I’ll admit that I just recently learned the term “Cyber Monday”.  Apparently the name is piggy backing off of Black Friday, the first shopping day after Thanksgiving.   Supposedly this is now the day when millions of people rush to their computers to take advantage of internet-only deals and free shipping.

Whoever made up this “day”, or the term itself, please take a bow.  Because it appears that you’ve been able to market a day that isn’t actually the busiest online shopping day.  If I didn’t know better, I would think that Wal-Mart was the master mind behind this.  Or worse – another Hallmark Holiday (I still can’t believe people buy cards for Sweetest Day).

Actually, Shop.org came up with the idea in 2005 and even runs a website – www.cybermonday.com – where hundreds of e-tailers can hawk their wares.  Which is where the power of marketing comes into play:  most of the deals you can get on this website are available all over the internet.  But give the folks at Shop.org some credit, people are using the term and at least talking about shopping online.  So whether or not people are truly buying more on Cyber Monday or not, it’s done a great job at getting the word out (at least to this blogger who seems to be out of the loop on this one).

Maybe I’ll be more excited when we start having Pay-Customers-To-Come-To-Our-Store Tuesday…

Confession: I am on my third Nokia (this time an E62) and I still check eBay for a good deal on a banana slider from the Matrix. I’m setting my sites on retro Nokia, rather than the new $85,000 Vertu phone.

Nokia is exciting for me to follow because the world’s mobile phone leader has had a wild year of innovation, acquisition, and value creation. I guess it’s no surprise given its own history and the business culture of Finland .

Nokia, in brief:

• Was established in 1865 as a wood-pulp mill
• Sold rubber and telephone/telegraph cable in the mid 20^th Century
• By the late 1960’s formed the company that would go on to produce paper products, bicycle and car tires, footwear, personal computers, communications cables, televisions, electricity, capacitors, aluminum, etc.
• Around the turn of this century (when I was in Finland), Nokia made up about one-forth of Finland’s GDP..

Here are a few of the things contributing to the more than doubling of Nokia’s stock price this year. (Current price)

1) In August 2007, Nokia launched their new social network, dubbed MOSH. “MOSH by Nokia is the first-ever social network built by a handset manufacturer. MOSH aims to bring social, media-based networks to the mobile environment. Users can upload, download, share, and bookmark a variety of media – audio files, video files, documents, applications, games, images.” http://mosh.nokia.mobi/. This is kind of like the Sprite Yard idea, except that Nokia has already sold over 850 million mobile phones/devices!

2) Nokia just finished its Shanghai flagship store—seventh and biggest of 18 planned in the world. This facility is just a drop in the bucket of the $4.3 billion Nokia has spent in China over the last decade and a half. It seems as though it is paying off—they are the market leaders there with nearly 30% of the 500 million handsets. Nokia’s branded environment flagship stores will showcase all of the functionalities Nokia has gained through innovation and acquisition.

3) Dwarfing the amount Nokia has spent in China is the $8.1 billion they are spending to acquire Navteq, a U.S.-based supplier of digital mapping data. “Navteq provides data used in a wide range of applications, including automotive navigation systems and web-based applications, such as Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, Local Live, and MapQuest. Navteq is also the data aggregator used by XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio to display traffic data on navigation systems that are capable of that display…” This acquisition will no doubt change the business of mapping and will allow Nokia to embed solutions into handsets—for “free”.

Some may argue that Nokia is doing too much too quickly. I say they are being strategic in their quest to become the top mobile lifestyle company on earth, and I am going to enjoy watching them in 2008.
-jw
UPDATE:
Nokia opened its first online music store in Britain last week. Warner Music Group is withholding its content from the site, partly over concerns about illegal downloads at Nokia’s file-sharing site Mosh, The Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition.

(sorry, the pun just had to happen)

Over 20 years ago Burt’s Bees founder Burt Shavitz came across a bee hive and decided to learn more about how bees make honey and the possible uses for left over wax.

Seeing as how Clorox just announced they’re buying his company for $950 million, I’m guessing he’s not going to have to worry about determining new uses for beeswax any more.  Actually, I’m guessing he’s not going to have to worry about much at all (lobster or cracked crab?).  Good for Burt.

But is it good for Clorox?  Early word on the street is that, yes, it’s a good move.  The buzz (there I go again) is centered on three reasons that Clorox is spending almost a billion dollars:

1)      Given its current product portfolio of mostly non-earth friendly liquids and chemicals, it gives Clorox a great brand name in the hot “green” consumer movement

2)      The purchase immediately makes Clorox a player in the $6 billion personal care category

3)      Clorox has plans to grow the Burt’s Bees product line internationally – today sales outside of the U.S. account for only 15%

I agree that it appears to be a good move on paper.  But it will be interesting to see how much “Corporate America” affects the brand over time.  After all, this is a company that was started in a one-room schoolhouse followed by an old bowling alley when it was time to upgrade.  But whatever happens, I’m sure ol’ Burt will be doing just fine watching from afar (or at least that’s what I’d do!)