If I wanted to call India I’d buy a Dell Computer

Like many other people who’s stories I have been reading, I am now done with American Express after my latest bout of having to call the customer service number 4 times to get through with a decent telephone connection where I could hear and understand their India-based customer dis-service staff and their broken English.

Marketing 101: When people buy a product or service they are buying a story. Look at Apple’s advertising and the success it brings them. They aren’t advertising a product, they are advertising a story: Fun music, Facebook on your phone, maps on your phone - not the iphone itself which lacks many capabilities that other phones have. Not the ipod itself. You can get fun music, facebook, and Google Maps on almost any phone.

Seth Godin used bottled water as an example in his talk at Google.

American Express’ marketing story was that yes you pay to be a card member, but membership has privileges and first class service. This is a value proposition that was proven to me early on in my years as an AMEX member. Issues were solved quickly and without fuss or hardship.

Now, however, calling customer service ends up in being stonewalled with a foreigner with no empathy and a preset script that includes nothing but false apologies. They have poked holes in their marketing story and without that the value proposition is negative. Why pay a yearly fee? If I want bad service I can get that for free and get a lower interest rate to boot.

When describing hiking trails and parks, Wikipedia always has information about Flora but not Fauna.

Case in point:

Uvas Canyon County Park

Hello people - plants can’t eat you, but bears can! Especially black bears, as Dwight can tell you. They just don’t eat beets you know.

A homeless man found dead at a Lockland recycling center likely was killed in a trash compactor, Lockland police said.

Moral of this story: never go into a garbage compactor without a comm-link to your R2 unit. Didn’t anyone learn anything from Star Wars?

If you notice the color or taste is a little off in your Starbucks coffee over the next few months remember the cup is made from recycled materials, and be leary of the new “Soylent Green Chi Tea” special.

Link to Story: Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati made international news this week with the antics of Cincinnatian Kim Leblanc who was arrested for breaking into an abandoned car. When police found him he was without pants and told them yes, he had done some drugs but that a leprechaun led him to and let him into the car.

Cincinnati Police put out an APD and cornered the Leprechaun in an alley. They were going to take him in for questioning but fatally shot him instead. Even though the Leprechaun was unarmed Cincinnati Police stated that they saw him reach for something in his pocket. It turned out to be some lucky charms.

Links to global news coverage:

Cincinnati
United Kingdom
Ireland
The Register
I saw the article on Reuters too but can’t find it now.

The FBI has raided a warehouse owned by David Copperfield and seized millions in cash. This was after many complaints of Mr. Copperfield walking up to random people on the street making $20 bills disappear without making them re-appear. Anyone who has seen “The Prestige” knows you have to make it re-appear or you have no trick!

Christie was obviously the brains of that relationship.

Reuters Article

They now have a candy bar made of bacon. Ew…. Link

Deep milk chocolate coats your mouth and leads to the crunch of smoked bacon pieces. Surprise your mouth with the smoked salt and sweet milk chocolate combination.

Nope still don’t have me.

After finally realizing that Google satellite images are years old and not real-time, Richard Branson is not giving up on finding Steve Fossett. Today he announced that he is going to invent and launch the world’s biggest flare to illuminate the night sky so that the search can continue.

“Prepare to be blinded by science!”, Branson declared when announcing his plans today.

Dubbed “Virgin Firelight” the flare will then be sold to big Hollywood types who can afford a $150,000 per shot flare to keep the local wildlife away from their big Montana ranches.

I have been reading recently about a paper written in 1970 by George Akerlof called “The Market for Lemons”. What originally drew my attention to it is Bruce Schneier citing it in a recent post where he applies the theories illustrated in the paper to the computer security market.

As Bruce states:

A used car market includes both good cars and lousy ones (lemons). The seller knows which is which, but the buyer can’t tell the difference — at least until he’s made his purchase.

As part of my work I am subjected to more and more of the music industry here in the US. The people I am working with just don’t understand why they aren’t getting uptake on music product like they were 20 years ago. They all point to piracy as the culprit, but I have always cited lack of a quality product and consumers getting smarter. As the labels consolidated they started putting out fewer artists and their marketing model changed. They lost touch with their customer.

As a music buyer I know I personally felt ripped off when I bought an album. Technology allowed the performances - even live ones - to be fake. Technology fails from time to time and this was exposed. Did people really think Paris Hilton could sing?

In a market where the seller has more information about the product than the buyer, bad products can drive the good ones out of the market.

There are big differences in the music industry in the US and that of Europe. In Europe performances tend to drive sales and its easier to be closer to the fan base because its not as distributed.

Don’t completely blame the music industry. American radio has had a part in the music marketing game and could have taken a more active stance in promoting real talent.

One last quote from Bruce’s article:

we have to rely on a variety of mediocre signals to differentiate the good…products from the bad…we choose…products based on the reputation of the company selling them, the reputation of some..wizard associated with them, magazine reviews, recommendations from colleagues or general buzz in the media.

The reputation of the music industry is their biggest block to sales right now, and they over-leverage copyright laws to control the media buzz and even magazine reviews. When some underground marketing takes place and turns into a success, they try to mimic and re-create that in their next marketing campaigns - in process putting controls in place and breaking down the very elements that came together to make it happen.

Revisiting George Akelof’s paper, a “lemon market” has these criteria:

1. Asymmetry of information
* no buyers can accurately assess the value of a product through examination before sale is made
* all sellers can more accurately assess the value of a product prior to sale
2. An incentive exists for the seller to pass off a low quality product as a higher quality one
3. Sellers have no credible disclosure technology (sellers with a great car have no way to credibly disclose this to buyers)
4. Deficiency of effective public quality assurances (by reputation or regulation)
5. Deficiency of effective guarantees / warranties

It certainly seems like the Music Industry in the US qualifies as a lemon market. I wonder if consumer response and piracy could be used as research to further the underlying Nobel winning economics principals. I’ll leave that for the economics hounds.

My rule of thumb is to know and like at least 3 songs from the CD before I buy the CD. That seems to keep the buyer’s remorse down and I can blame myself when I don’t follow my own rule.