March 28, 2006
how’s your strategic vision, fred?
[You really need to read the comments in this post to fully understand the story behind this cartoon. Utterly bizarre.]
[BONUS LINK:] Interesting thought from Ed Byrne:
How to de-commoditise your product.
Why do people buy branded premium (eg. Apple) products? Why do people stay as8 Responses to “how’s your strategic vision, fred?”
Thought you’d like that one Hugh … it’s your business model after all going for the high-end stuff that is certainly no where near a commodity!
Scoble in the cross-hairs
Talk about a flame war. Robert Scoble, who we all know almost personally through his prodigious efforts with Scobleizer, Channel 9 and of late Naked Conversations, had a bad week last week.
Said a few things to vent.
Had a personal opinion.
Got some st…
Having the promise of new and exciting products is a great thing to associate with a brand, but you need make the promise credible by consistently delivering such things in the present ! Otherwise it’s just hype and/or excuses.
That’s why some people’s attribution of Apple’s recent success of some kind of magic/reality distortion field phenomenon are off the mark; sure, Apple is very good at presenting what they have, but there’s genuine fun and quality in what they offer.
What never gets discussed and I want to throw into the pot.…to get it on the shelves you need to go through retailers the majority of the time. Brands then are competing with own label and retailers often believe their brands are more important than yours. They also make more money on their own label…therefore to get your product to retail you have to throw money at the retailer…less margin for more investment in the brand…so question is there such a thing as decommodisation unless you supply direct ?
I agree with the premise but Apple is not the best example because they actually provide good value for money in terms of processing power etc and increasingly their strategy involves competing on price.
Hahaha, awesome stuff Hugh. So true!
What’s up with the Scolbe-hate? I seriously don’t get it. Business Acumen my ass..
“You take Scoble, I’ll be hiring actual business acumen, strategic vision, technical wizardry, and marketing expertise. At best, maybe I’ll blow in Scoble’s ear and get him to be the dancing bear.”
This from a guy whose website is about parakeets. Um… er?
I just spent 45 minutes helping a friend deal with the Black Worm virus, which has made her life hell. After exhausting the patience and scope of myself and Symantec, I suggested she call a local tech support outfit. They’re due to arrive tomorrow morning, when they hope to unfuck matters at $125/hour, for an estimated 3 hours. The next day she plans to go buy a Mac. She won’t buy one because it’s a premium brand or because she saw some advertising. She’ll buy one because nobody she knows with a Mac gets viruses. That’s it.
Thought: Viruses are commodities.