My, How Things Have Changed
Tuesday, June 22, 2010Back in 1996, when I was putting the finishing touches on, and getting ready to open, a new food concept in Vancouver, the natural tendency was to be highly suspicious of anyone with a camera, especially if that person was asking a lot of questions about what we considered to be proprietary information.
I can remember more than one instance where someone poking around the store, loitering far too long, asking too many questions, shooting surreptitiously from across the street, went on to open a competing business. It got to a point where the concept of industrial espionage was not limited to Fortune 500 companies, and our spy-dar was so highly tuned we could see them coming, and all staff was quickly advised to be on high alert.
Fast forward a decade and change, and the clandestine shooter is embraced with open arms. That undercover operative is given carte blanche access. Every iPhone user is no longer a secret agent, but a de facto Director of Public Relations, and is openly encouraged to take pictures, post pictures, share pictures, ask questions, and take notes. These days one runs a retail business on an open source platform.
You share everything, from the trivial to the crucial. The risk of having someone knock off your concept is mitigated by the conversation people are having about your brand, and the loyalty that ensues. As a business owner, you’re born to pioneer change, and are not surprised when every shift in tactic redefines your business and how you approach it.
I imagine no one is fretting over reprinting business school case study textbooks. It’s all being uploaded, downloaded, Googled and SMS’d faster than we can see it coming. My spy-dar is so last century.
Marc Lieberman
Mink Chocolates Inc.,
Mink A Chocolate Cafe Ltd.
Call the store: 604.633.2451
Call my mobile: 604.376.3464
Call toll free: 1.866.283.5181
Shop: minkchocolates.com
Tweet: twitter.com/minkchocolates
Join: facebook.com/mink.chocolates
Read: blog.minkchocolates.com
Watch: youtube.com search mink chocolates
In Person: 863 Hastings Street West, Vancouver, BC V6C 3N9
Nine out of every ten persons say they love chocolate. The tenth lies.
– Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
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From Caterpillar to Social Butterfly
Sunday, September 27, 2009San Francisco’s Frank Gore leaves the game with an injury and is doubtful to return. Donald Driver catches a deep ball over his left shoulder one handed and sets the Packers up for a touchdown. Detroit may get off the schneid this week and win their first game since 2007. These and other fast facts and stats are typical of what should consume my Sunday.
Start early with the pre-game shows. Coast through the morning matchups, hunker down for the afternoon contests, and wrap it all up 15 hours later with Sunday Night Football, the network’s pick for game of the weekend. This robust schedule of gridiron combat should satiate my football hunger long enough to get through Monday until, that’s right, Monday Night Football, ostensibly the most exciting 3 hours in sports.
I may live in a hockey town, but my standard answer has always been, “there’s only two seasons in professional sports: NFL football and waiting for NFL football”. So it comes as a big adjustment to see my Sunday’s usurped by tweets, blogs, status updates, wall postings and other web 2.0 necessities.
I’m reminded of those prescient words of @exceptafterk, Creative Director at The Social Agency, who looked me square in the chest with one eye so she could keep the other eye on her IPhone. “I pray when I wake up that someone hasn’t invented a new social media marketing tool while I was sleeping that will make me feel like a business outcast if I’m not on it”.
A couple of years ago I took a road trip down the information superhighway, got to the end, took a few pictures and came home. Now it beckons again with a promise of more roadside attractions and no need to double back. I am a small business owner, and it is incumbent on me to participate in this electronic revolution, and I admit, it can be fun, albeit time consuming.
But today is Sunday, and as much as I feel a need to get some work done, I’m going to sit down in front of the TV, with a bowl of popcorn laced with chocolate chips, until the feeling passes.
Marc Lieberman
Mink Chocolates Inc.,
Mink A Chocolate Cafe Ltd.
Call the store: 604.633.2451
Call my mobile: 604.376.3464
Call toll free: 1.866.283.5181
Shop: www.minkchocolates.com
Tweet: www.twitter.com/minkchocolates
Join:http://www.facebook.com/mink.chocolates
Read: http://blog.minkchocolates.com
Watch: http://www.youtube.com search mink chocolates
In Person: 863 Hastings Street West, Vancouver, BC V6C 3N9
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