Don't come up with it - copy it!

Many of you would have seen TV adverts for catalogue company Argos over the last few months. They end with the phrase - 'Don't shop for it, Argos it'. They have long running advertising campaign pushing the fact that when it comes to buying things, it is easier to use the Argos services, rather than spend your time touring your local shopping centre. Nothing unique in the message that Argos are trying to portray, they have been offering an alternative to the Saturday afternoon high street scrum for decades, but it is the way that they have done it which interests me.

For those who may remember, a few years ago Google caused a bit of fuss in the blogging world by saying that they didn't like it when people said 'Google it' instead of 'search for it' as it infringed on their trademark. Google went to the press twice about this issue, once in 2003, and then again in 2006. They claimed that the use of the Google brand name in this way was a trademark violation and that people who referred to 'Googling' shouldn't do so; they even sent out letters to people to ask them to stop/change references to using Google as a verb.

For many marketers, having a brand name or company name synonymous with an activity or industry would be the holy grail. Some companies have already achieved this, here are just some examples I can think of;

'I didn't watch it last night, I sky plus'd it' or

'Do you want a copy? I'll xerox one off now'.

I'm still pretty sure that when Google came out saying that they didn't want people to use Google with reference to search it was a massive double bluff. Why wouldn't they want their name to become so strongly tied to one of the fastest growing industries on the Internet, especially when competing against one of the biggest companies in the world?

Regardless if Google did or didn't want people to use their name with reference to searching, it certainly hasn't done them any harm. Google is now the most powerful brand name in the UK. They have even overtaken Microsoft in the world of brands as well as search.

It's not surprising then that other companies have tried to borrow ideas from the best brand in the UK to try and build their market share and brand profile. It always pays to 'borrow' from the best doesn't it!?

In this case, Argos, in my opinion, have tried to 'do a Google' and make their brand synonymous with brochure shopping. A smart move given that other companies exist, and are entering into, their market space.

Maybe it's me putting two and two together and getting five (Google started complaining about their infringements in 2003 and Argos started their campaign in 2005) but it seems that this is just another example of where the online world and online brands have had impact in the offline world and established companies.

The ever changing face of my PC screen...

You know, sooner or later, we won't have TVs. We won't have videos or DVDs. We won't even have a record/CD player in our homes. Why? Because our PCs are fast becoming the centre of our entertainment world. I'm not going to start talking about media centres here, as that's something for another day...

However, what has interested me this year, is the amount of live/streaming video which is being put online. The BBC and ITV are both showing Euro 2008 matches LIVE via their websites. Even just four years ago for the European Championships to be streamed live would have been unthinkable and/or technically not possible. But the BBC and ITV have realised that a) This is increasingly where their customers are heading and b) That there is a very real demand for this type of service.

I can speak from my own experience in both of these cases, as I can often watch sport online while my girlfriend decides to choose something less interesting :) It's not just the beautiful game which you can watch online. The BBC iPlayer has dozens of shows online, as does 4OD, along with many, many other video sharing websites. For those a bit more technical, you can even watch TV programs from around the world using many of the live streaming software programs which are freely available.

I'm interested to see the big players' moves in this arena. For many 'techy' types (like myself I guess) the thought of using your PC/laptop as your TV is not anything new. A small minority of people have been doing this for quite some time. But in the years to come, I think we'll start to see all traditional programming provided over the Internet, probably available for free and probably available at any time you want. This will most likely be funded by advertising, and if you look at some of the shows online already, you will start to see adverts appear prior to your program loading (many believe this is how YouTube could be monetised in the coming years)

It will be interesting to see how much more time we find ourselves set in front of our PC screens in the future. We could end up in world where it really is the only thing that we need, not only for work, but also for entertainment. This culture shift will also have a massive knock on effect for the advertising industry, with advertisers being able to communicate their messages to a much more refined audience and hopefully achieving a much better ROI.

An example of how a poor website can effect your business - a business leaders point of view

As a fellow business leader, I wanted to share with you how a badly designed website or a poorly updated website can seriously affect the bottom line of your business when it comes to gaining new contracts.

Back in 07, I was with a new client discussing their website, and as part of the brief I asked how the current old site has affected their business. They told me how they lost a large contract with plenty of ongoing work due to the fact they had an old, outdated and poorly designed website, which was not good as they were in the process of growing their business and this contract played a large part of this growth.

Let me share with you how this happened. The website had not been updated in years, they had no control over it and the design was seriously dated and looked very unprofessional. As they tendered for this new contract, all was going well, in fact they were about to sign on the dotted line except they needed the approval from the Board of Directors from the holding company (this should have been only a pen pushing exercise) as my client was the preferred supplier and was going to be appointed the contract. The Board of Directors on this occasion decided to look at the website of my new client to check out who they were, and when the saw the old website they stopped the contract and enforced that a new company was found.

Now this is only one example that they were told about, god knows how many more they could have lost due to a poorly designed outdated website, this when they brought us in to solve this.

Businesses must realise that their website is a critical part of their brand and cannot afford to take shortcuts when designing their website and having control over it.