An App is in development called TISSA (Taming Information Stealing Smartphone Apps) that would allow Smartphone users to block Apps from accessing and recording their location. I’m sure there will be hundreds more to follow. Because Apple and others have given developers the key to their software and made it open source, the fix will be available probably much quicker than what they could have done on their own. The speed of development that happens now was unthinkable 10 years ago, thanks to a thing called entrepreneurship. Now every developer is an entrepreneur thinking about an app or solution to make their life easier. Apple or Android could have never thought of all the innovative apps that are out there on their own. Paypal is another company who has opened their platfrom up to over 60,000 developers. Visit their developer site www.x.com

All this just got me thinking about what other potential problems could be solved if the government, airlines, or the financial services industries opened and unlocked their proprietery systems up for entrepreneuer developers and allowed the Wisdom of the Crowd to takeover?

Ogilvy Argentina developed the idea of a ‘friendship machine’ which would encourage movie-goers  to work together to get a 2 for 1 deal from a Coke vending machine.

The campaign resulted in a 1075% up-lift in vending machine sales that day. Over the nine-hour period 800 bottles of Coke were drunk from each machine.  After the event thousands of comments were recorded on blogs and social networking sites documenting the campaign.

I was reminded of this in a recent article in Fast Company called the “Business of Happiness”.  The article highlighted a Stanford Marketing professor who is studying and teaching the subject of how people find happiness, keep it, manipulate it, and use it as a resource.  This may seem a little too fuzzy and touchy-feely, but there is real science behind it,  and large brands like AOL, Adobe, and Facebook are listening.  One of the key insights the research team discovered was that meaningful experiences (acquiring a new skill, volunteering, or spending time with family) often makes people happier than moments of pure pleasure.

How simple and refreshing of an insight this is, and too often as marketers we lose sight of it.  We get lost in all the advertising and product strategy gobbeldy-gook and forget to ask ourselves the simple questions like “how are we improving our customer’s lives today?”  The answer doesn’t always need to be that we added a new option, created a new feature, refined the copy in an ad.  How about we made our customers laugh, cry, snicker, or inspired them today.  That’ll do.

I couldn’t agree more with the premise of the article, and when I saw Trillions of dollars being wasted on government funded bail-outs in 2008 and 2009 I thought this money should go to incent the innovators in our economy not the economic relics.  Young companies—those younger than six years old—provide the bulk of new jobs; in 2007 they accounted for 64 percent of them, according to a 2009 survey by the Kauffman Foundation that looked at start-up formation since the 1970s.

Here are a few of the highlights of the article:

Tap The Best and Brightest—Wherever They May Be.

One of the greatest sources of entrepreneurial successes in the U.S. has been the steady stream of immigrants who come here to find opportunity.  Unfortunately, an overly restrictive immigration system fails to reflect that.  The solution: a new visa program aimed at attracting foreign-born entrepreneurs.

Cut Graduates Some Slack

Average debt levels for graduating seniors with loans has risen to $23,200.  In 2008, 10 percent of four-year college grads owed more than $40,000, up from 3% in 1996.  What can be done?  In 2008, the government began offering breaks to students with federal-loan debts who opt for public-interest work—allowing them to walk away from their debts after 10 years, compared with 25 years for recipients of some other federal loans.  Entrepreneurs should get the same kinds of considerations.  Let grads who start businesses postpone loan payments for a few years while they get their ventures off the ground.

Bank the Unbankabkle—With Microfinancing

Over the past few years, many mainstream banks have beefed up loan requirements or significantly cut back on small-business lending.  Nonprofit microfinance lenders have come to play an ever more important role in bridging the funding gap.  Cities and states should embrace these kinds of programs.  Most federal money goes to banks and heavily regulated institutions, rather than nonprofits.

You can read the entire 16-point plan on the Inc. website.  The point is that the old model is broken.  The U.S. is quickly losing its place in the world as chief innovator due to poor public policy.  It has been funding and investing in failures instead of new successes and innovations.  Why not take the focus this administration has put on innovative green technology and put it on innovation in the economy in general (How about a Start-up Czar instead of Green Jobs Czar?)?   I believe a new wave of entrepreneurship and pioneer thinking can transform not only the American economy, but also the world economy.  Remember the roaring 90’s?  Let’s do it again.

Always Be Rewriting – Robert McKee is considered to be the father of modern-day screenwriting.  His “Screenwriter’s Bible” and “Story” Seminar have inspired thousands of screenwriters.  Many Hollywood writers credit McKee as their mentor.  McKee is known for his 10 Commandments of Screenwriting, and his 10^th and final commandment is “Thou Shall Rewrite.”

The great part of writing a brand story is that it is essentially always in “rough draft” mode and at anytime you can change the script or plot.  In essence, it is never too late reinvent yourself.

Ten years ago Burger King was an “old” brand that consistently underperformed its category. The essence of its message was “flame-broiled is better, have it your way,” and this was quickly becoming irrelevant to its consumer base.  The burger giant recognized that their message was just not resonating with their 18-35 core audience.   BK reshaped its brand, tapping into its roots and embraced new product innovations.

They evolved the “better quality burger” approach into a little-bit wacky, sometimes politically incorrect positioning in which it almost tells the consumer, “we know its fast-food, and we know you don’t want a salad, it’s a little greasy, but come and get it anyways.”  Coupled with courageous advertising and marketing campaigns, BK’s new approach put them back on the map differentiating themselves even more from Wendy’s and McDonald.

Your brand story is not only what sets you apart; it also serves as a lighthouse to attract your ideal customer.  With a clear brand message and authentic brand story, you leave them confident, inspired and loyal.  The brand story process will help you better develop brand communications that differentiate you from your competitors and emotionally resonate with your target audience.

Quite simply, I think this is a huge annoyance.  When I log into Linkedin I don’t want to see that your having a hot dog at Mustard’s Last Stand or going for a run with your dog.  I’d like to know that you got a new job, promotion, or landed a new client.  Furthermore, seeing a bunch of Twitter symbols on Facebook and Linkedin says that you didn’t customize the message to your particular audience.  Each of the Social Media sites have their own unique purpose and a user should use them for that purpose.  Linkedin for Colleagues, Facebook for Friends, and Twitter for the world.  Carry on conversations that are appropriate to the channel your engaging and you’ll find your use of social media more fulfilling and productive.

That’s my rant for the day.  Until later.

But let’s hear it for the man consumer out there.  They are doing more and more of the household shopping lately, still entail a powerful consumer block when it comes to electronics, sporting goods, and health products, and are pioneering some of the online trends that the female consumer is adopting.

Here are some facts to remember before you write-off the men demographic in your next marketing plan:

• Although men make up a minority of the U.S. population, they are responsible for generating most of the income of American consumers.  In 2006 men had an aggregate income of $4.8 trillion, or 62% of total personal income.

• Compared to older men, 18- to 34-year-old men are more likely to say they enjoy shopping even when they don’t buy something. They also are more likely to visit a number of stores when they go on a shopping trip and to browse inside stores rather than get what they need and leave. Younger men are also more likely to use the Internet to plan their shopping trips.
• According to Mintel, men tend to have more online social networking profiles than women
• They use and are more receptive to online videos, banner ads, and online content than women.

• According to Packaged Facts data the men’s market is projected to increase from $5.4 trillion in 2004 to $6.7 trillion in 2009.  This represents cumulative growth of 24.6%.
• Men tend to be more loyal to brands and look for brands they know compared to women.

Last week, Sony started a three-month campaign with daddy bloggers. It will lend a few of them Sony products, like Blu-ray players and Handycam camcorders. Sony is asking the bloggers to use the products to do projects, like recording conversations with their parents or videotaping a family outing, and write about the experience.

“In general, dads have always gotten the short shrift when it comes to parenting, but in recent times, it’s been different,” said Jeffrey Sass, who is a single parent of a daughter and two sons, ages 17 to 21, and blogs at Dad-O-Matic. Advertisers have focused on mommy bloggers “because everyone believes the mother makes many of the buying decisions in the home, but in product categories like consumer electronics, it makes sense to go after dads,” he said.

But have those ads been successful?  Nielsen IAG examined 67 such ads from 11 national advertisers and found in short, value-message and recession-themed ads did not break through TV ad clutter at higher than ordinary rates.  In fact, ad recall of the 67 ads evaluated was at rates lower than historical averages for the 11 advertisers.  Packaged goods manufacturers saw no decline, while retailers registered minor declines.  Financial service, insurance, auto and telecom advertisers posted significant declines.

However, being first with a high-impact break-through message did play an important role in making a difference with consumers.  Case-in-point:  Hyundai.  Hyundai was first to address the anxieties of potential car buyers head-on by delivering a unique, innovative and timely buyer protection offer, allowing the owner to return the car without damaging his/her credit score in the event of job loss.  Proving that getting a jump on competitors with a unique value message pays off, the Asian carmaker returned far better sales results than its domestic competitors.  Its sales were down just 1.5% in March 2009 vs. 50% for the American rivals in the same month.  Yes, in a deep recession, success may be measured in terms of minimizing revenue losses.  But the Asian carmaker continues to see U.S. market share gains.

Although, aesthetics, visual creativity and design of ads are important, it can easily be topped and it does not  always make the impact advertisers want.  Get the message right and be first and you’ll have a lot more opportunity to gain market share in this economy.

Click here to view the embedded video.