1. Google’s Next Rest Stop? Gas Stations
***FS*** This is one of those little things that makes me go “whoa.. the world is getting pretty futuristic”.
2. Web Search Users Seeking CPG (consumer packaged goods) Info More Likely to Be Brand Advocates
***FS*** Interesting that “Over 50 percent of brand advocates write about their purchases online, with 90 percent writing something positive”.…Thanks Danno!~
This entry was posted by frankschilling on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 7:27 PM and is filed under
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This Google map-at-gas-stations thing might sound like a great idea…until you find youself behind people still scratching their heads over trying to use it…long after their tank’s full…and you’re in a hurry to get some(any)where.
Any gas stations foolish enough to implement this “won’t work as intended in real life” will lose far more business than they’ll gain…including mine.
***FS*** Y’know.. you’re prolly right Steve. This could be the payphone of the 2000′s.. the real stat-symbol is having the maps in your car… on your iphone
They just put in TV screens at my local gas station and guess what? I stood at the pump a good extra 10 seconds after I completed the transaction. Why? Because they were showing a local weather forecast. No one was behind me but as I drove away, I thought the very same thing. Multiply 10 seconds by how many customers per day per year, etc. How much extra wait time will trickle into the system during busy times? And at what point will the lines get so long that they affect business more than the revenue from running ads on the screens?
Local advertising via in-car GPS systems would make more sense to me. Living on an island smaller than most US counties, you might not appreciate the uptake of those things in the US and Europe, but I see more and more glowing displays on dashboards every day.
The GPS commercial in which the owner has an emotional relationship with his GPS unit resonates with me. My only gripe is that, at least in the unit I use (a Garmin nuvi 350 with all of North America and Europe), it would be good to have more information on local businesses than the static database in the unit.
That said, going mapless is a great way to enjoy the trip. On a recent drive from Zurich-Geneva-Chamonix-Turin-Milan-Zurich, I had bought a paper map at the Zurich airport, and never opened it.
Living in a city where there is a gas station next to a electrical substation and, even worse, a multi-tank gas storage facility next to a major substation, I gas up and get the hell out as quickly as I can.
Hanging by the pump looking for the nearest Walmart might mean you end up over by Walmart faster than you wanted.