11:41 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
I recently came across another video with Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh, being interviewed informally by web entrepreneur Loic Le Meur. The interview, which is 20 minutes long and was recorded during the TED conference, can be found on YouTube.
In this interview, Tony Hsieh talks about the several ways the company differentiates itself (many of which are widely known but others not). He also goes on to mention that Zappos releases a book every year called The Culture Book that consists of authentic employee responses when they are asked what the Zappos culture means to them. I got a hold of this year's book by emailing Tony. After browsing the book and reading through some of the responses, you immediately get the feeling that Zappos employees are very proud of working for the company no matter what position they hold (book is organized by departments).
So why put this book together? The answer to that is not clear, but the book says it does get "distributed to employees, prospective employees, business partners, and even some customers." So that alone should tell you it's very likely used as an effective way of recruiting new employees and further proving to the business world that Zappos is onto something.
Your employees are happy and they are not afraid to tell their story, why wouldn't you want everyone to know?
Besides this interview, there is already tons of discussion on what differentiates Zappos as a company and now as a major brand, but I keep finding myself amazed at how seriously they take employee and customer satisfaction and how open they are with sharing their reasons for success. Tony's presentation from a conference last year on how they got to $1 billion is sales is even available on Slideshare.
When I posted about the Zappos Culture book on Twitter, Julio Fernandez (@SocialJulio) replied with this important question: I wonder how the Zappos culture will change once they go from a public to a private company?
Whatever happens, I think the Zappos story is becoming more valuable as time goes on and as they continue growing with very little marketing. Email Tony to get a free copy of The Culture Book (he replied to me within a few hours and I had the book in 2 days) or buy a copy on their site.
Recommend This If you liked this, let others know:
11:38 am | 0 recommendations | 1 comment
How are they changing the Web? The obvious is iPhone apps are increasingly allowing people to access online content during times when they didn't have access to it before, therefore the increasing availability of mobile web access in general is continuing to speed up information sharing. What's interesting is some of the more impressive apps are not just displaying their content in a mobile-friendly manner, but also coming up with unique ways to engage their users using interactive features and digital media. More specifically, social networking apps like the ones for Twitter and Facebook are allowing people who are connected on the web to continue their relationships away from their computers. The rising popularity of iPhone apps with location-based capabilities (and soon to come the iPhone version of Google Latitude) are creating useful ways for people to access relevant data about events, businesses, and even people that are nearby.
How are they being used by brands? The smart brands are the ones that have already thought of ways to connect with a large base of all iPhone users (Kraft, Obama, Audi, to name a few). Most other major brands are most likely in the process or just starting to think about developing an iPhone app because of the successes they are continuing to hear about. But only a select few out of the rapidly growing database of 20,000+ apps with be successful because they will either be really useful, linked to a well-liked brand, or very creative. The longer it takes for the app to be released, the smaller the chance of it being successful. It's worthwhile to note that companies like Remember the Milk, Salesforce, Mint.com are creating iPhone apps to supplement their web services as an added benefit to offer to their customers. Shazam is a great example of a service that was not popular until it was available on the iPhone and started seeing tons of new users.
What about publishers? They need to recognize that besides an electronic reading device like the Kindle, people are already browsing their content from the iPhone (and most likely not having the best experience). Why not have a dedicated app that presents that content in an easier-to-read format? Even though it will take time, the iPhone will be a big advertising platform for publishers in the future. Besides newspapers, I think most major magazines will have iPhone apps soon. What they will need to figure out is what type of revenue model they choose because as of now the app store does not allow them the freedom of charging readers a monthly fee to download the latest content. The first successful magazine app will owe a lot of it's success from free PR and it looks like Lucky Magazine and People Magazine are very close to launching iPhone apps.
How are they affecting the gaming industry? The cost of the app plays a huge factor, but not as much as you might think. When it comes to gaming apps on the iPhone, people are willing to spend $5-$10 on good game because it's an inexpensive alternative when compared to most video games that cost over $40. It's only a matter of time before more live games on the iPhone that are constantly connected to the web gain in popularity just as we saw happen for all the major gaming consoles over the past couple of years. While no one is sure yet if increasing sales of iPhone games are damaging the sales of the major players, it doesn't take a genius to realize they are very likely to already be hurting the sales of other handheld gaming devices.
Some further reading: 8 reasons for building an iPhone Web application, Mobile ROI: You get what you pay for, and iPhone now represents 51% of U.S. smartphone traffic.
Recommend This If you liked this, let others know:
