First there was cash then,there were Credit Cards and now smart phone payment systems take over.

We are living in a world today were everything is being based on technology innovations and how to be more efficient with out time. Well, good news for everyone who is feeling like having a hot cup of Joe in the morning but don't really have the time, because Starbucks introduced a new way to pay for your cup of Joe -- the Starbucks Card Mobile system. This new payment method has been tested in only big Starbucks market such as, Seattle (where it was founded) and some stores in California.
The way it works is that you download the Starbucks Card Mobile on to your smartphone and then you can use it to charge drinks and other purchases through your device to your credit card. This make purchases a lot more faster than having to dig on your purse or wallet for cash or waiting for your card to be approve and sign the receipt, this takes away that payment hassle. Also, this is convenient for Starbucks retailers because it would mean that they can serve more customers is a shorter period of time. In my opinion, I think this is a great idea in other to get lines moving faster and service being more optimum.

Make It Active.

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-20029001-233.html
http://www.walletpop.com/2011/01/19/starbucks-rolls-out-nationwide-pay-by-phone-service/

Groupon: the good, the bad and the ugly.

        It's been two years since Groupon, the coupon site that offers daily deals to its subscribes, was founded. Since then a lot of copycats have been trying to imitate this incredible business plan but, they have been unable to obtain the growth that groupon has.  One of groupon secrets is to capitalize on promising competitors before the even get the chance to establish themselves; these is a very savvy strategy if you ask me, maybe that is why it turn down Google's offer of $6 billion because it saw the potential growth and power of this company.
      On the other hand, many retailers are beginning to question previous "sweet deals" with such sites like groupon or living social. The business model for this site is that business make a deal with the coupon site of their choice and offer the customer to pay $10 for $20 worth of in store merchandise for example, then the split the profit in half; but the downside of this arrangement is that the deal site gets the 50% while the business gets the other 50% plus all the expensive marketing expenses. On the other hand, a positive note of this is that for small business this is a smart way to increase the amount of potential customers they can reach, which can never hurt.This comes to the conclusion that retailers are now learning to delegate offers in other to gain a bigger margin of the sales.
      Groupon is a great example of a well though and successful business plan. The only problem with being successful is that other people want to copy you idea and bring you down which is what is happening now with this current business. People are getting saturated of so many deals that they are getting in the mail. I believe that they need to start think of other ways that they can reach consumer because it is getting a little old already.
















-- Stay Active

http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/23/pf/daily_deal_overload/
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704050204576218813288848414.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

The sky is the limit, but how far is too far?

1.Google: For once, Google has made a name for itself due to all the innovative ideas that they are coming up with. Recently, they have gotten into the market of mobile payments using a technology called near-field-communication (NFC). Although this could be very practical for a lot of people, due to the fact that everyone now a days owns a blackberry or an iPhone, it also brings the subject of identity theft and the cloning of accounts.

As a general idea, the though of owning a electronic wallet isn't so bad because we know that we will never leave it at home. Also, it can make transaction much faster and efficient having as a result a reduction in the time that we lose making lines. But the question here is, how safe will our identity become? if we live in a world today where cloning cards has become as common as breathing, MasterCard and Citibank which are known to have teamed up with Google, better find a solution on how to protect their customers' accounts of possible theft.

2. Facebook and its Word-of-Mouth 2.0: it is known that the best way to spread news around is through word of mouth. Well now Facebook has gotten a brand new patent for a way to improve the way people search on the web. The patent is called " Visual tags for search results generated from social network information" and heres is a brief explanation on how it works:
"Search results, including sponsored links and algorithmic search results, are generated in response to a query, and are marked based on frequency of clicks on the search results by members of social network who are within a predetermined degree of separation from the member who submitted the query. The markers are visual tags and comprise either a text string or an image."

Moreover, this can takes marketing to a whole new level since it allows you to see the most popular items among your friends and what better source to acquire information on a products than people you know. As a result, this may have a huge impact on the way advertise products and services. We as future marketers better start thinking on ways to use this information in order to stay ahead in the market which with each passing day is become more and more competitive.

--Stay Active.

Facebook Patent
Google's NFC

Social Networking is great! or...is it?

Sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter are a great way to get connected with other people, specially the ones that you haven't seen in years. But what happens when not only your friends and family are the ones able to see your information, pictures and daily routines, this might become a problem.

With technology changing every day and new ways to improve how people communicate, sometimes this changes might bring some hazards to our privacy. Recently I discover that there is going to be a new website that enables you to identify any person with only their picture, a face recognition search engine. Imagine what could be done with this can of new invention. I think that this is more that just a privacy issue, it could be dangerous for anybody!

In addition, I think that we should take some extreme measures on how we carry ourselves online. We can try to make our profiles private so that only our friends can see our personal information and pictures. Furthermore, the government could establish some policies in order to put some restrictions on these sites, that way it could be a little safer for everyone.

 --Stay Active

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/01/070105-photo-search.html
http://www.dreamsystemsmedia.com/blog/index.php/facebook-facial-recognition-a-privacy-issue/
http://gcn.com/articles/2007/06/02/does-facial-recognition-invade-your-privacy.aspx

E-Marketing: Connecting Outside the Box

The internet has revolutionized the way people connect around the world. As of today people are becoming more sensitive to the experience of shopping online and businesses are taking advantage of that. Therefore, businesses are using more e-marketing concepts for promotion than regular marketing to reach consumers. A new way businesses are using E-Marketing is through websites like "Groupon" or "Livingsocial" which are the two leading sites for daily deals.



Groupon was founded on April of 2010 and has become a success among different markets throughout the United States. For those of you that don't know how it works is very simple, you simply put your email and city where you live. After you register you received daily special rates for services from different companies. The incentive they offer for the purchase of this coupons is that if you invite three people to buy a deal your coupon is free. This is a great way to promote themselves, since word of mouth is one of the most popular method to get the word out about your products and services. Livingsocial among others work the same way, but as of today the pioneer and most successful is Groupon.


Today the best way to reach consumer is through the internet, and to influence their buying behavior. These "deal-per-day" sites serve as an opportunity to look attractive to consumers and create a bond between business and consumer. I personally have bought a coupon for skydiving from Livingsocial and after posting the link on Facebook and having 3 of my friends buying their coupons from my link I got an e-mail saying that my coupon was free :), so this is a great way to advertise products or services and getting notice!

--Stay Active People

www.livingsocial.com
www.groupon.com
www.gottahalfit.com
www.dealon.com