Updates from Mark Trumper RSS
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09:00:59 pm on April 3, 2009 |
If you wanted to have an expensive bottle of wine…do you know how much it would cost you? Some might answer $50 or $100. Others might answer even higher – they would be right!
Some bottles of wine are so expensive they are simply collected for their value. Others are quite valuable and wine connoisseurs drink and enjoy these wines for the experience of drinking something that not everyone has the exposure to. But these wines can cost dearly….often thousands of dollars. Some are worth more than your car…or even your home.
A 1787 Chateau Lafite, a Bordeaux was sold at Christie’s auction house in the 1980’s for (pounds) 105,00 ($160,00). The Guinness Book of World Records lists it as the world’s most expensive bottle of wine.
While the age of the Chateau Lafite would have made it well worth a high price, what really drew great attention were the initials “Th.J” in the bottle. “Th.J.” were the initials of the bottle owner, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson had been the ambassador to France and often visited the vineyards of both Bordeaux and Burgundy. This bottle of wine is considered no longer drinkable, but is still quite valuable for its historical sentiment. It is now in the Forbes Collection in New York City.
Would you drink champagne that had been on the bottom of the ocean floor? You might if you are a guest at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Moscow. Bottles of 1907 Heidsieck vineyard champagne were aboard a vessel, being shipped to the Russian Imperial family. In 1916 this vessel was shipwrecked. But in 1997 divers discovered more than 200 bottles of the bubbly stuff in the wreckage. The champagne costs $275,000 a bottle! Both the amazing story of being lost at sea and the champagne’s age make this a very expensive champagne. We are sure it tastes just divine.
The Pernod-Ricard Perrier-Jouet champagne set is also quite unique, making it special for champagne drinkers. There are only 100 sets of the 12 bottles of very fine and expensive champagne. When you purchase this special set of champagne you’ll have the choice of what liqueur will be used in the champagne – and you actually need to fly to Eastern France to make the choice. A set of the 12 bottles costs $50,000
If you are a vodka drinker and looking to splurge then you’ll want to know about Diva Premium Vodka. The bottle looks as beautiful as any perfume bottle – splashy, glittery and glamorous to please even the fussiest diva out there. A bottle of Diva Premium Vodka can cost between $3,700 and $1,000,000 (no, that’s not a typo) depending on which bottle you choose. This vodka is actually diamond filtered and is from Blackwood Distillers in Scotland. In the center of each bottle are lovely looking gems that sparkle — the type of gems is chosen based on which bottle of vodka you choose (buy a more expensive bottle and you’ll see better gems).
At a charity event in 2008 in Napa Valley, an executive at Cisco Systems bought the 1992 Screaming Eagle, sold for $500,000 (about $80,000 a bottle). With this auction prize the lucky winner received a lovely dinner at the winery. The perfect way to open up a bottle of his wine and enjoy it!
In 1997 an anonymous buyer at a Christie’s auction bought a bottle of 1945 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild Jeroboam for $114,614. Wine enthusiasts know this as one of the very best vintages of the 20th century. A very fine bottle of wine for any wine collector or connoisseur.
Let’s not forget about the world’s most expensive beer: Vielle Bon Secours, available only at the London-based bar Bierdrome. It costs about $1,000 (500 pounds) a bottle and $78 (39 pounds) a pint. When you’re in London you’ll simply have to stop in a buy a round for your friends to enjoy this unique beer.
Mark Trumper is the owner of MaverickLabel.com, a leading label printer which prints all types of labels – from custom stickers to custom wine labels. Please contact MaverickLabel.com for help with your label printing needs – Call 1-800-537-8816.
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01:22:27 pm on February 24, 2009 |
The line between online content and the offline world is quickly eroding. For years it has been common place to include a web address on marketing materials, package wrappers, and signage, but these addresses required the viewer to maintain an interest in a company or website from the point of discovery to they reach a computer, or to peck out an address on a cell phone. This gap in access between discovery and information, allows for any number of distractions to swoop in and siphon off a customer who might be fence sitting on a product. A unique combination of several technologies is doing what it can to erase this gap. That practice, already widespread in Japan, is set to make the jump to the United States in the near future.
The concept is called “mobile tagging” and it typically involves a two-dimensional barcode, a camera phone, and a webpage created specifically for mobile phone browsers.
The two-dimensional barcode is not necessarily a new invention, having been created in both the United States and Japan almost simultaneously in the mid-1990s. The result is a barcode that makes use of blots, or boxes, or dots rather than simple vertical lines. These barcodes are able to encode a great deal of data ? an upper limit of 4000 or so characters compared to the twenty or so of a traditional barcode. The ability to pack that much data into such a tiny spot has turned the barcode from a simple method of tracking into a means to relay human-meaningful information.
The cell phone isn’t new either. However, the wide scale proliferation of mobile phones was paired by the addition of inexpensive digital cameras and access to the mobile internet. With the aide of relatively simple programs, mobile phones could learn to read matrix barcodes, and if the barcode contained a web address, the mobile phone could access the website right then. The gap between discovery and access was stopped.
The concept itself seems rather simple. However, it’s the applications that hold a great deal of potential. The matrix barcode, when used in mobile tagging, has several advantages over the written web address.
First, and perhaps foremost, the viewer does not know exactly what to expect when they view a matrix barcode without a camera which can read it. Sure, the viewer can garner some basic assumptions from context clues, but where the code points to is actually a mystery. To capitalize on the mystery, it is common for two-dimensional barcodes to be served without context clues on plain white billboards. For a viewer, the need to understand, the need to justify such a massive barcode, is prompt enough actively respond to the tag, pull out a cell phone and snap a photo. At that point, the website is a click away and the viewer has done a great deal of the leg work in become an actual consumer.
Another advantage of using a two-dimensional barcode over a printed web address: long and specific addresses are preferred rather than forbidden. Customers engaging in mobile tagging can be directed to specific landing pages, tailored not only for a mobile device, but also based on geo-location. When a unique two-dimensional barcode is created based on the location in which it will be displayed, or to match the content it is paired with, the end result is targeted information that is greatly more relevant to the viewer. The more relevant the content, the greater the chance of turning a visitor into a customer.
Not all two-dimensional barcodes are simply marketing tools, though. Nor do they have to contain a simple web address. In Japan, matrix barcodes have replaced nutritional labels on food packages ? redirecting the viewer to a mobile webpage that contains that information instead. Another common use is location-specific information, which is particularly popular in the tourism industry. A two-dimensional barcode next to a work of art or historic building can direct visitors to information that is far too detailed and lengthy to fit on a sign.
In the end, the variety of uses for two-dimensional barcodes is largely limited only by the imagination of the creator. Much as the internet is freeing ideas and connecting individuals, the question one should be asking about mobile tagging is “How could the internet help my situation if it weren’t bound to a computer?” After all, this isn’t a technology that’s bound solely to Japan. Currently in Apple’s App store, there are no fewer than three mobile tagging programs for the device. Mobile tagging is coming.
Mark Trumper is the president of MaverickLabel.Com, a company founded to meet the growing need for custom stickers utilizing the latest technologies. MaverickLabel.com is your source for custom barcode labels in both the traditional and matrix varieties. http://mavericklabels.com