Thinkcorps

OK, I saw this Surowiecki story linked on kottke.org, so I read it. And it’s a typically simplistic/provocative thesis (in this case ironic as well), the kind Wired should have patented by now. I used to be an editor at the magazine in its earlier days, so I’m familiar with the approach. But as is more frequently the case, Wired’s all flash and bang, with little substance after that. In other words, the article rings hollow.

Why is it that every large magazine treats its readers like idiots? Reporting is good, analysis is good. Teach me something, dammit! Advance the argument!

Surowiecki’s story is about the “decline in brands”. I don’t know what this means. He seems to have adopted an earlier definition of the term “brands” – one only a couple generations removed from “cattle marking”. Today’s definition of branding has far surpassed “trademarks.” It encompasses all of a company’s interactions with consumers. Everything counts in the big equation.

Wal-Mart Is the Ultimate Brand
Yes, there are a lot of brands today – there are a lot of companies. This would create pressure on consumer loyalty on its own. But, as Surowiecki fails to mention, we live in a society commanded by Wal-Mart and hypermarts. Today, America shops – wittingly or unwittingly – based on price. It’s the Wal-Mart way. Wal-Mart drives an increasingly harsh bargain with suppliers, demanding ever-increasing discounts. Wal-Mart’s “brand” is based on a foundation of lower prices. And it’s the Wal-Mart “brand” that has grown to eclipse all others.

In addition to price competition, we are enjoying the fruits of a better, faster distribution system. FedEx, UPS, Wal-Mart, Amazon.com – all these companies have played important roles in helping shape how we get products from overseas to store shelves (or our doorsteps). This has helped open US markets to many new companies, here and abroad, and this has in turn increased pressure on price sensitivity.

The biggest explanation is “swelling strength of the consumer”? WTF does that mean? The people that drive Wal-Mart do not spend their days combing the Internet for product reviews. This is a massive myth. The strength of the consumer lies in the price sensitivity that Wal-Mart has driven like a stake into the minds of US consumers. It’s drilled into us every day that lower prices are what matters.

Also—Epinions blows. There’s hundreds of actual review sites available that provide far more valuable information than Epinions. Plus, have you ever been to Amazon? Their reviews are far more numerous and more likely to contain useful information. Epinions has been search-engine optimized so it shows up a lot in Google searches. That doesn’t mean there’s anything useful behind that link. Get a clue.

The “What Have You Done for Me Lately? economy.” (sigh) Why does every idiotic idea at Wired have to be an “economy”. You guys are becoming a parody of yourselves. I blame Surowiecki’s editor for that one.

As for Sony, the company is in trouble because it’s entertainment arm has forced it to develop shitty products that no one wants. Again, it’s the company’s actions that define its brand.

Fashion prices falling? That’s nice. But what’s happened to sales and profits? Private label products can allow a manufacturing plant to stay efficient, by keeping machines running and people employed, while it addresses lower end markets it wouldn’t otherwise touch. Efficiency trumps price, for the simple reason that it lowers costs, allowing a company to compete on a more crowded field. (Again, a function of Wal-Mart’s influence.)

What Does Loyalty Mean, Anyway?
I wholeheartedly agree that consumers will have more power in the future, but not because brand loyalty is dying. A consumer is loyal to a company because there’s a relationship the consumer is interested in maintaining. A company is not your friend. You don’t hang out and BBQ with Nokia. They make stuff, you like the stuff or you don’t. Besides, it’s a friggin’ phone, probably one of the most commoditized electronics on the face of the planet.

It must be pointed out that Apple’s loyalty goes far beyond the iPod. There are legions of devoted Mac users who could care less about what the company does or what kind of iPod it’s releasing. To ignore them is to be disingenous at best.

A pretty sticker on a box does not make a “brand”. Any seasoned marketer will tell you this. A brand is irrevocably tied to its customers, piss them off and yes, they will leave and your brand will suffer.

What insight is there to be had in telling us what we already knew we knew?.

Slate gets it pretty right. At it’s most simplistic, you could view this election as between “guy from Massachusetts” and “guy from Texas”. And let’s not underestimate Americans’ ability to be simplistic. The Republican’s strategy seems to have boiled down to “confuse ‘em so much they have to go with their gut.” And it worked. Southerners are still uncomfortable with Yankees. It’s engrained in the culture.

Message to Democrats: Massachusetts is dead. It’s a marginal player in today’s society. Until you get yourself a candidate from the heartland, from the South, nothing’s going to change.

(2001-ongoing) Shoreline Venture Management is a Bay Area venture capital firm that specializes in information technology, infrastructure, life sciences, and food sectors. Provided: Web site strategy, design and implementation. Web content editing and writing. Custom code development in PHP.

(2001-ongoing) ATP Solutions offers a robust Webmail solution for ISPs and individuals who require a more powerful offering than Hotmail. Provided: Web site design, content, and development; program design and user interface; marketing and customer service collateral.

ATP Solutions is run by my friend, Alex Hart, out of New York. Alex and I have been collaborating on ATPmail for several years now, ever since he decided to turn the web-based email project he hacked together for use while traveling internationally into a business.

We’ve gone through several generations of designs and interfaces, continually incorporating new features as Alex dreams them up. The program now includes powerful spam filtering, an address book, calendar and task management, file storage and more.

Best of all, the program incorporates all this functionality into the main interface (which was no small trick). This makes it an extremely powerful program since an amazing amount of functionality sits at your fingertips. In most cases, there’s several ways to perform any one function, making it very easy for users to get around and get comfortable with the program.

As for programming, ATPmail is very advanced and relies on tons of javascript code, allowing it to run very fast without having to go back to the server every single time you click a button. In fact, the only action that takes any time is when you initially load the program. For example, ATPmail loads your entire addressbook when you login, and accesses the information using javascript, creating powerfully fast searching and autocomplete features (the program will guess who you mean when you start typing an address, for example). When new mail arrives, the entire mail list page is not refreshed, rather the new information is simply added to the page, meaning only the necessary information is transferred. This makes ATPmail easy to use, even on a slow dialup connection.

ATPmail does not use the new AJAX functionality touted by many developers because it’s really not appropriate. However, it has been using a close cousin for many years, the hidden iframe. What this method allows ATPmail to do is communicate efficiently in the background, creating that “application” feeling, but maintain common Web browser functionality—like a functioning back button—that users expect. The problem with AJAX is that if you did hit the back button, you would lose your current application state, in other words, the application would refresh like you just arrived. ATPmail avoids this pitfall by using hidden iframes that respect the back button, meaning users don’t find themselves bumped out of the application if they happen to hit the wrong button.

Because of our close collaboration over the years, Alex and I often work together on other projects. His valuable expertise in programming has allowed us to take on complicated projects that other small developers wouldn’t dare touch. In fact, with Alex involved, it’s actually easy to say to a client that we can do anything they want. There’s not many times you can say that with conviction.

(ongoing) Dogster is the Web’s leading pet sharing service, where every dog has a Web page. Provided: Design and graphic development for new site features.

Dogster is run by my friend Ted Rheingold who took a brilliant little idea he had and ran with it. He just won a 2005 Webby for the site and is busy working to transform the online community into a real business. It’s a sweat and toil story, as he’s already had offers to sell out, but he believes that he’s in the best position to grow the site while respecting its users. I think he’s right.

To date, I’ve pitched in with some simple graphic design, helping create icon sets for new functionality on both Dogster and Catster, as well as linking buttons. I’ve also designed and built two blogs as well. I’m hoping to be able to continue this work in the future, simply because it’s nice to work on something with such a positive and fervent community.

(ongoing) SMITH is an in-development online community/magazine and upcoming print magazine. It’s a magazine about personal stories in all their myriad forms, as well as about the explosion of personal media in general.

I’ve been involved with SMITH and founder and friend Larry Smith, for more than two years now. We’ve already gone through three versions of the Web site, which has helped greatly in expanding my knowledge of Wordpress as a CMS. Everything SMITH has been built by me. Larry gets the content, I make it presentable. :) Beyond that, I’ve contributed to editorial and business development planning. Right now, it’s a labor of love, like it should be.