Monday, February 23, 2004
How Are You Influenced In Your PDA Purchases?
Posted by Janak Parekh in "THOUGHT" @ 06:00 PM
Palm has begun an aggressive marketing campaign to put their devices in the hands of who they consider to be "influential", including celebrities.
"Welcome to the world of influencer marketing. Colombano, who runs San Francisco-based Avantgarde, tries to build momentum for products by getting them in the hands of the right people. He conducts the Treo campaign for PalmOne, the hardware side of the former Palm, which acquired the Treo when it bought rival handheld maker Handspring in 2003. For PalmOne and PalmSource--the software spinoff that is holding its developer conference in San Jose, Calif., this week--this personalized form of product placement appears to pay off. Actor Kevin Spacey gave the Palm companies a public-relations bump, for example, when he used his Treo 600 to conduct a remote television interview during the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Avantgarde also landed a Treo 600 in the hands of Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz. Whether there is a connection or not, Starbucks is rolling out Treos to parts of its field force at the moment."
The irony, of course, is that Treo 600s won't work with T-Mobile Hotspots in those very Starbucks, because their SDIO ports don't give out enough power for a WiFi card. :roll: Anyway, I've got two questions for you. First, how much do others' purchasing decisions affect your own, and do you feel Microsoft and its OEMs should be more aggressive in this regard?
Update: OK, I've banned the machine that was skewing the votes and reset the results. Let's try again, shall we?
"Welcome to the world of influencer marketing. Colombano, who runs San Francisco-based Avantgarde, tries to build momentum for products by getting them in the hands of the right people. He conducts the Treo campaign for PalmOne, the hardware side of the former Palm, which acquired the Treo when it bought rival handheld maker Handspring in 2003. For PalmOne and PalmSource--the software spinoff that is holding its developer conference in San Jose, Calif., this week--this personalized form of product placement appears to pay off. Actor Kevin Spacey gave the Palm companies a public-relations bump, for example, when he used his Treo 600 to conduct a remote television interview during the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Avantgarde also landed a Treo 600 in the hands of Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz. Whether there is a connection or not, Starbucks is rolling out Treos to parts of its field force at the moment."
The irony, of course, is that Treo 600s won't work with T-Mobile Hotspots in those very Starbucks, because their SDIO ports don't give out enough power for a WiFi card. :roll: Anyway, I've got two questions for you. First, how much do others' purchasing decisions affect your own, and do you feel Microsoft and its OEMs should be more aggressive in this regard?
Update: OK, I've banned the machine that was skewing the votes and reset the results. Let's try again, shall we?
