Liar Liar

Study body language and speech to determine who's telling the truth.

Samsung Social-based Advertising

Here's a nice story that shows advertising can be win-win for consumers, shareholders, stakeholders and corporations, while making the world a better place too.

http://www.boredpanda.com/town-learns-sign-language-deaf-muharrem-samsung-video-call-center/

4-hour delivery "appointments"

Logistics-slomistics...what is the nonsense about?

What sort of well-run business needs a 4-hour window for home delivery? And where is the financial gain in disruptive service? I don't get it....

Enjoy this spoof from College Humor about UPS.

Walmart and the Koreans

Textbook cases present Walmart's unsuccessful international foray into Korea in a way that might actually be embarrassing for Walmart--if they themselves actually knew or admitted what their challenges truly were. The US perspective on the failure (amounting to some 800 million USD), is attributed by college textbook authors Mary Ellen Guffey and Dana Loewy (2014) to "cultural differences and fierce local competition" (p. 81).

But what were these "cultural differences" really? Take a look at this blog and one history student's perspective on what ailed Walmart in Korea.

Guffey, M.E. and Loewy, D. (2014) - Business Communication Process and Product - Mason, OH - SouthWestern 8th Edition.

Technology Trending

Dr. Hossein Eslambolchi, CEO of CyberFlow Analytics and a blogger on LinkedIn, has made some technology predictions that he (and probably others) feels will impact communications in significant ways. Here is his top 10 trend list:
Top 10 Technology Trends
1. IP networks must be ready for sextuple play, including sensory, gaming and IOT based devices.
2. Security requirements must move from a reactive, defensive 3P model (Proactive, Predictive, Preventative) onto the offensive – otherwise there will be problems of biblical proportions.
3. All future IP services will be designed for three screens – mobile, TV and PC.
4. Wireless internet access will be big – driving better modes of mobility with Wi-Fi and 4G+/5G, achieving explosive growth.
5. Sensor networks will proliferate – machine IP addresses will overtake host computers.
6. Video requirements especially around Ultra High Definition video signals will drive future IP network design and architecture, including use of SDN and NFV based services.
7. Broadband wireless will be common – locality is now important for presence and advertising – not routing.
8. Access speeds will no longer be bottlenecks and we will have access routers or switches at 10Gbps, and data will be symmetrical down and up link. New services will start generating billions for service providers worldwide.
9. Privacy becomes consumers’ biggest concern as technology gets closer to realizing services (think of the movie Minority Report).
10. Next generation speech recognition and natural language understanding will redefine the human machine interface.
Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tech-perspectives-next-15-years-why-matter-urgently-eslambolchi  

Thoughts?

Power of Communication(s): Digitization

"Imagine humans and machines communicating with the same natural language that has connected individuals and societies for centuries. By 2020, the boundaries between how we observe and interact with the physical and virtual world will fade." Dr. Mahesh Saptharishi (Forbes, 13 October 2014)

Communication in Print: The power of reading and writing well

In 1983, I lived in Dallas. My ex was a successful young graphic designer working for Robert A. Wilson and Associates and I was teaching Freshman Composition at Southern Methodist University. We were also new parents of a little girl (who will marry in the Texas Hill Country this spring). During the 80s, it was not unusual for companies to execute fairly elaborate advertising campaigns. Paper and printing companies, for example, often launched sophisticated campaigns in collaboration with major, and minor, advertising agencies as a means to show off paper samples as well as the results of print graphics on the paper. Between 1983 and 1986, International Paper Company ran an extremely successful PRINT campaign with the slogal "We believe in the power of the printed word." Remember, this is just 10 years after the first very primitive home computers (1972) and still 10 years before home Internet connections (1992).

Billings S. Fuess, creative director at Ogilvy and Mather in the 80s (and who died in 2011), devised the campaign to appeal to college students and young professionals. Co-branding (before it was popularized), they worked with well-known, respected public figures to answer questions their audiences were asking. The "answers" were published on at least 15 single, 2-sided pages and authored by the likes of Kurt Vonnegut, Bill Cosby, James Michener, Malcolm Forbes and Walter Cronkite. As a young lecturer, I used the ads in class. Many students knew about the campaign too; over 27 million reprints were ordered from International Paper Corporation!

In 1985, the advertising "articles" had become so popular that 13 of them were turned into a best-selling book selling for $5.95! Below is a link to a New York Times article describing the phenomenon in 1985. Today, some 30 years later, the book How to Use the Power of the Printed Word (out-of-print) can be found online at prices ranging from 8 to 300+ dollars!

ADVERTISING; Print Ads Becoming A Book
By Philip H. Dougherty
Published: November 1, 1985

An informational marketing blogger named Lawrence Bernstein has posted a pdf copy of his copies of the ad campaign. He elicited some interesting comments from the posting too.