stuff4business.com

Apple is apparently seeking to patent a system that would make it possible for customers to use a wireless gadget to place an order at a cafe or fast-food restaurant and pickup the order without waiting in line.
If the “wireless communication system” described becomes a product, then it would transform Apple into more than a computer and iPod maker and online seller of music and VIDEO. Instead, Apple would also become a middleman between restaurants, cafes, and possibly other merchants and their customers.
Apple as usual refuses to comment on any future products, but its patent applications can provide a hint as to where the company is at least thinking about heading. In the latest filing, Apple is apparently looking at going beyond its recent deal with Starbucks, which enables coffee drinkers to download music and VIDEO to their iPhones while enjoying a latte.
The latest application, filed Dec. 20, described a system in which a person approaching a cafe, fast-food, or take-out restaurant could place an order that would be received by an in-store computer. The person’s order would be treated as if the customer was standing in line, which means they would be served before people placing orders after the remote order arrived.
The remote customer would receive a confirmation that the order was received and the approximate time it would be ready for pickup. The notification could be displayed as text or an image on the device’s screen, or it could come via an audible message played through a device’s speaker or earphones.
Orders could be placed through a media player, wireless PDA, or cell phone. The obvious benefit to customers would be in avoiding the wait in line to order their favorite coffee drinks or hamburgers.
But the system would also have benefits to restaurant owners beyond providing better service. Each customer using the system would get a unique identifier for tracking the establishments they visited and what they bought. The information would be stored in the devices and synchronized with the computers of participating merchants.
The patent doesn’t address security or privacy issues, nor does it give specifics on the kinds of establishments Apple would be targeting with the system.

.

… Don’t miss any of our twice daily postings of NEW IDEAS, Subscribe NOW in your RSS reader

.

Thrifty is best known as a car rental service. But now, they also rent trucks and in order to promote this service, they used the following marketing campaign.

.

… Don’t miss any of our twice daily postings of NEW IDEAS, Subscribe NOW in your RSS reader

.

Whatever your belief (or lack of it) I would like you to accept my my warmest good wishes for you and your loved ones festive Celebrations.

Tis the season to be jolly, even if it is only to make the ones that really piss us off, murderously jealous.

This has absolutely nothing to do with anything that I can think of…

Maybe it has something to say about recalcitrant employees that seem to spend too much time hidden from action, or maybe it’s a new way to greet house guests and warn off unwelcome family members over the festive season.

It’s certainly more interactive than the photocopying of private parts, that seems to be the obligatory activity at most office Christmas parties.

Or maybe, it means nothing more than OUCH!… a sort of visual onomatopoeia.

Frankly I don’t care what it means, I just think it’s a very powerful image that everyone will identify with, with a graphically imagined, inner cringe.

Personally, I would use it on a debt collection letter to say:

“I know paying bills is a pain in the tender parts, but, without prompt payment of the attached account now …. days overdue, my whole business could go down the toilet…?

How would you use it?

.

… Don’t miss any of our twice daily postings of NEW IDEAS, Subscribe NOW in your RSS reader

.

I’m a sucker for pretty party hats, and a constant sufferer of self inflicted headaches, so these clever adds for yet another paracetamol product, really caught my attention.

.

… Don’t miss any of our twice daily postings of NEW IDEAS, Subscribe NOW in your RSS reader

.

Now let’s get this perfectly straight before I say how good it is…

I think people who torture their bodies with all this silly running around and sweating stuff are a couple of bricks short of the full barrow load.

I don’t really mind how they choose to waste their precious spare time, but I get really pissed off when I’m standing outside (bloody new legislation!) having a quiet cigarette, and they ponce past disrupting the peace with the constant pond pound pound of their stupidly expensive runners (made by child labour in third world countries) and their sickeningly smug superiority.

After all, where are they running to? The same emergency ward as me, where we will have to compete for attention? Shouldn’t all sports equipment carry a health warning too?

Anyway, all this is just my rambling way of saying: The photos above are a clever way of promoting Nike (as if they need my disdainful approval)

Now how about a few signs for smokers!!!! We are addictive consumers as well.

.

… Don’t miss any of our twice daily postings of NEW IDEAS, Subscribe NOW in your RSS reader

.

Heres a powerful way to warm your patrons of the dangers of driving after a little too much of the seasons good cheer.

After all, If they get locked up or worse still, bent a little, they will have far less time and money to spend with you.

Maybe it needs a Christmas bell or two just to add a seasonal touch!

.

… Don’t miss any of our twice daily postings of NEW IDEAS, Subscribe NOW in your RSS reader

.

Here’s a pleasant and highly memorable relief from all those signs that lecture and instruct us to: don’t do this, and do, do that…

It’s not easy to find a humorous way to tell dickheads not to kill themselves like previous dickheads have. Most of them are probably partially brain dead and illiterate anyway.

In fact, it has been argued by some unkind persons (who will remain unnamed) that this is natures way of riding us of these genetically inferior morons.
.n fact it has been argued by some

… Don’t miss any of our twice daily postings of NEW IDEAS, Subscribe NOW in your RSS reader

.

How clever is this? With a simple piece of paper and an adhesive sticker they have captured the attention and imagination of their target market.
This simple guerrilla marketing campaign for the ski resort of Mont Grand-Fonds in Canada was created with blue paper and simple stickers.

Agency: Cossette Communication Marketing

.

… Don’t miss any of our twice daily postings of NEW IDEAS, Subscribe NOW in your RSS reader

.

This is an absolute “MUST HAVE” Christmas decoration for every business.

If the humble beer bottle is a bit below your station and would risk your high class reputation, then make yours out of French Champagne Bottles.

As your newly appointed Martha Stewart, I must advise you, the bottles must be empty, if you need a little help with this, simply email me, as I’m always ready to help a worthy cause.

“Tis the season to be jolly…  Jolly Drunk”

.

… Don’t miss any of our twice daily postings of NEW IDEAS, Subscribe NOW in your RSS reader

.