No cupcakes ads!! allowed

So after installing google analytics (free of charge) now you can start to monitor your online campaigns, i say so because its more detailed and easy to use compared to the stats that come with the Hosting company that you have your site with. I have used Google Adwords, Youtube and Facebook. At the beginning i was thinking that Facebook will be the major refer to digumz.com and that it will be the most profitable to me in terms of advertising, but to my surprise Youtube hits the top spot. It refers most of my customers to Digumz.com, remember that the ad itself can make a difference : how its designed and placed plays another role, but i will not discuss this now. The only problem with Youtube was how difficult it was for me to advertise on it, it took me 2 days! But with facebook it took me 7 minutes (the time it takes to get your appetizer at TGI friday, that true wala). I can assure you that many prefer Facebook over google because of the ease of advertising, but youtube is much more targeted. I guess that Facebook is very cluttered, you got a million things on the page, from poke me to rate my bikini . But with Youtube its more clear cut and the adword you pick make it more targeted. The only problem with youtube is that its video based content, meaning that your customers must be looking for a video to watch on  youtube similar to what you want to sell them, ie if your selling ne3il (slippers) nobody is gonna go an youtube and watch a video with a title called slippers or anything to do with slippers unless you have a foot fetish!!

Im visiting the Paris Air show in the summer (freak! ya i know:p) and i bought some domestic flight tickets in Europe, so i purchased my tickets from Vueling Airlines. Its a Spanish budget airline (doing well), but these guys are the true budget airlines. See how they take every penny you got! The ticket is cheap at the beginning 22 euros, 8KD then it starts to build up: if you want your boarding pass detail by sms you pay 1 euro, if you want the front seats of the plane you pay 5 euros, if you want exit row seats you pay 10 euros (these are wider seats) then after i got raped with hidden fees, the payment page come up. (Circus drums beating:P)……………….. then they asked for 9 euros for me to pay using my credit card! can you believe that even with paying them i had to pay! that does not even make sense. So then my ticket became 55 euros in total but still cheap over all. So now i print the boarding passes (free) and i noticed that there is more than one copy of the boarding pass, i thought the printer maybe went haywire, but noooo they made me print two copies because one is the “Customer copy” the other is the “Airline copy” , the bastards used my printer to print their copy!! and that’s a true budget airline. They even stated on there site that if you use the bathroom, you pay 5 euros and when you flush you pay 2 euros, J/k.

Another thing that amuses me is when I read news like Al Naser Sport shop just opened  its 61 branch! 61 more than most banks in Kuwait. Most banks have 50 branches and less, then you start thinking surely there is a large market for sporting goods. The way i think is then how can i bust this market with some model that i can create to take a chunk of its market share.(wayid emsadig nafsy) I can imagine the CEO of Nasser Sport thinking: ” that he is cornering the sports market in Kuwait and my logo is fab:P”. (logo needs to be changed badly) I do think they are doing a great job at it too. Some times these small pieces of news are indicators that show how markets are shaping too.

(image taken from bananaq8)

I say this because business modeling or model creation if incorporated with new technologies can make a profitable business, like the lulu printing shop that is all automated compared to the physical brick and mortar print shops. Image that with a simple button you can publish your book. Did i just contradict myself about the book industry’s:P.  So I think why not an ecommerce site to sell sport goods online in Kuwait and deliver them. Understand that new technologies are the catalyst of many industries, and that they can destroy a business in a very short period. A friend of mine told me, if you want daily news about Kuwait, follow these news broadcast on twitter instead of subscribing to these news sms service that charge you 500 fils a week. Here again twitter just made a service that is charging 500fils into free. Again these services are reaching the top of the cliff, sadly. 

http://www.adzookie.com/paintmyhouse.php

(Beware paragraph  below requires thinking:p)

There is a thing i always wanted to discuss but am worried it may bore you, I’ll give it a try. If the only thing we hear about from strong world countries is “economic growth” and how they push for the economy to grow and open markets, but at the same time, your expenses grow and prices grow even higher (hence the emergence of budget business), so why grow then!? When looking at the numbers things make more sense: annual average growth of salaries is about 5.6% in a year in Kuwait (i think this number is from bayt.com not sure thou) and every other products increases its prices by 20% average, then you do the math. We are always 15% on average short. I say this because in 2003 when i had a store in salmiya, i use to walk to Kurdu shawerma place to have dinner, and i remember paying 350 fils for a shawerma, and at that time we use to argue that the price is higher  than the usual 250 at that time was because he had a better shawerma or meat. But today he sells his shawerma for 650fils and its still the same meat from 2003!, thats about 80% increase. Now multiply my thought to Hienz Ketchup, starucks latte, corn flakes etc etc then you can feel the difference in your pocket.

Is this what some call economic growth? in Dubai i was chatting with tech person in a hospital (MRI operator) and i asked him, so how is Dubai, is business or jobs better here? He does not agree at all. It’s getting expensive by the day, and he said something weird. There are no more public beaches in Dubai like before, mostly everything is private property. Another thing is how many Kuwaitis where not in debt in 2001 and how now all are in debt in 2011. This is also the same with the states too, in 1980  most American saved or had saving accounts, now 2011 its all about who has the credit card or loan with a lower interest rate.

Maybe economic growth is not related to happiness, it seems the more the economy grows the less happy we are.  Google: Gross national happiness instead of Gross national product. 

After showing off to my partner how i added Digumz to Google maps, and how they got my mobile number, he said with a strait face: Qaiss, the Digumz store phone is on call forwarding to your mobile:p  Small or large a business is, politics is always there:)

give it a try, write Digumz on Google maps.

Slow as a turtle:p

Anyways these are a sample of the car branding i have done with the marketing team, will choose the one below. If any body knows a good place to make a car wrap, that would be a great help.

Let me say the place was crowded, very crowded. But what are people looking for and what are they buying? the crowd is 90% ladies, young and old. All looking for food. If you have food to sell that would be the place. As expected: accessories and clothe designers are the major sellers. Another note, my booth sucked and the colors came out all wrong, blue instead of xbox green.

One weird concept was a triangle restaurant, that sold everything in a triangle package, made no sense to me. If they were trying to save space with this genius concept i would understand, which i dont think so. Ask your self a question, why are milk packaged in rectangle cartoons and soda’s in cylindrical cans? you see with milk that expires fast storage is a main concern so wasting space cost money, but soda’s have long shelf lifes so no problems with storage. So now where does a triangle fall here?

As for my booth, i think yet to be analysed, let me say my first day is bad.