Karen’s Daily Two Cents – Week of 10/17

Monday, October 17, 2016:

Banks are getting a front seat in the mobile wallets war. I was presented with an ad on LinkedIn for Masterpass. But not Masterpass – Citi Masterpass. Positioned as the faster way to pay online and “on your phone” using your bank. Caught my attention since the ad used shoes as the item to buy – how did they know?? – which got me to notice the positioning. Subtle, but made the point.

Banks are on the frontline of the #mobilewallet war. #Masterpass & its competing versions prove it. #Daily2CNTShttps://t.co/wa1fCChUsapic.twitter.com/eCVukrwEF5

— Karen Webster (@karenmpd) October 17, 2016

Tuesday, October 18, 2016:

Matchmakers gotta make money but I am not convinced that this one’s a winning strategy. Consumers who use ad blocking software on media sites will be denied access unless they pay a subscription fee to the site. Sure, I get that the ad model for digital content is on life support but so is the subscription model unless you’re really special. I predict a #BusinessModelBackfire.

Should we deny consumers entry to services for using #adblockers? Not a great #matchmaker strategy to me #Daily2CNTShttps://t.co/wa1fCChUsapic.twitter.com/dtSo7oENMz

— Karen Webster (@karenmpd) October 18, 2016

Thursday, October 20, 2016:

Attention. Did I get yours? Good! But that’s frankly the silver bullet for commerce and payments and retail success, I think. In a 24/7/365 world of instant and vanishing and push notifications, there’s always something to distract in an effort to attract. My home screen now looks like a twitter feed and I am not sure that I like it. Inundating consumers with messages is easy – but isn’t going to get them to pay attention. Giving them what they want, and when they want it – will. It’s harder – and harder still when there’s so much competing for their mental bandwidth.

Attention is #payments and #commerce silver bullet. Easy to talk about, hard to execute. #Daily2CNTS https://t.co/wa1fCC0j3A

— Karen Webster (@karenmpd) October 20, 2016