BuzzMachine

The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.

Tag: Book

  • We’ll sell you water… and then sell you a bridge

    18 comments on We’ll sell you water… and then sell you a bridge
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    This morning, I saw a hospital worker on his way to the job carrying a one-gallon jug of water and I thought, how silly it is to haul all that weight when you can just turn on a tap.

    And then I opened the NY Post and saw an ad required under law with city water authorities disclosing that they’d lost backup for their chlorine system sometime ago. The guy with the jug suddenly looked smarter.

    And then I read an ad from some sodamakers’ association bragging that they were going to pull the sweet stuff out of middle schools and sell more water in high schools.

    And then I saw the Freakanomics blog puncturing a hole in that gallon of sanctimony:

    It’s enough to warm your heart — the thought of a gigantic trade organization deciding to forego sure profits to help slim down the next generation. Or maybe something else is at play. Bottled water is the fastest growing major beverage category, and much of that growth has come at the expense of soda. (Pepsi-Cola makes Aquafina, the No.1 bottled water; Coke makes Dasani, which is closing the gap.) Logic would suggest that water is cheaper to make than soda, and probably cheaper to market as well (especially now, with all the obesity watchdogs talking about the terrors of soda). It may well be the ABA’s decision to pull soda from elementary schools is a perfect one-two punch: a p.r. coup and a savvy shift from a mature, besieged product to a booming one.

    And then I went into Starbucks and found their new EthosWater brand, promising to give “at least $1 million to fund humanitarian water projects” around the world. What better than slapping a brand on a bottle of plain old water and promising purity from contaminants than promising purity of the soul?

    It’s just water.

  • Dear Mr. Dell

    741 comments on Dear Mr. Dell
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    To: Michael Dell….
    CC: Michael George, chief marketing officer and vice president for the U.S. consumer business, Dell

    Gentlemen,

    Your customer satisfaction is plummeting, your marketshare is shrinking, and your stock price is deflating.

    Let me give you some indication of why, from one consumer’s perspective. I won’t bore you with all the details of my saga of Dell hell; you can read all about it here and here. The bottom line is that a low-price coupon may have gotten me to buy a Dell, but your product was a lemon and your customer service was appalling.

    I shipped back my computer today and only — only — because I wrote an email to you, Mr. George, did I manage to get a refund. I’m typing this on an Apple Powerbook. I also have bought two more Apples for our home.

    But you didn’t just lose three PC sales and me as a customer.

    Today, when you lose a customer, you don’t lose just that customer, you risk losing that customer’s friends. And thanks to the internet and blogs and consumer rate-and-review services, your customers have lots and lots of friends all around the world.

    I blog. And I shared the story of my Dell travails here. The topic resonated with hundreds more people. Go read the many comments here and here. Too busy? Then have an intern or an MBA do it for you.

    And then have them read all the many posts of other bloggers who pointed to my posts and shared their dissatisfaction with your products, service, and brand and, in many cases, announced that they were no longer going to buy your name: See some of those posts here or here and you’ll learn a lot.

    Heard of those new podcast things? Well, you’re in one.

    Now go read the press this generated, because the press is reading blogs, even if you’re not: here (where Fast company turned consumer dissatisfaction into a verb: you got Dell’d), here (ZDnet not just in America but in India, where your many customer-service people are probably reading this, even if you’re not), here (a mainstream newspaper), here (an influential online news service), here (a consumer PC magazine), here (BusinessWeek, guys), and plenty more here: Just Google it; you should be doing that every day.

    Or nevermind the press and even the blogs and just go to a food court to listen to what your customers are really saying about you. A VC in Toronto named Rick Segal happened to be in his building’s food court when he witnessed this scene:

    I happened to be sitting across from a couple of bank tellers from TD Canada Trust, the bank in our building. These two ladies I’d seen before so I knew where they worked.

    Lady one: I was going to buy a new Dell but did you hear about Jeff Jarvis and the absolute hell he is going through with them.

    Lady two: Yeah, I know the IT guy told me that the cobler blog was recommending we stay away from Dell.

    Okay, after you are done laughing at this; laughing at Scoble’s name being mangled, laughing at two random bank tellers talking about some one line blog entry about some guy pissed off about his Dell experience; after you are done: Pay Attention.

    I’ll accept that an IT guy would be reading scoble’s blog. I’ll even accept the IT guy offering an opinion which, randomly, I overheard.

    The pay attention part: Lots of people (Dell?) are making the assumption that “average people” or “the masses” don’t really see/read blogs so, we take a little heat and move on.

    Big mistake.

    At the same time, as the tech columnist in the Houston Chronicle reported, you closed down one of your consumer forums and your own spokesman said that you have a corporate policy of not talking to your customers on blogs.

    Big mistakes.

    So allow me to give you some friendly and free advice about these blog things. You can pay for more.

    1. Read blogs. Go to Technorati, Icerocket, Google, Bloglines, Pubsub, and search for Dell and read what they’re saying about you. Get it out of your head that these are “bloggers,” just strange beasts blathering. These are consumers, your marketplace, your customers — if you’re lucky. They are just people. You surely spend a fortune on consumer research, on surveys and focus groups and thinktanks to find out what people are thinking. On blogs, they will tell you for free. All you have to do is read them. All you have to do is listen.

    2. Talk with your consumers. One of your executives said you have a look-don’t-touch policy regarding blogs. How insulting that is: You ignore your consumers? You act as if we’re not here? How would you like it if you gave someone thousands of dollars and they ignored you? You’re not used to being treated that way. Neither are we. It’s just rude. These bloggers care enough to talk about your products and service and brands. The least you can do is engage them and join the conversation. You will learn more than any think tank can ever tell you about what the market thinks of your products. But go to the next step: Ask ask your consumers what they think you should do. You’ll end up with better products and you’ll do a better job selling them to more satisfied customers who can even help each other, if you’ll let them. It’s good business, gentlemen.

    3. Blog. If Microsoft and Sun and even GM, fercapitalismsake, can have their smartest blogging. So why shouldn’t you? Or the better question: Why should you? Because it’s a fad? No. Because it will make you cool with your kids? No. Blog because it shows that you are open and unafraid — no, eager — to engage your consumers, eye-to-eye.

    4. Listen to all your bad press and bad blog PR and consumer dissatisfaction and falling stock price and to the failure of your low-price strategy and use that blog to admit that you have a problem. Then show us how you are going to improve quality and let us help. Make better computers and hire customer service people who serve customers.

    It sounds so simple, so downright silly, doesn’t it? But that’s what you’re not doing now. And that’s why you lost me as a customer. But if you join the conversation your customers are having without you, it may not be too late.

    Sincerely,

    Jeff Jarvis

    P.S. I have one Dell left in the house, my son‘s. And just last night, he said he had to buy a fan to put under his machine to suck the heat out so the graphics card won’t overheat and slow down every time he plays a game. He looked online and found that people have complained to Dell… but no one would listen. Do you hear us now?

  • Who shot .com?

    3 comments on Who shot .com?
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    Tom Evslin is working on a novel:

    It’s an historic murder mystery set in the first Internet bubble and rubble. I had a ringside seat in 1998-2003. It’s fun to tell the story.

    Tom did, indeed, have that seat. Put him on the short list of the people who made the inernet the internet. When he headed up AT&T’s internet services, he introduced flat-rate pricing and brought on the masses. He went on to see the power of VOIP before the industry did. And as you’d expect, he’s not publishing the old-fashioned way:

    My Novel is going to appear first on the web. I’ve been in software so long that I’m gonna start with a beta release version 0.91 published on a blog engine. It’ll be free; you can subscribe to it; you can visit it online; you can file bug reports and feature requests; you can roast it in comments; and there’ll be other ways to interact online as well. The fictional company in the book will have a real website. That SHOULD all start in a month or two (hey, this IS like software).

    The edited e-book version 1.0 will follow and then the hardcover edition early next year (incorporating all bug fixes, of course). By then I think word of blog will have determined how many we need to print in our first run. Newbie authors don’t usually get traditional reviews, even less so if they self publish. Blogs have become a bypass around traditional media gatekeepers in many ways. It’s my bet that’ll happen with books as well. Web marketing is primary for this enterprise!

    We’ve put together a small but talented short-term virtual company for the all the many pieces that go into self publishing. I’ll blog about them soon.

  • I need another gig

    1 comment on I need another gig
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    Trendwatching does what trendwatchers do, taking a phenom we’re living and giving it a name. They call it life caching, which enables folks today to…:

    …become a generation of true storytellers, helping them to visually and compellingly share their experiences with friends and family, which makes them stand out and feel special. In fact, sharing an experience may become as valuable if not more valuable than the actual experience itself.

    I blog/Flickr/Del.icio.us, therefore I am.

  • The open source life

    1 comment on The open source life
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    Via the Bubble Generation, I came to The Business Experiment, which aims to start the first open-source company, its fate decided by its — we’ll need a new word for this — members. I was going to nay-say the notion that inspiration and passion for a new business idea can come from the often-leveling effect of the wisdom of the crowd. But whatdyaknow, I go to the site and its creator says that’s precisely the lesson he has learned: He wished he has started with an idea (or, I’d say, even a problem to solve) and then turned it over to the community because inspiration and execution are different muscles. This will be well worth following. I also emailed pal Steve Baker, who’s following it here.