From: Gleanings
To: pop-up readers
Subject: Gleanings: marketing and me
OPENING THANG
***Well, ask for a rebuttal, and ye shall receive. Adam GreeNfeild writes
“Reasons why Lovemarks is *not* insanely silly:
1. Don’t you see? Kevin is – I doubt he’d use this term, but – talking about
branding from a user-centered perspective! Get meta with me here! He’s in
effect asking the whole marketing world the same sorts of questions
responsible interface designers have always asked each other.
What does this brand do for the user? Why would someone choose your
product over Brand X? How is this intense sense of loyalty evoked? Which
leads me to my second reason…
2. Brands very rarely get to be “lovemarks” without a superior product.
(We’ll see, for example, if Apple is able to retain this status post-OS X.)
I should clarify what I mean by “superior”: a product that so speaks to the
intangible needs of its user base that usability is in effect irrelevant.
How many times in the history of VW Beetles has one broken down, been
cursed for its utter inability to accelerate to highway speeds, been
stiflingly hot or bonechillingly freezing? And you *try* to find me a more
loyal user community! Hell, they’re so loyal they managed to talk VW into
considering a reintroduction of the product, and look what the bottom-line
and visibility results have been.
Answering the question of how a brand becomes a lovemark has a lot to do
with understanding what the user’s real needs from a product are, rather
than what they say their needs are. If people by and large did IA as well as
a few brilliant (lucky?) designers and marketers did their job, our
prospects wouldn’t be nearly as rosy.
OK, that’s my thinking on the subject. As someone I know once said,
dissenting opinions are, as always, welcome…”
I do love a well thought out rebuttal!
I will say that if their language wasn’t so overblown I might have found the ideas more digestible. Is it time to point at cluetrain again? http://www.cluetrain.com/
Anyhow, decide for yourself.
***more on the brand theme
Got Brand?
You know you need it. You know it’s gotta be strong. You kind of have an
idea of what it should be, but it’s a fairly fuzzy notion. So what is it?
It’s you — what you do and who you are. It’s just that simple — and just
that nebulous.
http://clickz.com/article/cz.3254.html
USABILITY MATTERS
***Useit.Com: Are Users Stupid?
Summary:
Opponents of the usability movement claim that it focuses on stupid users and that most users can easily overcome complexity. In reality, even smart users prefer pursuing their own goals to navigating idiosyncratic designs. As Web use grows, the price of ignoring usability will only increase.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010204.html
***Fairfax IT: From February 15, 2000; The myth of the stupid users
http://www.it.fairfax.com.au/software/20000215/A17561-2000Feb14.html
from tomalak.org
***Top 10 Reasons Why the Apple Dock Sucks
http://www.asktog.com/columns/044top10docksucks.html
Apple has replaced user-centered design with ego-centered design in its new OS X. Continuing protest over their amateurish meddlings have forced them to change some things, but the centerpiece of their “hot demo” of an operating system, the Dock, remains.
ADVERTISING MATTERS
***Upside: Will super-sized ads protect CNET from slowdown?
When Jai Singh, editor in chief of CNET’s News.com site, showed his reporters
a prototype of the new oversized ad format he was introducing, they were more
than a little shocked. “Their reaction was like anyone else’s reaction: ‘God,
this is pretty big,'” said Singh.
http://www.upside.com/texis/mvm/digitalMedia/story?id=3a7b489a5
***Adweek: CNET Combats Banner Blight With New Ad Units.
After months of research and creative work, San Francisco-based CNET Networks
today introduced three new online ad units designed to change the way
marketers and users approach Internet advertising. Several blue-chip
advertisers have already signed on for the ad program…
http://www.adweek.com/iqinteractive/020501iq_02.asp
***Online Advertising Steps Aside for Digital Marketing
As companies begin to see Internet advertising and promotions as part of
the bigger marketing picture, traditional US firms will spend $63 billion
annually on so-called “digital marketing,” according to a report by
Forrester Research.
http://www.newmedia.com/default.asp?articleID=2463
***Online Ads End Year on a High Note
December of 2000 was the best month to date for Internet advertising in
terms of the number of impressions, according to AdRelevance. Meanwhile,
marketing budgets got a vote of confidence from a Getzler & Co. study that
said profitability is more easily found by cutting operating expenses, not
marketing costs.
http://www.newmedia.com/default.asp?articleID=2470
***To Pop or Not?
Pop-up windows–when used sparingly– can fulfill a number of needs, both
for the customer and the Web site owner.
http://www.newmedia.com/default.asp?articleID=2466
ha!
APROPOS OF NOTHING
***found on the lists
“A friend of mine observes that this picture
http://www.apple.com/hardware/images/hardwarephoto201082001.jpg
simply needs a Philishave logo on it, and people would be convinced
it’s an electric razor.”