Archive for the ‘Brands / Marketing’ Category

The Risk of Not Making Mistakes

Risk is a tricky concept. Business typically wants to limit, manage, or mitigate it. Eliminating risk altogether probably would be seen as the ultimate success (thank you, Six Sigma). But in life, most great things don’t come without some level of risk.

Getting married, having kids, quitting a job, taking a new one. Think of any of the biggest developments in your life or the broader world around you and I’d bet none of those happen without a fair amount of risk.

Risk is a tricky concept. Business typically wants to limit, manage, or mitigate it. Eliminating risk altogether probably would be seen as the ultimate success (thank you, Six Sigma). But in life, most great things don’t come without some level of risk.

Getting married, having kids, quitting a job, taking a new one. Think of any of the biggest developments in your life or the broader world around you and I’d bet none of those happen without a fair amount of risk.

However, from an early age we are taught to avoid risk. We understand that with risk comes mistakes. And mistakes can be painful. But making mistakes is also how we learn.

We aren’t born knowing that the square peg doesn’t fit into the round hole. We need to try it for ourselves. We experiment. We learn not only what doesn’t fit, we also learn what does. And in that process of learning we begin to see relationships—those between shapes and spaces, challenges and solutions, effort and satisfaction. More is learned from the time spent trying than if we got it all right on the first attempt.

But in business, mistakes mean more cost, more time, and lost opportunities. With the drive towards higher levels of productivity, higher margins, and more efficiency we don’t have room for mistakes.

Without that room, the ability of business to learn and grow is limited. Sure, companies can capitalize on incremental opportunities but they will miss the bigger breakthroughs because they didn’t see as many relationships, have as many experiences, or try as hard. They won’t learn as much from their mistakes, because they won’t make as many of them.

Companies need to create room for mistakes. To explore and try out stuff with their customers. To learn. And to do so faster, to get to the right solution sooner. When companies can make mistakes (ideally outside of the public eye) they can learn invaluable lessons from doing so and bring their customers better solutions because of it.

Risk isn’t that tricky of a concept if you think about it differently—not as the negative value of an event, but as a process capable of yielding positive, even breakthrough results. Make a practice of making mistakes. Create a private space in which to do so. Build a “learning agenda” for your company. And embrace risk. Because what’s true in life is true in business—most great things don’t happen without a fair amount of risk.

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You Had Me at Happy Meal

It’s not easy for me to admit this, as I am not really known as the “emotional type,” but I need to get something off my chest…McDonald’s made me cry.

Allow me to explain:

It’s not easy for me to admit this, as I am not really known as the “emotional type,” but I need to get something off my chest…McDonald’s made me cry.

Allow me to explain:

It was a Saturday afternoon and my daughter and I were out running through my ever-growing list of errands when I realized that it was getting to be lunch time. I was too far from home to head there to satiate the persnickety cravings of a three-year-old, so I thought we should grab a quick bite on the road and the first thing that caught my eye was the “golden arches.”

Here’s the thing: I have never actually taken my daughter to McDonald’s before. There, I said it. I’m a vegetarian for crying out loud and I generally just don’t eat this kind of fast food. Hell, if I’m really honest, I didn’t really think I was a fast food kind of mom. I mean we buy organic and love Whole Foods, could I really take my daughter to McDonald’s? These thoughts rattled through my exhausted brain as I found my blinker turning on and my car cruising—as if being controlled by someone else—into the McDonald’s parking lot. With one click of the car seat buckle, I grabbed my daughter’s happy little hand and off we went.

Once inside, without a thought, I ordered my little lady a hamburger Happy Meal. The exact meal my mom had ordered for me close to 1 bazillion times before when I was a child. I got myself a milkshake (because, why wouldn’t I?) and we proceeded to a little corner table by the window. As my daughter tore into her bag with excitement and discovered not only French fries and a hamburger, but a toy surprise, she was absolutely GIDDY! She looked at me with such earnest three-year-old eyes and said, “I like this place momma, a LOT.”

That did it. Here come the waterworks. The feeling of nostalgia hit me like a tidal wave and I started to tear up like this was some sort of milestone moment in my daughter’s young life. I remember thinking, “What the hell is wrong with you lady, get it together!” But I couldn’t help but remember all the “special” meals I had at McDonald’s as a kid. All the affection I had for the brand that lay latent for 20 some odd years was back … with a vengeance.

Once I got myself together and my daughter happily gnawed on her tiny bag of fries, I started thinking about it. Why did I react this way? I guess it was a mixture of nostalgia, and a deep brand connection that caught me completely off guard. As a recovering member of the ad agency game, I couldn’t help but think if agencies could figure out how to harness this kind of connection with consumers it would be like uncovering the Holy freaking Grail. But it’s a tough nut to crack and it seems like there are really only a few iconic brands that will ever have permission to live on this kind of hallowed ground.

So what do you think, what brands do you find yourself most strongly connected to? But WAIT, before you answer, I would challenge you to skip the first few answers that come to mind and REALLY think about it. The answers might surprise you as much as McDonald’s surprised me.

3 Responses to “You Had Me at Happy Meal”

  1. Karen Barone says:

    Moxie. I’m a Mainer and nothing makes me more nostalgic or emotional than a bright orange can of this..um…unusual drink. I’m not a soda drinker, but Moxie knocks me out. (Okay, I’m starting to mist up.) I’ve even got an old Moxie ad (featuring Sox great Ted Williams) in my kitchen.

  2. Alan says:

    Great post for the Sally Field moment, the reasons why you reacted that way and the implications. I think that kind of latent brand connection is often just waiting to be tapped but we tend to let our rational side get in the way of the message.

    Although i don’t have any brands that I connect with that really surprise me, I feel a similar generational connection to both Friendly’s and Snyders of Hanover Pretzels. Friendly’s because of all the quick weeknight meals with my mom and siblings that always ended with a little sundae – and the way it makes my kids feel when we go now; Snyders because I used to sit and watch Mets games with my dad and munch a big noisy, crunchy box of Sourdough Hard pretzels and now I sit with my son and a bag to watch Sox games.

    Thanks for sharing your brand “moment.”

  3. Fred says:

    My heart flutters just thinking about Reese’s peanut butter cups. When I eat them, I actually get teary-eyed because they bring me to such a happy place. Furthermore, I eat them so sparingly due to their nutritionless benefits that upon immediate tongue contact, the sensation is euphoric.

    I immediately feel as if I’m in a safe place of the purest happiness and unconditional love and warmth. I actually own a Reese’s pillow – who wouldn’t want to let their head retire on the laurel of such sweetness?

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Minivan Dreams Powered by Toyota

I want a minivan and I don’t want to be judged! When I was in my early twenties, I drove a minivan and it was the car-of-choice among me and my friends. We didn’t care what we were driving in, as long as we were together and the music was loud. I could fit 10 people in that minivan; it was a punk rock clown car.

I now fit the profile of a minivan driver—I’m in my thirties and I’ve reproduced—and therefore I’ve been told by friends and family that I absolutely cannot drive a minivan.

It’s not fair!

I want a minivan and I don’t want to be judged! When I was in my early twenties, I drove a minivan and it was the car-of-choice among me and my friends. We didn’t care what we were driving in, as long as we were together and the music was loud. I could fit 10 people in that minivan; it was a punk rock clown car.

I now fit the profile of a minivan driver—I’m in my thirties and I’ve reproduced—and therefore I’ve been told by friends and family that I absolutely cannot drive a minivan.

It’s not fair!

I have musician friends who drive minivans. So, it’s okay to open that deliciously-easy sliding door if you’re taking a bass guitar out of it, but it’s lame if my son is the precious cargo?

Enter Toyota’s new “Meet the Parents” ads for the Sienna Minivan.

      

These ads are pure genius, playing on an oft-forgotten truism of cool: There’s nothing less cool than trying to be cool.

Will the ads convince naysayers to enter through the sliding door? I live with one data point who might be coming around. As for me, I consider myself an early adopter. (How cool is that?)

4 Responses to “Minivan Dreams Powered by Toyota”

  1. Noah Shaw (aka, Data Point Numero Uno) says:

    This data point — the one who lives with the author of this post — is sooooooo not coming around. Sorry honey.

  2. Kate DeVagno says:

    The only thing cooler than a 2010 Toyota Sienna? The 1998 Toyota Sienna I’ve been driving for two years, prior to the birth of my daughter. The best part? After parents gave it to me, they missed it so much they ended up buying a new Sienna. How many retired boomers buy a minivan after their kids are out of the house? Now that’s love!

  3. K-Monayyyy says:

    I purchased a swagger wagon. Now if I could only find the friends to populate the seats I’d be able to cruise around town in sweet victory!

  4. Jill (aka A Sienna Driver) says:

    As a relatively new mini-van driver, I have 3 words for you that won my husband over – Automatic. Sliding. Doors. I can’t express how valuable it is to be doing the daycare pickup in the rain or snow and be able to open the doors from across the parking lot and have my son climb in and get into his car seat by himself. It’s little conveniences like this that meant the minivan was the only car we test-drove.

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Social CRM: A work in progress?

CRM’s infatuation with all things social may be taking a bite out of its backside. Too often CRM vendors focus on outbound messaging through products like Twitter and Facebook while forgetting about Stephen Covey.

Stephen Covey?

CRM’s infatuation with all things social may be taking a bite out of its backside. Too often CRM vendors focus on outbound messaging through products like Twitter and Facebook while forgetting about Stephen Covey.

Stephen Covey?

You might remember him as the guru who told us about “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People.” Remember Habit 5? “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Brilliant stuff—something we all should have been taught at home though I confess I don’t recall that memo. My bad. I caught up eventually.

A recent article in The Economist brought a lot home to me. The article quotes work by Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, a Harvard Business School professor and one of his MBA students Bill Heil. According to The Economist, the researchers surveyed more than 300,000 Twitter users in May 2009 and reported results that include:

  • More than half said they tweeted less than once every 74 days
  • The most active 10% of Twitter users published 90% of all tweets

That last bullet should give anyone who believes in the wisdom of crowds reason to pause. What kind of crowd? Ought to be the first question we ask, followed by, who is in it? This goes right back to Covey—understand the audience before beginning your sermon. The first bullet proves another kind of wisdom; the kind that understands that membership is not participation.

Of course there are times when the proverbial (or Monty Pythonesque) blind horse could tell you all you need to know, as in when you start getting complaints that a product or process is broken. But that’s called feedback and often we confuse it with discovery.

When you really want to discover what your customers think—their attitudes, behaviors, biases, and unmet needs—it really helps to know that the data you are collecting is coming from a reasonable cross section, not the noisy ten percent. Just as there are names for processes like “feedback” and “discovery” there’s a term that describes that noisy ten percent. They’re often called outliers.

CRM’s work with social media so far seems focused in various ways on the outliers, and predictably vendors are still trying to figure out social media’s true potential. If you understand the value of communities, it should be obvious.

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A Cure for “Terminal Niceness” at Xerox

This past Sunday, I was derailed from my usual routine of bee-lining straight to the Modern Love column in The New York Times (by the front page of the business section), where the cover story read “Xerox’s New Chief Tries to Redefine Its Culture.”

Ursula Burns, who was appointed CEO this past July, describes an environment at Xerox where the employees are simply too nice to one another. She wants them to “become more fearless and be more frank and impatient with one another” to help the company grow.

This past Sunday, I was derailed from my usual routine of bee-lining straight to the Modern Love column in The New York Times (by the front page of the business section), where the cover story  read “Xerox’s New Chief Tries to Redefine Its Culture.”

Ursula Burns, who was appointed CEO this past July, describes an environment at Xerox where the employees are simply too nice to one another. She wants them to “become more fearless and be more frank and impatient with one another” to help the company grow.

Ms. Burns’ call for brutal honesty within her organization got me thinking—can Xerox’s 130,000 employees leverage anything we know at Communispace about building the kind of community that will cure Xerox’s internal positive bias? Here’s what I came up with:

1. Build intimacy.
Give Xerox employees a platform to be heard in a way that doesn’t make them feel like they are one of 130,000. Intimacy is what drives participation. For us, that means that a community of 500 members has better participation than, say, in a community of 2,000. With larger size comes increased anonymity, which means less engagement.

2. Talk to the same group of people over time.
Knowing what to ask is important, but knowing when to ask can be even more important. Our members become increasingly loyal about the companies who sponsor a community, and this makes them more honest over time. They become more committed to your success and stop being polite and when they feel you are committed to listening—and that you aren’t going away.

3. Close the loop.
Take listening one step further and close the loop. Tell them what you are doing with the information you heard, and how it is making a difference. This will make everyone feel that giving feedback—both good and bad—is a good use of their time.

4. Let your customers help.
Gather the customer stories—both the ones who’ve been loyal for years and the new ones you’ve acquired through Affiliated Computer Services—that will help open up the conversation. They are uniquely poised to keep everyone honest if you have the kind of relationship with them where they feel that you are truly listening.

And who knows—maybe in a few months the NYT headline will read something like “New Culture Redefines Xerox.”

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Doggerel for Daunting Days

When faced with a constipated Congress, evidence of corporate cover-ups, and the salacious spectacle that passes for news, sometimes the only choice is to laugh rather than cry, and to find meaning in art rather than commerce.

In that spirit, I offer a few modest literary observations on current events, employing two poetic forms: the elegant haiku and the sublime limerick.

When faced with a constipated Congress, evidence of corporate cover-ups, and the salacious spectacle that passes for news, sometimes the only choice is to laugh rather than cry, and to find meaning in art rather than commerce. 

In that spirit, I offer a few modest literary observations on current events, employing two poetic forms: the elegant haiku and the sublime limerick.

A once-loved brand called Toyota
Has met its embarrassment quota
They turned their back on their base
Now their egg-covered face
Appeases loyal fans not one iota

Tiger’s remorse and
video confessional –
chick sports? I think not.

Sarah Palin’s wrath went awry
Lashing out at the crude “Family Guy”
Queen anti-hopey-changey
Appeared quite derangey
Since Fox keeps them both riding high

If pole dancing’s the next Olympic sport
The IOC faces risk of a tort
Should the dancers be girls?
Or can boys show their twirls?
Indoor rink? Or beach volleyball court?

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Wavering Brand Loyalty: The Toyota Recall

When did Toyota stop taking its customers seriously? When did it stop listening to them? Why would a self-described Toyota loyalist even ask these questions? Bear with me for a few moments and I’ll explain why.

When did Toyota stop taking its customers seriously? When did it stop listening to them? Why would a self-described Toyota loyalist even ask these questions? Bear with me for a few moments and I’ll explain why.

My journey as a Toyota loyalist began at a young age. As a child I always knew my family could depend on our Corolla station wagon or hatchback to safely get us where we needed to go without any worries or drama. It’s hard to recall even one time when these cars let us down. (Well, maybe the time when one of my parents left the headlights on and drained the battery, but I don’t think that counts.) Even as a kid I remember admiring a company that seemed genuinely focused on making products of the highest quality—even its marketing seemed to take the high road and eschew negative mentions of other car brands.

Not surprisingly, when my significant other needed to replace his troublesome Pontiac, I strongly encouraged him to consider a Toyota. He saw the light, and for the past six years we’ve been driving a completely reliable Matrix which hasn’t let us down once. It seemed a given that our next car would be a Toyota (we’ve been coveting the Prius), but the recent recalls and Toyota’s handling of the situation have me questioning this choice and wondering what happened to the company I’ve admired for so long.

I guess part of me believes Toyota is a casualty of its own success. Like so many companies that grow large very quickly (perhaps too quickly?), it seems to have lost touch with reality and with its customers. Perhaps it even saw itself as immune to these types of problems. You can almost imagine company executives’ naïve disbelief at hearing news of the problems—this could NEVER happen at Toyota! It’s troubling to hear how customers’ concerns were initially ignored and how Toyota initially blamed the sudden acceleration problem on drivers. This type of behavior makes you wonder if besting the Big Three became more important than the brand’s pillars of quality, value, and reliability. I’d bet you that most Toyota owners could care less about the company’s ascendancy and simply want to know that their concerns matter—especially when it comes to safety.

Despite the recent recalls, I still have faith in the company—especially since I continue to experience the quality of its products on a nearly daily basis. I haven’t given up hope that Toyota will do some serious corporate soul-searching, review its priorities, and once again see the customer as its main stakeholder. After all, I still have my heart set on getting a gas-sipping Prius.

What are your experiences with the Toyota brand? How do you think Toyota has handled its recent quality problems? What, if anything, can it do to recover? A loyalist wants to know.

2 Responses to “Wavering Brand Loyalty: The Toyota Recall”

  1. Diane Mimmo says:

    Great article! I am not a lifelong Toyota enthusiast, but the Venza and the Highlander are on my list of candidates for our next crossover/ SUV and these incidents have tipped me back in favor of the Honda products. Even with all the bad press, I don’t think they are in danger of losing customers to the Big Three- in my opinion they are still above and beyond in terms of quality…but maybe in danger of losing customers to other Japanese automakers.

  2. I agree the sentiments you penned in this article. As a long term Toyota loyalist, all my 3 cars I owned/own are Toyota, I am very disappointed. The way Toyota is dealing with the situation is not right. I had to bite my tongue and make a official complaint to NTSB about my 2010 prius. I feel Toyota should have taken ownership of the problem and done something better to preserve confidence in the brand. They missed the boat of telling their customers that they do care and go to any lengths to provide them a better experience. The previous Rav4 I owned for 10 years and it never failed on me. And I hope Toyota will do the same.. I can see lots of class action suits brewing in the background.

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And the Best (Big) Picture Award Goes to…Pepsi

I live for awards season. I love the Golden Globes, honestly believe the SAG Awards really do mean more, and [deep sigh] swoon over the Oscars. It is in the spirit of film awards, that I offer you some 2010 Super Brand Awards:

I live for awards season. I love the Golden Globes, honestly believe the SAG Awards really do mean more, and [deep sigh] swoon over the Oscars. It is in the spirit of film awards, that I offer you some 2010 Super Brand Awards:

Best Actor: Domino’s Pizza
I know that the idea to address consumer complaints in ads has been polarizing, but I’ve loved every minute. You’re advertising that you’ve changed; you’re listening to your consumers; you’re advertising that you’re listening. You’re so Meta—the Daniel Day-Lewis of pizza.

Best Supporting Actress: Diapers.com
You’re the new exemplar of online shopping. The selection! The free shipping! You’re the picture of flexibility, versatility, and consistency. You remind me of a young Amazon.com.

Best Director: The International Red Cross
Your “text ‘Haiti’ to 90999” campaign provided individuals an easy and affordable way to help victims of the earthquake. You harnessed the power of social media and of mobile devices to create change. Your work will be copied, but I doubt it could ever be out done.  Mmmmm… the “Avatar” of philanthropy. 

Best (Big) Picture: Pepsi
Kudos, Pepsi! When other, less innovative, brands are spending an exorbitant amount to advertise during the Super Bowl, you’ve made a bold move and decided to end your 23-year run as a big game advertiser. Instead you are using $20 million marketing dollars to listen to and better the lives of your customers. You’re the advertising equivalent of De Niro in ‘Raging Bull.’ Bravo!

One Response to “And the Best (Big) Picture Award Goes to…Pepsi”

  1. Despite distancing myself from the Oscars after the shameful decision to increase the number of nominated films for Best Picture from 5 to 10 (really, double?), I’d like to cast a vote for:

    Best Original Screenplay: Will It Blend by Blendtec – captured my heart with their crushing campaign of introducing a new ingredient (iPods, baseballs, video cameras and more) to their blender blog daily. http://www.blendtec.com/willitblend/

    Best Adapted Screenplay: Intel – the good folks of Intel have effectively given a personality to their inanimate product with their latest campaign. The ‘Our Rockstars Aren’t Like Your Rockstars’ series proved equally poignant in several mediums from TV to print, no simple task. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqLPHrCQr2I

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At the Genius Bar, Enjoying an APPLE-tini (aka “Can’t we all just get along?”)

A long time PC user, I recently crossed party lines and bought my first Mac. I was interested in creating a harmonious co-existence in my home network.

Although the purchase of this new MacBook may seem impulsive, my decision to go Mac has apparently been a gradual one. I know this because it was explained to me by the robotic, well programmed Mac Expert at the Apple Store (a place deliberately designed to lull you into a false sense of having a lot of extra money to spend). He described the PC to Mac conversion as a three part process, probably engineered by Steve Jobs himself:

A long time PC user, I recently crossed party lines and bought my first Mac. I was interested in creating a harmonious co-existence in my home network.

Although the purchase of this new MacBook may seem impulsive, my decision to go Mac has apparently been a gradual one. I know this because it was explained to me by the robotic, well programmed Mac Expert at the Apple Store (a place deliberately designed to lull you into a false sense of having a lot of extra money to spend). He described the PC to Mac conversion as a three part process, probably engineered by Steve Jobs himself:

  • First, you embrace the iPod (check).
  • Then, you switch to iPhone (check).
  • Finally, you purchase your first Mac (and check).

He went on to explain that the rest “happens naturally”—as you work more on your Mac, you start ignoring your PC and eventually stop using it altogether. 

That “natural” part has not happened to me yet. I am impressed with the MacBook and enjoy learning more about it. It is sleek, and well designed. But my PC still is my primary computer (and probably always will be).

Despite how that sounds (and what some of my friends would say), I am not a PC user who previously disliked the Mac. I have worked with the Mac before both at work and school (and I LOVE my iPhone). But most of my professional experience has been on the PC, and Windows Networking is an old hobby of mine that I turned into a career. I just always figured that the Mac did not have any real place in my life (and I did not want to shell out the big $$ for one). 

However, as an IT professional I understand that I need to be familiar with both Windows and the Mac platforms. With the release of the iPad (a rather large new iPod model), and the new more affordable MacBook, I decided now was the time to go down the rabbit hole.

As I try to figure out what role each will play in my life moving forward, there is one thing I have learned through this experience—I am a “PC” who now understands why so many people love their Macs.

Let the hate mail begin.

11 Responses to “At the Genius Bar, Enjoying an APPLE-tini (aka “Can’t we all just get along?”)”

  1. Halley Suitt says:

    Nice post … isn’t it best to know as many systems as possible anyway?!

  2. Great post, Jack. I guess I’m at Stage 2 of the conversion process you describe. I embraced the iPod, then the iPhone, and now I’m looking into buying a Mac. I guess my thinking is – PC for work; Mac for fun (i.e. media).

  3. Mike, I completely agree. There are a lot of things that I feel like I can only do on a PC (mainly work related) but I turn to my Mac for the fun things!

    I am actually a new mac user– a friend of mine gave me his iBook G4 when he upgraded to a MacBook, something I plan on doing soon as well! I quickly found that using a Mac to surf the web, use iTunes, and manage digital photos was easier and more fun than on a PC.

    I think someday I will become a Mac, but for now I am a “PC” who loves using a Mac.

  4. Jack Cahill says:

    Halley, I agree – being familiar with multiple systems makes a user more versatile. Mike, that is how I see it right now too – PC for work and Mac for play.

  5. Karen Barone says:

    Jack,
    In the spirit of computer-related confessions, I’m a Mac gal who’s currently thinking of buying a PC. My Mac just doesn’t offer me a good gaming environment and it bums me out. (Yes, I game too. Am I revealing too much?) I think it’s interesting that most folks think of Macs as their “fun” machine (see Mike’s post above). The truth is…sometimes I think of my Mac as a really expensive place to keep my music and pictures. Sigh….

    That being said, I love, love, love my iPhone.

  6. Jack Cahill says:

    Karen, I will send you a link directly to a nice HP notebook, very powerful, very affordable – you should get what you need from it. Not much of a gamer myself, need to find something to try though.

  7. Jack,

    I love this post and so appreciate it!

    It has been enjoyable to see you slowly but surely join the bright, sunny side that is the world of ‘being’ a MAC. It is a nice pastime for those of us who are die hard groupies of MAC computers and avid people watchers.

    You bring up some very valid points of discussion re being a MAC or a PC. I agree that depending on what you use the device for, you could be tipped one way or the other.

    Some observations from someone who has been a MAC girl since high school:

    •In my experience, using a PC 100% of the time is akin to being an active member of a dangerous cult, especially if you happen to be an IT professional. Until you spend some time away from the PC environment (or until you are ‘deprogrammed’ by a Mac) you don’t realize anything was amiss with the way you have been operating.

    •As a MAC user, I can totally see why it would be challenging for a PC person to come over to this side, especially if you live and die by the evil empire’s useful apps. Take for example, MS Outlook. I have completely abandoned Entourage, the MS answer to Outlook, as it is extremely frustrating and does not have the functionality I require for being effective professionally. I am sure there are many others like me.

    •I tend to view it as being a ‘native’ speaker of a language. Be it you are a PC or a MAC native, you are always going to be more comfortable in whatever language you grew up with. That said, bi-lingual folks tend to appreciate the positive side effects of being able to express themselves in more than one language. It just makes you better rounded.

    Pls keep blogging about your experience. So fun to read!

  8. Mike Butler says:

    Great Post, Jack.

    I purchased my first Mac after a bad PC experience, hard disk failure after owning the pc for a week. That was 8 years ago. I wanted it for iTunes, and iDvd for home videos. I didn’t go through the 3 stages, I just thought, for what I need at home, this is going to be much easier than anything I’ve seen on the PC. Now I own 3 macs, and I’ve never looked back.

    I’m happy to hear that you’re enjoying your Mac.

  9. Gina Davison says:

    Great job bridging the un-bridgeable gap, Jack.

    I think it’s just a matter of needs and taste just as with any product; I am a loyal Mac user, but hate the iPhone (I still like to have buttons on my phone, thanks).

    TBWA’s Mac vs. PC ads are definitely better than any PC ad I’ve seen in a while though.

  10. Jack Cahill says:

    Thanks Mike and Gina! I appreciate the comments.

    Gina, you are actually the very first Mac lover I have heard from who hates the iPhone! Although I do hear you about the buttons (I am a recovering Blackberry user), I still feel the functionality of the iPhone is remarkable. But I must admit that the auto-correct and word-suggest features can drive me crazy when trying to type something on it.

  11. Leslie L says:

    I actually started on a MAC and then moved to a PC because it was the business standard. Full circle? Yup.

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TV in the ’10s

It sounds like 3D TV was the big hit at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, but I’m still wondering about content…

One day in ‘09, after paying a hefty cable bill, I flipped through my channels and came up with nothing. I went through my DVR queue, nothing. I wondered, “What did I just pay for besides the Internet?”

It sounds like 3D TV was the big hit at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, but I’m still wondering about content…

One day in ‘09, after paying a hefty cable bill, I flipped through my channels and came up with nothing. I went through my DVR queue, nothing. I wondered, “What did I just pay for besides the Internet?”

Soon after that I began researching my pay TV alternatives. It’s not that I didn’t want to pay. I just didn’t want to pay so much for so little. While facilitating one of our communities I discovered a thread between two members who had the same frustration. One member recommended Roku—the streaming Internet device that connects to your TV. I mail-ordered one and when it arrived, a whirlwind romance began.

It started with a marathon of the first three seasons of Miami Vice (click here for my analysis). Then I found out why so many of my friends are obsessed with Lost. After that I worked my way through the Ken Burns documentaries, but the passion eventually fizzled as I ran out of instant Netflix titles.

I didn’t want to do it, but I went back to my old standby—network TV. At first it was comfortable and familiar, but after awhile became too predictable and the commercials started to annoy me again. Then I went back to Roku and had a fling with Amazon Video On Demand. After paying $1.99 per episode of the first season of Fringe, I ended it. Now it’s 2010 and I’m back with the old ball and chain—cable TV.

I have to say that all of this has left me bitter about the future of TV. Will we ever be able to truly customize our TV experiences?

2 Responses to “TV in the ’10s”

  1. Nicole Adriance says:

    I love this post Mike! I have the same frustrations with TV and long to truly customize my TV experience. Why does the guide show me all the channels – even the ones I don’t get, leading me to click on channels just to be greeted with a ‘no access’ message? Why is it that when I do a search to record shows on DVR it does not give me the option to select the HD channel resulting in the future dissapointment of discovering I accidentally recorded the non-HD version? Why can’t I do a search to find my favorite channels? I can never find HGTV or FitTV without slowly scrolling through each channel looking for the correct acronym.

  2. Thanks, Nicole. I suspect a lot of people share our frustration. We’re so used to customizing our music experiences through iTunes that we now expect it from TV. I guess time will tell when it comes to the future of TV…

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