Update 03/12

Looks like I wasn’t as clever as I thought with the “shrinking Steve Jobs” thing – Rocket Fuel apparently thought of this gag before I did. Well, it is kinda obvious. Regardless, the actual point of this post still stands:

Marketing Tip: Selling Mediocre Stuff

Seth Godin, who (rightfully) says that one needs to have something truly remarkable in order to strive in today’s markets, is gonna hate this but here it goes…

You know, while the iPad has garnered some of the most negative views I’ve ever read from folks on forums and gadget comment sections, you have to remember that marketing is where it’s at.

Mediocre, crippled shit doesn’t sell – unless you’re Steve Jobs. I truly consider Steve Jobs one of the greatest marketers of all time (caveat below…). Steve can present a card board box  and we all think we can’t live without it. He is a master at ‘locking in’ customers. Everything Apple makes is ‘ground breaking’ and ‘revolutionary’, even though almost everything they’ve come out with had already been done in one form or another.

Reasonable, well informed people know this. But most consumers are neither reasonable nor well informed it seems. So you need to take this into consideration if you market something mediocre.
But Apple knows how to pull in the masses with the right words, the right design, the right hype, and fostering a cult following second to none in the gadget world. Steve Jobs is a marketing god – which is why even the iPad will sell well. Regardless of how you feel about Apple products, you should study the man.

Here is the problem: you are not Steve Jobs. So mediocre don’t cut it. Seth Godin is right after all…

Seth Godin is one of the most prolific marketers of our time. I have been devouring everything this man has published since Idea Virus and a lot of my marketing incorporates his ideas in some form. Any serious marketer needs to stock up on his books, especially All Marketers Are Liars,  and Purple Cow, and check out his blog musings on a regular basis.

I’m reading news coverage of a Morgan Stanley analyst (Kathryn Huberty) “predicting” that Apple’s iPhone would do much better without carrier exclusivity, that is, making the iPhone available on wireless provider networks other than AT&T.

The news articles generally make it sound like this is a new idea nobody else had thought of before.

A bunch of online media outlets that are pretending this is news, which makes it look like she’s the only one who has ever thought of it, or that this idea of parting with AT&T for increased iPhone sales is a new one. CNET, The Register, PC World, Business Week…they all want to make this sound like a big, new revelation. (At least CNET recognizes that many, many others have been saying this as well for some time.)

Apple is aware that being tied to AT&T is hampering sales: The web is full of people bitching about AT&T’s wireless service problems and there are more than enough people blatantly saying “I’ll buy the iPhone as soon as it’s not exclusive to AT&T” . I’m one of those by the way.

Those are big, blatant, and unmistakable clues to Apple, and anybody who cares about this sort of stuff as to what to do.

So why is this NOW such a seemingly head-slapping revelation? Because someone at Morgan Stanley said it is?

Another thing that bugs me here has nothing to do with Apple or the iPhone but the fact that investment firm analysts are still considered by many to be the next best thing to a finance Nostradamus. Those folks should be reminded that investment firm analysts had a strong hand in causing the financial mess we’ve all been experiencing for the past year or so. Analysts can be wrong. Analysts sometimes have agendas, like a financial interest in the industries, companies and products they talk about. This sways their expressed opinions on a subject to jive with the outcome they want to see. Please people, quit treating analyst words as gold.

So how does this matter to you?

This whole thing shows how a business, small or large, can spend tons of money and energy on hiring analysts or consultants for basic things the business should (and often does) already know – if it only LISTENED – or, if it does indeed already know, pulled its proverbial head out of its ass and followed through with it, instead of wasting more time and money on having analysts confirm their findings. This is especially true if the findings are so clear, as it is in this case.

While a good consultant can indeed do wonders, a lot of times it’s simply a matter of opening your eyes and ears and really, truly learning about your customers and those who could be.

In some cases this works (again – with the right consultant, for the right things). In many, many others it’s a tremendous waste of money though.

So ask yourself: how can your product/service be adopted by more people?

A simple question for which you should be eager to research the answer to.

Couple of sources on the MS analyst talking about iPhone exclusivity:

http://www.crn.com/mobile/220300918;jsessionid=2BKMSVFOQ1IXPQE1GHPSKHWATMY32JVN

http://www.pcworld.com/article/173038/analysts_to_apple_dump_exclusivity_double_iphone_sales.html

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9B34K3O3.htm

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/02/iphone_sales_could_double/

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-10365952-266.html

Imagine Korn’s new video debuting on Camz.com.

Personally I think this crossover promotion is very cool. I don’t see this type of thing happen just yet here in the United States. It’s not a new trend either, many mainstream companies in several European countries, in particular Germany, have been embracing and promoting adult entertainment related services for years. For example, years back I recall finding huge mainstream sites like Deutsche Telekom’s main site linking to adult sites via it’s “erotic section”.

Sexual entertainment is pretty common in German mainstream media (thank goodness!). although I understand this has been toned down in recent years.

Germany’s largest newspaper is Bild Zeitung and for as long as I can remember it featured naked breasts almost daily. As a matter of fact, Bild Zeitung online is doing a feature now on…Rammstein’s “Pussy” video, including sneek peak and sexy pics, polls, and so forth.

The pic to the left here is on its main page right now. Imagine National Enquirer having tits on its front page. Or USA Today. Hmmmm…

Too bad they were blocking the video to viewers in the US the last time I checked.

I’m excited that a major band like Rammstein (one of my favorites since their debut album Herzeleid) is doing this at such a level though. It’ll be huge for Visit-X.net. I hope one day more mainstream outfits in the US will embrace “porn” more. It would benefit everyone involved, if done correctly.

Some people confuse making quality products with being number one or two but that’s simply not the case.

GM was the number one car maker for many, many years. But GM wasn’t exactly known for its stellar quality vehicles for the past 20 years or so.
Price and marketing matter far more than making the best quality product, unfortunately.

This matters to you if you are working for a company (or own one) and you don’t think you are currently producing the greatest/shiniest/sexiest/most advanced/…/ product or service possible.

It’s a noble thing to strive for perfection, or even “just” excellence. And it’s true that excellent products and services have a much better chance to thrive in the market place.

But even if you’re lacking somewhat don’t let this be an excuse to slack off and not put forward your best effort.

If you make a very good product, or offer a very good service, that may be enough to succeed, provided your marketing, tenacity, and (probably) pricing are top notch. Mediocre or even crappy doesn’t cut it. I’m talking truly, honest to goodness “good enough“. And the consumer decides if it is good enough, not you.*

If you do some digging, and I mean real, open minded research, you’ll discover how all top brands are quite flawed in one form or another. You have heard fanboi-ish accolades for virtually every Apple product, and many of its followers could truly be considered fanatics who would not dare to acknowledge any product faults, but then you’ll find there are about just as many problems with them than with its competitors.

Mercedes Benz has been getting mostly praise for the past, oh, 100 years or so but dig deeper and you’ll find some very interesting facts about recalls, shotty workmanship, and other “goodies” that are not very well known to the general public.

Same with Myspace, Twitter, BMW, and pretty much any other brand that currently enjoys top spot status.

Point is, don’t give up if you are not quite at the peak yet. Be as good as you can be, and then show your best, most tenacious marketing effort.

Learn about building a (fanatical) following (Apple), creating addictive/ viral worthy brands or services (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube), and dominating distribution outlets (Acer, …Megan Fox).

You might just become the next Acer.

* Just be careful – GM was making vehicles that were “good enough” for a long time. So did Penthouse. So did Lehman Brothers. At one point your product or service may not be good enough any longer and before this happens you must adapt or die.

So I get an email from Sprint just after midnight 06/06/2009 – As expected, the Palm Pre is now officially available.
After the hype Palm and Sprint have been building you’d expect those guys to put some extra care into the launch.

All pages should be up and running, all links working, all graphics carefully selected and positioned, purchasing information and opportunities should be aplenty, and everything should just be ready for the consumer.

This is always important and particularly so during any major product launch or site change. To get the email you had to have filled out a form at Sprint.com to be notified of the Pre’s availability, making those consumers who received this launch email prime customers – exactly the kind  Sprint and Palm need to stay alive during these times.

But when I clicked the link in the email, instead of wowing me with some sexy presentation and an opportunity to buy this highly anticipated gadget right then and there on Sprint’s site I get an almost blank page that just says “We’re Updating…”

If an important launch like that is so unorganized and unreliable, what else is?

How this Relates to You the Webmaster / Marketer

Just because sending emails doesn’t cost money doesn’t mean it should be used without care.
Are you making sure all your links work in every piece of communication you send out or publish? Did you make sure that every page your visitors go to is entirely free of broken links, outdated information, and other stuff that can cost you sales?

Double and triple check your stuff. Pretend you’re the person you are marketing to – would you take action, (would you buy, would you sign up, would you leave your email, would you…)? Are you even able to?

PALM PRE – RELEASE DATE

So it was announced that the long anticipated Palm Pre smartphone will be available to Sprint vict…subscribers on June 6th.

The price is a penny shy of $200 …. after $100 mail-in rebate.

SPRINT AND PALM STILL DON’T GET IT

And that’s where the problem is: Sprint doesn’t get it. I’m betting Palm doesn’t get it either.

Mail-in rebates are bullshit. They’re inconvenient, and often mean you’re losing money because those rebate vouchers magically disappear in the mail, or the company hired to validate the vouchers goes out of business (happend last year, remember?)

Companies doing the mail-in rebate crap are betting on their customers being forgetful or dumb enough to not send in the rebate voucher on time.

So Sprint and Palm, on the verge of biting the dust, expect customers to shell out $300 and deal with the hassle of getting a rebate check some time this century.

No! Sprint needs to kiss its customers’ collective butts and do everything possible to make becoming or staying a Sprint customer as convenient and economically advantageous as possible.

Charging three hundred bucks for a crap shoot of a phone at the same time when one can get the leader of smartphones, the iPhone, and its other main competitor, the Blackberry Storm, for about two hundred bucks right out of the gate.

I’m sure there are lots of folks who’ll spend the money on the Palm Pre anyways. But will the numbers be large enough for Palm and Sprint to turn things around? This mail-in rebate stunt certainly doesn’t help.

This is really too bad because I think the Palm Pre is actually a great little gadget. I love the Touchstone, the wireless induction charger. And I’ve had good experiences with Palm products in the past. But pricing is often the make-it-or-break-it factor in the world of gadgets and smartphones (unless you’re Apple in which case you can charge a fortune for mediocre junk with shiny surfaces).

We’ll see how this pans out for Palm and Sprint.

I’ll share some interesting statistics of those three behemoths and throw out some ideas and views on what’s going to happen with them.

For newcomers to marketing and branding on the Web I’ll talk about some basics you don’t want to miss. For the more seasoned guys and girls there are some reminders meant to help you get back on track with your stuff (we all need to remember to get Back to the Basics sometimes).

Remember that the numbers and opinions you’re about to see are based on current statistical information. I might completely change my mind next week if the numbers change. And statistics alone never show the complete picture. But right now it doesn’t look good for…

FIND OUT!

They’re  renown self help gurus who originally had a good service to offer, had a great reputation, and now are nothing more than desperate telemarketing sales spammers.

Got an automated call from Loral Langmeier’s office at 1-866-905-9891

The message stated that Loral Langmeier would conduct a seminar in my area and gave dates. It tried to elicit third party credibility by mentioning Loral Langmeier was featured on Dr Phil (FAIL!). Doesn’t matter.

I knew of Loral Langmeier from the movie “The Secret” and thought she offered good advice and ideas about wealth creation. I don’t recall ever putting my phone number on any lists permitting her to call me. And my number is on the FTC’s Do Not Call list.

And yet, Loral Langmeier saw fit to infiltrate my privacy anyhow and pitch me on her services.

Very disappointing to find out she’s nothing more than a spammer.

Needless to say I’m not interested. She betrayed my trust by calling me, despite me never giving out my phone number. And that’s after I received a bunch of nearly daily emails about her stuff. It was so bad I unsubscribed from her mailing list, something I rarely do.

Rewind a few years to Robert Allen, author of money books like Nothing Down Real Estate and others did the same crap: start out with a decent idea, then kill his good image by spamming the hell out of his subscribers. Not only that, if he somehow got your phone number you better expect a call every few weeks about his services.

You betray our trust, you lose. If you act desperate we don’t believe you are as good as you say you are because if you were you didn’t have to be desperate.

If you are a marketer remember that you are not in control (as Seth Godin likes to say) – your customers are.

You should see the complaints both of these guys log on the web.

FAIL.

I can’t deny pretty girls anything so I agreed.

The interview lasts for about 30 minutes and I talk about common pitfalls and opportunities of adult affiliate programs, and what it takes to be successful and profitable if you run one.

Due to time constraints I was not able to talk about every detail involving affiliate programs but was able to cover some basics.

New affiliate managers and companies looking to start an affiliate program might want to give this a listen.

Kroy’s interview on Sin 2.0