Neighbourhood Justice Centre Newsletter - Intentional or Accidental?

Received the Neighbourhood Justice Centre newsletter in the post recently.

They seem to like to highlight words with colours/bolding to reflect words within words (very tricky). Eg. NEIGHBOURHOOD JUSTICE CENTRE

But take a look at the words in the bottom right corner! Very interesting, especially considering they are here to help people with drug issues.



And a zoom in for you, if it is too small for you.

My ANZ Business Banking Experience

Don't get me wrong, I love ANZ.

I feel they have one of the best 'feels' about them - with their new branches, user-friendly forms, website, iPhone Internet Banking and so on.

But in signing up for a Business Account, I encountered a sub-par experience.

After signing up at ANZ.com, I received an email confirmation which told me exactly what was required to be brought in. When I made my way into the 293 Collins St (Melbourne) Business Branch to finalise the account, the Customer Service Representative in Booth 19 told me these requirements were wrong. He ended up being wrong. He sent me away and said I needed a Business Name Registration certificate to open a Business Account under a Sole Trader name. So I went away and queried it with my initial Customer Service Representative, who put it in writing for me that the Representative in Booth 19 was wrong, and that he should call him, or speak with his Manager if any further problems were encountered.

So I traipsed back into the Collins Street Branch, and the next teller (Booth 20) also told me the same as Mr. Booth 19 (I believe she was the one who informed Mr. Booth 19 initially). But after showing her the email correspondence she fumbled her way through setting up an account.

And in the process, complained to me about how she was screwed around the other day when signing up at another organisation for an account. Oh, the irony.

And then when depositing a cheque, the teller proceeded to deposit more into my account than what the cheque stated. I let them know, and they soon fixed it up.

If only there were a way to bill companies for wasting customer's time.

But it is all setup now, and I will happily continue to use the banking service of ANZ. Giving them the benefit of the doubt for this one-off, sub-par customer service experience.

Dress Standards for Members Reserve at Melbourne Cricket Club

Interesting.



http://www.mcc.org.au/sitecore/content/MCC/Website/Membership/Regulations/Dress%20Standards/Members%20Reserve.aspx

Google Fails Year 6 Maths!

When researching the Google AdWords content network, I came across the following sum on the AdWords Help page.



Now, remembering back to primary school maths class, there is an acronym called BODMAS, that helps us to work out such sums. (Which stands for Brackets, Order, Division, Multiplication, Addition, Subtraction. And is the order in which things should be calculated, to arrive at the answer.)

And when BODMAS is applied to the sum above, the answer is $1.17 (and not $0.48, as listed).

But credit be given to them, as they do list in words how they work out the answer, which is the main thing at the end of the day. I just thought this was a bit of fun.

http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=94661
http://www.easymaths.com/What_on_earth_is_Bodmas.htm
http://www.mathsphere.co.uk/resources/Year6Bodmas.htm

Interested in Human Behaviour, Psychology and Marketing?

Then you may like to follow my new Human Behaviour, Psychology and Marketing Blog.

Get Off The Speed. That Dog Is Not Your Child!

Ego Morphing

"The Marlboro Man. The ads caused consumers to switch brands because it was suggested they'd take on similar rugged traits."

Source: http://twitter.com/DrewEricWhitman

Are people now marketing within CAPTCHA codes?

Below is a snapshot of a recent CAPTCHA code that came up.



I'm unsure exactly what the '3' is for, but you get the idea.

This does however highlight the potential of using CAPTCHA codes for advertising or branding. eg. 'TrustRAA' could be one for the South Australian based users (a local advertising strap line for the Royal Automobile Association line of insurance products). Or 'VisitMelbourne' for the international 'visitmelbourne.com' campaign, for example. Or even 'BrinksterFreeHosting', to let people know about Brinkster's free web hosting (with no ads).

Disclaimer: There may need to be other random characters inserted within the CAPTCHA to ensure bots do not guess potential popular phrases (and thus defeat the original purpose of the CAPTCHA code verification).

Realtime comments on websites

Wow, was just on a retail website, and expected to be able to realtime comment on it (ala Twitter style*). LOL

The website was http://www.three.com.au/INQ and I just wanted to make the note that;
1. Twitter is where it's at now, and
2. The technology provided on the Three INQ is not that special, considering websites such as friendfeed.com and iPhone applications such as Fex that do the same thing. But, always good to be able to market a cool application that is simple to use.

*Meaning that I felt like I should be able to respond as if I were having a (Twitter) conversation with them. And for all users to be able to view other's comments.

Cool fashion blog

Am loving this cool fashion blog right now.

http://friendinfashion.blogspot.com/

Are you more likely to spend more when purchasing online?

Does anyone else find that they may spend more online than in a physical store?

I noticed I have just done this recently - when placing an order for books online. Amazon.com and other sites (such as BookDepository.co.uk) provide books for a lot cheaper than retail, so this makes it easier for a start.

But is it only the cost-effectiveness? Or can it also be contributed to the use of non-physical (electronic) money?

I know in poker the use of poker 'chips' is used, as opposed to 'physical' money. One reason for this is that users are less attached to chips than wads of cash. And thus more likely to gamble more.

I am fascinated by this concept.

Take a look at books online for 'Why We Buy' (Amazon.com)

---
My scenario: I spent a lot more than I would have in a physical book store, and also purchased a sole book from a separate site, for roughly what I may have over here in a physical store, when including postage (although not available over here in physical store). Perhaps it is also that I have been engaged with the site for some time - with my goal being to purchase these books from this site - and then human behaviour dictates that I follow through with my goal. Another factor could also be that when purchasing books online (and especially from overseas, for Australian users) is that one may purchase more items in one bulk order, to make postage costs work out effectively lower per item.

Another similar example is how making things easy for customers can increase sales substantially. Take for example Apple's app store. Customers have pre-entered their credit card details, so only have to use a simple once click process to make these small app purchases (plus enter their password in a popup window - a seemingly 'nothing' thing). If users had to enter their full contact and credit card details each time, sales would be overwhelmingly lower. Of note, is that Apple has created a model for this to be used, however this may not be applicable for all businesses.