Apple Please Listen to Us! Part II- Steve Knows Best

From what I can gather about Apple from online research, they have done very little consumer research in recent years. This goes from simple focus groups, or even using online social monitoring programs to see what consumers are talking about. Instead it seems Steve thinks he knows what is best for us. He does not see a reason to use social monitoring, because he knows more about what consumers want than they do.

Take the lack of a picture messaging and video capabilities on the iPhone. I am sure that people within Apple brought these feature ideas to Steve before the 1^st gen iPhone ever hit beta development and Steve simply said no, I know best. Why picture messaging? I use email for that. Why video? The quality would not be that good, and the files will take up too much space, they don’t need that. Then after the iPhone came out, everyone wanted these features, and they would cost little to add to the phone, but two years later and we are still waiting. Why? Because Steve knows what is best for us, and really does not care what we think.

Sure there are exceptions to that rule. Most of the time it happens when a 3^rd party comes forward with an idea that is successful, and then Apple copies it or acquires it. Case in point, the iPhone App Store. Remember the outrage after word came out that Apple would not allow you to install software on the device? It was amazing, in weeks someone had found a way unlock the phone and apps were made.

This lack of control must have made Jobs extremely mad. Mad enough to actually listen to others and develop the App Store, but this is by far the exception to the rule.  The funny part is that when Apple does listen to their consumers (Ok, not really listen, more like respond to an outrage) they come out with some of their best products. I think Jobs says, fine they want something, well we are going to do it like no one has done before and blow their socks off.

Why don’t they simply listen to consumers at the beginning of the development process? Why don’t they simply ask for feedback, actually read their customer service forums? Why don’t they take these ideas, improve on them and make them world class?

In a way Apples consumers see more potential for the company than Jobs does. Why no DVR function in the Apple TV, why no Bluray support, why no docking station for the MB Pro? The list could go on and on. But to everyone on the outside, it just seems like Apple and Steve are being stubborn, and simply refuse to believe we know what we need.

Part III will look at how this is affecting thier customer service....

Apple, Please Listen to Us!

One of the main reasons Apple has been such a success in recent years is because of the amazing ability of Steve Jobs to develop products we all love. Jobs is a true visionary, and best of all he understands how to use technology to improve lives.

But how does he do it? He could be developing and marketing products that he likes, or he could be trying to figure out what we need/like and developing technology for us. I believe that Jobs develops products he personally would like to have and puts little if any emphasis on what consumers actually want.

So far it seems consumers like what Steve likes, so this strategy has worked out great for Apple. Some of the great products developed this way are iLife, iTunes, iPod, iPhone, and of course OS X or should we say NeXT. Sure there have been a few misses like the Lisa, Apple TV (ok TBD), HiFi, etc. but for the most part, there has been many more successes than failures.

This develop what Steve likes strategy for Apple, and has lead to amazing profits and growth at Apple.(Was going to talk about the stock price here, but that’s not lookin so hot) Sure it has been great for Apple, shareholders, and consumers, but this is going to be a major problem for Apple when Steve leaves. Apple has turned into a company that is completely dependent on Steve Jobs. Others come up with ideas and develop great products, but Jobs is the ultimate decision maker on if new products get developed and go to market.

This has left a void at Apple in the area of consumer research, customer retention, and customer service. These three areas leave them vulnerable to a backlash from consumers as they continue to grow and Steve gets closer to moving to Denver and joining a cult of people who wear Levi’s and a black mock turtlenecks.

TBC…

5 reasons a traditional advertiser needs to get online experience

I finished yesterday's post by saying that if you have not gotten into online advertising, start now.  This statement was directed at the traditional advertiser, you must keep up with the times or you will be passed by.

In an effort to follow that up, below are 5 reasons a traditional advertiser needs to get online experience.

1.Have you looked at the job boards for advertising positions lately?  Almost all of them are for people with online experience. How comfortable do you feel with your job?

2.You can apply what you learn online to traditional media.  You can fine tune creative online, and then apply what you have learned to traditional media.

3.You can get focus group type information online without paying for a focus group. Monitor your consumers, potential consumers and competition, with tools such as Google Alerts, Technorati, and Twitter Search.

4.Your website has become the 2nd point of contact.  Think of it as your most important store.  How much attention would you give a store that does over 60% of your traffic?

5.You can track it.  You can show your clients or boss that it is working.  How important is that during this down economy?

Of course I could go on with a longer list, but why don't you do that in the comments.

Play.it – Can CBS do what NBC did with Hulu.com?

Well so much for my next post being short.

I was recently invited to attend CBS radio's crap what are we going to do about the internet taking all our money Next Generation presentation.  As most of you probably already know, CBS radio now owns both LastFM and AOL Radio, making them the number one provider of online music, something they are very proud of.

Having gone into this presentation with a skeptical eye, I was very surprised with what I heard. CBS understands radio is going online, and is doing some innovative things to make sure they continue to be the online radio leader.

First, they are giving more seamless access to all the stations that are part of CBS. They are even going so far as to recommend stations you might like in other areas.  Some of this is still in private beta but the first step is now online.  Right now when you stream any CBS station on the bottom there is a stations tab to  see other stations or recommendations. (ok the interface needs to be more intuitive, and sexy)

The best thing about it for advertisers is that ads can be inserted locally on all stations.  So even though someone in Seattle is streaming WCBS in NY, they will still hear and see local ads.

So I know everyone (all two of you who read this)  is saying, I don't want to listen to preprogrammed stations, what about the next evolution of Pandora or LastFM.

Well CBS has that covered as well with Play.it . Seems weird they would launch a competitor to LastFM but there is room for another player in the market.  What's unique about Play.it is that instead of just saying you like or don't like a song like every other player, you can also tell it how much you like or don't like a song.  You do this by moving the CD Art around on a dart board.  Off the board will not get played, bulls eye music will be played the most.

This is a great feature, and allows you to personalize your playlist to a higher degree than the competition.  They are even going to let you rate songs you hear while streaming any of their radio stations.  (Not that anyone is going to be streaming a typical radio station, once they discover the ability to make a custom station.)

Will this work?  A lot of that depends the algorithms and databases they use in customizing the music to your taste.  I have tried LastFM a few times but always go back to Pandora because I like the mix of music they send me. (I probably just need to give LastFM more information.)

It also depends on if CBS is willing to promote Play.it.  The one thing that has plagued LastFM and Pandora is that they have very little awareness.  If CBS puts some effort behind Play.it, it could overtake the other two in a matter of months.  They already have a wide advertising network with their traditional stations, and it would cost them very little money to get the DJ's to talk about it on air.

Is this the future of radio?  A lot of questions need to be answered , like social integration, player customization, sound quality, etc.   One little tidbit that will help, is that they have locked up with Apple to be the exclusive player on the new Iphone.(this turned out not to be true.  (thank God)  I guess you never can trust what you hear in a sales presentation!)

In my next post I will give my vision for the future of radio, and for that matter all media.  CBS is doing what I consider the first step, I will show you the next few steps.

Kevin

What has the Internet done to us?

Funny thing is that I put this blog together to get things off my chest, and now I have nothing to write about. Being down on the Oregon Coast in May gives me a lot of time, so I thought I would give it a shot anyway. Just start typing and see what happens, come up with a title later. Marketing as we see it now and in the past is pushed to consumers. We try to tell people what they want and what they need. We tell them they should live healthy, be happy, and everyone should love them, and our products are going to help them do that. Our soda will make you happy and cool, our cars will make people love you and happy, basically almost all of what we try to sell appeals to those three emotions.

In today's internet age people no longer are looking for companies to tell them what they should be doing. They are more into self discovery and individualism. People are do not trust anyone in this age unless they found it to be "true" for themselves. Everything must be researched, reviewed, and tested.

We no longer want to be told what will make us healthy, happy, or will bring us love, instead we want to discover this on our own.

How do we as marketers change our strategy to take advantage of this??????

TBC ....