We all know about the iPad – the poorly named tablet from Apple that is basically a large iPod touch with a bit of Mac power added in. But, just today, Samsung unveiled their new tablet – the Galaxy – which they are hoping will not only be a strong competitor, but the iPad Killer.

Haven’t heard about the new Galaxy? Check out the launch video:

I think if everything they promise actually works, and you can get it with Verizon service, there is a very good chance that the nickname “iPad killer” will be true!

So what do you think? Is the iPad untouchable or will the Samsung Galaxy have a chance of taking over some of the market share? Which would you prefer

Last week’s article from the Washington Post on the new 6 bladed razor from ShaveMate was one of the funniest (and most ridiculous) articles I have ever read. Luckily, it wasn’t the Washington Posts fault. The humor and laughter can all be blamed on those who were interviewed – The Tomassetti brothers who created this razor and Damon Jones of Gillette. Let me share with you some of the best pieces of the article…

WP asked why they felt the razor needed 6 blades (the most blades on any available razor), and the Tomasetti’s responded,

“It’s not just the blades,” says Lou Tomassetti who, along with his brother Peter, invented the Titan. “It’s really everything you need in one.” The Titan, he explains, also comes with shaving cream in the handle and a moisture strip.

“If you go out and try to buy equipment for shaving today,” Lou continues, “it’s very complicated.”

“You might have to buy batteries,” Peter adds.

“ShaveMate is really a lifestyle change” from all that, Lou says. “It’s a shaving revolution.”

Really guys? Shaving supplies are so complicated that you had to put everything into one? I’ve seen my husband shave…it really doesn’t look all that tough. So, maybe it’s just these guys thinking shaving is difficult. Certainly the Gillette gentlemen, the ones who first started the trend of adding more blades did it for a better reason? Nope…apparently to them, it is very technical science!

“It’s a scientific approach called ‘progressive geometry,’ ” says Damon Jones of Gillette. “It’s scientifically proven that multiple blades” will cut closer than just one. Shaving with a three-bladed razor is equivalent to shaving three times with a single blade — but, Jones says, even smoother.

“We use technology that’s used in the semiconductor industry and the automotive industry to get the spacing just right between blades,” he says. (Note: Maybe this is why the Mach ads featured cars?) “We’re talking microns,” Jones says. “It’s a very deep technical science.”

Okay, now you’ve got to be screwing with me…you use the automotive industry to get the spacing right?! Now I am really laughing.

Chime in guys – what do you think? Do you really need a 6 bladed razor?

Well, the simple answer would be to avoid doing anything that these 10 brands did this year!

Using data from the two largest brand-valuations firms as a reference, 24/7 Wall St. chose 10 big-name brands operating in the U.S. that have lost substantial chunks of their brand valuations in the first half of this year. They then mixed in a whole host of other criteria, and ended up with a list of “The 10 Biggest Brand Disasters of 2010″ — those on the list have lost well over $100 billion in brand value since Jan. 1.

The list includes brands like (BP (of course), Dell, Adobe (Blame Apple), Sony, Johnson&Johnson and Toyota(recalls will do it). Each company in the list was once a giant in the industry, well respected and definitely ahead of its time. But, with new changes to other brands, huge disasters with their products or problems with their services…these brands have lost serious footing.

The question is: How can we avoid the same fates as these once-giants?

Think, then react. Almost all of the above companies either reacted to problems before they thought them through (resulting in more problems) or thought about it a lot and did nothing (resulting in nothing). There are so many ways that many of these companies could have pulled themselves out of the holes they were in if they had only reacted the right way and been involved and honest with their customer base.

Let’s look at Adobe (the least controversial on the list, but still one worth looking at). Adobe took a huge dive this year because of a few harsh words from the Apple man, Mr. Steve Jobs. At a press conference, he started his tirade against flash…and continued it in writing: “Flash was created during the PC era for PCs and mice. The mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open Web standards, all areas where Flash falls short”. Big words from a powerful man, and in one fell swoop, the Adobe stock took a dive.

So how could they have fixed this problem? Possibly by admitting that Jobs was right…partially. Yes, mobile interfaces may not need flash, but there are still many sites that use it and so having it as an option for your users is a positive – not a negative. Adobe needed to also reach out to its users and talk with them…who knows, they may have had a great way to help! At the end of the day, Adobe did nothing to combat the words, nor to rally their troops around their product.

Don’t let this happen to you.

75 years ago your marketing was entirely based on print and word of mouth. There was no internet, no TV commercials, no billboard advertising. If you wanted people to know about you, you had to run newspaper or magazine ads, go door to door meeting people and hope that others would spread the good word about your business. This meant that your customer service had to be top notch. Every detail of your business needed to be perfect so that you didn’t miss the sale for a slip of the tongue or a mistake in marketing. You had to understand your ideal client so you didn’t waste time or energy marketing to the wrong people. You attended events in the hopes to meet the right people – and when you did, you didn’t ask for their email or cell number, you planned a face to face meeting at an office to discuss how you could work together. There were no shortcuts, no simple ways to reach somebody, nothing that made business easy at all. And yet, thousands of businesses grew, improved and became huge successes. Why? Because they worked their butt’s off, understood what it took to  succeed and never let laziness or short cuts inhibit their success.

Fast forward to today – the land of laziness in business. You can send an email from the road, tweet in bed and cold call from anywhere in the world. It doesn’t take much to create a website, and there are tons of places you can market yourself for next to nothing. And all this has led to disaster for many companies. It is  more important now than ever before to make sure that every detail of your business is perfectly in order, because your customers can reach you faster and in more ways! Companies who don’t remember the past  – or don’t appreciate how to really connect with customers – are letting social media tools run their marketing and are hitting a brick wall. Social media is not the answer to marketing, and it is definitely not a solution to save your business. In fact, unless you already have a steady marketing strategy based on the old ways of actually having quality products and customer service, social media will bury you alive.

Is your business being lazy or are you using these tools to capitalize on the changing market?

Yesterday, I received this auto DM:

Really? You sent me an obnoxiously impersonal message  and apologized for sending it in the message?? That’s like saying “sorry for kicking you” while you kick the person you’re apologizing to.

The really scary thing? This person’s bio claims them as a personal branding expert…which means he probably gets paid a lot of money to tell people to send these awful messages.

Come on people, where is the common sense? Where is the logic? Where is the brains behind this?

Unless your auto dm is giving away free money with no strings attached (ha!), stop sending auto DM’s, now! No one wants them, no one likes them, and most of us want to (and will) unfollow you the minute we get it.

What do you think of auto dm’s – is there any valid reason for them?

Hey Huggies, You have got to be kidding me. A jean diaper? From personal experience, jeans are tight, not comfortable and definitely not something I would stick immediately next to the skin of a baby. They do not move, and definitely don’t seem like they’d serve their “purpose” well.

But, maybe they do. Maybe it’s just a normal diaper that looks like it’s made of jean. If that’s the case, then okay, fine. It’s slightly clever and gives parents something else to buy. I’ll give you some credit (small credit, but credit none the less).

But then you paired them with this slogan?

No, Huggies, this I just can’t accept.

(To get the full flavor of this post, check out  Really? With Seth & Amy SNL).  Really?  You’re concerned about Facebook sharing your crush on Dillon from English class?  Or that rad post about you and your Starbucks order? Really?  Or how about letting the world know just how “into” Justin Bieber you really are?  Really?  It’s just now coming as a surprise to you that EVERYTHING you do on-line is public?  Like forever public?  Yes, when you venture out of your virtual little house, out there in the wide world of the world wide web, you no longer have privacy.  No one promised it to you and no one is going to provide it to you.  How do you think the big meanies at Facebook actually intended on making money while their promise is to forever keep their service free?  Really?  I mean c’mon by now you must know the name of the game – it’s called “mass”.  Once you have mass – millions of users and their associated eyeballs and wallets – you now have something that you can monetize.  Advertisers will pay for access to the mass.  Brands will pay for access to the mass. Really!  Do you know who won’t pay? The government, rapists and murders, terrorists or religious organizations.  All those that you think will be monitoring your every online move, Mr. Conspiracy Theory, won’t pay.  Really?  Really.  Did you ever stop to think about what this big breach of alleged privacy is really designed to do?  Really?  Well, mostly the users of this information are trying to commit that greatest of cardinal sins – they’re trying to sell you something. Yep, those evil minds at Taco Bell are trying to personalize their sites, their messages, their ads to – wait for it – You!  Lucky you!  This way iTunes won’t be pushing heavy metal at you upon every visit, but rather more American Idol-esque knock outs like Kelly Clarkson’s greatest hit.  Really.  Maybe Toyota will push a Lexus ad at your doctor (also a HUGE Facebook fan), a Toyota Camary ad at your mom (you know she’s watching….oh yeah, she’s watching) and to you my little digital era knucklehead, yes, you get a Scion ad. Really.  Now is that all that bad?  Really?  Load up on to the busses and get down to Washington D.C. to give ‘em hell about Facebook, because it’s this kind of distraction that our inept legislature needs right now.  Go.  Go on.  Go. Really!

I tried foursquare. Then I left foursquare. And after a lot of thought and cajoling by a few friends, I decided to go back to foursquare…

Why?

Because although I don’t feel it is quite there for the individual, it will be. Businesses will start getting it better and the functionality will improve (at least I hope!). I see huge potential with foursquare and I regret not joining twitter sooner, so I don’t want to make the same mistake here. The biggest concern I have is privacy, but with how much information is available already about me, I figure this can’t really much worse.

Since I’m trying it again, here are the things I am hoping to see:

1. Benefits for a first time checkin from the business. “It’s your first time here, enjoy 5% off”. Giving someone a benefit at their first trip will increase the likelihood they come back and you’ll have more repeat customers.
2. Reward people for bringing people. Multiple checkin’s for one person who brings in first timers with them? They’re doing marketing for you, reward them!
3. On the mobile app – links to the companies website, twitter or facebook to connect them in other ways. This will help the companies to build a stronger network.
4. Something between first time and mayorship…maybe rewarding people at different levels, 5 checkins, 3 in a week, etc…
5. The ability to checkin at a place without claiming location to everyone. For example, it would be great to be able to checkin at Starbucks and have the exact location know where you are but not send the exact location to your friends, just that you are at a Starbucks.

All in all, I am holding out to see results, and am willing to go with it for a little longer. What can it hurt?

What would you like to see improve with foursquare? Have you found benefits for the individual?

I don’t love Google, especially their attempt to take over the world, one programs and application at a time. They monitor your every search. They track your every move. They are alien cyborgs (okay, so this may just be my assumption). But, I do have to give them credit for creativity…and for making it so that today, no one will get any work done.

How? Go to Google.com to search for something. Yup…it’s pacman’s birthday and they’ve celebrated by turning their logo into a pacman game that you can play for as long as you want (or until you lose your lives, then you have to refresh the screen).

And, there goes productivity today…

Pick up the freakin’ phone.  That’s it. Pretty simple actually.  It’s a habit that we’ve all fallen out of and we need to get back into.  I’ve caught myself typing out emails that are so detailed and long that it could have easily been replaced by a quick phone call.  Would have saved me and the recipient a bunch of time and effort.  I spend easily half my day on emails totalling on average in the hundreds.  Where did we go wrong on all this?  Some pundits say that we’re the most connected and communicable society ever thanks to email, text, Twitter and the rest.  I beg to differ.  Sure I think we’re the most connected, but I think we’ve lost the art of communication. I’d even suggest that early man was a better communicator than we are today.  He was more efficient and communicated more efficiently because he had to or it probably meant certain death.  He didn’t draw a bear on a piece of bark (in 140 strokes or less!), walk over and hand it to his fellow hunter just before the bear attacked him.  No, he just yelled “Bear!” and that saved his friend.

I think it’s time we all picked up the old cup’n’string again and had a good old fashioned conversation, even if it is only to yell “Bear!”.  I just had this chat with a longstanding client who we both agreed summed it up best:  A phone call is worth a thousand emails.

Thanks Allan.