Better is not better

As we come off of CES 2007 with its arms race of technical specs, and the coinciding earth-shattering (to use press coverage as a yardstick) announcements from Apple at its annual MacWorld show, it’s a good time to revisit what really makes technology “better.” Contrary to nearly everything written about every new technology product, things to not get better for the end users with incremental gains in speed, storage, size, range, or bandwidth. They only get better when they deliver improvement in user experience.

Here’s why Robert Scoble is wrong when he says “Is the Apple TV only 720p HD? That really, really, really sucks. If that’s true this thing is dead on arrival. Apple, the entire industry is ahead of you if that’s true.” Robert posted that from CES under the glare of enormous LCD screens with 1080p resolution. In Robert’s world, even when CES is not in town, HDTV at 1080 is not just the future, it’s the only way to watch TV. As someone who watches TV delivered via analog cable and further degraded by the real-time MPEG compression of a TiVo, I have a different opinion.

As I mentioned yesterday, TiVo has given me back an appreciation for TV by allowing me to watch what I want when I want. I wouldn’t swap that for a high def screen the size of Nebraska.

Here are a few other things that are better, except that they’re not. The specs for Sony’s PS3 dwarf those of the Wii, but the Wii is crushing it in sales. Same scenario with the Sony PSP vs. the Nintendo DS. The PS3 can show scary realism. The PSP has a huge screen for a portable device. But the Nintendos with their cartoonish graphics are far more popular. It’s because they are more fun! Sure you can immerse yourself in a visually stunning virtual world with a PS3 if that’s your thing. But the rest of us would rather pick up the motion-sensor Wii controller and just have a little fun.

Every other digital music player on the market has better specs than the iPod but has only a fraction of its marketshare. It’s easy to dismiss as a triumph of marketing, but it’s really about doing less but doing it better. Competitors have more capacity, more features, or lower prices, but the iPod with its minimalist interface, and vertical integration with iTunes and the iTunes Store, is just easier. It’s better even when it’s not.

So 702 vs. 1080 doesn’t really matter for those of us that just want an elegant solution. So is the whole industry ahead of Apple in this case as Robert contends? Sure, of course they are. The technology industry is ahead, as always, with not giving the users what they want. Sometimes the less powerful product shows the way to do something better – more intuitive, less complicated. or maybe just cheaper. The geeks and the “edge cases” should be way out front on new technology. They should lead the market. But they would do well to keep an eye out behind them for what the mass market is really buying It’s not that we don’t want better specs, it’s just that we aren’t willing to accept complication along with it. And by the way, I only need one remote control to watch TV. How many are you juggling?

Rediscovering music

When I got an iPod in 2004 I got something unexpected.  For the five years previous I had sworn off purchasing music altogether.  Partly out of distaste for the music industry and their CD pricing, but more out of disgust at the concept of the CD.  In the 21st century I just shouldn’t have to purchase a 12 song collection to get the one song I want.  I had quit music completely and listened to nothing but NPR talk and news programming in the car.  But all that changed when I got the iPod.  Suddenly I was in total control and could listen to any song I owned (and had been storing in a stack of CDs in the closet) at any time.  It was already possible in the age of (the original) Napster to get a single song without buying a CD.  But the iPod personalized it for me.  The iPod literally gave me back my love of music.

The same thing happened with TiVo.  When I got TiVo I gained an appreciation for TV, something I had long scorned.  It’s a cliche to complain about the least common denominator quality of TV shows, but in reality there is plenty of programming you would like across the cable TV landscape.  You just aren’t watching when most of it is on or you may not even know it’s there.  Just like with music I was about done with it.  But TiVo gave it back to me.  I now watch only a handful of shows but they are the shows I like regardless of when they actually air.

Here’s why this is so important.  It’s not about me and my newfound love of music and television.  It’s about why user experience beats technical specifications every time.  My (non-techie) wife loves the TiVo.  She evangelizes it.  My nine year old son operates it.  My four year old can’t read but he can pick Buzz Lightyear from the list and push play.  We upgraded to a dual-tuner TiVo and set up the KidZone restriction software on the old one for the children.  Our kids know that commercials are lies and they fast-forward through them.

I am known as the neighborhood DJ.  I provide mix CDs for neighborhood gatherings, not because I am particularly hip (they lean heavily in the 80’s tunes if you must know), but because it’s so easy to do with iTunes that I actually en joy making the mixes.  It’s so simple.  Plenty of people have good music.  But it’s in the form of individual songs trapped in CDs stored in a rack or a closet.  You know how this works.  You go to a party at someone’s house and they put on one of the “classic” CDs.  One with broad appeal.  After two songs you are sick of it and join the chorus of guests asking for a change.  It’s hard to to be responsible for the music and trying to please everyone’s tastes.  But it’s impossible of you are stuck playing through entire CDs.  It’s a contrived distribution mechanism that exists to fatten the coffers of record companies.  Buying individual songs from the iTunes Store and playing what I want when I want has changed my world.

Almost every competitive digital music player has more features, better specs, or a lower price than the iPod.  But the competitors just don’t get it.  It’s not about how many things you can do.  It’s about enjoying something.  The iPod is fun and easy.  Its vertical integration with the iTunes Store is unmatched.  I don’t want more features for less money.  I want to enjoy music again.  The iPod gave that back to me.

A Grand Finale

I remember watching a particular Looney Tunes cartoon as a kid.  In it Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny are competing in vaudeville-style stage acts to see who can get the best audience reaction.  As usual, Bugs one-ups everything that Daffy does.  Daffy decides that he is going out with a bang in an act that can’t be topped.  So backstage he ingests a large quantity of explosives then goes onstage and swallows a lit match.  He literally brings down the house.  As his harp-playing spirit rises above the roaring crowd he observes that he won.  But he concedes, it’s an act that can only be performed once.

Too often we chase yesterday’s success.  We see what worked and fixate on how to do it even bigger and better the next time.  In the age of media saturation we make the mistake of thinking that something new is a game changer.  You’ve heard it before – “(fill in the blank) changes everything.”  Buzz marketing, the Internet, text messaging.  The first time hired shills for a liquor company loudly proclaim their love for a new cocktail, they get bar patrons to follow along in the discovery.  The first time a faux documentary creates buzz on the Internet, we fill the seats to see the Blair Witch Project.  Then rabid online fans get additional dialog added to a movie they’ve declared a hit before the final reel is in the can, and we fill theaters to see Snakes on a Plane.

IBM’s ad agency draws the Linux penguin mascot on sidewalks in big cities to promote their efforts with the open source software.  Suburban moms are employed to evangelize a brand of hot dog at neighborhood cookouts.  The finalists on American Idol participate in a day-in-the-life video where they cavort with a Ford vehicle.  Google’s Gmail is spread by (desired and requested) invitations from one’s friends.  If it’s different it gets attention.  Like Daffy Duck’s finale it works well the first time.

Once the the spirit leaves the body after that first attempt it comes down having a product worth talking about.  Are you focusing on being remarkable or on remarked upon?

Mantra, not Mission

 

Mission statements are among the worst examples of corporate communication.  They are a mishmash of buzzwords in a run-on sentence that no one in the organizations believes in.  They are the output of a committee run amok.  I propose a dramatic change – have a mantra, not a mission statement.  Pick two or three words that represent the core of what you do.  Not what feeds the corporate bottom line, but what feeds your employees’ souls.

As an example, Coca-Cola claims to provide nearly three percent of all worldwide daily beverage consumption.  A staggering success, no doubt.  But what motivates the employees of a company with $23 Billion in annual sales and possibly the world’s most valuable brand?  Depending on the job function we might have local management extolling the virtues of cost control, profit maximization, or revenue growth.  But from a branding perspective we can look back at a company that has historically  portrayed itself as refreshment at an arm’s length.  Think about that for a second.  All of the foreign expansion, the investment in distribution, the political dealings, the vending relationships, the bottling plans, the brand extensions – was it just about driving profit to the bottom line?  Or was it about putting refreshment within arm’s length of thirsty consumers?  If I wanted to motivate the employees of Coca-Cola I would proclaim the latter.

When  I worked for Cisco systems our CEO knew that we were motivated to work hard every day by the feeling that we were part of something important.  That’s why John Chambers never misses an opportunity to say that Cisco is changing the way people work, live, play, and learn.  This is a company that sells networking hardware – the routers and switches that live in the bowels of your corporate office and enable you to connect to a network.  Is it mundane electronic “plumbing” or is it a way to improve people’s lives?  Well, would we have ecommerce, distance learning, blogs, photo-sharing services, etc., without the Internet?  And would we have these things without Cisco Systems?  An argument for another day perhaps, but it’s clear that the purveyors of networking hardware and technology can be motivated by the social effects of such.

At ChannelAdvisor I am responsible for the satisfaction and success of our SMB (small and medium business) customer base.  It’s my job to be their advocate, to make sure they take advantage of all of our strategic advice, and to sell them advanced products.  We provide a suite of hosted ecommerce solutions.  It would be pretty east to boil that down to bits of data, contract terms, profitability, and customer performance metrics.  But to me it’s about something else.  Something that gets to the heart of aligning our company’s goals with those of the customers that trust us.  In our segment of the ecommerce world, sales volume is measured in GMV – gross merchandise volume (a term borrowed from eBay).  We provide various services to online sellers in return for a share of their revenue.  The goal then is not more customers, more contracts, or more services.  It’s more GMV.  Increasing the overall sales of our customers is our religion.  Everything we do should be with that goal in mind.

And so I don’t approach my day with some abstract goals of synergy, value, quality, or paradigm-shifting.  Everything I do I measure against the goal of my customer base – to increase their sales.  Grow GMV is my mantra.

What are you working for?

Introducing retailconversations

Markets are conversations. With nothing more profound than that I am launching this effort to discuss products, services, technologies, and the importance of customer relationships. As a consumer and an observer of retail marketing I have a lot to get off my chest. So many companies do so much wrong.

A generation ago the American retail market was based on companies exploiting their exclusive relationships with product suppliers and their ownership of limited commercial real estate to command the highest possible price. Now we have ecommerce, comparison shopping engines, online search, and customer transaction databases larger than the Library of Congress. Branding and customer relationships still matter. The rest is up for grabs.

When consumers research products online, discuss experiences in forums, and share their recommendations on blogs they are having conversations. When retailers fail to engage their customers in these places they are missing the opportunity to develop lasting relationships.

In the world of ecommerce consumers want three things:

• low price
• high quality
• great user experience

You may except that at face value but there’s one catch. They are in reverse order. The product trumps the price, and the experience trumps them both. Let’s talk about it.

Welcome to the new Retail Conversations.

Scott Magoon