"...Personal responsibility. Not leaving it to others. I am my planet’s keeper."

- Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Colliers International is all about our commitment to sustainability and being a company dedicated to green...we even have the up-coming annual "green" Knowledge Leader issue to look forward to (should ship out September 10) and our "Green Themed" North America Marketing call, scheduled for September 10.

But being a company focused on green means adopting "green values" in our external, and our internal business. How can we focus on being a more green marketing and design department?

Paper | Start evaluating how much paper you use and where you can cut back. Instead of printing endless mock-ups for a broker or team approval, send a PDF via e-mail for approval. Also, keep a box of scratch paper that has been printed on one side, and print again on the other side... this is especially effective if you must print e-mails, otherwise avoid it all together. And why not add a tagline to your e-mail signature in Outlook? Something along the lines of this:

Save paper, please read this email online!
As part of our commitment to environmental sustainability, we ask that you think before you print.

Lights | Next to a window? Keep the lights off and use natural daylight! Otherwise, approach your building services department about purchasing compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) for your office space, which use approximately 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer.

Email Campaigns, Not Postcard Campaigns | Nancy Brady has launched a genius marketing idea in her Colliers Vancouver office - eliminating print campaigns. With each printed, paper-marketing mailing, she includes a half sheet of recycled paper. This sheet explains to clients that they can opt-out of mail distribution by sending in their e-mail address, therefore receiving PDFs instead of print. Not only does this eliminate the number of items printed, but it also establishes a client database system--to be used later, which is a great example of Permission Marketing.

Newsletters, Announcements, Publications | Do you create a newsletter for your brokers or clients? How about sending it out via PDF in an e-mail like we do with Marketing & Communications Matters or Broker Update? Or even cooler--create an eBook version!

Events or Tradeshows | Is your Colliers office sponsoring or holding an event or attending a tradeshow? Why not print your Colliers sign with a green sign company? Check out Green Banners.

Sarah Laudig in the Portland Colliers office demonstrated her commitment to green during a recent event she planned for their market. Instead of giving away junk that everyone would throw away, such as keychains, pens, etc., she gave recyclable, reusable green logo'd Colliers bags that people could later use for groceries, gym clothes, etc. The most amazing part about it--each bag was less than $1!

Marketing Collateral | Printing local-level specialized marketing collateral? I know you are; we saw a lot of great examples during ACME judging time. Are you working with your printing vendor to print these on recycled papers? You should be!

How do you demonstrate Colliers commitment to green in your office?

UPDATE: Melanie Kosach in Phoenix wrote "Tips for a Green Marketing Department." It's available on eResource, of course:
Marketing Tools>Tools & Templates>Green Marketing Tools
You can also find "Tips for Green Events," green advertising, etc.

Some ideas courtesy of and adapted from allgraphicdesign.com. Thank you!

So here's how we do it at rentoid.com

We have a live chat session with our people. Answer all their questions, assess their concerns and just get to know them. Tonight we are doing it at 7.30pm Aust Syd / Melbourne time.

Go here to log on: http://rentoid.com/live

You can see the startup blog author in action live and see if he (me) can deliver it all live. So tune in, tell your friends and get a shout out!

(via Corporate Publishing Lounge)

Today I think marketing can be fun and interesting. That's because I've read Seth Godin's Permission Marketing and Jay Conrad Levinson's Guerrilla Marketing. Now I want to help others to create and implement a marketing plan.

I'm always reading books and then go visit the author's websites. I've compiled some of my favorite business books into a bookstore and encourage you to go visit my bookstore and buy a book. You'll find Ken Blanchard's Raving Fans, Seth Godin's Permission Marketing, and many more.

I also encourage you to visit Seth Godin's blog. Find out how you're doing with your marketing with Robert Middleton's Marketing ScoreCard.

Have fun reading and learning more about how to market your business.

Jeg synes McNeil Denmark skal have et thumbs up for markedsføringen af deres allergiprodukter.

Kort fortalt kan du på eks. benadryl.dk tilmelde dig et pollenvarsel, der tikker ind på din mobil om morgenen kl. 07.30, hvis der forventes særligt høje pollental den pågældende dag.

Det er (permission) markedsføring med en utrolig høj grad af relevans for produktets målgruppe. Produktet gør det i forvejen, men selve markedsføringen kan rent faktisk også redde en hårdt ramt allergikers dag.

Smukt!

It recognizes the new power of the best consumers to ignore marketing. It realizes that treating people with respect is the best way to earn their attention.

Pay attention is a key phrase here, because permission marketers understand that when someone chooses to pay attention they are actually paying you with something precious. And there's no way they can get their attention back if they change their mind. Attention becomes an important asset, something to be valued, not wasted.

Real permission is different from presumed or legalistic permission. Just because you somehow get my email address doesn't mean you have permission. Just because I don't complain doesn't mean you have permission. Just because it's in the fine print of your privacy policy doesn't mean it's permission either.

Real permission works like this: if you stop showing up, people complain, they ask where you went.

I got a note from a Daily Candy reader the other day. He was upset because for three days in a row, his Daily Candy newsletter hadn't come. That's permission.

Permission is like dating. You don't start by asking for the sale at first impression. You earn the right, over time, bit by bit.

One of the key drivers of permission marketing, in addition to the scarcity of attention, is the extraordinarily low cost of dripping to people who want to hear from you. RSS and email and other techniques mean you don't have to worry about stamps or network ad buys every time you have something to say. Home delivery is the milkman's revenge... it's the essence of permission.

Permission doesn't have to be formal but it has to be obvious. My friend has permission to call me if he needs to borrow five dollars, but the person you meet at a trade show has no such ability to pitch you his entire resume, even though he paid to get in.

Subscriptions are an overt act of permission. That's why home delivery newspaper readers are so valuable, and why magazine subscribers are worth more than newsstand ones.

In order to get permission, you make a promise. You say, "I will do x, y and z, I hope you will give me permission by listening." And then, this is the hard part, that's all you do. You don't assume you can do more. You don't sell the list or rent the list or demand more attention. You can promise a newsletter and talk to me for years, you can promise a daily RSS feed and talk to me every three minutes, you can promise a sales pitch every day (the way Woot does). But the promise is the promise until both sides agree to change it. You don't assume that just because you're running for President or coming to the end of the quarter or launching a new product that you have the right to break the deal. You don't.

Permission doesn't have to be a one-way broadcast medium. The internet means you can treat different people differently, and it demands that you figure out how to let your permission base choose what they hear and in what format.

When I launched my book that coined this phrase 9 years ago, I offered people a third of the book for free in exchange for an email address. And I never, ever did anything with those addresses again. That wasn't part of the deal. No follow ups, no new products. A deal's a deal.

If it sounds like you need humility and patience to do permission marketing, you're right. That's why so few companies do it properly. The best shortcut, in this case, is no shortcut at all.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/01/index.html

Süß.

Manchmal frage ich mich ernsthaft, auf welchem Planeten diese Leute leben. Hat er denn keinen Payback-Account? Ist er nicht bei Xing? Noch nie mit Kreditkarte bezahlt? Kein Profil bei Neu.de, der Herr Datenschutzbeauftragte?

Wir alle geben doch unsere Daten längst freiwillig her. Für zwei Prozent Rabatt bei Obi oder eine Teflonpfanne für die Hälfte bei Kaufhof. Also: Die Sache mit der Datenvermeidung ist längst durch.

Aber kaum jemand (Endesunterfertigter ausdrücklich eingeschlossen) kapiert, wo das Problem ist.

Ich stelle mir nur mal vor, jemand wie die GfK (also noch nicht jemand wirklich böses) hätte Zugriff auf alles, was von mir so im Internet rumschwirrt: Mailaccount bei Web.de, rund 150 meiner Geschäftskontakte auf Xing, Profile bei Digg, Twitter, Skype, mein Google-Account - und nicht zuletzt dieses Blog.

Ja was will man denn noch mehr? Ein ordentlicher Software-Roboter wüßte dann alles über mich. Oder zumindest vermeintlich.

Ein Beispiel: In meinen Xing-Kontakten gibt es eine Mitarbeiterin einer bestimmten politischen Partei. Außerdem zwei Leute, die bei einer politischen Stiftung angestellt sind, der man eine gewissen Nähe zu ebenjener Partei nachsagt. Bin ich also ein Wähler dieser Partei? Ein Software-Roboter würde vielleicht sagen: Ja.

Das muß nicht stimmen. Aber je mehr Informationen über mich der Roboter hätte, umso "schlauere" Annahmn über mich könnte er treffen.

Mein Problem ist: Ich möchte gerne, dass man auf Xing mein Netzwerk sehen kann. Aber ich möchte auf keinen Fall, dass jemand daraus falsche Schlüsse zieht. Oder, schlimmer noch: korrekte Schlüsse.

Meine informationelle Selbstbestimmung ist damit längst im Eimer. Und bis zu einem gewissen Grad verstehe ich jeden, der jetzt in Panik verfällt und seine Visa-Karte verbrennt.

Aber eigentlich wären das die Aufgaben für den Datenschutzbeauftragten. Ich wünsche mir von ihm nicht, dass er alles verhindert. Ich wünsche mir besseren Durchblick. Was genau macht Payback mit meinen Karten? Kann ich einen Google-Account riskieren, oder mache ich mich damit völlig gläsern? Wer erfährt, welche Bücher ich bei Amazon gekauft habe?

Diesen Durchblick brauchen wir nicht nur aus hehren Gründen. Wir brauchen ihn auch, damit die digitale Wirtschaft funktionieren kann.

Denn nur ein Verbraucher, der keine Angst hat, wird am Empfehlungs-Marketing teilnehmen, seine Top-Ten-Pornovideos bei Amazon veröffentlichen oder in einem Blog-Kommentar seine Meinung über den Bundesdatenschutzbeauftragten hinterlassen. Die Leute müssen glauben (können), was Google bloß von sich behauptet: "Wir tun nichts Böses".

“Permission Marketing”  lo si può tradurre in italiano con “il marketing del consenso”, ovvero un modo di comunicare consapevole, mirato, capace di attirare la vera attenzione del cliente. Lontano dal bombardamento sulla folla, chiamato Interrupt Marketing (quello diventato ormai tradizionale, fatto di direct marketing, email marketing, spot pubblicitario ecc.).
L’obiettivo del permission marketing è “Turning strangers into friends and friends into customers” ovvero “Convertire gli estranei in amici e gli amici in clienti”.

 Il marketing invasivo continua comunque ad essere un grande protagonista nel grande mercato della saturazione markettara. Vedi i dati dell’ultimo rapporto di ContactLab e di Kiwari .

Si parla di email:
“Cinquanta milioni di caselle di posta (2,6 per utente Internet) con quasi venti messaggi inviati quotidianamente da ogni utente sono i dati principali indicati dal rapporto che indica le donne e le persone nella fascia di età fra 35-54 anni come i più assidui utilizzatori dell'e-mail che non viene utilizzata solo tramite il pc, ma anche grazie ad altri device come cellulari o Blackberry.

Il 17% dell'utenza Internet settimanale dichiara di avere accesso alla mail con dispositivi mobili, per complessivi 3,3 milioni di individui. Inoltre solo il 4% degli utenti dichiara di non essere iscritto ad alcuna mailing list per il quale oltre il 50% degli utenti si iscrive con l'indirizzo principale.
Il 44% ha attivato il caricamento delle immagini di default, il 15% le rifiuta e circa il 40% lo fa manualmente. Due terzi degli utenti non aprono le mail di dubbia provenienza, il 35% utilizza la cartella antispam e in molti ricorrono all'unsubscribe quando la mailing list non interessa più.”

Insomma, sembra che il mondo-newsletter vada bene, benino tòh.

It's a common affliction -- communications on 'cruise control'.  Marketers and public relations churning out newsletters, magazines, brochures, whitepapers, news releases and blog posts because ... well ... because they always have ... or the competitors are ... or that's what the people there know how to do ... whether or not anyone is paying attention.  Why? Well, it's easy.  Budgets are predictable.  You just keep heading down the road...

...until you find out that your customers and constituents are on another road entirely. The challenge today is that we're in a period of transition.  "They" are not relying on print media.  Or social media.  Or websites.  Or blogs. Or text messages.  Or newsletters. Or webinars. Or podcasts.  Or RSS.

They are relying on all of it.

There are too many choices for communicators and too many choices for audiences.  They expect you to deliver what they want, but you can't deliver everything.

What to do? Companies should audit their communications regularly -- find out what they are communicating, how they're doing it and if it's working. As you do this, I'd recommend thinking about some long term trends and how they apply to your company:

• Print is special.  Don't waste it. Newspapers are in trouble, but many magazines are thriving.  More and more, it seems, there's a backlash against getting junk in print. For most regular communcations, it's wasteful and time consuming.  Unless it has a purpose, a value, a depth or even beauty that can't be reproduced any other way.
• Choice is here to stay. Offering email alerts and RSS feeds is easy and inexpensive.  So is setting up an RSS feed for your news feed. Does your audience know this? Then they'll expect it.
• "Opt-in" beats "Opt-out". With multiple communications channels into every customer and contact, there is a rising need to manage multi-channel permissions. Even for current customers -- is a mailing appropriate? Email? What about a text message?  There are those out there who believe that any uninvited contact -- even from a current vendor -- is a breach of privacy. While most are not so extreme, isn't it better to communicate with someone who asks for your message, that to be ignored by someone who didn't?

Have you done a communications audit lately?  What would you add to this list?

Seth Godin était un visionnaire en 1999 quand il a écrit son livre Permission Marketing. Depuis que le courriel est devenu un moyen de communiquer majeur, la réception de courriels non-sollicités est en expansion et vous devez être comme moi et jetez sans lire tout ce qui ne vous intéresse pas, que vous n'avez pas demandé ou reçu par un ami ou connaissance.

En demandant la permission de recevoir vos communications (newsletters, envois promotionnels etc...) par un "opt-in" vous obtiendrez plus qu'une autorisation mais une attention car le lecteur a choisi de vous lire. Cette attention a beaucoup de valeur.

Comment inviter les gens à recevoir vos communications ? Il suffit d'utiliser une plateforme comme "Campaigner" ou Akio en France. Oui cela coûte de l'argent mais d'un autre côté vous gagnerez le respect et l'intérêt de vos prospects car ils se sentiront respectés.

You did a great job on my car, fixed the glove box brilliantly. You sent a follow up letter which was brief and to the point, you did everything right. Except you put a sticker on my back window without asking me and in a spot I was unlikely to see until the next time I put my guitars in my car.

Which happened a couple days ago.

Permission marketing is just that, it requires permission. Otherwise you're just forcing yourself on people, and that doesn't work anymore. Earn people's trust, respect their time AND their dollar. Don't try to put words in their mouths, because that only works as long as you're in the room, and you don't have time to be there in the room with everyone of your customers (even if you did, you'd just breed resentment, not loyalty).

The rest of this post is available at Marketing Magazine.

The trouble is finding the balance in the church.  There are several reasons. 

By our nature, we are compelled to go and reach out to people.  Especially people who are not interested in us. 

Then there are the folks who are just discovering marketing, who think that if they send you just enough postcards with their logo on it you will succumb and join their church. 

My family and I recently visited another church in our city.  It was a great experience with lots of really neat people.  They have a great environment and you can tell that people really enjoy being a part of the family there.  It would be a great place to attend church.

I always fill out the first time visitor card.  My theory is that I would like people to do that at my church, so I reply in kind.  There was the requisite thank you and information pack about the ministry.

Just the other day, though, I received another letter from them.  This time it was about their upcoming Vacation Bible Camp.  I thought that was cool until I started reading the letter.

Included with the letter were several door hangers.  The letter started at the top by asking in big letters, "What can your family do to make our Vacation Bible Camp successful?".  It was suggested that we put the door hangers around our neighborhood to advertise. 

We had been to that church one time.  And now I was being asked to go to the other people where I lived and advertise for them.

Now I certainly want their VBC to be successful, but I am not the right target for this letter.  Send me something inviting my kids to attend.  Instead of ads, maybe include a neat little trinket.  I'm sure my kids would've been begging me to let them attend.

But I do not have that type of relationship with that church. 

Before you send that next email blast, postcard, letter, or whatever ask yourself these questions: 

• Do I have permission to use the information I have received from this person?
• Will the person on the other end be glad to hear from me?
• Do I have the relationship I need to present a "call to action"?
• Am I presenting something of value or am I adding to the noise?

According to a press release on the Tickle web site the company was acquired for about $55 million (50/50 cash and stock) or about two times revenue by Monster (NASDAQ: MNST) in May 2004.

The suite of services that Tickle offers provides the easiest, safest, and most comprehensive experience online. From career advice and personality reports to social networking, Tickle is able to apply science to help members build and manage relationships. Tickle’s “Think Tank” of certified PhDs ensures that the sites’ services are useful and the content is relevant. Thus, members have access to practical scientific data that helps them to discover themselves, and better connect with others - a combination that makes the platform truly powerful.

The recent series of social networking failures raises questions about the future of social networking portals in general and how many social networking models will survive as the novelty of their respective “unique” experience grows old. What most social networking sites fail to understand is the dynamic and fickle nature of the Internet audience, the need for serious collaboration and that social networking is a means, not the end. Well I guess in the case of Tickle it was the end after all.

By Chris Dornfeld of the Dornfeld Management Group | June 6, 2008

SMS-spam has nothing to do with professional marketing and advertising. It is the equivalent of a phone sales rep calling you in the middle of dinner trying to flog something. No sane person on this planet wants this type of marketing. Even if they might consider the product offered.

This does not rule out SMS as a carrier. An opt-in system with relevant offers is of course a brilliant idea. Look at the work done by Light Agency for instance. Local stores in shopping malls group together and use an SMS based system to send out offers to people who have signed up because they frequent the shopping mall regularly and offers from the stores there actually bring them some value. The ROI for the small watch shop or the local grocery store is often huge. The contact cost is low already and the targeting is of very high quality.

Then we have a very accepted marketing method in the form of banner and text ads on sites that people choose to visit with their browser. Most of us are used to this and accept this as the way to consume free stuff and information on the web. With the mobile internet joining the computer accessed internet (hey it is the same internet!) consumer acceptance is already there. I dare to say that the mobile industry practice of premium fees for use or access to a service in the mobile is quite odd. Free advertising funded services makes more sense to many browser based services. Quality wise mobile often can offer better targeting than banner ads on a desktop. In this space there are already a number of advertising networks available that are doing substantial business already - Screentonic, Thirdscreen media, 4th screen media, MADS, AdMob, AdInfuse....I can go on and on.

Well, you knew this. I am just shocked that articles like the one above see the light of day. To look at mobile advertising this bluntly lumping it all together does not help building a healthy mobile advertising industry. More education to do obviously. Gotta go evangelizing, see ya!

Seth catagorizes marketing as either A - "intrusive" or B- "permission".   Catagory A would cover broadcast commericials, billboards, popups, telemarketing calls and a ton of other unwanted junk that we absorb each day just by living life. Permission marketing on the other hand is more recipient-friendly and based on the idea of developing a one-on-one relationship with a possible client.  In the words of Seth, it's all about turning strangers into friends, and friends into customers.

In voiceover, I see this as having a much bigger payoff in the long run. Heck, a lot of us already do permission marketing. The seeds often take time to sow and the flower could bloom next week or next year. But all the while, we're developing more and more relationships. Not just to close a deal and make some money but to help solve problems and hopefully enrich each others lives somehow.

I only managed a few chapters before we had to take off but I'm now tuned into Seth's way of marketing and trying to think of ways to apply it to my own business. Highly recommended stuff.

Deze vorm van "permission marketing" zal de komende maanden/jaren zeer populair worden volgens mij.
Enkel 'content/informatie' die mensen echt willen, zullen ze toelaten in hun wereld en zal zeer makkelijk en gratis te raadplegen zijn via hun gsm.

What about you? What is your favorite brand? Oh, and what is a brand anyway? If you want a sneak preview of the “Branding and Advertising Decisions” class taught by Professor John Greening, here is the answer: A brand is a promise kept; it lives in the consumer’s mind.

Welcome to the brand communications track. To choose this concentration, I’ve come a long way. I completed two required quarters (fall and winter) struggling with numbers – statistics, finance and database marketing (of course there are other courses as well). Coming from a long advertising agency and brand management career background, I wanted to cultivate the data-driven, quantitative marketing tools to analyze the data and measure marketing effectiveness. Although dealing with SPSS and statistic significance was painful for me, those classes were really helpful. In the end, I decided to over-invest in my strengths and to sharpen my brand communications skills further. I am taking Branding and Advertising Decisions, Customer Loyalty and Practicum: Marketing and Communications Research this spring quarter.

Elective Courses for Brand Communications:
• Branding & Advertising Decisions (required)
• Marketing Public Relations
• Crisis Management
• Global Marketing
• Entertainment Marketing
• Word-of-Mouth Marketing
• Investor Relations
• Internal Communications

What I like about this track is that I acquire knowledge not only by studying, but by doing. I have three Harvard Business School cases every week as well as real-time client-sponsored projects for the classes. Case studies help me analyze diverse business problems and come up with solutions for managerial decision-making. Client-sponsored live cases help me stay up-to-date with the marketing environment outside school and push my limits as I try to discover the consumer insights. I have to be a supportive teammate and a good leader in order to for my team's projects to succeed.

Seth Godin, bestselling author of Permission Marketing and Purple Cow, firmly believes that in the age of Google, MySpace, YouTube and blogging, everyone is a brand. Your time at Medill IMC is a great opportunity for you – and me – to learn from the big brands and build the brand called YOU.

..........Hye Sun (Sunny) Yang

Rock band the Barenaked Ladies, achieved a reasonable level of commercial success in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. A song of theirs you may know is ‘One week’ – you can click here to watch it and jig your memory.

Their success enabled them to do what most bands can’t – secure a record deal with the large record label Warner. But in 2003 they sacked them. They thought they could a better job - and they have. They just cut out the middle man and began to have a direct relationship with their passionate fans.

Here’s some of the cool stuff they’ve done:

They have a ‘dynamic’ websites & myspace– not static pages

They blog ‘daily’

They include fans in ‘every’ film clip

They built a permission database

They provide 'free' downloads of their music

Allow 'free' sharing of their music (Youtube / File sharing)

They sell their records direct and collect all revenue

They have ‘band days’ and ‘invite only concerts’

They provide photos of the days events

They run cruiseship holidays for fans

(Yep, 300 of their fans socializing, eating, relaxing with them for a week or so, where they provide the entertainment for them every night)

The net result is this. Their fans feel like they have a real connection, which they do. Their revenue per album sold is now approx $6.00 to the Barenaked Ladies, versus the previous $1.00 while with Warner. They have pure creative control of their work and don’t have to worry about being dropped by their record label.

Their site link is here: http://www.bnlmusic.com/default2.asp

Kudos BNL.

Start ups out there; invest 5 minutes with the ideas below, embrace them and you'll be well ahead of the game.

[slideshare id=7027&doc=cluetrain-28722&w=425]

Few people in the industry are celebrating spam’s 30th birthday during the beginning of May this year, however the email menace has afforded us an opportunity to review just how prominent it has become. During the month of April, 80% of all email was spam, with that number jumping as high as 87% at times.

WOW! 80+% of all e-mail sent is SPAM. That is outrageous isn't it? Are you surprised?

The important lesson here revolves around permission based marketing. In your organization, please ensure that you get the permission from your contacts to send them regular e-mails. Get their permission before you send e-newsletters, special offers, or coupons. Also, make sure you never sell or share your e-mail list with anyone. It is a privilege to get an e-mail address from your customer. Treat it as private property and with the highest respect. A simple rule is to treat their e-mail address as you would want your own e-mail treated. None of us likes to have our time wasted or our e-mail address abused. If we remember this in relation to our customers, we will build a much better rapport with them. Essentially, only send them an e-mail if you have something of value to add to their day. Then your relationship is golden!

Please share any of your SPAM or Permission-Based e-mail marketing insights or reactions...

This is not sustainable.  As the interruptions grow in number, we begin to tune them out.  So they get louder, sexier, funnier, viralier (that's more viral), bigger - to try and get our attention back.  But then they're all louder, so nothing stands out except the overwhelming cacophony.  And it fails.

So what's the alternative?  Send personal, relevant, anticipated messages to people who want to get them and have given you permission to send them.  The most prevalent current examples are RSS feeds and opt-in newsletters.  There's another technology-based concept that I love that never really got off the ground before the tech-stock bubble burst, but I hope it makes a comeback: WebGrocer.  The idea is that you place your grocery order and pay online, and someone packs it all up and delivers it to your door.  So far, no magic.  But what if I gave them permission to keep track of my order patterns?  After a while, a sufficiently smart database application could begin to predict what I'll be needing and when I'll be needing it.  They might send me an email saying, "Dear Stephen, we think you are going to need one 4L Tide with Bleach and a dozen eggs tomorrow.  Shall we add it to your next order?"  I would go check my supply, and seeing that they were right, I would agree.  After a few times, I wouldn't even check, I'd just assume they were right.  After a sufficiently long string of accurate predictions, I'd want to give them even more permission: I'd say, "Hey, if you think I need something, just send it. Don't bother asking."  It would be like having a valet or personal shopper.

You might think that vast amounts of technology like Amazon's recommendation engine or Google's search algorithm would be required to achieve that kind of trust and permission.  I'll give you a couple of examples from the past, then:  every autumn of my childhood, we gave Sears permission to send us 300 pages of advertising.  In fact, we welcomed it.  It was the Sears Christmas Wish Book.  A catalog that both I and my parents welcomed.  I could pick what I wanted, and my parents could see what it cost.  Sears was doing us a service. 

The other example was our home heating oil.  I don't believe we ever actually ordered any; some guy would just show up periodically with his big smelly truck and hose, and dump a bunch of dead dinosaurs into a pipe on the side of our house.  And send us a bill.  We trusted him to give us oil when he knew (or guessed) we would need it.  We gave him permission.