has been a proliferation of niche plays in ecommerce who have done quite well by being very good at one thing. Bluefly in fashion, Zappos in shoes and countless others have driven their revenues continuously higher as they continue to sharpen their operations to realize profits. Micro niches have sprouted that would be unsustainable in an offline format: want to buy a environmentally correct yard appliance? Try People Powered Machines; but not before checking to see if the product you want is cheaper at Clean Air Gardening.

So what is a modern day ecommerce merchant to do to stay relevent to an increasingly fractured customer base that wants an unique shopping experience? How does an Amazon or a Gap not cede the lucrative shoe market to the shoe market niche players for example? The answer is easy from the view of quantative analysis: play the same game as the niche players but with better capitalization, technology, and efficiencies of scale. Flog the capitalist principles that have always worked but with a hefty dose of marketing pandering charm tossed into the mix. Amazon and Gap have both started playing the micro niche game by taking on the Shoes.com and Zappos of the world with their own seemingly stand alone ecommerce stores. Ladies and Gentlemen please start spending your money at the near infinite choice of shoes and handbags at Endless.com - brought to you by your friends at Amazon. Can’t find what you want? Try your luck at Piper Lime - no it’s not that chic boutique around the corner with off-street parking, it’s a niche-of-a-niche, conveniently brought to you by the Gap. These stores can showcase the same or expanded content from their parent companies in an online store that dedicates itself to the specific types of shoppers who seek that content and selection. This trend should expand significantly as larger ecommerce players build out specialty front ends tied into their generalist and efficient back end operations.

Staying relevent and providing an increasingly personalized and unique shopping experience is the new name of the game. It’s the same game that department stores pioneered by assigning an area in their vast expanses to goods of a particular type. But as the ecommerce experience has become more mature, we are now in the age where specialties are perhaps best served by efficient corporate operations that are tuned to provide efficient fulfillment and processing, with the purchasing power only they can provide. The drums of efficient capitalism beat on and the trend should continue to manifest itself over the short to medium term. Consumers will always seek both value and convenience in proportionate amounts even while they are attracted to uniqueness. The new ecommerce environment seeks to create that combination in an unique yet efficient way.

The new new thing is to exploit multichannel and enterprise channel size to outprice the smaller sites in search engine keyword bidding and other advertising, while still sustaining higher margins. These dollars can then be invested to add even more professional level content, imagery, and shopping tools and to expand out new micro niches as necessary. A new niche is only a cool domain name and an interactive agency RFP away once the sub-sub-market is discovered that needs to be addressed. Now if only these niche of niches’s could come up with better names than Piper Lime. For that we should blame the marketers, not the quant jocks who continue to devine the micro niches to exploit next.

A viral marketing attempt is mistaken for a series of bombs placed around Boston this morning, and completely disrupt rush hour traffic. The campaign consists of light brights made of LEDs and are apparently characters called “Mooninites” from the adult cartoon, “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.”

(Watch the video)

After the first sightings of the unknown devices the police were called on the scene to investigate the ‘bombs’. The bomb squad detonated a few of the devices and have declared that the light brights are an apparent ‘hoax’.
“It’s a hoax — and it’s not funny,” said Gov. Deval Patrick.

But personally I think its hilarious that you could possibly mistake an adult swim character light bright for a Bomb!

User generated content is a great thing. It unshackles the creative bounds of the general population by easing the creation and dissemination of creative expression. It’s a wonderful trend that has created countless citizen journalists, comedians, stuntmen, and made for a non-stop 24/7/365 platform for a quasi “America’s Funniest Home Video’s” in the form of YouTube. User generated content is also at the heart of Second Life. After launching in 1999, Linden Labs, the company behind Second Life, tried a few business approaches to virtual worlds before seizing on the user creation angle where users could not only create content but posess it and transact in a virtual economy. As with all user generated content, your experience in Second Life will vary with the quality of the content, and it’s not all that great at times. We don’t watch “America’s Funniest Home Videos” all the time on TV, if we did we would miss out on content like “Lost”, “The Simpsons”, and “Seinfeld” that both tastes great and is more filling at the same time.

Professional content will almost always trump user generated content in terms of production values and star talent. While it does annoy us at times with yet another bad Freddy Prinze movie, it does provide us with content creators like MTV, Disney and Nickelodeon. So what if those firms immersed their immense creative talents in virtual worlds, transforming some of their legacy original content and new initiatives into virtual worlds more attuned to their target audiences. It has already begun, and it marks the beggining of the next stage of Virtual Worlds online.

MTV, not necessarily a bastion of great original programming, has recently taken their “The O.C.” knockoff “Laguna Beach” virtual with the aptly named “Virtual Laguna Beach”. Where the world is prepopulated with professional content and more importantly context. The originality or quality of it is for someone other than me to judge, but as long as the real world viewers of “Laguna Beach” think that show has merit, they will have a strong likelyhood of finding value in the virtual version - audience immersion or the willful suspension of disbelief taken to new level. More interesting and much more compelling (trust me on this) are the virtual worlds and immersive experiences just launched by Nickelodeon and Disney. Nicktropolis launched today and is filled with the world of Nickelodeon, from its characters to its brand promise - and it’s safe for kids! The new Disney.com is relaunching in the coming days and will have an immersive experience with a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) based on the Pirates of the Carribean and social networking where Disney characters and storylines intersect with the users. User content has its place, but at times the experts can create an experience and a setting that is timeless and fulfilling in a way that a handycam and the 19 year old skateboarder next door jumping off his roof cannot. Content from people we trust to create content we care about and content that is safe for wider audiences. Inevitably there will be virtual worlds created solely for adult oriented interests. And more power to them, as they will have the exact type of content the people who interact with them will expect to see.

As new as virtual worlds seem, they have existed all along, but we have had to buy tickets to places like Disneyworld to immerse ourselves in them. Second Life will continue to thrive with their virutal economy and the massive randomness that makes user generated content compelling in its own right. But some experts in virtual worlds have entered the picture and there is a ready audience of current fans of their creative efforts that will see and enjoy the experience.

I’ve been in this business for about 8 years now and the one thing that still gets me is how easy it is for people to get caught up on the misconception about a page being cluttered.

Now before my career shifted into the user experience world, I was a marketing guy. I say this because I fully understand and appreciate the marketer’s need for their design to appear clean and simple. BUT, clean and simple doesn’t necessarily mean sparse. Websites are not billboards. They don’t have to contain 7 words or less.

I think the main problem lies in seeing a page during the design process from the perspective of looking at the page as a whole entity.

The reality is that people using that page are not taking a 50,000 foot view of it…they are on a mission to accomplish something and they have blinders on to everything else that is irrelevant to them. Couldn’t everything else be seen as visual clutter? Yes, but only if the page is designed poorly. You CAN design a good page with a lot of information that does not have visual clutter.

That is the precise reason you hire specialists in user experience and design. If everyone only had one user task on their page like Google, you wouldn’t need anyone to design it. It’s pretty easy to put a search field in the middle of the page and place a button near it.

What is challenging is creating a page that meets the needs of a wide variety of users and still makes each one feel like they clearly and easily accomplished their goals…all the while being aesthetically pleasing and reflecting the brand message.

If they are doing their job well, the UE and Graphic designers are using proven design principles to group, title and visually separate like items in such a way that users can easily pick up a scent as to where to go next. Jared Spool, who coined the concept of scent, has proven many times that what makes a good user experience is not the amount of clicks a user must make, but whether or not they had confidence that they were on the right path. The user who can quickly and easily pick up a scent isn’t going to see the rest of the page as visual clutter, so long as the other items on the page are not distracting them from their path…even if there is a lot on the page.

If you do anything as a result of reading this blog entry, when you review the strength of the usability of a page and you think it looks cluttered, look again. Reign yourself in from that 50,000 foot view and put yourself in the context of each user type first; then decide if it is busy and creates a negative user experience. You’ll be surprised at how uncluttered the page actually is.

I love reading about new disrupters. There have been many books written on disruption and our local Interactive Marketing Association (AiMA) is having their event this month focused on Disruption with speakers from TiVo, YouTube and Cox Media.

One of my favorite blogs to keep up with is Urlocker on Disruption and a recent post there talked about the Forbes.com article, “The Disrupters of 2006“. The list is interesting, with some obvious inclusions such as YouTube and the Nintendo Wii.

So I’ve been thinking about 2007 and what the disrupters this year will look like. Second Life will surely be one of the top 10, whether it continues to grow as it has been (from 1 million members and $500,000 US being spent daily in October 2006 to almost 3 million members today and $1.3 million US being spent daily) or if it is acquired by a big player (my guess would be that Yahoo or Google will be likely suitors). I don’t think anyone quite understands which direction virtual worlds are going but it doesn’t take much to realize that they aren’t going anyway anytime soon.

I also think the Apple iPhone is going to shake up the cell phone and mp3 player industry. Although several devices have successfully integrated the two, Apple is going to make everyone take it more seriously. So far consumers haven’t demanded an integrated device but once the iPhone comes down in price and more consumers start seeing its benefits, we’re going to see a massive shift in the industry as everyone tries to keep up.

I’m curious to see what the rest of you think about the disrupters in 2007…

I stumbled across a new social networking site the other day called Dandelife; and it is unlike anything I have seen so far in the space. It’s sort of like MySpace meets biographical timeline.

Dandelife allows its users to share their lives with everyone in an easy to follow (seriously) timeline. I dig the idea … you can chronicle the places you’ve visited, the people you’ve met and the milestones in your life so simply. Dandelife even lets users integrate their Flickr photos into their timeline; talk about simplicity.

Check out the co-founder, Kelly Abbott’s Dandelife to get an idea of how it all works.

Here lately, there’s been a lot of theorizing about what my desktop candy jar is really all about. Because I’m trained to manipulate human behavior, these theories often have a psychological basis. Here are a few.

1. The Positive Reinforcement Theory: This is the belief that I am reinforcing people for coming to my desk. When you come to my desk, you get candy. When you don’t come to my desk, you don’t get candy. So, you come to my desk more often.

2. The Classical Conditioning Theory: This is the belief that I am trying to pair my books with candy. My books are next to my candy jar. You see them when you get the candy. So eventually, you associate my books with good things like candy — and maybe, one day, you’ll even read them.

3. The Controlled Experiment Theory: This is the belief that I am conducting a controlled experiment at my desk in which certain candies elicit certain types of behavior. There’s much speculation on which types of candies produce which types of behaviors. Complex.

I don’t mean to disappoint, but the truth is, there’s no psychological basis for what I’m doing with the candy jar. There is, however, an explanation…Years ago, I decided that I wanted to make a difference in the lives of others. At the time, I thought that meant I would have to work with broken people — in a helping profession like medicine or counseling or social work. That’s one of the reasons why I became a Doctor of Psychology. But as I worked with the type of people that I was hoping to serve, I faced challenges that deeply saddened me. There were so many broken people. Many couldn’t be fixed. When you’re a caring person, it’s actually really hard to work in a caring profession. Someone once told me that the best Psychologist is the one who doesn’t really care about their patients. I think they were right.

When I came to industry, there was a part of me that believed that I would have to leave my aspirations of making a difference behind. In industry, I wouldn’t work with broken people. In industry, it would just be about business. But as the years went by, I started to notice some people in my workplace who needed a little extra push. Sometimes, it was extra encouragement. Other times, it was a helping hand. Still other times, it was just having someone who would listen to them for five minutes. These were not broken people. They’d do just fine without me. But they made me think that maybe I could still do some good in my life — that maybe I could still make a difference, in my own way.

Over the years, I’ve come to believe that you can be in a helping profession in any workplace. It doesn’t take broken people or some tragic social situation. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Little things can make a big difference. And sometimes, they are just as important. Each person has the power to make a difference every day in the lives of others — no matter where they work. You can find that power in a kind smile. In a compliment. In a candy jar.

Fortune’s David Kirkpatrick reports on why IBM’s Sam Palmisano and other tech leaders think Second Life could be a gold mine.  Check it out.

My favorite subject line in a long time - sent from a client  - read “FYI… Outlook 2007 is shady.”

Well that’s to say the least. For those of you waiting in giddy anticipation for the privilege of working with Office 2007, let me spare you. At first I thought it was me. If I added up the time it took me to find all of the basic functions that were previously a right-click away … I shudder to consider the productivity lost. But one day I heard music to my ears - the grief stricken cry from a coworker “How the $@#% do you PRINT in Word?” In an effort to “simplify” things for everyone, Microsoft has undone years of routine clicking by reorganizing everything into handy “ribbons”, based on new categories that we must now all learn.

Included in this “simplification” are changes to Outlook 2007 designed to protect us all from the evils of Spam. All whining aside, the changes don’t seem to be too monumental to the way we should all be doing email now anyway.  You wouldn’t know this however, from all of the backlash this change has created.

Are you ready for the earth-shattering list? Find each below with my commentary on how it changes (or not) the way we approach email campaigns:

No support for background images (HTML or CSS).
No big loss here. Anyone concerned about getting email past Lotus Notes system has known about this one for a long time. You are better off sticking with colored table cells & regular images to achieve the same goal. If you feel you MUST use a background image, be certain it isn’t pivotal to your creative or message.

No support for forms.
Since most major email clients don’t support the use of Javascripting – and that’s how error checking on forms is handled – it’s generally recommended to skip using forms in email. This has traditionally been done as a spam filtration and security measure. It’s recommended that you link out to the form from the email.

No support for Flash, or other plug-ins.
This type of rich media and plug-ins are typically searched for, and blocked, by spam filtration tools. Additionally, if the end user does not have updated systems to support the plug-in, your message will be impacted.  If you want to use media like Flash or streaming video, its best to link to a landing page with a hosted version of the component.

No support for animated GIFs.
This one seems kind of silly. It’s hard to think of a security reason behind it quite frankly. The good thing is that using good design, there should be no limitation here.

No support for CSS floats.
CSS Floats are generally used for bigger scale efforts such as website design. The best use of styles for email is “inline” and in context of the actual HTML files being delivered. For a while now, major email programs have not supported external stylesheets. Experienced emarketers have known to avoid using them as there is a risk of your email rendering poorly.

No support for CSS positioning.
This issue is relative to the other CSS issue mentioned above.

No support for replacing bullets with images in unordered lists.
Anyone using images for bullets was probably avoiding the tag already. Your best bet is to stick with tables and include images in a column next to each bulleted item to control how everything lines up. 

There is an Outlook 2007 Tool: HTML and CSS Validator that supposedly helps you identify problem areas in your code if you are so inclined.

So while Outlook 2007 might have a new set of restrictions, the good news is that as long as you are using an experienced agency to design your email, you are in no danger of being “shady”. And no, there is no reason to have Outlook 2007 users receive text versions of your emails. I get plenty of Spam and legitimate marketing email every day that comes through just fine. So relax, take a deep breath and find something else to worry about – like how your emails are rendering.

Two interesting developments with MySpace occurred yesterday that seem to have people talking.

First, MySpace is suing Scott Richter claiming that his current company Media Breakaway gained access to user accounts through the act of phishing. Through the phishing scheme, Richter’s company was allegedly able to gather user’s account login information and enter the account to post spam bulletins as the user, for ringtones, funny pictures, and clothing, among other items.

Though MySpace has attempted to educate their users on phishing, the epidemic continues to grow. It is currently unknown how much MySpace is seeking in damages, but state that they’ll do what it takes to stop an individual from ruining their users’ experience online. Now if they could only upgrade their interface, remove the randomly placed sponsored text links found throughout the site, and prohibit “swat the fly” banners that lend to free ringtones and stop ruining MY experience on the site, I’d be happy.

In other news, CNN reported a partnership between MySpace and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. This team will work together to distribute Amber alerts to users based on their geographic location starting this week. By pairing the user provided zip codes with the zip codes in the alert area, a small text box will appear at the top of the user’s front page. From this text link, the user will have the ability to click for more information about the alert. I’m interested to see how this partnership carries out, and if the use of MySpace to broadcast these alerts will result in more happy endings, or a higher number of false responses from bored teenagers goofing off online.