Comments for Musings of a Marketing Maven

Comment on The Quest for the Perfect Yoga Mat by Christine

Christine — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:03:19 +0000

Thanks for your comment, but it appears to have nothing to do with yoga mats. I hope this is an honest mistake, not link-baiting in action.

Comment on The Quest for the Perfect Yoga Mat, Take 2 by Christine

Christine — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:00:15 +0000

Here is the link to my first blog post about the search for the perfect yoga mat:

http://christinethompson-blog.com/2009/06/25/the-quest-for-the-perfect-yoga-mat_231/

And by the way, I love the skidless yoga towels, although I note they lose some of their efficacy after multiple washings…

Comment on The Quest for the Perfect Yoga Mat by bakc

bakc — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 08:28:10 +0000

Leeks, a member of the onion and garlic family, have long been grown and cooked in Europe and the Mediterranean. Historians claim Nero ate leeks in soup regularly, thinking they were good for his singing voice. He may have gotten the notion from Aristotle who claimed the clear cry of the partridge was due to its diet of leeks. Only recently have they become popular in the United States.

Comment on The Quest for the Perfect Yoga Mat, Take 2 by Quality Yoga towels

Quality Yoga towels — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 07:55:40 +0000

I have read your article about the quest for the perfect yoga mat, take 2. It is very interesting and very informative. But I missed the take one of the article. I wish I can still have a chance to read that article.

Comment on “Open Table” for Yoga Bookings? by Christine

Christine — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:48:13 +0000

Brian, good luck with your new blog and your gig with Yoga Business News.

Thanks for sharing your perspective on Mindbody. Note that I have no business affiliation with Mindbody, nor am I (at least for now) in the business of yoga. I’m simply an enthusiastic student who can envision ways to broaden the practice of yoga. Making classes more accessible (from a scheduling convenience POV) is one way to do that.

Having said that, I’d be happy to discuss this idea with you.

Comment on “Open Table” for Yoga Bookings? by Brian Castellani

Brian Castellani — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 07:21:53 +0000

Just starting out on blogging so please be kind.

Ex-Yoga Journal employee, currently Yoga Business News. I too got a google alert and would love to discuss this.

Mindbody is a pos system, that sends newsletters and is the largest fish in the sea.

There are other companies out there. But mindbody has locally and internationally cornered the yoga market. There data is all up to date. Unless you individually code your site to pull data from each individual Mindbody schedule page, you wouldn’t be able to make it to market. Their iPhone app is instantaneous and works much like you describe above Christine.

OpenTable gets fees every time they book a dinner, this could work the same way maybe.

Comment on “Open Table” for Yoga Bookings? by Christine

Christine — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:21:28 +0000

Ivan, thanks for the thoughtful comment. I’d be happy to chat with you about Reservation Genie and its appropriateness for coordinating yoga bookings; however, I have no business affiliation with MindBody, so would not be in a position to put any of our ideas into practice. Given this, do you still want a conversation?

Comment on “Open Table” for Yoga Bookings? by Ivan

Ivan — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:50:26 +0000

Hi Christine,

I run Reservation Genie, a web-based service that competes in concept to Open Table. I use Google Alerts to notify any time a blogger talks about them…hence how I found this article. Our model is a little different than Open Table in that we are booking for restaurants, tours, and nightclubs. We’re working on golf courses and rental businesses. Interestingly enough…I don’t think it would be too hard to add Yoga studios. I’m not sure how MindBody works, but our system does allow you to search for availability at all restaurants in your town for specific times and party sizes. So if we had Yoga, we could implement that easily.

If you’d like to chat about it…I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts.

Cheers,
Ivan
Reservation Genie

Comment on Falling Out of Love with QuickBooks by Christine

Christine — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:48:30 +0000

Agreed. Your points are well stated. Perhaps I’m too much of an optimist, but I’d like to believe that Intuit is investing in some “listening software,” and is open to acting on the voice of their customers. (They used to be — it was central to their culture.) Wouldn’t it be nice if they redirect their software development back to what suits their customers best?

Comment on Falling Out of Love with QuickBooks by William Hopkins

William Hopkins — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:33:16 +0000

Intuit has graduated far beyond a software purveyor. It seems they make far too much money skillfully pitching financial products to customers. When one looks at the massive ripoff of the populace by bankers, insurance companies, and the like, it is no surprise that Intuit wants a piece of that action.. And they are doing it.

In addition, as your blog illustrates quite well, these “upgrades” (there’s an oxymoron for you) are first and foremost designed for the benefit of Intuit and not you. My latest “upgrade” (2010) demands more processing power than any application that operates on my small office LAN.

I’d switch except that my office manager and bookkeeper have been successfully propagandized to think that Intuit and bookkeeping are synonymous and I don’t have the time to persuade them otherwise. I only got it because they pestered me.

Don’t expect improvement without raising some dust. We are being had. We need to object, as you have done. We really ought to vote with our feet.

Cheers.