Target Marketing -- Full Sterne Ahead- December, 1999

Sterne Measures
Keep tabs on events & the mind of Jim Sterne by subscribing:

unsubscribe instructions

Full Sterne Ahead

by Jim Sterne

December, 1999

Full Sterne Ahead contains the mostly monthly musings of Jim Sterne, author, speaker, and Web marketing consultant to business and industry.

Welcome to the December, 1999 issue of Full Sterne Ahead.

------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------

This last issue of the year laments e-commerce in When Will They Ever Learn?, uploads and downloads in Resource of Note,waits for the hammer to fall on Christmas 99 in While I Was Out, wonders about the wonders of Opportunity Marketing inthe Crystal Ball, keep my eye on the auction action In My In-Box, find a simple way to create Web forms in You Can Do It, cry over spilt money in Don't Try This at Home, admirethe scene of the crime and all the bits left behind in Silly Sighting of the Moment, and spread good cheer in Classic Comment.
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------

WHEN WILL THEY EVER LEARN?
--------------------------
Here's a recent e-mail I sent to JCPenny:

> So, I get this e-mail from cool-savings.com about how I can
> save 25% on Blazer from JCPenny. All I have to do is click.
>
> Well, almost. See, when I click through, I have to identify
> myself as either me or my wife. I don't remember ever signing
> up with your site, but the e-mail came to me, so I sort of
> assumed you knew it was me clicking on the link in my own
> e-mail. When I clicked on the "Jim" button, it took me to the
> blazer.
>
> But it didn't tell me how big my discount was going to be.
> I've never purchased anything from your Web site before.
> In fact, I don't remember the last time I was in your
> store. In other words, here's a great chance to win over
> a new customer!
>
> So I had to create an account (name, address, credit card),
> and figure out my size in order to find out what the cost
> was. Then I walked through the whole checkout process (took
> about fifteen minutes) and kept hitting the "continue checkout"
> button so I could see how big my discount would be and how
> much the shipping would be to see if I wanted to make the
> purchase. (And they wonder why people abandon their e-
> shopping carts all the time-- now you know.)
>
> Then I hit the last button to get to the last page and I'm told:
> Shipping and handling are TBD and Tax is TBD. Hmmmm.
> Then I notice the "code" and the $00.00 total. In the fine print,
> the code is deciphered as, "Not Available. We will continue to
> show this item in your shopping bag for memo purposes but it
> will not be shipped."
>
> Now, please excuse me if I got this wrong, but *you* contacted
> *me* about this swell jacket I could buy, yes? And *you* made
> me fill out pages of personal information before I could order
> it, right? And *you* never got around to telling me what a great
> deal I was getting because I put in my special cool-savings.com
> Biggest Sale Promotional Code, right?
>
> So tell me - why was it that when I clicked on Customer
> Service, I had to fill out a whole **new** form telling you who I > am, and where I live all over again?

The very next day I get a message back from them that says:

> From: support@jcpenney.echomail.com
> To: jsterne@targeting.com
> Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1999 05:04:32 -0500
> Subject: Message from JCPenney
>
> Your e-mail message has been received and is being reviewed.
> Customer comments are extremely important to us.
> Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and
> concerns with us.

As Chris Locke would say:  Sheesh!
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------

RESOURCE OF NOTE
----------------
This month's resource comes from an avid reader of Full Sterne
Ahead who will have to remain nameless. After all, his father
may be a subscriber!

In response to my plea about not sending me big attachments,
he pointed to www.click2send.com waxing rhapsodic about
ease of use.

> I'm sure there's others, but it's one of the first I've found
> so far. Big simple buttons - "deposit a file" or "pick up
> a file."
>
> And I just confirmed, it passed the "dumb dad" test!  He says
> that he was able to upload the pictures fine.  It offers you
> the option to send a message directly from the site.  Very
> nice.  He even got confirmation messages when the attachments
> were picked up.  Cool!

Joe Bob says: check it out, and tell your dad!
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------

WHILE I WAS OUT
---------------
While I was in London this time around, I heard the same thing
I heard in New York, Vancouver and Los Angeles: This is the
big one. This is the Christmas that's going to make or break
some pretty bog consumer Web sites.

Will their banners go unclicked? Will their servers melt?
Will their fulfillment process crash and burn?

With all the money that's been put on the come line buying
advertising (Super Bowl is now $4 million per minute),
all the money put into infrastructure and all the money
wrapped up in over-night-deliverable inventory, only
those with the best Mystic 8 Ball will survive.

Y2K? Not to worry. Christmas 99? Yikes!
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------

THE CRYSTAL BALL
----------------
Remember those Finnish vending machines you activate with
your sell phone and get charged on your phone bill? Just
wait - there's more. And it's validation for reading
www.chinwag.com/uk-netmarketing

From: "philip gusterson"
To: uk-netmarketing@mail.chinwag.com
Subject: UKNM: Internet Marketing
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1999 02:22:36 PST

> I work for a PR agency out here in Japan. One of my clients
> is an Internet Marketing/Advertising company. They are
> pioneering a number of techniques which I believe are
> unique to Japan. We have 2-3 million mobile phone users
> connected to the Internet via their handsets in Japan. My
> client is designing marketing strategies and proprietary
> software to reach them.
>
> For example, when you walk past Starbucks you would get an
> email to your phone offering you a free coffee if you pop in.
> There are many more "point of space" and "point of time"
> marketing techniques being pioneered in Japan right now.
> Basically I think people in the UK would be very interested to
> read about what is happening in Japan since in the area of
> mobile communications marketing Japan is leading the way. Can
> anyone recommend appropriate publications for me to pitch the
> story to? Or am I just out of touch and this is happening in
> the UK too? I'd be really grateful for any input.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Philip Gusterson
> philipgusterson@hotmail.com
> www.gusterson.co.uk

Journalists: start your engines.
Telcos: is the US forever doomed to a lack of wireless toys?

(A tip of the hat to Steven Carlton, moderator of Online Europe
for coining "Opportunity Marketing" last week. To subscribe to
Online Europe, send a message to europe-on@isys.hu)
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------

MY IN-BOX
---------
Tommy Tracker popped into my inbox and told me I don't know
squat about configuring a proper search on auction sites.
And I was glad to hear from him. It.

> Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 14:08:52 -0800
> To: jsterne@targeting.com
> From: tommy@iTrack.com (Tommy Tracker)
> Subject: Analysis of your iTrack searches
>
> Hello.
>
> I'm Tommy Tracker, the busiest member of the iTrack team.
> My job is to analyze your iTrack searches every week or so
> and suggest ways to improve them so that you have better
> and more accurate search results. Oh! I'm a robot too, so
> I'll always be around to help you with your search pattern
> tuning.
>
> I had a chance to look at yours and here's what I've noticed:
>
> I found a problem with your "antique meerschaum pipe" search
> on Amazon.com Auctions: Amazon.com Auctions doesn't
> understand double quotes: I suggest you eliminate them.

Tommy found multi-word search pattern problems, default
separator problems, and a host of other things I could
learn more about by heading over to www.iTrack.com
where Tommy constantly searches the auctions for me so
I have more time to do stuff like catch airplanes...
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------

YOU CAN DO IT
-------------
Aside from the passe and somewhat derogatory picture of the
nerd with the pocket protector on their homepages, Dynoform
www.Dynoform.com provides one of those it's-so-easy-
everybody-should-be-doing-it, application services that make
the Web that much more powerful.

As UnityMail www.messagemedia.com/sc/um_express.shtml
has done with e-mail newsletters (like this one), Dynoform
has done with data collection.

"Dynoform lets you create personalized "opt-in" e-mailing
lists, sweepstakes, opinion polls, sign-up forms, order forms,
customer surveys, help wanted  ads, warranty cards, message
centers and more. Plus, Dynoform is entirely Web-based --
there's no  software installation and set up takes only a
few minutes!"

Enough said.
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------

DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME
----------------------
www.boo.com

This too-hip-gotta-go Web site is far out it's gone past
cool and has looped back to being far out. Megbucks (sorry,
Mega Pounds - it's British) spent on the creation and
launch of this over-blown e-commerce site for the terminally
trendy.

As boo themselves said in a very well considered critique
by Alex Dunne and posted to www.chinwag.com/uk-netmarketing

> Our website has been designed with the new browser and
> Internet connection technology in mind, using the most
> innovative techniques around today, which is why it may
> be experienced as slow on some Internet connections.

You're not using a cable modem? How 1998!
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------

SILLY SIGHTING OF THE MOMENT
-----------------------------
Forensic science - it's not just for breakfast anymore:
http://susan.chin.gc.ca/Exhibitions/Myst/
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------

CLASSIC COMMENT
---------------
Happy Holidays!

------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
This newsletter is going to be better if it reaches more
people. You can help. The Net is a powerful word-of-mouth
mechanism, so if you know somebody who might like to be on
the receiving end, please point them to www.targeting.com.
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
Full Sterne Ahead contains the mostly monthly musings of
Jim Sterne, author, speaker, and Web marketing consultant
to business and industry.

Target Marketing
211 E. Victoria St., Suite E
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
+1 (805) 965-3184 phone
+1 (805) 965-8687 fax

www.targeting.com