The world mourns the loss of Michael Jackson. The world rushes out to buy Michael Jackson’s music.

But stop the car. Over one-half of those customers didn’t actually leave home. They bought it from the comfort of their home, and set a record in the process.

The King of Pop is once again riding high in music sales following his untimely death last week, dominating Billboard charts in more than one category. Not bad for music that has been around a while.

The real story, though, is that, unlike when Elvis died and people flooded stores to buy LPs, 8-tracks and cassettes, now the majority are simply (legally) downloading his songs from iTunes. In the last week alone, some 422,000 MJ albums were sold, with 241,000 of them being digital downloads.

And for the record, MJ is now the first artist to sell over one million tracks in one week.

One must conclude that the sales spike is enhanced by e-commerce. Would the traditional pipeline have been able to accommodate such a change in demand in such short order? I doubt it. It takes time to physically move inventory through traditional channels. But when your inventory is digital, sales volume becomes a moot point. Bandwidth is the only concern.

It is only fitting that the King of Pop takes one more record (no pun intended) with him to the grave. For an artist who always pushed the envelope of his genre (who ever could have imagined Eddie Van Halen performing with a Motown artist?), snagging an e-commerce record is a thriller in its own right.

Dr “Off The Wall” Gerlich

The future of the web is in smart applications that are tailored to our needs. Simply having a smorgasbord of every tool imaginable is no longer sufficient for our busy lives. In fact, one could argue that the proliferation of sites has only served to complicate matters rather than simplify.

Which is why I was thrilled to read about Trackle, a new search engine that is completely customizable with “tracklets” so that only the information you want is at your fingertips. It takes the best aspects of RSS feeds, iGoogle widgets and news aggregators, and ties them all together into a manageable all-in-one application that is ever vigilant in finding exactly what you want.

And you can track almost anything. Basball scores. Stock prices. Air fares. Prices at Amazon. And even LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter invites.

In other words, Trackle is more than just a news aggregator. It is an internet life aggregator. And all your updates can be sent by email or text message.

While Trackle is not necessarily the slickest app in town, it is a solid move in the right direction. While we have become accustomed to having to having all the news that’s printed to fit on the web, we are also suffering from overload. Our daily web surfing has become akin to drying to drink from a fire hose, when all we really wanted was a few sips.

And I like the steady trickle of Trackle. Drink it up.

Dr “Trying To Regain Control” Gerlich

Sometimes all it takes is a little recession to cause people to re-evaluate their ways. Like now. The current recession has brought with it a sudden desire to be frugal. To delay. Or to rent.

In fact, this new type of consumer even has a name: Transumers. We are now witnessing an era in which cheap is chic, and rent is the rage.

And marketers, as always, are seizing the opportunity, and often leveraging the web to make it all happen. One example of this is ZipCar, the low-key, low-price urban car rental firm for folks who only need a car once in a while. Zipcars are available in most large cities. I saw many of them in Chicago and Boston on recent travels. When it costs $400 or more each month just to park your car, it makes sense to not own one.

Renting has been a tough pill for Americans to swallow in the past. Our consumerist culture is one of acquisition and retention (hence explaining all the junk we have at home). Even when renting made more sense, we often felt it more prudent to just go ahead and buy it (like a roto-tiller for the garden, or a carpet shampooer), because you never know when you might want to use it.

It is true that at the per-use level, the cost of renting may appear to be high. But the cost of ownership will likely be much higher, especially up front. Add in financing, and you get my point. Only if you find yourself using something frequently, and over the long term, does it really make sense to buy things.

Like housing. Apartments are nice if you only need short-term living arrangements, but there’s no equity (or tax deductions) in renting. And if you use a car frequently, ownership may very well be a good idea. But even then I find myself enjoying the enormous savings of driving well-maintained older (and paid for) cars around town, and then occasionally renting a newer model for an important long trip.

ZipCars is basically the parking lot version of RedBox video rentals…conveniently located and cheap, yet tied to an online shopping experience. And just like the BagBorrowOrSteal site we visited recently, they help take the bite out of a recession.

And put something to chew on back in our wallet.

Dr “An Idea Worth Inflating” Gerlich

Just when you think the Engine of Progress is revving at 7000 r.p.m., someone comes along and throttles everything. At a time when old-school BAM Blockbuster has been put on life support, and video-on-demand from Netflix, cable companies and others are trying to pull into the fast lane, along comes a hybrid that is so lean, mean and simple that someone should have thought of this a long time ago.

I’m talking about Redbox.

Combining traditional point of sale with internet communications, Redbox manages to bring a streamlined product line to the right place, time and price simultaneously. After all, who can argue with $1 movie rentals?

Each vending machine (and that’s what they really are) is connected to the internet, and phones home regularly. This helps management determine which movies to stock, and in what quantity. It also allows customers to reserve movies online at a specific machine.

And in case you haven’t noticed, those big red machines always seem to be located near food. McDonald’s. Walmart. Food in various stages of preparation.

After all, movie decisions are not made in the morning. They are made in the late afternoon and early evening.

At a time when the Old is trying to figure out not to die, and New is trying to get out of the starting block, In The Middle is running away with the prize.

Kinda like hitting the Pause button, eh?

Dr “Let’s Watch That Scene Again” Gerlich

In Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians (9:19), he says, “For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.” In the Christian context this has often been interpreted to mean that we (meaning those who believe) should become all things to all people, and thus try to meet everyone’s needs all the time.

While I disagree with such a simplistic interpretation (instead I think Paul really meant that he knew how to be “one” with someone regardless of who they are), I still see businesses trying to follow such a model. Like Walmart. It’s a tough job, but WM thinks they are up for the task.

I think it’s risky business, though. Show me someone trying to be everything to everyone, and I’ll show you someone who is no one to anyone.

The recession has very good to Walmart, driving millions more customers through its doors in search of bargains. Annual sales recently topped $400 billion; nearly one-half of USAmericans shop there each week. That’s something to write home about.

WM is coming at America with many guns a-blazing. Like a circus juggler, they are trying to balance low prices on staple items, yet adding ever more quality brands of clothing, electronics and household items in an effort to retain shoppers with higher incomes than its core target. Add in an online store that carries many thousand more items than can be found in the BAM environment, and you have the ghost of Sam Walton trying to stick is hand in every American pocket.

I’ll say it again: This is risky business. How can anyone simultaneously appease bargain-hungry lower income shoppers while not alienating the more exotic tastes of upper-middle classers? Can the oil and water of consumerism ever mix?

There is much to be said to sticking to one’s knitting. While at Harvard, we did several case studies on strategy and mission. The message in all was clear: Know who you are, and then be the best organization you can be within that scope. To try to reach beyond that without the expertise and/or resources is courting disaster. That’s not to say that mission cannot change over time, for we do indeed live in a dynamically changing world. But that’s not an invitation to be something you cannot or should not be.

I suppose one could argue that if anyone could pull this off, it would be Walmart. After all, they are the world’s largest retailer. But on the flip side, large objects have a tendency of falling harder.

Maybe WM needs to have separate income-based departments in its store (as well as separate entrances), wherein they could market more effectively to multiple target markets. Or maybe just have completely separate stores (like GAP does with Old Navy and Banana Republic). But their current approach is like trying to bring both sets of in-laws together for a dinner party.

I have no problem with WM leveraging its web business to effectively enlarge its retailing tent, but only if it is still within the scope of the business mission. And that’s where I have a problem. WM is greedily trying to use a simplistic Pauline interpretation and apply it to business.

Maybe that’s why WM stock has not flourished of late, in spite of increasing sales. Perhaps investors see the handwriting on the wall.

And if the Apostle Paul were alive today, maybe we could persuade him to write a letter to Walmart telling them to get it straight.

Dr “Know Your Target” Gerlich

The following is an essay I wrote to my fellow classmates upon the completion of the 2009 Harvard Management Development program. See if you can figure out how to apply it to your own journeys.

It was little over two weeks ago that I found myself packing for the trip to Harvard. Along with the usual clothes and personal effects I loaded two laptops (you never can be too safe, you know, especially when you’re teaching online), a couple of books, my folding bike, a Kindle and back-up iPod, and enough assorted other distractions to keep anyone occupied for a long time.

And it only took 5 minutes in the airport to realize that I had too much baggage for this trip. Way too much.

Suitcases make a perfect metaphor. We use them to haul our stuff around wherever we go. We pack them tightly with the things we hold dear, the artifacts of our lives we use Here that we think we might need when we get There.

I use the suitcase metaphor every time I teach Consumer Behavior. Right there in the first lecture I tell my students that each of us totes two big suitcases around with us every time we go shopping. We may not actually see them, but they’re there. One is filled with all the influences of the culture and society in which we live, our personal demographics and household structure. The other is filled with psychological elements such as personality, emotions, learning, motivations, attitudes, and enough junk to fill a few dissertations on the side.

These two suitcases shape pretty much everything we do, weighing heavily on defining who we are and what we want. Sometimes the culture suitcase has more influence; other times the psychobabble rules. And in all cases, we ask ourselves daily, “How in the world did I wind up with so much stuff?”

I should have known better than to bring so much baggage from Here to There. I never once opened those books. The back-up iPod sat in the bottom of my backpack. The second laptop gathered dust (thankfully). And the Kindle battery died of its own accord. You could say that I was busy seizing the moment, but I think the moment seized me.

So as I sit in the airport waiting to go from There back to Here, I can’t help but think that I have an extra bag with me this time. I can’t see it, but it’s heavy. Two weeks of intensive study and reflection have completely filled the suitcase of my mind. The only thing is, while I can quickly deal with my clothes, books and stuff when I arrive, I don’t think it will be quite so easy to unpack everything I have acquired while in Cambridge. I have a hunch I may be toting this one around for a long time, taking a little bit out here, a little bit there…and yet always finding One More Thing I didn’t know I had packed.

Or someone had packed for me. And you.

It’s easy to be sad when a chapter ends. The story of our lives is a book with many chapters. Yet the last word in the chapter does not signify an end. No, it merely serves as a pointer to the next. Here’s to The Next.

And now may you learn to depend on that Extra Suitcase, for it will clothe the mind whatever the climate may be. May you depend on the experience to guide you through to the next. And may you resolve to shun absolutes absolutely, knowing that every leadership situation requires a solution that can only be summarized as, “It depends.”

Happy unpacking.

Dr “Long Way To Go” Gerlich

Using the internet to market to people is so 1994.

What was once an intriguing new medium has now become passe. No, what’t hip and cool today is the phone app. And if you don’t have one, you can rank yourself right down there with those Neanderthals who never mastered fire.

There are now over 50,000 apps for the iPhone alone, and over 1 B-as-in-Billion have been downloaded.

It’s like we not only left the light on, we opened the door and welcomed the marketers in. “How many apps do you have on your phone?” is a frequent question I get from other iPhone owners, as if this were some sort of new status symbol.

Recently, Nationwide Insurance launched its iPhone app that allows its customers to file claims and reports from their phone. I am not sure necessarily that the convenience is all that great (I can only imagine how much information one might have to thumb-type), but the marketing power is huge.

So in addition to the usual assortment of Facebook and Twitter apps, along with cool games for my kids to play, I have an Amazon app that allows me to buy stuff, and a Kindle app that lets me download books to my phone.

But it’s not just about buying things or entertaining users (although that certainly adds a whole new dimension to things). No, it’s more about reinforcement. The message. The brand. The logo. All are driven home over and over via the phone app, and the Marketing Luddites who don’s get on this train have missed their calling.

And the best part about it all is that this is purely opt-in. Consumers have to willfully download the app at the iTunes store (whether it’s a free app or one for sale). This is far better than eyeballs that nearly passively tune in to a TV station, or ears somewhat in the vicinity of a radio station. No, this makes putting out the welcome mat take on a whole new meaning.

For those still wondering if this internet thing will ever take off, I urge them to turn up their ringer and take this call. It’s not a wrong number.

B-b-b-r-r-ring!!!

“Hello…wait just a minute. Hey internet boy…it’s for you. It’s the 21st century calling.”

Dr “Voice Male” Gerlich

With the virtually nonstop talk about social networking both in the media and in this course, it is an absolute breath of fresh air to see that…finally…someone has figured out that we do not need it to be everywhere. I believe in transparency, but only to a point. I was beginning to think that I couldn’t do anything online without it being made available to yet another circle of fans, friend and stalkers.

So I was thrilled yesterday to read that picture storage site Phanfare is ditching its plans to become just another gigantic online free-for-all.Turns out their users really didn’t want it.

Thank God (or insert the name of your favorite deity) someone finally woke up.

Now everyone who knows me, knows that I love the social networking phenomenon, certain sites, and the countless applications for marketing. But I never intended for this to be the benchmark application for all things related to the internet. We need a few safe havens in which we can simply lock the door and keep to ourselves.

Phanfare (with 11,000 subscribers) is much like SmugMug, another photo storage site with over 100,000 members (including me). Users can lock down what they want. They can even allow their pics to be sold (as well as printed on mugs, calendars and t-shirts). And, if they wish, they can fling open the door and treat it like a social network of sorts. Phanfare is following SmugMug in this regard.

Both sites are to be credited for treating a photo album for what it is: a very private book of remembrances. They need not be shared with the world (unless you want them to be). And to think that the world is hanging on every click of my shutter is simply absurd.

I wish I had been at Phanfare’s headquarters when they finally made this realization. It would have been worth a few pics.

Which I would have immediately posted on Twitter and Facebook. But that’s another story.

Dr “Say Cheese!” Gerlich

Hope springs eternal in the human breast. It is this endless fount of inspiration that fuels the entrepreneurial engine, and causes people and companies to do things that common sense might otherwise declare to be irrational and foolish.

Which is another way of saying that there’s a new kid in town.

ThisMoment.com launched yesterday, following a 6-month private beta test. Essentially, This Moment is yet another social networking site, but with a few new twists and turns. It is part Facebook, part Twitter, and 100% mashup.

The premise is this: Facebook is so “photo-albumy,” as is Flickr. Twitter is ADHD Goes Online. The new site seeks to bring together people who have experienced a particular event together.

Hence the name.

While I like the notion in concept, tough, I think its staying power is on shaky ground. Facebook already allows for creation of affinity groups that may very well be centered on an event (like the Facebook group someone has already created for my Harvard cohort).

Furthermore, we may be just about maxed out on social networking sites. How many more accounts must I create? I can hardly remember the ones I already have, much less one more new one.

And for most folks, our lives are already organized around many different, highly disparate events. I cannot fathom trying to compartmentalize my busy life into neat, tidy little folders of pictures, videos and text.

Wait, that sounds like something I can already do. And have done.

ThisMoment is a nice idea, but this train left the station a long time ago. It’s like the friendly folks who offered us sporks, combining elements of a spoon and fork. Sure, it may be convenient at times, but nothing beats using the real thing.

And that’s an idea I hope springs forth in the minds of other would-be entrepreneurs.

Dr “Wait A Minute…Doesn’t This Also Describe An iPhone?” Gerlich

Yesterday afternoon in class, the professor opened by telling us he was going to stage an auction. The winner would get a crisp new $1 bill.

The rules were pretty simple: Opening bid would be 20 cents, and bids would be only in 10 cent increments. High bidder would get the dollar bill.

Oh yeah…and one more thing. The second-highest bidder would pay the top bidder’s amount.

And so the bidding went, predictably racing up to the $1 amount. Then there was a lull as people pondered what was going on. But then it took off again, wit first three, and finally two, people duking it out all the way to $2.70. They quickly realized they were in an endless spiral, the and goal was to no longer win the $1 as much as it was to keep from paying for it.Good money chasing bad. A Fool’s Errand.

One sharp student surmised that this was actually like the peak of Cold War between the USA and Russia, 1953-1967. He was right, as both parties needed to save face more than anything.

But in a strange twist, this type of auction actually happens every day in the real world. And it’s right under our noses.

You see, those little text ads at the top and running down the right column of a Google search page are placed there by auction. Companies bid to be in the list, with the price spiraling ever higher. The only catch is that the top bidder gets the first slot, but pays what the second-place bidder bid; the second ad to be slotted pays what the third-place bidder bid, and so on.

And who wins this auction? Google, of course. Note that their stock price hangs steadily around $400 these days. Not bad for a recession.

It’s slightly more complicated than this (see the June 2009 issue of Wired Magazine for more information), but that’s the essence of it. Simply brilliant.

Other search engines had toiled with basic auction formulas in the past, but nothing ever stuck (or made money) like Google is doing now. There’s much more involved than just driving up the price; now you have to think about what the others are bidding so you can simultaneously try to win the auction, yet only pay the second-highest amount.

Just think. There are marketers out there bidding for your eyeballs. If that doesn’t make you (and Google) feel special, I don’t know what would.

Now who’s gonna give me a 5 for this 1?

Dr “We Have A Winner!” Gerlich