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It might have been going on for months, but I have just heard about Best Buy releasing its entire product catalog as API- meaning "almost" anyone can take the electronics giant's entire database of products and use it any way they want.

It might not sound like the most exciting thing ever, but it's great example of a brand opening up and providing utility.

Here are some examples directly from the Best Buy site of how this stuff is being used.

Twitter bot

This is a simple example demo of the product api, a Twitter bot that  will return terse amount of product data to requesting user as direct message. (ie: "d <user> [msg]")
Using the bot:
1. Sign up for Twitter (skip this step if you already have a Twitter account)
2. Follow bbyremix
3. The bbyremix bot will follow you
4. Issue the find command to bbyremix using the syntax "@bbyremix find 1234567" where 1234567 is the SKU id you're looking for.

Updates:
[11/23/08]: You can now search for music, movies, games and hardgoods. Examples:

• @bbyremix find music U2
• @bbyremix find movie Batman Begins
• @bbyremix find game Farcry 2
• @bbyremix find hard ipod
  

SKU lookup gadget
1. go to www.igoogle.com
2. Log in
3. Click on "Add Stuff>>", on the upper right side of the page
4. Click on "Add Feed or Gadget" on left side bar at bottom
5. Copy this url into the field http://api.remix.bestbuy.com/widgets/lookup_sku.xml
6. Click OK
7. Click OK on popup
8. Click back to igoogle (top left of page)
9. Try it out (it will probably be the iframe on the top left)...plug in a sku like 8842568

Countdown gadget
This widget is a widget that allows users to say that they are waiting for a product to be released. Example: I am dieing to have a Wii so I am going to have a gadget that gives me a count down to when the Wii is going to be available in stores.



Posted by Ed Cotton Not content with being in everyone's pockets and in their ears, Apple's iPod is carving out a position of ubiquity by being "dockable" anywhere you might want it to be and the places you probably don't.

Does this ecosystem ensure societal permanence for iPod, or does its very ubiquity ultimately become a turn off?

Now available on freezers and dozens of other household devices.


Posted by Ed Cotton

Posted by Ed Cotton "Advertising is a tax you pay for unremarkable thinking."

Robert Stephens, founder of GeekSquad

Via Social Customer Manifesto


Posted by Ed Cotton In the last few days, research sources confirmed Vizio, an American company, as the market leader in US sales of flat screen televisions.

This marketplace had been dominated by the big Asian brands like, Sharp and Samsung.

Vizio is now a $2 billion company, which is amazing, considering it was founded just 4 years ago. Its secret has been to leverage the excess supply in the marketplace to cost effectively produce flat screen televisions that look as good as the major brands.

However, perhaps the greatest contributuon to the brand’s success has been it’s ability to build out distribution, first by creating a strong foundation with Wal-Mart and then reaching out beyond the giant to the other players.

Incidentally, the company has just 85 employees in its Orange County HQ and spends less than 1% of sales on advertising.



Posted by Ed Cotton Here at Influx, we are big fans of the “Sense and Simplicity” brand initiative that Philips has deployed in various guises over the past couple of years.

Its been part of an advertising campaign, but it’s more substantive, its become a set of guiding principles that define the company’s direction.

“Sense and Simplicity” seems appropriate in the developed world, where people are looking to strip the complexity out of their lives.

How about the developing world?

Philips is also applying the same principles to these markets and is creating special products to meet their very different needs.

One example is a woodstove that consumes less electricity and reduces the toxic indoor pollution that accompanies most traditional cooking sources.


Source:Philips

In addition to the stove, Philips has some innovative lighting solutions that it’s been testing in India: a rechargeable, weatherproof, portable lamp and a hand-held, hand-cranked LED flashlight that provides 30 minutes light for every minute of cranking. (shown below)




Source: Philips


It's interesting to see how this brand  platform is gaining more potency as it expands its global footprint and finding new applications over time.