Latest Articles
Latest Articles
5 Reasons Consumers Perceive Technology As Commodities
Yesterday I wrote about the huge challenge in consumer electronics that other industries do not face: your market -- consumers -- views your products as commodities. They see your products as interchangeable. They don't see a difference between a Samsung HDTV and an...
Commodities
The consumer electronics industry faces a problem that's far more extreme than in other industries: People perceive your products, which are mostly excellent, as commodities. To most consumers, most HDTVs are interchangeable. The picture is great on all of them. So...
Sticktoitiveness
I like the word, and I like it a lot better than the hyphenated version. It's more interesting than perseverance, because it's more ongoing. To me, it's perseverance over an extended period of time, in the face of challenges. It's always easier to stop. And it's...
Product Manufacturing or Life Improvement?
In your mind, what kind of technology company are you running / working for / working with? Is it a product manufacturer? If so, you're focused on features, technical specifications, and hardware. Your marketing and communications are focused around your products....
Non-Computers
Take a closer at the results Apple released this week. They're very significant: Mac computers sold: 3.89 million iPhones sold: 14.1 million iPads sold? 4.19 million Which means Apple non-computers outsold Apple computers by nearly fivefold. Almost five times as many...
Android is Outmuscling Apple — Or Why Steve Jobs is Giving Up Some Control
Steve Jobs loves control. Just look at the iPhone: Apple makes the hardware, the operating system, runs the App Store, and approves every one of the hundreds of thousands of downloadable apps people have access to. Heck, Apple even has the option of getting into your...
Participating in Social Media vs Marketing to Consumers
A comment to yesterday's post about why marketing to consumers on social media is a terrible idea got me thinking. The commenter said I don't understand the difference between selling and participating in social media. More to the point, for our purposes, here are the...
Ten Things Social Networks Are
For the purposes of marketing to consumers, social networks are... Impersonal Unnatural Awkward (Would you buy an HDTV based on a Facebook ad?) Still too technical for the mainstream (I'm talking about anything beyond Facebook) Ineffective Far from the best way to...
The Ineffectiveness of Social Media Marketing
Gladwell's recent New Yorker piece on social media and activism includes some solid insights for corporations who invest millions marketing on Facebook and Twitter. Remember, these quotes from the piece are in the context of social activism. I will apply them to our...
Gladwell on Social Media
If you haven't seen it, Malcolm Gladwell has a wicked-strong piece on the weakness of social media in this month's New Yorker. That's right. Weakness. I've been saying companies are pouring far too many resources into social media for a long time now. Much more on my...