August 15th, 2010
This is not my typical blog post (because it’s not about consumer technology) but I thought some of you might enjoy it anyhow.
I’m not what most people (especially my brother who is in the gourmet food business) would call a foodie so its surprising that last night I found myself at a high-end food fundraiser and that I was impressed enough to write about it.
The event I went to was a Plate & Pitchfork dinner where the organization pairs a Portland, OR gourmet chef with a local high-end farm and put on a 5-star dinner out in the farm’s fields.
The dinner is preceded by a talk from the farmer and the chef about their food philosophies and then a tour of farm. This particular dinner took place on Viridan farm where they grow a huge number of edible flowers. I was amazed as we walked the rows and grazed the flowers. Later we got an entire salad made of edible flowers.
The dinner for 150 was amazing, the setting beautiful, and the service steller–all the more amazing every time we looked around and realized we were out in a farm field.
There seemed to be a HUGE amount of work that goes into these dinners so all the more amazing that the organization behind it puts on about 20 a year.
All the funds raised go to various organizations that do food education–reminding youth (and the rest) that there is more then processed or factory farmed food out there and why its important to eat it and support it.
I’d heard about these kinds of events before and researched San Francisco area events–but all that I could find seem to instantly sell out… even at $150-$200/person.
If you can find a farm dinner in your area, you should try to attend or volunteer.
If you’re a social entrepreneur looking for a project with built-in demand, check out these events, the world needs more farm dinners.
Filed under: Farm Dinners
August 5th, 2010
Consumers don’t have long memories so I am always baffled when companies introduce products long before their ship dates or even without stating ship dates. Also, consumers need to know price to help them with their purchase consideration.
So, I was amazed when I opened USA Today on July 22nd and saw a review of the Dell Streak in Ed Baig’s consumer tech column which said “Availability: Dell won’t say but indicates the Streak is coming very soon” and “Price: That’s also a Dell secret for now…”
Why would they let one of the two most important consumer tech writers in the world cover a product that consumers can’t buy and not even give them a clue of the price or when it is coming? Just does not make sense from a consumer sales/marketing/experience point of view.
Its unclear even today (two weeks later) if its available. There are reviews on Dell’s site but the page still says “The Dell Streak will be available for purchase soon.”
On the other hand…
This past Tuesday, RIM held an event to introduce a new phone. Over the past few years RIM has been getting better and better at focusing on consumers–with things like product names (Curve, Pearl, etc.) rather than just model numbers.
In fact they have changed so much that the headline and lead of one article about the announcement said “RIM attempts to create Apple-like buzz with BlackBerry Torch event” and “In an uncharacteristic move, Research in Motion held a media event Tuesday in New York City to generate buzz for its new BlackBerry Torch 9800 smartphone.”
What else did they do different than Dell? According to the article. “The device will be available exclusively on the AT&T network starting August 12. It carries a $199 price with a standard two-year contract.”
That’s the way to introduce a product: With a DATE AND PRICE!
Filed under: Blackberry,Dell,Don't launch until ready,Products have names,RIM
February 9th, 2010
Does your company see customer service and support as a cost center or as a way to bring your customer closer?
Over the past decade a number of companies have realized that service and support is a way to build loyalty with customers. Car dealers, cable companies (yes, them) and Apple, among others have taken this approach.
On the other hand many banks and other companies have gone the opposite way.
Car dealers: Brand loyalty is one reason so many car dealers have upgraded the service department’s public areas. When a customer is in servicing a car its one more opportunity to sell them on the brand. It’s all about giving them good experiences.
Luxury dealers (and even some Toyota dealers, etc.) routinely have free wi-fi, espresso and shuttle rides, etc. Compare that to a few years ago when it was ripped stained furniture and burnt coffee. If you have a bad experience every time you are in for service, you’d think twice about going back to that dealer or brand for your next car.
Cable companies: Back in the early 90s they realized how bad a rep they had and sooner or later there would be competition. Nowadays when I call Comcast I very quickly can get a live person on the phone who will help me trouble shoot the problem and schedule a technician if they can’t fix it. Typically they get me a next day appointment with a TWO HOUR WINDOW–AND IN MY EXPERIENCE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ON TIME! They get it.
Apple: Read this post from the Consumerist and this one from Robin Raskin. Both these people will probably be customers for life–and brand evangelists going forward–in fact they already are evangelizing by publishing their stories.
Apple is the technology company that is showing all the others how to act like a consumer company. It seems like the company’s philosophy is: “Technology is complex but let’s try to make it simple. When it’s not, lets use fixing the technology to get closer to our customers not to push them farther away.”
Filed under: Apple,Comcast,Customer Relations,Toyota
November 30th, 2009
UPDATE: In the end, after I made enough noise, BMW came through and paid for the repair. I am grateful to them and glad that they did the right thing in the end. But still a bit of a black mark that it took so much work to get some satisfaction.
One of my key marketing rules is “Know Your Brand.”
BMW has always seemed to get this–they understand that they sell more than a car… they sell an experience and a lifestyle.
Maintaining this experience and keeping customers happy helps BMW continue as one of the most successful luxury car companies with one of the best brands. They continually win brand awards but they also realize the need to always make a strong effort to please customers.
In 2002 the then CEO, Helmut Panke, summed it up when he said. “What I see as our biggest risk is the possibility of complacency. We need to make sure that nobody leans back. We have to remain hungry and to keep up our desire to outperform others.”
That is why I was so shocked when I tried to get a defect fixed on my wife’s 2004 325i. BMW has refused to take responsibility or pay for the repairs.
Fixing a defect, in warrantee OR out should be one of the easiest customer satisfaction actions BMW performs.
Here is what happened: Intermittently an indicator comes on showing there is something wrong with the rear lights. I took the car in to the BMW dealer and mentioned this to my service advisor. I was really surprised when he guessed at the cause before even getting up from his desk. Upon checking the car, his hunch was confirmed.
Here is the issue as BMW states in their service bulletin: “Minor corrosion at the 8-pin rear lamp connector creates high resistance causing damage to the connector housing.” In other words, your rear light can melt!
So what makes this a “defect” and not something that should be the responsibility of the owner? Well, first, the fix is not just to replace a broken or worn out part. The fix is to actually modify the original configuration. From BMW’s Service Information Bulletin (SIB 63 03 06) “Correction: Repair the damaged wire(s) and replace damaged connector housing. Install additional ground wires to both left and right rear lamps.” (emphasis added)
Second, this defect seems very common and BMW is well aware of it as evidenced by the service bulletin, the 100s of postings on BMW forums and the numerous filings with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration–one of which claims there was a fire involved! (Office of Defects Investigation ID Number : 10263031)
I have asked the service manager at my dealer to look into having BMW pay for these repairs but he said they declined. I also called customer relations, opened a case but was told that they also would not step up to the plate.
We are a loyal two-BMW household who purchases the highest level maintenance packages and always services our car at the dealer (who we love along with our service advisor) so it’s very surprising to see how little BMW will do keep us (and the other owners with the same problem) happy for a problem that is clearly a defect and not a run of the mill maintenance issue.
Filed under: BMW,Customer Relations,Little things matter a lot,Product Defects,Uncategorized,Understand your brand
October 23rd, 2009
Failure is an interesting beast.
In many circles, failing is shunned. You don’t mention it, you don’t admit it and you sure don’t hold conferences about it.
But. one of the first thing I learned about Silicon Valley when I arrived here 15 years ago was that it was a place where failure is expected, accepted and maybe even celebrated.
Some companies even acknowledge failure in their corporate cultures–they will say things like “we believe in fail fast.” Meaning: Try something, see if it works, but if it’s a failure, realize it quickly and move on to something else.
At most client meetings and at every lecture, I encourage studying launch failures (as well as successes). You can only get a well-rounded picture of how to launch properly by examining both successes and failures.
Now there is a Silicon Valley conference looking lessons learned from failure–FailCon. They say: “You aren’t a real entrepreneur until you’ve had to deal with failure, and recovering from it – financially, emotionally, and practically – can be challenging.”
I’ll be covering the conference next Tuesday (Oct. 27) and letting you know how the ideas apply to launch. If you are interested in attending yourself, you can register here.
In addition, the organizers seem to run some interesting conferences so keep your eye on their site for other upcoming topics.
Filed under: Always Get Smarter,FailCon
October 7th, 2009
In his New York Time article, “Where Yahoo Leaves Google in the Dust,” Randall Stross shows how Yahoo’s embrace of the “Less is More” philosophy is helping it compete with Google.
The article says:
James Pitaro, vice president of Yahoo’s audience group, said, “In our research with users, we found that the more information that was displayed on the page, the greater the anxiety.”
He said Yahoo deliberately adopted what he calls “the Apple model — simplicity in design; a clean, simple look, not overburdening our users with too much information on the page.”
Google seems to pay no heed to such psychology. Google Finance, which was introduced in 2006 and shed its “beta” label earlier this year, hews to its original strategy: offer the best data and charts. And when that doesn’t work, offer still more data and charts.
Filed under: Google,Less is more,Yahoo
September 10th, 2009
Today, Harry McCracken has a great article “AMD Keeps it Simple. Very Simple” on his great new Technologizer site in which he discusses AMD’s new processor naming scheme.
He says, “AMD is making a dramatic bid to simplify branding of its CPUs down to the bare essentials. In fact, rather than emphasizing specific CPUs at all, it will focus on three levels of performance:” Vision, Vision Premium and Vision Ultimate.
This is clearly (and I think successfully) aimed at consumers–who are typically confused by all the tech references in processor names.
From the simplicity of this scheme (and if it is smart) it appears AMD will keep the names simple even as the underlying technology changes. Apple does this–it’s always the MacBook and MacBook Pro even as the processor, hard drives, ports, etc. continue to change.
Meanwhile…
In 1993 Intel revolutionized the selling of technology to consumers when it, named its processor the Pentium rather than the i586 (the i386 and i486 had come before.) Ironically, Intel was pushed into naming processors when AMD began copying the x86 names when a court refused to grant trademark protection on numbers.
So where is Intel today with consumer processor naming?
I hate* to say: Not as good. On a page aimed at helping consumers find the right processor for laptops is a list of products including: Intel Core 2 Extreme, Core 2 Duo, Centrino 2, Core 2 Solo, Pentium and Celeron processors. And while Intel has an explanation next to each (e.g. “Unplug and enjoy great performance in more places.”) there is not a lot of clarity in the names themselves.
Great to see tech companies naming products. Even better to see good naming schemes.
*Disclosure: I worked at Intel for a few years and still have a small amount of stock.
Filed under: AMD,Component technologies,Intel,Products have names
September 8th, 2009
I have been invited to speak to the SDForum Marketing SIG next Monday, September 14 about the rules I have developed for how to launch consumer technology products.
If you have not seen this talk yet, I encourage you to come and hear the talk. Its got good lessons for anyone launching a product–consumer tech or not. And it’s definitely NOT an hour of bullets on a slide. I’ve worked hard to make the talk entertaining with video clips, props, etc. Come check it out. Details are below along with an interview the organization conducted with me.
Interview: http://marketingsig.blogspot.com/2009/09/dont-just-plan-party.html
Subject: Don’t Launch a Product, Launch a Product Experience: 11+ Rules to Learn
Location:
DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary LLP
2000 University Ave.(University Circle)
East Palo Alto, CA 94303
Agenda:
6:30 – 7:00 p.m. Registration / Networking / Refreshments
7:00 – 7:15 p.m. Announcements and Introductions
7:15 – 8:30 p.m. Presentation and Discussion
8:30 – 8:45 p.m. Wrap-up / Networking
Cost:
$15 at the door for non-SDForum members
No charge for SDForum members
No registration required
Filed under: SDForum,Speaking
September 3rd, 2009
Next Thursday (September 10th) I’ll be blogging from GigaOM’s Mobilize 09 conference and watching to see how well the mobile industry is looking out for the entire consumer experience–and not just how good a product they can put out. Check back here for my observations.
Better yet, click here and sign up to attend (at a 15% discount). I’ve attended the conference (as well as other GigaOM events) in past years and can heartily recommend them. Om packs a lot into a single 12 hour day! It’s a great conference to get up to speed with the state of the industry right now as well as what the next six to nine months hold.
Also, unlike some conferences held in the bowels of a some giant hotel (with generic chandeliers, carpets, halls, etc. that we are all too familiar with), the venue: The Mission Bay Conference Center is beautiful and full of sunlight. It was designed by award-winning architect Ricardo Legoretta.
Filed under: Mobile,Mobilize
August 27th, 2009
This past Tuesday, Sony announced the Sony Reader Daily Edition. By many accounts so far, a worthwhile challenger to the 
latest Kindle (or at least it will be when it is available in about four months).
As someone who has been critical of Sony product names in the past (as have others), I first have to praise Sony for coming up with a name (rather than a model number) for its latest Reader. It’s nice to see the people who came up with “Walkman” back on track with naming.
On the other hand…
One of the most basic launch rules is “Don’t launch a product until its ready.” so what I can’t understand is why Sony would launch this product when:
Compare this to how Bose and Amazon and Apple all launch products.
Bose: Bose announced its QuiteComfort 15 noise canceling headphones on Wednesday, August 19th. They were available in stores the next day. In addition, on the 19th Bose.com prominently featured the product on its front page and had a complete product page ready (with product details, tech support info, etc.) Reporters were able to go into Bose stores a day before to do an on-site test/preview.
Amazon: Amazon announced the Kindle 2 on February 9 and although it would not ship for two weeks, they immediately began taking pre-orders. Reporters at the launch event were given hands-on time with the product.
Apple: Apple is rumored to be having an event on September 9th. Immediately following this event, I encourage you to read the news coverage then look on Apple.com. If past patterns hold true, the new products will be there front and center… and they will be available for consumers within two weeks… if not immediately.
Announce vs. Launch
In this post I have used announce and launch interchangeably. I have done this deliberately because when consumers see a news article about a new product they don’t differentiate the announcement from the launch. Yes, occasionally, a product can be announced to the industry (with a consumer launch following) but in those (rare) cases coverage does not end up in Business Week, on local TV news or in the Arts section of the Times.
Launch when ready!
Filed under: Don't launch until ready,Mobile,eBook
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This is not my typical blog post (because it’s not about consumer technology) but I thought some of you might enjoy it anyhow.
I’d heard about these kinds of events before and researched San Francisco area events–but all that I could find seem to instantly sell out… even at $150-$200/person.