With so many apps out there, have you ever wondered when they’ll invent one that lets you pay for groceries from your smartphone? Well, thanks to several companies, a digital wallet is on its way! Here’s a look at how two options work:

• payWave (Visa) – This app allows Visa cardholders to use their smartphone to pay for items with their Visa card. According to Visa, cardholders will eventually be able to use their phone for a variety of services “including e-commerce, mobile commerce, micropayments, social networks and person-to-person payments. The wallet consolidates multiple Visa and non-Visa payments accounts and can be used in mobile, e-commerce, social network and retail point-of-sale environments.” How it works.

• Google Wallet (MasterCard) – Google reports that this Android app “turns a user’s phone into a payment device. Using NFC (near field communication) technology, users can pay by tapping their phone on MasterCard paypass terminals. As well as being able to make payments, users can also receive offers and store loyalty points via the app.” How it works.

What businesses need to know

payWave – According to Visa, its e-commerce technology will allow companies to “send alerts to your best customers in near real-time. Expand your loyalty offerings and exclusive deals and increase customer lifetime value. [Visa] connects payment and transaction services across online, mobile and retail channels and offers powerful business analytics, so you can focus on your business instead of payments and reporting.”

Google Wallet – Google’s website says its app allows businesses to:

• “Drive the right traffic to your store. Push offers to shoppers who are actively searching for your products in your area. Customers can save your offers with Google Wallet, then redeem them in-store – enabling you to analyze online marketing against in-store purchases.
• “Better serve your customers. Paying with Google Wallet is faster and more convenient. Instead of fumbling for cards, cash and coupons, your customers can simply pay with the tap of their phones.
• “Retain more customers. By storing loyalty cards on their phones, Google Wallet provides your customers with a convenient way to carry them.”

What about security?

Both payWave and Google Wallet have incorporated multiple layers of security into their apps. Features range from security codes and fraud monitoring to secure encryption technology and limited liability for unauthorized purchases.

Still, privacy advocates worry that hackers will be able to easily figure out a smartphone user’s PIN number – after all, most people aren’t very inventive when they create their security codes. On the other hand, credit cards and online payment systems have been vulnerable to hackers’ attacks for years – and most of us have survived such shenanigans.

Are you down for a digital wallet?

So now tell us if you will be using an e-commerce app anytime soon. Why or why not?

At jhP, we can appreciate a good deal. With the emergence of CJOnline.com’s Daily Deals, Deal Garden and Groupon in Topeka over the last month, consumers have more options than ever to save a few bucks. But from a business perspective we’re left wondering, “Is it worth it?”

How these sites work

The products and services one finds on a “deal a day” site – ranging from almost any dining option imaginable to car washes and teeth whitening – allow you to save from 50 percent to 90 percent off normal prices. Once a deal posts, usually around midnight, you have the option to purchase the product/service offered for a limited time.

However, these deals aren’t guaranteed. A certain number of units must be sold before the deal becomes “active,” locking in the savings. If the deal is not activated, you simply won’t be charged. Basically, such sites aim to offer wholesale-type pricing to the consumer with minimal effort.

A good deal – or limited appeal?

While such a promotion can be great for consumers, businesses should be cautious before jumping on the deal wagon. Not only are you required to offer at least half off a specific product or service, a portion of the revenue generated from the deal will be taken by the site offering the deal, along with a possible fee for credit-card processing. This leaves the participating business with a revenue stream that’s only a fraction of the normal product value.

It’s also important to consider how such deals will affect your customer base long-term. A recent Rice University study of 150 businesses running Groupon promotions shows that approximately one-third were unprofitable from the promotion (based on such factors as repeat business and spending beyond the value of the deal). Of the profitable businesses, only about 31 percent experienced repeat business from the deal.

Tell us your story

Several jhP team members have purchased one of these deals, but have you? Did you try a new place because of the offer alone? If so, did you go back to that business?

Businesses, have you participated in “deal a day” offers like these? We’d love to hear about your experience and insights on the impact the promotion had on your business.

I’m an opinionated person, and I usually know immediately how I feel about certain issues. But this week I came across a headline that left me utterly conflicted: “Feds propose graphic cigarette warning labels.” The article talks about a new campaign, announced by the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services, to add large, graphic images to the warning labels on tobacco product packaging. Check out one of their suggested new labels below (as shown on The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Flickr account).

Typically this is one of those issues that doesn’t have much grey area – you’re either for or against, right? True, but I wear two hats in this discussion – that of a prevention advocate and that of an advertising professional. Here’s my internal conflict …

Prevention Advocate:

I began my career in advertising while I was still in high school. How so? I joined the state board of TASK, Kansas’ youth-led tobacco prevention organization. Our mission was this: TASK promotes tobacco-free teens by uniting communities to create one strong voice standing against the tobacco industry.

At 16, my role in this organization was to help expose Big Tobacco’s manipulative advertising and marketing tactics to teens throughout Kansas. I have long felt it’s clear tobacco industries have no feeling for social responsibility, and care only about following the rules just enough so they can continue to sell a product that frequently kills their customers. I guess that’s why they need as much landscape on their tobacco packaging as possible – especially with recent regulations that prevent the use of many advertising mediums for their industry.

So, naturally, reading about the inclusion of graphic images on tobacco-product warning labels to tell you about the harmful effects of tobacco AND show it, caused me, Brie “Prevention Advocate” Engelken, to break into a happy dance! Nothing of this magnitude, in regard to tobacco-product packaging, has happened since the Surgeon General’s 1964 report linking tobacco use to cancer and other disease. That report led to requiring the surgeon general’s warning label on all tobacco product packaging.

Maybe these graphic images will finally make potential first-time smokers think twice before starting and cause borderline users to quit. It’s just one more opportunity to make a difference.

Advertiser:

As an advertiser, my industry is largely unregulated, with a few exceptions like food, pharmaceuticals and tobacco – and we as advertisers like it that way! I appreciate and see great value in the limited regulations we do have – most dealing with truth-in-advertising policies. While I’m lucky enough to work for a company that puts high-level emphasis on social responsibility, not everyone does. So minimal, common sense regulations, like truth-in-advertising, level our competitive playing field and make it fairer for all.

That said, as an advertiser, if my client’s legal product is already giving full disclosure of its side effects, is the inclusion of a large graphic image of those effects really necessary? Tobacco products aren’t the only ones with detrimental side effects. Pharmaceutical print ads already have to be jam-packed with side-effect disclosures – should they start including graphic photos of miscarriages, asthma and death as well? Should every Big Mac container feature a picture of clogged arteries? And should power saw ads boast shots of severed limbs? I’m thinking not.

The government is already limiting where and to whom tobacco companies can promote their products. They already have a clear warning that fully, and truthfully, discloses the effects of their product on their consumers. Is that not enough already? People know cigarettes kill. So why is it necessary to take over half of their packaging to graphically showcase their product’s side effects – and the top half at that? Shouldn’t the first step be to regulate a legal PRODUCT rather than regulate the way the product is PROMOTED? This industry is already prevented from advertising on television, radio, billboards, to children or sponsorship of sporting events. We’re slowly killing the industry with snow-balling regulations on marketing instead of building a safer industry with regulations on the product. Isn’t product regulation really what the FDA is for?

So there’s a glimpse inside my internal struggle – what do you think? What’s your conclusion? Is this new regulation on product packaging a life-saving benefit from kindly Uncle Sam or another example of an over-reaching Nanny State?

My Life Without Facebook:
Week 3

In case you missed it – I gave up Facebook for Lent.

Three and a half weeks down; three to go. Giving up Facebook has given me some unexpected extra time on my hands. At first that was refreshing, but after the newness wore off it quickly became lonely. Within just a few days of giving up Facebook I had an epiphany – Facebook’s so much more to me than just a time waster or a gossip/news site. It’s about being a part of something bigger than myself. That’s why people get involved in groups right? For me, it’s about staying connected with friends, and being included in a conversation I would not normally be included in. I may not engage in the conversation but that doesn’t mean I’m not following it – which is similar to standing with a group at a big party and listening to a conversation but not adding anything (come on, we’ve all perfected our head nods!). So needless to say, these past three weeks could have been pretty lonely. By day two it felt a little like I was already out of sight, out of mind.

Last week’s point was that if you can’t communicate with your customers/potential customers then how can you expect them to continue utilizing products or services they don’t even know about? Then, last Monday, my friend Melissa exhibited this point perfectly when she told me that if I give up Facebook again for Lent we can’t be friends anymore. Obviously, she’s kidding, but she showed me another way to look at last week’s message. Much like my lonely feelings from being unable to take part in the Facebook conversation, a business can be pretty lonely if it isn’t communicating with its customers. And if you’re like me – you might be trying to communicate with your audience, but if you’re not using the same communication tools they are, then it can get pretty lonely pretty fast!

So start talking. Find out where your audience gets their news and gossip. Learn where they spend their time and get a presence there. Make yourself top of mind and become part of the conversation. That’s just a little piece of the success puzzle.

A week’s worth of my rambling mind:

• I think I’m falling in love … with the band Safetysuit. Thank you Pandora for yet ANOTHER amazing recommendation!

• I just finished speaking to three VERY bright classes at Washburn University about jhP, marketing, advertising and, of course, Google’s Fiber Network Experiment.

• I’ve got SO many weddings and baby showers in the next three months that I just don’t think I’ll be able to knit everyone afghans … how about anniversary/1-year birthday gifts?

• I love Topeka, but I miss Manhattan. I need to get myself another one of these shirts! www.imissmanhattan.com

My Life Without Facebook:
Week 2

In case you missed it – I gave up Facebook for Lent.

This week was even more difficult than last. Last week my Facebook fast was top-of-mind to all my friends and family – this week the newness has worn off. People keep talking to me about things I would normally know about – expecting me to have a clue. But when I stop them and ask them to fill me in, I get the resounding “oh, that’s right, you’re not on Facebook.” And then there’s The Face.

“The Face” is the eye–squinting, wrinkled-forehead, pressed-lips look that you get when people feel sorry for you. I’m fairly certain I’ve used this look many times. Usually to communicate a feeling with others – typically when something has happened and I’m trying to show empathy to someone. Is that what my friends are doing to me? Feeling sorry for me? (NOTE: I’m exaggerating with that last line for effect – just go with it.)

But seriously, this past week proves one point I had hoped to make with this experiment – that you can’t communicate with your audience if you’re not using the communication tools your audience is using. If I could had been on Facebook this week, you’d know that I became of fan of my bank’s new Fan Page – CoreFirst Bank & Trust. Instead I have to wait until April to do so! And I would have known that Jayhawk Café, a new café in downtown Topeka’s Jayhawk Tower, had their grand opening. But I missed it because I didn’t know about it – I heard about it later that evening on the 10:00 news. Regardless, I’m managing. Not as effectively, or efficiently, as normal, but I’m making it through with a little help from my friends, family, co-workers and local media. Thanks everyone!

Here are a few other things you would have known if I could have been on Facebook this week:

•  WHAT!?!? There’s a Twilight “Scene It!” board game. How do I NOT have this?
•  Headed to the Heartland Visioning meeting! Can’t wait to hear all about their wonderful plans to revitalize Downtown Topeka.
•  Why are some stoplights in Lincoln horizontal and some vertical … did they just decide to buck consistency or does this madness have a real purpose?
•  Stupid friends – why aren’t you ALL on Twitter?! Okay you’re not stupid but my life would be easier if you were!