Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: free content, globe and mail, news, newspaper, publishing
Today the Globe and Mail announced that it will begin to charge for online content in the fall, following the lead of the New York Times. My gut reaction is to move on from the Globe and seek out my online news elsewhere. I, like so many others, have come to expect this – among so much else – for free.
I’m not sure that their solution is the right one to address the need to figure out a new business model to address the internet. Certainly they do need to do something, though. Reporters have to be paid. Otherwise, you end up with nothing but company-issued press releases making up the news. Already the lack of true investigative journalism has affected the quality of news we get and reporters and news outlets take short cuts just to get content out.
How do you manage the expectation of free on the internet? Look at what mobile phone apps have done to lower our expectation of what we are willing to pay for. We balk at paying $1.99 for an app when so may are $0.99 or free. As consumers, we are forcing organizations to race to the bottom competing on price, sacrificing whatever they can to get there. What they can sacrifice is quality.
What should the Globe do if nor charge for content?
Filed under: Uncategorized
We demand lower taxes, but we don’t want long line ups when we go to renew our passport or driver’s license.
We don’t like to hear stories of big companies exploiting workers, but we want lower prices at Walmart.
We don’t want to contribute to harming the environment, but we want fruit and vegetables shipped to us out of season.
We want a lot, sometimes there’s a choice.
Filed under: Customer experience
I’m watching a woman sitting across from me on the train reading a book that I have read and it makes me wonder … How is she experiencing it? What are the pictures she sees in her mind as she brings the story to life? Do the characters look the same? Do the voices sound the same?
I doubt it. Her experience, her background, all of her points of reference are different than mine. How could they come together to create the same images?
That makes me wonder about my work out in the world. Does it create the images I intend it to?
What do you do to check that you are creating the images you intend to?
Filed under: Branding, Customer experience, Digital Marketing, Twitter | Tags: Airmiles, digital, service, twitter
Two levels of customer service is a recipe for underwhelming.
Recently I had problem with Airmiles regarding some ski passes I ordered. I needed them fast, their delivery commitment was slow. So, I went to the website and filled out the email form, following the rules like a good customer. The response I got told me I could expect to wait 4-5 days for a response.
On what planet is that delay acceptable today?
So, I tweeted my displeasure and got an immediate response suggesting I email the company’s Twitter email address. I did, and that email was answered the same day. After a little back and forth we solved the problem. Then I got the response from the the original email form submission from four days prior. In my mind – as with all customer interactions – I wasn’t talking to Joe, or Suzy, I was talking to Airmiles; so what the heck?
One of the problems this highlights for me (and there are a few to choose from) is a lack of connection within the company. Consumers today have access to many channels to talk to brands. Many of them use multiple channels. If those experiences aren’t aligned, you are not consistently delivering on the brand promise. There has to be consistency, and there shouldn’t be secret clubs for those who find the right channel. Unless of course you are trying to change behaviour, but then shut the channel down. Don’t under deliver.
A lot of people – myself included – never ask. They think about asking. They imagine the conversation, have it in their mind a dozen times. Each time answering for the other person until it seems pointless to ask because the conversation has already happened.
Only it hasn’t.
Well, today I asked. And I got an answer; a real one. It wasn’t the one I wanted, but I have it and now I can move on. Move on to the next question, and ask that one, too
Filed under: Branding, Marketing | Tags: brand, branding, choosing your brand positioning
Choosing a strong, bold brand to stand out is a great strategy. Choosing that path and then watering it down when you get nervous is worse than choosing the mediocre to begin with. It confuses staff and customers alike and no one knows what you stand for.
I am extremely envious of some people. People like Mitch Joel, Seth Godin, and many others like them who somehow have time to blog daily, write books and read everyone else’s blogs and books. Oh yeah, and run companies. How?
I find myself constantly pressed for time. My job takes up a lot if time, as I’m sure it does for all of you. I have two young children and I never seem to spend the time with them I would like to. Then, when I do have some “free” time, I am met by my constant dilemma: should I read and find out what the thought leaders are saying and doing to expand my knowledge; or write and develop and espouse my own ideas? (or heaven forbid, just rest?)
As you can tell by the frequency of my posts here, I usually opt for reading. Am I making the right choice? It’s one thing to take in information, but without adding my own take, I wonder if I am short changing my future and becoming a Cliff Claven-esque figure.
What do you do?
Filed under: Marketing, Experiential Marketing, technology, video games | Tags: marketing, Christmas, Skylanders, experiential marketing, Wii, toys
Every Christmas one of the toys I get my kids impresses the marketer in me in one way or another. This year it was a new game for the Wii: Skylanders, created by Activision. I hadn’t even heard of this one before the holidays, it’s the experience that impressed me.
With most games you buy the disc, maybe there’s an attempt at an online community or web component, perhaps some merch if it gets really popular, but for the most part the company makes its money on the sale of the disc and that’s it. This one is different. The game comes with three little plastic figures. You place a figure on the “portal” and that is the character you play. Right away, it becomes more than a video game, it becomes tactile. That in itself is brilliant, and the hook. It’s also similar to what made the Wii popular to begin with. What they do with the hook is pure genius.
There are dozens of characters. Each with different abilities and powers that are needed to unlock certain parts of the game. How do you get access to these other characters? You buy them for $8 to $12 each. You could play the whole game with just the three characters you get with it, but you would miss more than half of the secret areas-which are not so secret that you don’t know you are missing them.
If you bought all the characters, I’d venture you would spend another $300 on top of the $70 you spent on the game.
I love it, what a brilliant play. And the games not bad either.
