4.5.09
Polaroid:::brand that part of our language
Truly iconic global brands are those that embed themselves in popular culture. They are the brands that become part of our language, such as “Please FedEx that package”
or “I need a Xerox of this page”—phrases, by the way, that give trademark attorneys fits because they turn valuable brand names into generic throwaways. The maker of Aspirin, a medicine trademarked in 1899, could do little to protect its trade name once it became a widely accepted generic term.
One of those iconic brands is Polaroid. Inextricably linked with instant photography, “a Polaroid” can be thought of as both instant camera and instant film. The Polaroid brand was born in 1948 and quickly became a symbol of a generation that craved instant gratification. They got it with Polaroid, first through a photo that emerged from a secretive sandwich that needed to be pulled apart and waved (almost like a magic wand) until the photo mysteriously appeared. Later, with product improvements, the photo simply emerged from the camera and began developing right before the consumer’s eyes.
Polaroid was a genuine American technology success story. Physicist-inventor Dr. Edwin Land conceived the one-step process for developing and printing photos that became known as instant photography. Rob Walker of The New York Times calls Land “a Harvard dropout who attained a Steve Jobsian cultural status as an innovator-businessman. By the time his company began selling its first instant-photo camera in 1948, Land had already applied his discoveries in the realm of light polarization to a variety of products, including sunglasses, film and lighting” (“Consumed: Photo Finish,” March 16, 2008).
Polaroid was a strident protector of both its trademark and its patents. The company won a patent suit against Kodak in 1985 and effectively put Kodak out of the instant photography business, virtually guaranteeing a Polaroid monopoly. Polaroid’s instant-photo technology was so good that it went far beyond the consumer market. The film became valuable to artists, graphic designers and in medical imaging applications.
But in February 2008, Polaroid as a film technology succumbed to an inevitable fate. The company shut down its film manufacturing operations and effectively closed the door on Polaroid instant photography. The reason, of course, was the advent of a whole different kind of “instant”—digital photography. Not surprisingly, digital photography has wreaked havoc on other traditional camera and film makers such as Kodak (another iconic brand that has become a shell of its previous self).
Now here’s the interesting part of the Polaroid brand story: The brand simply refuses to die.
Polaroid is attempting to reinvent itself as a digital company. After going bankrupt and being acquired by Petters Group Worldwide, a company that itself is involved in a messy bankruptcy, Polaroid still managed to introduce the Polaroid PoGo in early 2009. The PoGo is the first digital camera with a built-in printer. It allows the user to preview digital photos and then print out selected ones instantly. Ironically, the printer uses another company’s technology (ZINK Imaging) to print the photos on a special paper embedded with color, so no inks are required. The product is scheduled for Spring 2009 availability.
But that’s only part of Polaroid’s reinvention. When Polaroid announced it was discontinuing its instant film, Save Polaroid, a grassroots group, began an effort to keep the film in production. Remarkably, in January 2009, an Austrian businessman, Florian Kaps, started “The Impossible Project” to make a Polaroid-like film available once again to people who still own Polaroid cameras. The name for Kaps’ risky project comes from something Polaroid inventor Edwin Land once said: “Don’t undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible.”
Kaps seems to have the passion to make the impossible possible. He founded Polanoid.net, a web-based gallery of Polaroid photography that is the world’s largest, and he has hired former Polaroid employees to create the magic all over again. Here is how Kaps describes the plan on his website:
Impossible b.v. has been founded with the concrete aim to re-invent and re-start production of analog INTEGRAL FILM for vintage Polaroid cameras…
The Impossible mission is NOT to re-build Polaroid Integral film but (with the help of strategic partners) to develop a new product with new characteristics, consisting of new optimised components, produced with a streamlined modern setup. An innovative and fresh analog material, sold under a new brand name that perfectly will match the global re-positioning of Integral Films.
It’s essentially Polaroid film, without the Polaroid name.
To make matters even more intriguing, in late January 2009, a Luxembourg-based private equity firm bid US$ 42 million for the assets of Polaroid. (Polaroid was acquired by Petters Group Worldwide in 2005 for US$ 426 million.) The connection? The private equity firm also invests in ZINK Imaging, the company that makes the paper used in the Polaroid PoGo referenced earlier.
But in April 2009, the intellectual property and brand name of Polaroid were acquired by a US-Canadian joint venture for US$ 86 million. This is the same group that has acquired other bankrupt brands, including Linens ’N Things and Sharper Image. The group plans to market and license the Polaroid brand name globally.
So now an iconic American brand, or what’s left of it, will be reinvented as…who knows what? It’s anybody’s guess if the new Polaroid brand will be an instant success.
One of those iconic brands is Polaroid. Inextricably linked with instant photography, “a Polaroid” can be thought of as both instant camera and instant film. The Polaroid brand was born in 1948 and quickly became a symbol of a generation that craved instant gratification. They got it with Polaroid, first through a photo that emerged from a secretive sandwich that needed to be pulled apart and waved (almost like a magic wand) until the photo mysteriously appeared. Later, with product improvements, the photo simply emerged from the camera and began developing right before the consumer’s eyes.
Polaroid was a genuine American technology success story. Physicist-inventor Dr. Edwin Land conceived the one-step process for developing and printing photos that became known as instant photography. Rob Walker of The New York Times calls Land “a Harvard dropout who attained a Steve Jobsian cultural status as an innovator-businessman. By the time his company began selling its first instant-photo camera in 1948, Land had already applied his discoveries in the realm of light polarization to a variety of products, including sunglasses, film and lighting” (“Consumed: Photo Finish,” March 16, 2008).
Polaroid was a strident protector of both its trademark and its patents. The company won a patent suit against Kodak in 1985 and effectively put Kodak out of the instant photography business, virtually guaranteeing a Polaroid monopoly. Polaroid’s instant-photo technology was so good that it went far beyond the consumer market. The film became valuable to artists, graphic designers and in medical imaging applications.But in February 2008, Polaroid as a film technology succumbed to an inevitable fate. The company shut down its film manufacturing operations and effectively closed the door on Polaroid instant photography. The reason, of course, was the advent of a whole different kind of “instant”—digital photography. Not surprisingly, digital photography has wreaked havoc on other traditional camera and film makers such as Kodak (another iconic brand that has become a shell of its previous self).
Now here’s the interesting part of the Polaroid brand story: The brand simply refuses to die.
Polaroid is attempting to reinvent itself as a digital company. After going bankrupt and being acquired by Petters Group Worldwide, a company that itself is involved in a messy bankruptcy, Polaroid still managed to introduce the Polaroid PoGo in early 2009. The PoGo is the first digital camera with a built-in printer. It allows the user to preview digital photos and then print out selected ones instantly. Ironically, the printer uses another company’s technology (ZINK Imaging) to print the photos on a special paper embedded with color, so no inks are required. The product is scheduled for Spring 2009 availability.
But that’s only part of Polaroid’s reinvention. When Polaroid announced it was discontinuing its instant film, Save Polaroid, a grassroots group, began an effort to keep the film in production. Remarkably, in January 2009, an Austrian businessman, Florian Kaps, started “The Impossible Project” to make a Polaroid-like film available once again to people who still own Polaroid cameras. The name for Kaps’ risky project comes from something Polaroid inventor Edwin Land once said: “Don’t undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible.”
Kaps seems to have the passion to make the impossible possible. He founded Polanoid.net, a web-based gallery of Polaroid photography that is the world’s largest, and he has hired former Polaroid employees to create the magic all over again. Here is how Kaps describes the plan on his website:
Impossible b.v. has been founded with the concrete aim to re-invent and re-start production of analog INTEGRAL FILM for vintage Polaroid cameras…
The Impossible mission is NOT to re-build Polaroid Integral film but (with the help of strategic partners) to develop a new product with new characteristics, consisting of new optimised components, produced with a streamlined modern setup. An innovative and fresh analog material, sold under a new brand name that perfectly will match the global re-positioning of Integral Films.
It’s essentially Polaroid film, without the Polaroid name.
To make matters even more intriguing, in late January 2009, a Luxembourg-based private equity firm bid US$ 42 million for the assets of Polaroid. (Polaroid was acquired by Petters Group Worldwide in 2005 for US$ 426 million.) The connection? The private equity firm also invests in ZINK Imaging, the company that makes the paper used in the Polaroid PoGo referenced earlier.
But in April 2009, the intellectual property and brand name of Polaroid were acquired by a US-Canadian joint venture for US$ 86 million. This is the same group that has acquired other bankrupt brands, including Linens ’N Things and Sharper Image. The group plans to market and license the Polaroid brand name globally.
So now an iconic American brand, or what’s left of it, will be reinvented as…who knows what? It’s anybody’s guess if the new Polaroid brand will be an instant success.
Arabia woman:::consumer demographic
“Muslim women and their money are protected by the dogmas of Islam, wherein they have the right to spend their finances in whatever way they wanted to.”Recent studies and work by scholars has uncovered surprising similarities between American women and Arabia women when one looks at their influence over household spending and consumption,"shopping"
“Contrary to stereotyped beliefs, Arabia women have control of their own money,” opens the article by two professors from Zayed University in Abu Dhabi titled “Financial empowerment of Women in the United Arab Emirates,” published in 2008 in the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies.
The article continues: “[Women] have the right to spend their money in any way they see fit, even to contribute to the running of the household if they desire to do so. They may own property in their own name and invest or spend their own money as they choose.”
The article also summarizes the results of a series of focus groups with women in the UAE, a study that showed 79% of women managed their own money. The study also showed that 95%agree that religion influences how they spend their money, 66 percent think money brings them happiness and just over half, 53%, believe husbands and wives should share their money.
Additionally, it notes that men are the ones who pay household bills, but that they do not have control over what’s considered “conjugal” money.
It’s easy to see how not understanding this reality could lead many brands astray in messaging. Consider a hypothetical: A campaign aimed directly at men that subtly implies a woman must get permission from her husband to buy product X or Y? Disastrous. This is the one indisputable area of autonomy for many Middle Eastern women. A brand that fails to talk directly to women would not win any points or make any gains in building brand equity for failing to recognize and affirm this authoring.
Granted, this autonomy as consumers still doesn’t equate to parity with Western women in other economic endeavors. For instance, according to a recent study by the Arab Council of Businesswomen, a gender gap in business ownership persists in the region, with only 14 percent of business establishments in the region owned by women, compared to the US and Europe, where women own 30 percent of businesses.
Even so, Middle Eastern women wield enormous influence over spending, and marketers who don’t recognize this and integrate that truth into messaging, branding initiatives and campaigns do so at their own peril.
Female consumers in the region can also play powerful roles in boycotts of Western brands, according to Aseel Sawalha, a professor of anthropology at Pace University and an expert on the Middle East.
Sawalha shared her observation of street protests and women’s groups that organized boycotts against Danish products and brands in Jordan after the 2005 publication in a Danish newspaper of images of the Prophet Muhammad.
“It’s the women who were organizing, the women who were protesting against Danish products,” she recalled.
She noticed that in many retail stores, proprietors took great pains to make sure to address women shoppers, noting they were meeting consumer demands for the boycott. “Signs would say, lady, or madam, we boycott the Danish,” she said. “It was pretty clear women were in charge from a consumption standpoint.”
So what does that mean for Western brands eager to tap into this market?
“It’s the women who make the decisions about how to spend household money,” she said. “It’s the woman who decides what they are going to cook tomorrow. Even if they are not working, they are the ones who make the shopping lists and do the shopping.”
For marketers, it naturally follows that all brand communications must recognize this power.
After all, considering women in the region lack empowerment in other economic endeavors, undermining women’s power as consumers is misguided, to say the least.
Granted, women in the Middle East are far from monolithic. Data from the World Economic Forum on the global gender gap puts Egypt at the bottom of the list among Middle Eastern countries. Even so, women in the Middle East are making gains, albeit incremental ones, and many economic development studies have cited the continued suppression of women in the workforce and education as a deterrent to economic growth for the entire region.
In a different world, women in the region would already enjoy parity with their male counterparts in employment, education, pay and social freedoms. And empowering women as consumers surely isn’t the path to full-fledged independence. But failing to recognize and affirm this power is a surefire recipe for backlash. This is a consumer demographic that demands respect and the recognition of its autonomy and power.
Granted, this autonomy as consumers still doesn’t equate to parity with Western women in other economic endeavors. For instance, according to a recent study by the Arab Council of Businesswomen, a gender gap in business ownership persists in the region, with only 14 percent of business establishments in the region owned by women, compared to the US and Europe, where women own 30 percent of businesses.
Even so, Middle Eastern women wield enormous influence over spending, and marketers who don’t recognize this and integrate that truth into messaging, branding initiatives and campaigns do so at their own peril.
Female consumers in the region can also play powerful roles in boycotts of Western brands, according to Aseel Sawalha, a professor of anthropology at Pace University and an expert on the Middle East.
Sawalha shared her observation of street protests and women’s groups that organized boycotts against Danish products and brands in Jordan after the 2005 publication in a Danish newspaper of images of the Prophet Muhammad.
“It’s the women who were organizing, the women who were protesting against Danish products,” she recalled.
She noticed that in many retail stores, proprietors took great pains to make sure to address women shoppers, noting they were meeting consumer demands for the boycott. “Signs would say, lady, or madam, we boycott the Danish,” she said. “It was pretty clear women were in charge from a consumption standpoint.”
So what does that mean for Western brands eager to tap into this market?
“It’s the women who make the decisions about how to spend household money,” she said. “It’s the woman who decides what they are going to cook tomorrow. Even if they are not working, they are the ones who make the shopping lists and do the shopping.”
For marketers, it naturally follows that all brand communications must recognize this power.
After all, considering women in the region lack empowerment in other economic endeavors, undermining women’s power as consumers is misguided, to say the least.
Granted, women in the Middle East are far from monolithic. Data from the World Economic Forum on the global gender gap puts Egypt at the bottom of the list among Middle Eastern countries. Even so, women in the Middle East are making gains, albeit incremental ones, and many economic development studies have cited the continued suppression of women in the workforce and education as a deterrent to economic growth for the entire region.
In a different world, women in the region would already enjoy parity with their male counterparts in employment, education, pay and social freedoms. And empowering women as consumers surely isn’t the path to full-fledged independence. But failing to recognize and affirm this power is a surefire recipe for backlash. This is a consumer demographic that demands respect and the recognition of its autonomy and power.
3.5.09
Singer sewing machines:: Mania in Arabia
Used items market places in Saudi saw a surge in people looking to buy Singer sewing machines.
“Singermania” broakout early april 2009 caused by story about the existence of a mythical substance called “red mercury” that — either helps you find gold, wards off evil jinni, or is a key and highly prized ingredient in making nuclear bombs. 
The Singer machines have been fetching outrageous prices since rumors spread that they contain red mercury, according to rumors going around on , a sewing machine can be proved to contain red mercury if a phone signal cuts off when held close by. 
As the rumors started sweeping , the prices of Singer sewing machines rocketed from SR200 to hundreds of thousands, with one reported case of a machine being sold for half a million riyals.
2.5.09
advertiser-in-arabia portfolio[ Bravo ]
Brand objective
To empower business groups with mobile cost effective communications solutionsBrand challenge
Introduce IDEN platform as the most innovative communication solution for business communication in a way to differentiate from GSM so that establish the brand as First wireless communication provider in Saudi and GCC
Communications platform
We bower groups
Proposition
Get Bravo on your team
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Get Bravo on your team
Press ad
Identity
Advertorial
Wepsite
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POS posters
Brand Reveal Video
Jeddah: Palestine street outdoor
TV rotating banner(1)
TV rotating banner(2)
TV rotating banner(1)
TV rotating banner(2)
Vertical vs. Horizontal growth
Horizontal growth
Horizontal growth is, in effect, buying companies or vendors in your specific market. Company A competes with Company B and in an effort to expand their business, Company A acquires Company B.
Now looking at this purely on the level of buying competitors, you could say that buying your competitor out can be perceived as being scared of competition, not being a good enough company to just drive your competition out of business, so on and so forth.
However, horizontal expansion via mergers and acquisitions have a much deeper root than simply being all about acquiring customers or customer bases.
What happens with well thought out mergers and/or acquisitions is a reduce in average cost. If two companies supply the same or similar products, have the same target audience, the same distribution channels and similar approaches to business, then he average costs of doing business reduces. As the assets are merged, and the companies become one you see a very obvious decrease in advertising costs, also. It can make sense to purchase a competing company, but only if it is well thought out and not just about bragging rights and customer numbers.
Another example of horizontal expansion for a company would be buying one of your suppliers or service providers. Let’s take an advertising agency as a short and sweet example:
If Company A uses Agency B for advertising materials and product development, then Company A can drastically reduce, in the long term, their costs of doing business by purchasing the advertising company. This model is often seen in the corporate world. Instead of paying inflated fees and being tied to contracts, you can now own the very agency that you used to hire. An advantage of this would be if the company is in stealth ownership (opens up a whole new line of possibilities). Perception is only one part of the selling game, granted, but it is a vital part. Maybe Company A didn’t want to reduce their costs - maybe they wanted to keep their costs at the same level but increase their exposure. More bang for the buck, so to speak.
There are many examples of horizontal expansion and it depends on your line of business for determining how horizontal expansion could work for you. The fact is though that buying a competing company does not always have to be about proving who the big dog in the yard is. It can be about smart business models and thinking on your feet.
Vertical growth
Contrary to the concept of horizontal growth, vertical growth is achieved without acquisitions or mergers.
This concept is one that many say will benefit your company the most, as opposed to growth through mergers.
A company that starts from scratch and slowly but surely builds upward by maintaining their market and. or client base would be a prime example of vertical growth. The downside of vertical growth is that it inevitably takes much longer to grow to a medium/large size than, let’s say, a company that has achieved horizontal growth.
A major benefit, though, of vertical growth is the steadiness of your brand. Mergers can lead to dilution of a brand but with vertical growth your brand depends solely on one company. A rise or fall in sales and/or brand awareness is easier to track; it can nly have come from one place and can only be solved by one company.
In the end it is up to the company management as to whether they want to grow horizontally or vertically. Both have their advantages and their pitfalls.
At the end of the day, growth is growth. If your company is growing then you are successful in at least one of the two concepts outlined in this two part post.
Horizontal growth is, in effect, buying companies or vendors in your specific market. Company A competes with Company B and in an effort to expand their business, Company A acquires Company B.
Now looking at this purely on the level of buying competitors, you could say that buying your competitor out can be perceived as being scared of competition, not being a good enough company to just drive your competition out of business, so on and so forth.
However, horizontal expansion via mergers and acquisitions have a much deeper root than simply being all about acquiring customers or customer bases.
What happens with well thought out mergers and/or acquisitions is a reduce in average cost. If two companies supply the same or similar products, have the same target audience, the same distribution channels and similar approaches to business, then he average costs of doing business reduces. As the assets are merged, and the companies become one you see a very obvious decrease in advertising costs, also. It can make sense to purchase a competing company, but only if it is well thought out and not just about bragging rights and customer numbers.
Another example of horizontal expansion for a company would be buying one of your suppliers or service providers. Let’s take an advertising agency as a short and sweet example:
If Company A uses Agency B for advertising materials and product development, then Company A can drastically reduce, in the long term, their costs of doing business by purchasing the advertising company. This model is often seen in the corporate world. Instead of paying inflated fees and being tied to contracts, you can now own the very agency that you used to hire. An advantage of this would be if the company is in stealth ownership (opens up a whole new line of possibilities). Perception is only one part of the selling game, granted, but it is a vital part. Maybe Company A didn’t want to reduce their costs - maybe they wanted to keep their costs at the same level but increase their exposure. More bang for the buck, so to speak.
There are many examples of horizontal expansion and it depends on your line of business for determining how horizontal expansion could work for you. The fact is though that buying a competing company does not always have to be about proving who the big dog in the yard is. It can be about smart business models and thinking on your feet.
Vertical growth
Contrary to the concept of horizontal growth, vertical growth is achieved without acquisitions or mergers.
This concept is one that many say will benefit your company the most, as opposed to growth through mergers.
A company that starts from scratch and slowly but surely builds upward by maintaining their market and. or client base would be a prime example of vertical growth. The downside of vertical growth is that it inevitably takes much longer to grow to a medium/large size than, let’s say, a company that has achieved horizontal growth.
A major benefit, though, of vertical growth is the steadiness of your brand. Mergers can lead to dilution of a brand but with vertical growth your brand depends solely on one company. A rise or fall in sales and/or brand awareness is easier to track; it can nly have come from one place and can only be solved by one company.
In the end it is up to the company management as to whether they want to grow horizontally or vertically. Both have their advantages and their pitfalls.
At the end of the day, growth is growth. If your company is growing then you are successful in at least one of the two concepts outlined in this two part post.
2009:The digital year in review
What digital trends will 2009 be remembered for? Below is my list of the five most influential.
1) Facebook and social networks
Firstly, 2008 was the year Facebook overtook MySpace as the world’s most popular social network, with 181 million global users compared to MySpace’s 121 million, according to October 2008 data from comScore.
Facebook’s total global users increased 85% between December 2007 and October 2008, with significant expansion outside the English-speaking markets that have been the traditional drivers of Facebook’s growth.
In her book about social media, Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good, American journalist Sarah Lacy explains this explosion by arguing that Facebook remains a development-driven company, retaining a very strong focus on continually adding new features for users.
One of the less well-known aspects of Facebook’s expansion is its hold on mobile users. In November Facebook revealed on its blog, found here, that 15 million users were regularly accessing its service using mobiles, up from 5 million at the start of the year.
But Facebook is of course not the only social media story, and social networks have brought a great deal of diversity to the internet. While Facebook is the most popular in the genre, almost every country has one or more strong local players, including Studivz in Germany, Hyves in the Netherlands, and Fotolog in Spain.
2) The rise of the mobile internet
In 2008 mobile internet usage finally took off, thanks in part to the continued success of both Apple’s iPhone, and social networking sites.
Regular reports from Opera, makers of Opera Mini, the most popular mobile internet browser (think Firefox or Internet Explorer for your phone), tracked the rise of mobile internet. These reports only examined people using Opera’s browser, but the figures showed that by October 2008 the browser had 21 million monthly users, a 311% rise since October 2007.
In the Opera sample, data use (that is, how much data was downloaded, or a measure of the amount of content viewed on a mobile device) was up nearly 490% over the same period, showing that not only were more people going online on their phones, but mobile internet users were doing more when they were online.
The launch of the 3G version of the iPhone has been one of the drivers of this growth but I would argue that the other main catalyst has been - once again - social networking. Two years ago people might have said of mobile internet use ‘Why would I want that?’ However, many people now want to access their social networking profiles when they are away from their desks.
Data, again from Opera, shows that, of the markets studied, networking sites were the most popular category of mobile internet sets in more countries than was the case with search sites. When PCs are used to access the internet, search websites are still the most popular destinations.
3) The iPhone and mobile apps
The biggest technology story, and one of the accelerators of mobile internet use, was the launch of the 3G iPhone in July. In less than six months the device has reportedly become the biggest selling phone in the US, and the most purchased smartphone worldwide.
Crucial to the success of the iPhone has been the easy way it offers to install applications, namely small programmes that allow the handset to do useful and fun tasks. By opening up the software architecture for the iPhone, Apple allowed independent developers to produce and sell these apps, letting the free market and people’s imaginations drive the choice of products, and set prices.
Currently there are over 10,000 apps available from the iTunes store, ranging from Google Spoken Search (talk into the phone instead of keying a search query), to Snaptell (identifies books, DVDs and CDs from photos, displays prices at online stores) to iNap (wakes you up when you get near your public transport destination.
With competition provided by rival mobile operating systems from Google (called Android) and from Symbian, 2009 will see further change in the way mobile phones are used.
4) Twitter
Twitter is the less formal version of blogging. Established in 2006, Twitter allows users to write their opinions, what they are doing, or how they feel in 140 characters or fewer. This message then appears on their page, and to their Twitter “friends” (this is a similar status to that on Facebook).
Users build up lists of people they follow and whose updates they want to read, with some power users now having more than 20,000 followers. (Barack Obama is officially the most ‘followed’ Twitter user, with over 150,000 following his updates, although he stopped updating on November 5th). Because it is so quick and so informal, news can spread quickly across Twitter, as one person passes it on to his network of friends and so on, until many thousands can see news in a matter of minutes.
Twitter’s most striking moment to date was scooping the mainstream media with news of the Mumbai terror attacks. Twitter users on the ground were able to tell contacts about the outrage, who then told their contacts and so on. Twitter is not perfect, and 140 characters is a very limited space in which to transmit a complex message, but Twitter gained real traction in 2008 as a way of connecting people in informal and useful ways.
5) Social recommendations and local
Finally, 2008 saw a big rise in the area of social recommendations. Sites like CitySearch, Qype and Tipped rely on users to write reviews of local businesses, and make recommendations. These sites work on the ‘wisdom of the crowds’ principle, and the assumption that users will police themselves, with any obviously fake reviews exposed by other members.
This trend exemplifies a shift in how the internet is being used with people now appearing to put their trust in strangers as much as, if not more than, professional reviewers or friends. The fact that there are many small players in this market niche, rather than a few dominant ones, suggests that no one has yet come up with the ideal solution to social recommendation.
This trend is also connected to the first two. Social networks are working to integrate into these recommendation sites via initiatives such as Facebook Connect and MySpace ID so that users can see what their social circle recommended. In addition, mobile will make these services far more relevant.
We can expect further convergence between all of the above trends in 2009.
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