For the World Cup, everyone here in Germany has really rolled out the red carpet for us fans. The restaurants, chalets and inns have coupled their support for Team Germany with banners for many other nations, trying to welcome all fans. They also raise the prices beyond anything I’ve seen on past travels. But that is to be expected, and the Euro cuts down on all the different currencies I have to travel with over here.
I’ve become good friends with our hosts here, Rutger and his wife Magda, enjoying German’s finest beer late into the evening while we discuss the world’s problems. The conversation moved to the subject of these price increases seen all throughout the town. He mentioned how he had held off changing the prices for years due to how much effort was involved with actually printing and communicating the new prices. He said it had to be a pretty big jump to be worth it, and he was dreading having to go through it again once the games are over.
I immediately had a flashback to the day I had the honor of guest lecturing for Michael Porter at one of his economics classes. The topic of the day was just what Rutger and I were discussing, which is known as 'Menu Pricing'. Menu Pricing is an term to describe how the laws of supply and demand are not always matched perfectly due to the cost associated with frequently changing the prices. Someone in the class highlighted this with the local pub that apparently continued to have dollar draft nights over the years because it was etched in their front windows (but he did say that the cups kept getting smaller!)
Back to Rutger, Magda, my Dunkel Weissen, and their menu pricing struggle. Think of a restaurant that has to reprint menus, update the web site, including everywhere else the menu appears, plus update a list of specials on the display. Technology should be able to take care of menu pricing once and for all for my dear German hosts.
I related how we are working with a client on just that solution. The manager for this restaurant in the States can update the specials, menu items and overall pricing each morning after the chef finalizes the menu. Then with the press of a button, the new menus for the day are printed on nice stock, the website is updated and their media partners receive the data in a nicely formatted email. No more Menu Pricing problems.
I know have a dry cleaning problem though. During the conversation, Germany beat Argentina and Magda jumped up to hug me, and as it turned out my full glass of Dunkel.
I’ve become good friends with our hosts here, Rutger and his wife Magda, enjoying German’s finest beer late into the evening while we discuss the world’s problems. The conversation moved to the subject of these price increases seen all throughout the town. He mentioned how he had held off changing the prices for years due to how much effort was involved with actually printing and communicating the new prices. He said it had to be a pretty big jump to be worth it, and he was dreading having to go through it again once the games are over.
I immediately had a flashback to the day I had the honor of guest lecturing for Michael Porter at one of his economics classes. The topic of the day was just what Rutger and I were discussing, which is known as 'Menu Pricing'. Menu Pricing is an term to describe how the laws of supply and demand are not always matched perfectly due to the cost associated with frequently changing the prices. Someone in the class highlighted this with the local pub that apparently continued to have dollar draft nights over the years because it was etched in their front windows (but he did say that the cups kept getting smaller!)
Back to Rutger, Magda, my Dunkel Weissen, and their menu pricing struggle. Think of a restaurant that has to reprint menus, update the web site, including everywhere else the menu appears, plus update a list of specials on the display. Technology should be able to take care of menu pricing once and for all for my dear German hosts.
I related how we are working with a client on just that solution. The manager for this restaurant in the States can update the specials, menu items and overall pricing each morning after the chef finalizes the menu. Then with the press of a button, the new menus for the day are printed on nice stock, the website is updated and their media partners receive the data in a nicely formatted email. No more Menu Pricing problems.
I know have a dry cleaning problem though. During the conversation, Germany beat Argentina and Magda jumped up to hug me, and as it turned out my full glass of Dunkel.
06/26/06: Archer Group wins 3 Philly Golds.
I was sitting here consoling my dear friend Bruce over some pints when my phone buzzed with much needed good news. Janie from our Delaware office sent me a note with a picture from this year’s Philly Gold awards. Here is her note:
"Bob, the team wanted to let you know about the great news! The Archer Group won 3 Philly Gold Awards, more than any other Philadelphia interactive agency. Our own Todd Miller won Best of Show for his Wizard of Oz site. It was a great night! Hope you are having fun at the World Cup and look forward to seeing you soon."
It was tough sitting there next to Bruce Arena, who was obviously heartbroken at his team’s defeat while I was beaming with pride at my team’s recognition for their hard work.
GREAT JOB TEAM!
It was tough sitting there next to Bruce Arena, who was obviously heartbroken at his team’s defeat while I was beaming with pride at my team’s recognition for their hard work.
GREAT JOB TEAM!
Having been to many of the global sports events, from the Olympics, to the Cricket World Cup (which I never miss), I have to say that I love the passion of the FIFA World Cup fans the most. Despite losing a bet and having to root for England last week, 
I really don't have a favorite team. Here in Hamburg, I’ve been able to see fans from Ecuador and Costa Rica root for their teams. The amount of support from these far away lands was absolutely stunning. And it got me thinking about the Internet.
A dear old friend of mine and author, Jimmy Surowiecki, wrote a great book entitled, The Wisdom of Crowds. Jay and I weren’t always friends. We met after I called him incensed about an article he wrote in his column in the New Yorker. Well, after a few too many DePaz Blue Cane Rhum Mojitos, we solved all the world’s problems and became great friends.
Anyway, Jay’s book talks about how crowds can make much better decisions collectively than a few in an Ivory Tower. Now the late night crowds at FanFest likely weren’t who Jay had in mind, but I like his logic and loved his book.
There is a great service out for tech-news junkies called Digg.com. This site allows the Wisdom of Crowds to determine which articles get to the homepage. Anyone can view an article in the queue, and if enough people like it, it gets promoted to the home page.
Now, even if the news articles aren’t your flavor, the concept has real merit in a lot of different areas. Local papers could exist with almost zero human staffing, using the Digg concept to have locals promote articles that they think are of most importance to other residents. No more back room, cigar chewing editor determining whether the article about Paris Hilton’s latest gaffe appears above the announcement for the Warner Brother’s web site Archer just launched. (Obviously I would have an opinion, if asked)
Corproate Portals could also incorporate this into their own internal communications. Employees could post comments, local news, etc. The joint wisdom of the employees could decide which employee posted comments/stories get posted and which go into the electronic circular file. In the world of information overload, some sort of group filtering/promotion would be a great help!
As companies continue to challenge old standards with the interactivity of the Internet, we will continue to be in for a wild ride!
All I can say is…Buckle Up!
A dear old friend of mine and author, Jimmy Surowiecki, wrote a great book entitled, The Wisdom of Crowds. Jay and I weren’t always friends. We met after I called him incensed about an article he wrote in his column in the New Yorker. Well, after a few too many DePaz Blue Cane Rhum Mojitos, we solved all the world’s problems and became great friends.
Anyway, Jay’s book talks about how crowds can make much better decisions collectively than a few in an Ivory Tower. Now the late night crowds at FanFest likely weren’t who Jay had in mind, but I like his logic and loved his book.
There is a great service out for tech-news junkies called Digg.com. This site allows the Wisdom of Crowds to determine which articles get to the homepage. Anyone can view an article in the queue, and if enough people like it, it gets promoted to the home page.
Now, even if the news articles aren’t your flavor, the concept has real merit in a lot of different areas. Local papers could exist with almost zero human staffing, using the Digg concept to have locals promote articles that they think are of most importance to other residents. No more back room, cigar chewing editor determining whether the article about Paris Hilton’s latest gaffe appears above the announcement for the Warner Brother’s web site Archer just launched. (Obviously I would have an opinion, if asked)
Corproate Portals could also incorporate this into their own internal communications. Employees could post comments, local news, etc. The joint wisdom of the employees could decide which employee posted comments/stories get posted and which go into the electronic circular file. In the world of information overload, some sort of group filtering/promotion would be a great help!
As companies continue to challenge old standards with the interactivity of the Internet, we will continue to be in for a wild ride!
All I can say is…Buckle Up!
06/02/06: Outside the box – big time
I was on my way to the Munich airport and had to have the driver pull over to take a picture of this impressive Adidas promotion tied to the World Cup. I was even more surprised to see that it was a picture of my friend Oliver Kahn, the German Goalie. Kudos to Adidas for pulling this one off!
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