Rogue Anecdotes

[jacurtis]

"And That's Without Any Marketing..."

I have been hearing this a lot lately and it seems to be some sort of point of pride among entrepreneurs (or wanna-preneurs) lately. This is what I keep hearing, which to me is like listening to someone claw a chalkboard:

"We have made it all the way to $XXX,XXX amount in sales in only XX amount of years, AND THAT'S WITHOUT ANY MARKETING..."

When the final line comes along, its like a punchline for these people. I am supposed to somehow be impressed that they didn't even try to market their product. To me it is like sarcastically saying:

"we are such good business people that even though we know we could make more money by doing this, we decided not to do it... aren't you proud of us?"

No I am by no means proud of you, in fact I just instantly lost 99% faith in your business. At this point the only way you could save my faith in it before it is gone forever is if you are able to somehow follow up with statistics and numbers (i don't believe anything anyone says until I see numbers), proving that you tried to market it and for some reason it produced no ROI (return on investment).

To me, when someone says that they didn't market a product I can only assume it is because of one of these reasons:

You are scared to deal with people

You have no faith in your product/ service

You have nothing new to offer or to market about

You are lazy

You are not creative

Sales and Marketing are two parts of a business that you MUST have. Business is about selling, and marketing is what leads to selling. If you are not selling then you need to look at your marketing. If you are not marketing then there is no surprise that you are not selling.

People don't dream about website addresses that they have never heard of before and then wake up and visit your site. No! You need to find a way to get it in their heads, and that is what Marketing is all about.

Just last night I was told by a friend about sales of his business, and how great they have been doing without marketing. I listened to him and asked questions. I was particularly interested in what he had to say because, unknown to him, I had just talked to the two other partners in his business a few days before and they informed me that the business is about 1 month away from closing its' doors forever.

Now this guy was explaining to me how great the website was and how popular they are and how it was all without any marketing. I couldn't help but think that maybe they wouldn't be closing their doors in a month if they had actually tried to market it instead of being so proud that they "didn't need to". Well obviously that isn't working out to well for you now, is it?

[jacurtis]

Awesome little video, showing us a few things. First that many people fail multiple times before hitting it big. Also, that start-ups are king right now because they are nimble enough to innovate faster than huge corporations.

[jacurtis]

If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It

This is a phrase as old as time. It doesn't matter whether it involves reinventing the shape of a wheel, or it involves a multi-billion dollar tech company changing its' website, the old adage rings true, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

I couldn't help but think how much this advice could have helped good old Reed Hastings today as he announced (in his same "apologetic" tone that none of us take as very apologetic) that he has decided to reverse his decision that he made in futile only a month ago, bringing newly formed, Qwikster, back to Netflix. Although I agree that he has made the right choice on some level, I know at some point he is actually wishing that he had never messed with it in the first place. Netflix wasn't broke, it didn't need fixing, it was on the top of it's game until it got messed with. Now Netflix has been trying everything possible to recover from the downward spiral that they started when they decided to mess with a good thing.

Netflix isn't the only company lately that should have taken this age-old advice. Facebook has repeatedly made this mistake and a week ago they made their biggest mistake yet. A whole new interface, a whole new "way of thinking and exploring" as explained by Mark Zuckerburg, its CEO. Facebook gets changed as quickly as we adapt. It's one radical change after another, never slowing down. As soon as we start to get the hang of one layout we get another. After one bad idea (Facebook credits) starts to settle down into something we can tolerate, then we experience another horrible idea (Facebook places). 

While Netflix suffered because they decided to take a great company that had evolved very slowly and then flip it upside-down overnight, Facebook suffered because it ceased to accept the critiques that everyone was giving them and refused to listen to it's user that they like the old way. Their users like things, and Facebook insists on messing with it.

If it ain't broke, Don't fix it.

Google knows this well, and so does Apple. Look at Google's homepage at launch, and compare it to their homepage today. It is largely the same. Considering that Google now offers 100's of services compared to the 1 original service that they offered at launch, it is impressive that Google has managed to maintain things the way they were. Google knew something, they knew that people came to their website because it was simple. When people visit Google, they know what they want to do, and they have no problem finding it. 99% of their visitors come to Google to search, so that is what their homepage focuses on. I use Google for Docs, RSS Reader, mail, and more, but I can get to any of those services within 2 clicks. Google has specifically avoided change because they know that people don't want the change. People want what it is, they will continue to want what it is, and they don't want it to be anything else. It isn't broke, so Google won't fix it.

On October 30, 2009, Google removed the "I'm Feeling Lucky Button" (trademark from Google's launch days) from the homepage to test a simpler look. The comments were so overwhelming that Google replaced the buttons the following day in their original form. Even though less than 1% of Google users, use the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button, people didn't like it missing. Google estimates that it costs them roughly $110,000,000 a year because 1% of all searches use this feature and thus bypass all advertising. Despite this tempting statistic, Google continues to leave the button intact for its users since they don't want it to change.

Apple understands these concepts well, and Apple is an incredible example that while following this slogan you can still initiate major evolution and progression while still appeasing customers. For example, Apple used the white plastic on nearly every device until it reached a point where it was cracking, fading, and discoloring to the point that it needed fixing. Apple addressed the issue and came out with Aluminum. This aluminum was met with great reactions among the tech community and they slowly brought all their products into this realm. The still brought innovation to the table by making the Aluminum bodies stronger, lighter, and more durable and even shocked people with the revolutionary unibody design. They innovated while still maintaining what people needed and wanted.

When a decision has been made to move forward, Apple makes the transition slow and seamless. Thing about the aqua interface, for so long this is what made an Apple, an Apple. With the release of Lion, Apple is beginning the transition away from this. Instead of changing it all at once, they tested the waters with Betas, and then slowly transitioned over. You will still see the aqua interface in many of Lion's windows, but you will also notice distinctions from this look as well. Take a look at the iOS-style scrollbars, and the more polished stoplight buttons on windows. These are the beginning of a change, that Apple knows will be better in the long run, but they give people time to get used to it.

Always remember, if something is working well, leave it alone. You can still follow the likes of Apple and Google and innovate while maintaining what makes you great.

If it ain't broke. Don't fix it.

[jacurtis]

The only sure thing in life is that there is no such thing as "a sure thing"

[jacurtis]

To this little girl, the iPad has been around since before her time. She has never known a world before the iPad. While for us, the iPad revolutionized everything we thought was possible with the print industry, magazines, games, or computers, this girl has grown up learning and expecting this.

To us the iPad is a shocking enhancement for something like a magazine.

To this little girl, a magazine is nothing more than a broken iPad.

For the rest of this girl's life she will live in a new world were a magazine is something that you swipe, pinch, tilt, and slide-to-unlock. This is a new world, "Steve Jobs has coded part of her OS".

[jacurtis]

Suck it, "Digital Copy", Die!

I love watching movies wherever I go. Sure, it is nice to have them on the TV, but sometimes you want them on your computer or on your iPhone so that you can use them on the go. The solution? Rip them (take a DVD video and makes it into a computer video file format like taking music off a CD and into an mp3). Well thats until I saw Digital Copy. A lot of new movies are coming out on Blu-Ray with multiple disc inside. One of the discs is called "Digital Copy" which essentially is a high-quality video file that you supposedly can take with you on your phone, computer, or whatever. But I promise you, it isn't as cool as it sounds. Prepare to be disappointed.

This seems cool and I was actually pretty excited about it. A recent purchase of Rio gave my family the video with 4 discs in the case:

Disc 1: 3D Blu Ray 

Disc 2: 2D Blu Ray

Disc 3: DVD

Disc 4: Digital Copy

This was really cool I thought. You have the 3D Blu Ray when you can use it (we have 1 3D Blu-Ray player, a normal Blu-Ray for those TVs that have Blu-Ray but not 3D TV's, a DVD for places like my room where I do not have a Blu-Ray player, and a Digital Copy in case we want to watch it on one of our 2 AppleTVs, our 6 Computers, 1 iPad, or 4 iPhones. Sounds perfect! Well it isn't. Sure the Blu-Rays work as expected, the DVD does too, but this Digital Copy isn't as cool as I thought because of 1 major flaw: It can only be used ONCE! ONCE! Let me re-iterate.... YOU CAN ONLY REDEEM IT ONCE!!!

That's right. In my case for Rio I have 4 discs, but one of them can only be used once. I can put my digital copy onto 1 computer. I must choose wisely...

No, I refuse to choose wisely. I do not like buying something that requires me to plan ahead and figure out which computer or device I will want it on most. I want to have it on each device and use it no matter what. Now, with some effort (more effort than most people are willing or able to troubleshoot with) you can transfer it to more devices that use the same AppleID, but since it is tied to an AppleID you have to decide which family member needs or wants it most. In the case of my family, someone had already claimed the one use, so everyone else is out of luck. The both AppleTVs are on my AppleID so they can no longer play that video, nor can I use it on my iPhone, or computer. This is a major flaw.

The license (what you actually pay for when you buy a movie) allows you to use the movie for personal use. You are allowed to watch it with your family, friends, etc. You can not sell tickets, rent the disc, copy and distribute the disc, or make money off of the movie in anyway, but you are allowed to use it for your own viewing pleasure. There is no limit to the number of DVD players I am allowed to put it in, or the number of TVs I play it on, how many times I watch it before it expires, or how often I watch it in one day. My immediate family can share it (assuming we are all in the same household) we can watch and enjoy it, so why is it that when I get a digital copy, it is treated as more restrictive property as one of the discs?

The movie companies will tell you that they fear you will distribute it to your friends, it would be too easy to send and share. Guess what? I have news for you, it really isn't much different. If I wanted I could give someone the DVD and we could have the movie ripped in only slightly longer than it would take to transfer the digital copy file. If I want to distribute it, it wouldn't be very difficult. You putting a hold on it will do nothing more than piss me off. And as fate would have it, by so-doing you have pissed me off. I have already used my 1 digital copy. I have no more. I might as well throw away the disc.

Will I go off silently into the night? No!

I have taken the DVD copy of the disc and ripped it into the same file format that your digital copy is (only without the Digital Rights Management). I have even ripped it with 5.1 channel sound and subtitles embedded into the file (which you can toggle). It has the artwork, the chapter markers, and everything within 20 minutes. Everyone in my family now has this file so we can use it the way we wish. We spent $30 on your 3D Blu-Ray disc, we deserve it.

Don't worry, it hasn't been tampered, distributed illegally, or shared with people that wouldn't be using it anyway. It is simply being used in the way people intend to use them, and the way we should be allowed to use them. We as a society use many devices throughout the day and people want to use them as they wish. Maybe one day we can be given true digital copies that allow us to use the copy like we do with the discs.

[jacurtis]

Whenever you laugh audibly at your computer in a room full of people, you have a social obligation to tell them what is so funny.

[jacurtis]

So many thoughts... So little time...

- Me (of course)