mcdonald's "first love - huling el bimbo" tv spot

on request, this is next in WAWAM!

mar roxas' new tv ad - murang gamot, hindi nagmumura (cheap medicine, not cursing)

mar roxas has a new tv ad. the message of cheaper medicine is good and meaningful but is it the right thing to do for his brand image given his recent "putang ina" (SOB) brand image?

there are tactical and executional errors in this new tv ad. read about it here: http://2010presidentiables.wordpress.com/

Wellmade Inc.'s Speed Babad piolo pascual "musical" tv spot is, well, not well made

we see this tv spot of speed babad (soak) often on tv. they got the media money, but how we wish they took some of it to make a good TVC ad?

this is one more of those no-brains celebrity endorser tv ad where they think all it takes to make a good ad is to simply shove a celebrity's face into the ad and it will generate business for the brand. with so many of these types of celebrity endorser ads in philippine advertising, the conclusion is that the whole industry has lost it's sense of purpose and has forgotten what makes celebrity endorser ads work versus other types of ad formats.

this one has piolo pascual, the country's celebrity matinee idol. yes, that is the first question you ask yourself - what has piolo pascual, a male, got to do with washing clothes. we are not even talking about the washing machine type, we are talking of hand-washing. probably anywhere from 99.0% to 99.99% of clothes washing in this country are done by females.

obviously, this ad has just violated one of the most important principles of celebrity endorser ads by putting a celebrity endorser who do not hold any sort of authority and even experience on the product the ad is selling. the reason they put piolo in that ad has nothing to do with enhancing the brand image or product efficacy, but rather he is in that commercial because he is famous among women. it's using a celebrity endorser for the sake of using one.

this ad fails a second time, please view the ad.

the location of the ad is on a river by the mountains. what???

we see piolo on a raft going to where the women where and throughout the commercial we see mountains and trees on the background. this is not comedy, but the location of the ad made me laugh.

are we to believe piolo travelled miles upon miles on that river on a raft to reach the women? and are women who wash clothes on the river really look like that and dress that way? not only that, they had swimming pool lounge chairs and orange juice with ice up in the river of a mountainous area.

it makes sense that they situate the brand in clothes washing by the river. based on research, a certain percentage of clothes washed in the rural areas are actually done by the river using the water from the river. so from a marketing stand point, that can make sense.

but that legitimate marketing thinking is all thrown out down the river by using piolo pascual and those women looking like that in this commercial. the women all looked liked commercial models or celebrities themselves, something like maybe less than 0.5% of actual women who do hand washing by the river look like.

they also can't expect us to believe that women who look like that, dress like that and most likely belong to the AB socio-eco class actually do hand washing of their clothes (they have washing machines); and that they do it themselves (they have maids to do the machine washing of clothes), and that they do it by the river in the mountains (they rarely go there, to pass through it on their way to their vacation house in baguio)???

this ad has lost all semblance of believability and credibility.

that has been totally lost that i did not want to bother to listen to the copy in the ad. but i had to.

it positions speed babad as the better alternative to hand-washing, to do soaking instead to allow the women to relax and get out of the losyang (frump). they use a common term, "power whitener" as reason why. we are sure that has been used by other detergents in the past, perhaps in the 60s and 70s. (hahaha)

they also use a very common product freight - a magnifying glass showing "dirt" being removed from the microscopic meshes of the cloth. again a device that has been most likely used in the 60s and 70s.

what do we have here? let me count the ways on why we think this is a WAWAM!

• the use of a celebrity endorser who does not contribute to the sale
• the use of women talents who do not at all look like the actual target users, who most unlikely do not hand wash clothes and certainly not do so by the river in the mountains
• the use of a non-original reason why, circa 60s and 70s
• the use of a non-original product demo, circa 60s and 70s

we don't know how and where this ad connects with its target consumers. what a waste of advertising money!

holistic dog food's promo got holes - fine example of tHe idiOts proMo

end of last year, holistic dog food ran out of stock from metro manila pet food shops. it was not available for a long time, like 3 to 4 months. stocks were made available again sometime end december, so that means there were no stocks from september to december.

3 to 4 months of not having stocks in pet food stores i think is suicide for any food product, most specially for pet food. pets do tend to eat the same thing over and over again. getting them to switch to another brand is quite difficult and takes a bit of doing.

but with that length of time that holistic dog food was not available, all pet owners must have been forced to switch to other brands. not feeding your dogs anything for 3 to 4 months will mean your pet dog will die.

from a marketing and sales standpoint, that means from whatever market share they had, it would be like zero by the end of december.

for the holistic company and the distributor of holistic dog food it means its crisis of biggest proportions that any company will face. not only have they lost market share and now to zero, they have lost all kinds of goodwill or affinity dog owners have for their brand.

selling holistic again in december is not only just like launching the brand for the first time in the philippine market, its much worse than that as they are re-launching with a lot of ill-feelings towards the brand

they obviously need to go back to the market with a lot of effort to win back previous buyers of the dog food. doing a consumer promo is the thing to do. promos is one excellent way of getting consumers back into purchaing your brand. advertising actually is probably the most potent, but if budgets don't allow for advertising, then a promo is the next best thing.

this is the market situation that holistic dog food was facing - 0% market share and 1,000% ill-will of previous buyers towards the brand. the common sensical thing to do, even for non marketing people, is to go into a gang bang promo, give an offer buyers cannot refuse.

and yes, holistic dog food did launch a promo when they re-stocked their product in the stores. they did a consumer premium. they give you this premium for every bag of holistic dog food which cost anywhere from P500.00 to P1,900.00

we have a pictures of the premium. please when you see the premium, tell us how you reacted in seeing the pictures of the premium.





i bet your reaction to the gang buster premium offer is the same reaction i gave : "what the f**k is this?".

not only was i disgusted and angry, i honestly felt insulted by the premium they gave. after 3 to 4 months of not having the brand and gallant efforts by pet owners to drive to all the pet food stores in metro manila for weeks - they give you a freaking bone-shaped ball pen that not only is super cheap, it looks freaking ugly!

how in the world will that kind of premium encourage angry consumers to buy holistic again? promos are supposed to be offers that consumers can't refuse. this one is the number 1 premium consumers will confuse. this particular promo is supposed to nullify the significant ill-will people felt when holistic was not available in stores, this one does not do any of that, in fact this adds to the injury by insulting the buyers with such a cheap and ugly premium.

the only reason i bought holisitic again is my dog has an allergy and this is the brand that gave my dog the least allergy. that purchase will be last that i will make of holistic while i look for other brands. getting that premium from holistic solidifies my distaste of the holistic brand.

holistic did not even bother to give me or post a letter of apology to buyers in the pet stores. that would have been the least that they could have done.

clearly, this holistic dog food promo is tHe idiOts proMo!

adidas got the whole world on its shoulders

we are used to nike ads - the macho, superhuman ads done in the most dramatic way. that's nike and this is one is adidas. and it stands on its own merits and has its own charm.

tv ads that work are those that have visuals that work the hardest. this adidas ad is one of those ads. very simple visuals that almost immediately you get what it means. the added bonus on this ad is that its a very interesting visual. part of its appeal is you wonder how they did the ad but it does not take away from understanding it very well.

the miracle at the hudson - the miracle "doing the right thing" made

we are giddy with the miracle at the hudson, the miracle that saved all 155 passengers of US Airways Flight 1549 on the hudson river that wasn’t supposed to be a 100% happy moment. we are so giddy that we have read each and every news item the internet has on the miracle, never mind that many were repeats of previous articles. we read them just the same and after reading each one, we get this warm and fuzzy feeling over and over again. it never failed.

every aviation expert or pilot have said this kind of landing on water was not supposed to be perfect. the chances of a catastrophic end was the expectation while saving some lives would be a miracle. but the hudson river miracle saw 100% of passengers and crew alive. the world needs to invent a new word better than miracle just for this one.

i was searching for an explanation on why every article i have read on it gave goose bumps. after a few coffee cups and a dozen more articles, on top of the dozens i have read, i think i know the answer.

at this time of the world where everything is going wrong, where things that were previously fine all of a sudden turned bad and wrong, the hudson river miracle defied all of it. a water landing of a full sized airplane on a river in bustling city was supposed to go wrong. but it did not.

our investments in wall street were supposed to be safe and booming. we knew america as THE place where when it comes to money and business, things always go right. but it didn’t. know we hear the regulators were not at all regulating, the banks were lending to people who were not supposed to be lent money, ponzi schemes are supposed to be thriving only in 3rd world countries, banks are supposed to be safe and detroit, the cars that generations upon generations of americans so love to drive, iconic and a sacred part of the American psyche are now in trouble and a few brand names may soon be seen only in museums.

everything that we knew and have lived through as right seem to have just turned wrong and bad on us.

but not the hudson miracle. this is a gigantic reversal of fortunes where what was supposed to be tragically wrong and sad turned into something heroically right and happy. this is probably the only plane crash in the history of the world that we will celebrate

there is one sentence to describe it - everyone, simply did the right thing!

first, captain Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot of the US Airways flight did everything right, all according to his training. pilots train in simulators for this kind of landing on the water. they know what to do, and from what i have read there were so many things the pilot needed to do, from what and what not to do and in the right sequence.

you can train on simulators all your life, but it is always different when you are actually into the situation itself in real life

and that is where the human factor comes in. the passengers of that flight were completely lucky that the pilot they had on the flight was sullenberger as this man had the brains and steady heart to do exactly how he was trained to do it. his wife said, that was the man he knew and described him as a “consummate professional”, “controlled and professional”.

the passengers were lucky that the human that controlled the human factor was someone named captain sullenberger.

according to the co-pilot, sullenberger was the last man to disembark from the sinking airplane. sullenberger walked through the aisles of the airplane not only once but twice (!) to make sure nobody was still left inside the plane. i am not sure if walking down the aisle of a sinking airplane is part of his training manual, but that action tells us how much bigger of a human he is than all of us and it confirms in a most eloquent way what his wife say about sullenberger - a consummate professional.

sullenberger doing the right thing is a significant part of the success of the hudson river miracle but others have also done the right thing that made sure it was a success till the end.

next were the flight crew doing the right things. passengers from the plane were all praises for the crew and many of them have said the evacuation was flawless and done in orderly way. that can only mean the flight crew were doing their jobs the right way, again according to their training.

that is inside the airplane. once outside the airplane, it becomes a different story all together. this is winter and they were stepping out to the frigid waters of the hudson river. experts said a 3 minute exposure to the frigid waters will cause people not to be able to use their arms and legs. while they all stayed on rafts and the wings of the airplane, exposure to the water was a clear danger. the airplane was in the process of sinking at that time, so quickly getting out of the wings and the vicinity of the plane was important.

that did not matter as in just a matter of minutes, the passengers were being pulled out of the water, rafts and wings of the plane by the coast guard, ferries and other water crafts that were on the hudson river at the time. the hudson river is widely used by many and varied crafts and authorities say there have been agreements among them on how they can help authorities in emergency situations such as plucking people out of the water. again, that is everyone else, government and private businesses that use the hudson river were doing the right thing, according to their training and according to agreements.

the hudson river miracle was made possible because everyone involved and that started with captain sullenberger simply did the right thing. that might sound too simple and ordinary, but it isn’t as they were done in life threatening time. when you see people doing the right thing amidst something not very right at all, a miracle just happened.

red mobile takes the long road to something

a new mobile service was launched last year, red mobile. we're not sure if the philippine market can take one more. the top 3, smart, globe and sun cellular is just about to reach saturation levels. smart is the dominant leader followed by globe and a far third is sun cellular.

red mobile is going after sun cellular. what? why go after sun, the smallest of the three? we will answer that question later.

sun's core strategy is excellent value. they launched on the basis of unlimited calls and unlimited texting. that has caught on as there is a growing segment of the market, most specially among teen-agers and young adults who have switched to sun and an even larger segment who have added a second cell phone to their globe or smart cellphone service.

the mobile phone market is quite mature in the country and many have actually more than one handset. users tend to replace their handsets often and buying a second hand or used handset is quite easy and cheap. so, adding a second mobile service is quite easy. the habit is to use the sun cellular handset when you want to indulge yourself with numerous text sending or make long calls.

sun cellular, however, has not grown its market share to anywhere close to being a real threat to smart or globe for a simple and really idiotic reason - not enough cell sites. everyone knows texting and calling a sun cellphone is a very painful process. the network is always busy or over loaded that you can't get a line or the person you are calling is often out of coverage. texting is equally painful - success at sending texts takes a long time and receiving one takes longer.

and now to the question - red mobile is going after sun as most likely red mobile was launcheed as a flunker brand, a brand owned by smart or globe meant to blunt further growth of sun. our guess is it is owned by smart.

will red mobile succeed? we don't know yet. it might, but we need to wait for sometime.

red mobile's lowest costs are only applicable for texts and calls to other red mobile cell phones. and since this is a new mobile service provider, there are very few people who have it. everyone will simply be on a wait and see mode.

the other turn off factor here is that, they are not offering superior or even the same rates as sun cellular. sun is offering unlimited text and unlimited calls, red is not offering unlimited texts/calls, just lower rates versus globe and smart. they are actually selling quality and reliable service - calls will be clear, you can text/call anywhere in the country and you will not experience network problems. those are all sun cellular issues or problems.

now there is a lot of problems with that strategy. here's why - red is going against sun cellular not with superior rates but better quality and reliable service. quality and reliable service is something sun users are used to and obviously something they don't mind suffering from. the fundamental reason why sun users have stayed on is the unlimited text and calls or best price/value point.

we think there is no way red mobile will be able to get sun users to switch on the basis of better quality and reliability. price/value point is THE motivator and poor quality and reliability is just an inconvenince to live with.

that kind of attitude is true for many other services and products the filipino consumer buy - they will not mind a less than superior or less than perfect service or product as long as it gives the best or lowest price point.

red mobile's marketing strategy is a WAWAM!

new in WAWAM! : tHe idiOts proMo

Today,

January 15, 2009

we are proud to launch

WAWAM!'s

tHe idiOts proMo

this is a consumer promotion

that brands and companies impose on consumers

with the objective, as all consumer promos are supposed to have,

to increase sales of their products.

the core idea behind a promo

is to offer the consumer something extra,

something as the Godfather will say,

"An offer the consumer cannot refuse."

This can be a

price discount, a premium,

additional product, a raffle or a contest

that is meant to entice consumers

to purchase the brand over others or

purchase more of the brand.

An increase

of at least 30% in volume sales over the non-promo period

is the typical measure of a success

of a consumer promotion.

a consumer promotion turns into a

tHe idiOts proMo

when the promo offer is so idiotic

that it is highly unlikely

that the offer will entice consumers to buy the product.

in other words,

unlike what the Godfather said,

this brand gave the consumer

an offer he will definitely refuse.

new apple vs microsoft battle looms - microsoft ceo steve ballmer's promise of "best windows ever" for windows 7

at the CES in las vegas, microsoft ceo streve ballmer made a solemn promise - windows 7 will be microsoft's best ever windows. windows beta is now online for downloading by curious cats to try it out. it's launch to the public was delayed by a day at least when according to microsoft, interest in downloading it was underestimated and the throng overwhelmed the microsoft servers. they had to pull it out of the download site to give them time to fix the problem.

we're hoping the screw up during the day 1 launch of windows 7 beta is not a preview of things to come for the best windows ever. it better not be for microsoft's sake. put plainly, microsoft cannot afford another screw up on this one coming from the total screw up on vista.

vista is possibly the most maligned windows in microsoft's history. and the market share shows it - to this date, windows XP still has 60% market share compared to vista's dismal 20% share. that means consumers would rather stay with the oldie XP than venture into a whole lot of headache and potential failures in using vista.

windows 7 have very difficult challenges ahead of it. vista needs to :

- to be better than XP
- avoid the failures of vista
- be demonstrably better than vista
- match if not be better than the mac OS leopard
- turn around the microsoft's maligned brand image

the screw ups and mud pies thrown at vista is world famous, google it and hundreds of complaints will pop up. and it this kind of screw up that apple exploited with their exacting and biting ads against vista. microsoft marketing executives have admitted as much that the apple ads have hurt window's brand image.

with the announcement that windows 7 will be the best windows ever, it is sure apple is preparing a new set of ads to do battle with windows 7. here is one of the many ads from apple that hurt vista. we can expect more of the same when windows 7 is launched.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer touts 'best Windows ever' at International
Consumer Electronics Show

LAS VEGAS - Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer kicked off the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show on Wednesday with an impassioned endorsement of PCs and a sneak peek at the company's future Windows 7 operating system.

As expected, Ballmer announced that Microsoft is releasing a beta version of Windows 7, which will be available for download beginning Friday. The news suggests the world's largest software maker may be giving up efforts to rehabilitate its often-maligned Vista operating system, which was released worldwide in January 2007.

''We are on track to deliver the best version of Windows ever,'' Ballmer told an audience of several thousand tech professionals and journalists inside a cavernous ballroom at the Venetian Hotel. ''We're working hard to get it right and get it ready.''

read in full here : http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/01/08/2009-01-08_microsoft_ceo_steve_ballmer_touts_best_w-4.html

smart telco's wrong send tv spot

this ad can be classified as a public service ad. it's supposed to educate cellphone users on how best to use the cellphone. in this ad, it's how not to get yourself in trouble with your boss.

while the ad is entertaining in some ways and communicates the point of the ad, it really does not do anything to the Smart brand. it's a story that is truly generic that it applies to any subscriber of any cellphone service provider. if it's too generic, why bother to produce and air the ad at all?

advertising money is very precious. you want every advertising money you have to work for your brand. it should either build an image or sell more. the best kind is the one that does both.

does this ad make smart more endearing to consumers? or do this ad make non-Smart subscribers want to switch to Smart? on both questions, we think the answer is no. so why bother?
we think it's a WAWAM!



english backtranslation of the SMS text sent by the employee:

Pilipino : "Kalbong ito!!! Gabi na! Wla na FX!"

English : "This bald man!!! It's already late in the evening! There won't be any FX (mode of public transportation like a taxi with a fixed route shared by other passengers) anymore!

apple products "product cycles"

so maybe i'm not a certified applenatics that is why i did not know that apple has certain months when they announce new things or improvements for their products. "product cycles" is what they call it.

But he also pointed out that having to come up with another dazzling show every January—a huge production, starring knock-'em-dead new products every year—was unsustainable. He noted that Apple marches to certain annual product cycles: the holiday season (Novemberish), the educational buying season (late summer), the iPod product cycle (October), the iLife development cycle (usually March), the iPhone cycle (June). January doesn't fit ANY of them.

found the above from a news article from NY Times, click here to read article in full :http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/technology/personaltech/08pogue-email.html?bl&ex=1231563600&en=45ee9cc416dcd0bd&ei=5087%0A

what that means is if you plan to buy an apple product, then perhaps it is best to wait after during the month, above, depending on the product you are thinking of buying. that is true specially if the month you are buying it is very close to that product's product cycle month.

macworld 2009 minus steve jobs - the world did not end!

applenatics and stevenatics gave a collective sigh - the world did not end when macworld started and ended without steve jobs giving the keynote address and the world did not end.

the world also did not shake with the announcements made during the event. with the kind of announcements made at the macworld, it made sense that steve jobs stayed home to rest and recuperate from his hormone defficiency.

of the new things, two favorites of mine is the new 17" MacBook Pro and lower itunes prices. the longer battery life, 8 hours of oomph is exciting.

Apple unveils software updates, new laptop


Ryan Kim, Chronicle Staff Writer


The presentation included updates to the iLife and iWork software suites, a new 17-inch MacBook Pro with an 8-hour battery and a new digital rights management-free iTunes library with tiered pricing.


Starting at $2,799 and available in late January, the new MacBook Pro features Apple's unibody aluminum enclosure, which other models received this past summer. But the big news was the battery life for the machine, which has a 40-percent larger battery capable of up to eight hours of continuous use.

--

ITunes is finally getting a full slate of digital rights protection-free music that will come in a higher-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding format. About 8 million songs will be available immediately, and by the end of the quarter the remaining 2 million songs also will be available without digital rights management protections.


Also, Apple is now offering music at three price points: 69 cents, the traditional 99 cents and $1.29. Most albums will still sell for $9.99. The move satisfies one of the longer-running complaints of the music labels, which have wanted more flexibility in pricing in the iTunes Music Store. Users can upgrade their existing library of songs to DRM-free iTunes Plus for 30 cents a track or 30 percent of an album price.

read in full here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/07/BUL6154I2V.DTL

political ads: small banners that think small a big waste of money

you can't miss it, every city has it. actually every city has lots of it - these ubiquitous small banners with the faces and names of current barangay (smallest town unit), city and provincial officials. depending on certain months, congressmen and senators get into the act. well, ok actually almost everyone in government does it.

but do they work? do they have a marketing and advertising value?

looking at these ads, you can say there is an advertising campaign being followed here, complete with a copy rotation plan and an annualized media plan. the copy rotation and media plans follow events during the year - christmas, new year, graduation, valentines (yes, even that), summer, fiestas and anniversaries just to name a few. on those alone, we are looking at minimum 7 executions in a year or an average of something new every two months.

that number does not yet include ad-hoc campaigns announcing the govt officials specific programs for his/her constituents, plus the occasional barangay hall repainting or free inoculation activities.

from 1 mayor, 1 vice-mayor, add half a dozen to a dozen councilmen, 1 or two congressmen and 1 barangay captain per barangay - we're talking of a gazillion (that's an exaggeration) officials releasing their own small banner ads on every other street corner and every other empty wall. whew!

looking at copy - these ads are no more than just name and face recall. they really don't contain much in terms of content. to say it positively, they are minimalist in messages. they are usually just the face of the local government official and copy that says "Happy Fiesta To All" if its fiesta time or "Happy Valentines To All".

given those, the ads do nothing more than generate just face and name recall. oh wait, it does more - it irritates us and it uglifies the city! we are of course assuming that people who live in the city actually look at any of these small banners. (i doubt it, though.) and also assuming, people who live in that city do not know the names of their local government officials and they do not know how they look like. that also assumes the local residents did not vote them in the last elections.

that's exactly the point - these ads are nothing more than just irritants. we doubt if these small banners with a minimalist message really do anything to endear these officials to the electorate. from an advertising standpoint, many of these ads just duplicate what is already existing. they were elected by the people, i'm sure all those who elected them into office know their names and their faces. come on now, do they really think voters will say anything like this - "Wow, Mayor de la Cruz greeted me "happy valentines", i'll re-elect him in the next election!"???

if these small banners don't do anything to the likability of the local officials, what do they achieve? one sentence - they uglify the city and a true blue WAWAM.

macworld 2009 - the first, the last and forever

first things first, let's get this out of the way on the first paragraph ---- steve jobs is alive and will still be alive. it's just a simple thing as "hormone imbalance" that has zapped steve's body mass on its way to flesh and bones. the good news is its a very much straightforward fix - he will regain what was lost in a few week's time with a simple remedy. (200 lbs oprah, are you getting this?)

Apple CEO Blames 'Hormone Imbalance' for Weight Loss
What Steve Jobs' Weight Loss May Tell Us About His Health

By DAN CHILDS

ABC News Medical Unit

Jan. 5, 2009

Apple Inc. founder and chief executive Steve Jobs confronted widespread speculation about his apparent weight loss in a statement issued today that attributed his gaunt appearance to an easily treated hormone imbalance.

The announcement follows a flurry of speculation in 2008 about the 53-year-old CEO's weight loss, including rumors of a worsening pancreatic condition -- rumors Jobs said are unfounded.



read in full: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/CancerPreventionAndTreatment/story?id=6580484&page=1

the macworld 2009 will probably be the most special ever in the history of macworld.

it will be the first time that steve jobs will not make the keynote address. it's usually his thing to do. and when he does his thing, the apple faithful swoons to heaven, after passing through the bank to get cash to buy the newest apple product that jobs will announce in his keynote address.

it is also the last time that apple will participate in macword. many may not know it, but macworld is an IDG event, a separate company that does events for mmany industries. apple is just invited to participate, err star in it.

will there be a macworld 2010? it would be foolish for IDG not to have it. even if apple does not participate in it, they will still come. we think that is the kind of following apple has among the throngs of techno fanatics.

after macworld 2009, even without steve jobs in it, and even if jobs has more than just a hormone imbalance and he joins the great white in heaven (heaven forbid), apple is set for forever. this is question is often asked these days - is there life for apple after steve jobs.

we think there is. apple's success model has very much been defined over the years with very clear cut principles and directions, etched in ways more pronounced than the tablet that had the ten commandments in them. the strength of a company is in its strategic thinking, its brand equities. and apple's strategic thinking and brand equities are probably the clearest for any brand in the world today.

pause for a minute, and think about it - there are very distinct and powerful similarities in the mac, ipod, iphone and the itunes. there is no mistaking on what were the key strategies that made for these products being the icons and leaders in their respective fields.

macworld may not be one of those exactly, but even the one that will start in less than 24 hours tell a very clear story on the kind of equities and passions people have towards apple. blogs and newswires continue to be pregnant with rumors and speculation what will be announced and not announced during macworld. in a perverse way, the world seem to have moved on from the fact that jobs will not give the keynote address.

speculation and excitement are ripe and palpable. but here's one of the hottest speculation and rumor --- that contrary to what apple announced, steve jobs will make a surprise appearance in macworld.

must-read for any marketing professional who wants to succeed in the technology market

in my view this article is a must-read for any marketing professional who wants to succeed in the tech world. not only for marketing professionals but also for tech manufacturers be it on the software or hardware side.

there in one answer to all the questions the author posted at the start of the article --- consumer insight and consumer preference! the nature of consumer insight/consumer preference to those unfamiliar with marketing would always sound like a mystery or at worst it does not make sense. but when you start to go to the consumer and extract insights, then everything will make sense. not only will it make sense, what was previously thought of to be complicated will now look pretty simple and plain. that is the power of the consumer insight.

the article actually proceeds to give excellent consumer insights that answer most of the questions posted. one wonders if the author is in marketing. it is very clear the author understands very well what consumer insights mean.

Memo to Vendors: Here's How to Build a Winner
Mike Elgan, Computerworld

Why do some people prefer Windows XP and Mac OS X over Windows Vista ? After all, Vista is pretty and sleek and much more advanced than XP, and, in many areas, Mac OS X. Why is there so much love for Xbox, but none for Windows Mobile ?

Why do BlackBerry users love their BlackBerrys, but the public is lukewarm about Palm devices?

Why is the Amazon Kindle, which is an unsophisticated, clunky, poorly designed gadget so popular with owners?

Why do people love plain, ugly Gmail?

The answer to these questions is a mystery to most of the companies that make PCs, gadgets, consumer electronics devices and to software makers. The industry spends billions on usability testing and user interface design. Unfortunately, that money is mostly wasted.

The problem is that there are too many technologists in technology. The technology is only half the equation. The other half is the human, that irrational, impulsive, impatient, power-hungry gratification machine.

When you ask someone what they really want, they won't tell you the truth because they're not aware of the truth.

Both users and product designers alike talk about user interface (UI) consistency, usability and simplicity, and system attributes like performance and stability. What's missing is that these attributes are means to an end. The real issue is always the user's physiological feeling of being in control. And control comes in many ways:

Consistency: Designers focus on UI "consistency," but why? Consistency gives predictability, which gives users a feeling that they know what will happen when they do something -- even for the first time. It's a feeling of mastery, of control.

Usability: One of the errors software and hardware designers make is to base their UI decisions on the assumption that the user is an idiot who needs to be protected from himself. Give this moron too much rope and he'll hang himself, the reasoning goes. But instead of taking the Microsoft route -- burying and hiding controls and features, which protects newbies from their own mistakes but frustrates the hell out of experienced users -- it's better to offer a bullet-proof "undo." Give the user control, let them make their own mistakes, then undo the damage if they mess something up.

Simplicity: Simplicity is complex. And there are many ways to achieve it. One way is to insist on top-to-bottom, inside-and-outside simplicity. Extreme examples include the original Palm Pilot organizer, Gmail and RSS feeds. And then there's the illusion of simplicity, which is the Microsoft route. In trying to be the operating system vendor for all people and all tasks, Microsoft Windows and Windows Mobile are extraordinarily complex pieces of software engineering. To "simplify," the company hides features, buries controls and groups features into categories to create the appearance of fewer options, without actually reducing options. (From all accounts, it appears that Windows 7 will offer more of the same.) Both extremes result in something you could call "simplicity." But one version thrills users by putting them in control. The other frustrates them by taking away control.

Performance: Everyone hates slow PCs. It's not the waiting. It's the fact that the PC has wrenched control from the user during the time that the hourglass is displayed. That three seconds of staring at the hourglass is three seconds when you feel utterly powerless. Fast computers are good because they keep the user in control.

Stability: Designers focus on system "stability," but it's not because they worry about time wasted, though that's how users tend to talk a lack of stability. Like the performance issue, instability is about the theft of system control from the user. People waste all kinds of time on all kinds of things, and usually don't mind doing it. What enrages people is when somebody else forces wasted time on you. Blue Screens of Death are more akin to running into unexpected traffic jams or having somebody take away the TV remote control. You're forced into putting your objectives on hold, and left feeling powerless.

One reason for the industry-wide pandemic of frustrating products is that the whole culture of usability testing doesn't emphasize user feelings of control. Microsoft does usability tests, for example, but its tests are flawed. Typically, it sits random people in front of a PC in a usability lab. Victims are directed to do various tasks, and asked what they're doing and thinking as they try to complete those tasks. All of this is monitored, and everything is recorded.Microsoft usability testing tends to focus on enabling users to "accomplish goals." Microsoft categorizes these goals according to their educated preconceptions about what people are trying to do based on their jobs or user categorization are you a student, middle manager, designer, for instance. So Microsoft focuses on results.

My view is that how the user feels during the process is more important than anything else.Here's the problem. In these scenarios, users are using somebody else's PC. They expect and assume that the software is in control. There is no psychological feeling of "ownership" over the equipment or the software or the work or anything. So the most important element -- the sense of control people feel when doing their own work on their own PCs in their own homes -- is missing entirely from the tests.

During usability tests, users are asked constantly about the software. And that's the wrong question. When real people are doing real work, they're focused on their own desires and objectives and are frustrated or not frustrated based on the degree to which they're given what they want.

My advice to Microsoft is to add an additional test: a "Who's In Control?" test. After performing a task, ask the user to rank their experience on a scale with "me in control" on one side, and "software in control" on the other. Try all test methods for completing various tasks, and choose the one ranked with the maximum "me in control" score. And they need the home version for ongoing testing in the "real world."

We've all experienced the full range of emotions while using gadgets, PCs, phones and software. At one end of the spectrum is a kind of thrilling joy, where something "just works." At the other end, there is a consuming rage. The amount of time your emotional state spends at one end of the spectrum rather than the other is the one and only thing that determines how much you "love" the product.

All the factors involved in using a PC -- consistency, usability, simplicity, stability, performance and even the successful completion of tasks -- all come down to control.Give me control, and I will love your product. It's as simple as that.

source: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/156305/memo_to_vendors_heres_how_to_build_a_winner.html