eTailment Summit & Expo a place to go?

I’m standing right in the middle of an old aeroplane hangar. Green painted steel pillars carry the extremely high and heavy roof. Pale light shines through the big yellowed windows at the end of this hall. The air is hot and dry. And there in the middle of this gigantic hall stands a real candy bomber.

The candy bomber in the networking area.

Yes I arrived at one of the biggest eCommerce business congresses in Germany: The eTailment Summit & Expo 2.014. A congress where you can also hear a lot about eCommerce, marketing, startups, big data and much more. 

But let´s start at the beginning:

I won two tickets for this big event and started to take a closer look. After I checked everything it seemed like everything would be perfect. The timetable sounded great, the event area was one of the coolest in europe and at least one ticket should cost 1300 €. So I went to Berlin, my bag full loaded with expectations. 

After a long, uncomfortable trip to Berlin I arrived at Tempelhof, an old airport which is an event area now. Big trade shows like the Bread & Butter take place here every year. A real impressive place for every event. I couldn't wait to get inside, so I speeded up really massive without even noticing. For one moment I forgot everything around me. I nearly even forgot my girlfriend, who traveled with me.

Fortunately I didn’t forget her completely and we entered the expo together. The expo itself was not very special. Of course all the big players where there, but at the whole expo there was no real eye-catcher with new or innovative ideas. So we went to the next hall pretty fast. The hall where the summit took place. I found myself in front of a huge stage with three big monitors on it and really had to say the location was awesome. It seemed like the organizers know what they did, and they did it good.

But after these first extremely stunning impressions I started to listen to some talks, presentations and discussions. Unfortunately I have to say, the high level of the location couldn’t took higher by the speakers. That wouldn´t have been a problem, if they would have been able to even hold this level. But they weren’t. 

I heard a lot of talks about the future of eCommerce, Community & Content, Mulitchannel, Online Marketing und many more. But after all this talks I have to say there was nothing new. I don´t think the talks were bad. They are just as old as the topics itself. Every “new” idea someone talked about, was an idea which is in discussion for at least one year now. Of course you will not find brand new ideas on every congress you are a part of, but it´s frustrating to see guys selling their “new” ideas and everyone in the audience (who read something about the market the last year) know exactly what the speaker wanted to say. 

On the other hand some of the best practice talks on the startup and the best practice stage were really interesting. Of course you are not able to find completely new ideas here. But some of these talks really showed how things could get down practical, without unreal expectations and fancy technology thoughts.

The lesson is clear: The eTailment Summit & Expo is a good place to building up a network with very important people and it`s definitely a good chance to get an overview about the whole eCommerce scene.  But if you want to get the newest ideas and inspirations this business congress might not be the place where you should go.

Better than Sex

What a easy but very funny sign. I found it in the streets of Berlin. 
And yes it worked. The coffee was also pretty good.

Well done by the guys of the digital eatery.

Marketing Manuals

Why do so many companies treat potential users so much better than existing users? You think thats false? So why do we have nice and colorful brochures while our user manuals look like a piece of paper no one will ever read?

Colorful Brochures

I know there are some topics where we are forced by law to place it on give places, like the warnings. But isn´t it possible to make your manual more like a brochure? Where your costumer looks something up when he have problems and don´t read fora on the internet. The first question you will hear if you talk about this topic with you boss will be: „How much does it cost?“

Yes it will cost some money, but there is a opportunity to make it really profitable for you and your company. By making your manual nicer and easier to unterstand, you will create a user with more skills. He will earn those skills by using and reading your manual. He will unterstand the product like never before and he will be able to solve problems with much less stress. Your costumer will be happier with the product and he will more and more become a fan of it. 

If you made it to this point, you are a part of the team that will win. Because passionate fans of your product will evangelize our product or service far more credibly and honestly than you can. They will sell the product for you just by talking about it in a good way. And they will talk about it in a good way.

New media, new opportunities. 

But to make you costumer feel like this about your product you may have to go some new ways. We live in a time where online is the new normal. Have you ever thought on not just give your costumer a nice print version of the manual, but offer them the possibility to discover your product through an app for example. You should be able to mix up the facts the costumer should learn together with some fun so your costumer really use the product manual.

There are already some companies trying first steps in this field. For example Audi offers their costumers the possibility to get informations about every function you can adjust from the drivers seat. You just scan the part where you want some informations about with the camera, an app will recognize which part is in front of you and will give you the informations you need. I know Audi is a big concern with a lot of money, but maybe we all are able to adopt something to our marketing plans and maybe be one of the first trying some new ways to sell the products and services.