Really? Again?

I thought we talked about this, you know about how much you destroy people’s dreams of what a good show should be. Now this is in no way meant to be a review of television but seriously someone must stop these people, not the show, just the people.

What’s The Big Deal?

It may seem that the show is drab, pedestrian, esoteric at times but the foolishness must stop. It was painful to watch video played on a screen: run, stop, and run again from the same position as time had obviously moved forward on a surveillance mission, then to see that same footage later in the show as a on-scene location shot made me want to drown myself.

Then KITT has all these feelings, office staff go into the field, three of the bad guys look alike, they stole missiles from Knight Industries, they can’t track them…….I was searching for sharp object, heck, I would have settled for blunt objects to put myself out of that misery.

But Wait I Forgot!

The opening scene, if you had any respect for this franchise you might want to stop reading or you may form a healthy addiction from sheer distraught and angst. There is an intruder at Knight Industries, near where KITT is located, the scene is dark, you see the feet of the intruder for a second, cut to Michael who knows the intruder is present, cut to more feet, cut back to Michael turning a corner, slouching behind a tool cart, cut to more feet (ugly boots by the way), cut to tool cart moving and creaking in a complete silent room, cut to feet moving down the stairs (we get it, there’s bloody feet there and there going to attempt to kill Michael or the emotional, morose KITT), cut to wide squirt guns spray crossing over KITT.

Seriously!?!?!?!?

No one at this seemingly fictional government contracted business has any friends to see, family to meet, bar to drink at, crimes to commit. Nothing! No, of course they would rather frolic around Knight Industries playing with squirt guns around the most advanced quasi-military war-machine turned emo-punk. I’m not saying we should see something as serious as West Wing or The Unit but a little respect for subject and the franchise would be nice.

Whatever!

Oh Knight Rider, you and I have quite a checkered past but I like a mistreated lover come back because I know it’ll get better, you can change right? I hope you all learn something from this!

Two-Cent Lesson

• When it feels wrong, it is, just stop and hire writers
• If you’re going to act like you have a badass war-machine, have one

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How It Started

I awoke early in the morning, stumbled to my espresso machine, pulled a few shots of sweet nectar from the gods, slouched to my couch sipping hot goodness and expected good things to happen when I turned on the second season of Knight Rider. As usual, I watch TV off my DVR so I can watch many episodes of one show back to back, especially season openers because at times they can be intense to wait an entire week for the next installment.

What Happened

The title appeared, the producer credits ran and I awaited redemption. Hoping something new would come this season, surely they wouldn’t let this viable franchise die or make it into a larger advertisement like last season. Well, let me save you, no let me crush you, your hopes, your dreams, your aspirations. Ok, so maybe you and me are a little different but still I’m sure you’re wondering what happened. Not only does the miserable advertisement come back strong, it gets worse.

How Could It Get Worse?

Well, it’s easy, first you start with horrible dialogue, not a horrible concept, just bad, cheesy dialogue. Then you add in the fact that KITT now is Transformer, yeah, it’s true, but Michael Bay is no where to be seen. KITT can now turn into a Ford F-150 (a sad attempt to push more units in this type of economy given current gas prices) enabling the driver to instantaneously be transported to the bed of the truck only to jump out of it moving without any kinetic energy. Third, KITT now has feelings, him and Michael are friends, best friends, buds, learning the ever-confusing dynamics of human relationships. It’s not a lack of letting the impossible reign free, it is the lack of plausibility, the lack of caution given to this franchise. Oh, yeah, KITT jumps too, you know, like a rabbit with a jet on it’s back.

What’s To Be Learned By This Nonsense?

• Great concept doesn’t equal great product or execution
• Stop forcing Ad-Placement that don’t make sense to the story
• Just because someone else did it doesn’t mean it’s okay for you to
• Sometimes tried and true are the best thing you can do
• If you think it’s cool, ask a friend who doesn’t know about the project, they’ll have a different opinion
• Sometimes when you fail the first time, you should just walk away from it
• Don’t repeat your mistakes and call it innovative

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Why do we buy the things we do?

Look around you and choose a few things you’ve purchased 5 years ago, 2 years ago, 6 months ago, and this week. Why did you buy? This is a series attempting to dig into the why behind our actions.

Brands often influence our purchasing decisions, hell, sometimes they down right make them for us. When did a brand become such a deciding factor? Does buying due to a brand mean you bought based on their clout? Or is it the history of the brand? The reliability, quality of the brand?

As I thought about these questions myself I began to find that with some items I buy I could care less about brand and others I wouldn’t sway away from. Take table salt, picture frames, file folders, envelopes, mousepads, legal pads, checks; all I don’t care about brand, I care about functionality and could value. But now take computers, pens, watches, kitchen knives, hot sauce; I care very much about brand. Why is that I thought? Well, I would like to think to myself that I don’t buy brand name items simply because a certain name is on it but it brings up a interesting conjecture. Do I buy my brand names because I’ve used them and have found success with them, meaning I’ve found quality, usefulness, and value in it therefore I will purchase from that brand. Should that brand release a new product am I more inclined to purchase from them because I use other products from the same brand?

Take why I love Apple computers, the software is great, they work great for the industries I operate in which are all creative. Also, I like to work closely with applications that integrate smoothly together, Apple provides that very well. Does that mean that Apple makes the best hardware? Not at all, the fact is I can purchase a stronger, faster notebook for far cheaper from another vendor than Apple would. But does cheaper mean best value? I think not. I think Apple executes that aspect very well. But just because I enjoy Apple notebooks does that mean I will buy other product lines solely on the Apple name because they’ve been good to me so far? I think not, I know for certain that I will definitely give them a look and a shot for my business before anyone else but does it mean I will attempt to pick up everything they sell just because they have proven themselves on one product I use.

So I think products are quite easy to run this type of qualitative comparison against but are services so easy? Sometimes I think. Say insurance, you’re mandated by law to have certain insurance lines, that being said who is better? Lower price, larger reserves, quicker response, how do you choose? Many times you won’t know all the key factors until you really need the service. That being said do you trust a brand? How do you find implicit trust in a company when your only interaction with them is a passive ad on the television or website.

Quality, value, offerings; all valid items to consider but can you remove them when considering a brand to purchase or are they too intertwined?

Can you decide if you wish to buy a brand without considering price, quality, reviews, customer service, utility, appearance, status, environmental impact? Or is this what makes a brand?

If that’s the case then how do we apply this thought process to what we sell? Instead of fancy marketing (which helps immensely when selling) maybe we should be interested in these other facets of our company and the products we offer. Maybe we have a great product but our customer service is weak, does that affect our brand? What do we consider our brand? The internal, mental conception of our external reality relating to our products? Would we consider a brand regardless of quality solely for a status that we relate to a brand?

I ask these questions because the psychology of brand is so important in todays culture and how we shape our brand (your product, service, or yourself) is of great significance. How will others, customers, vendors see our brands? Some might think that brands don’t matter because you purchase generics because brand names are over-rated. But if you look at your life and the things you’ve purchased I think you’ll find that you’ve purchased brand name items for a reason. Cheap is not always the answer. In fact, I would say cost is rarely the only answer, it is a part, a big part. The fact though that one would actually spend more money on another option when a cheaper one is clearly available shows that brands matter to us just as much as air does to our lungs.

How connected are you to brands? What are you doing to improve your brand?

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I had a meeting with one of my client’s employees and he seemed to only focus on delivering new features and working out stability as time goes by.

It brought up an interesting point while attempting to deliver your product to your customer. Where do you draw the lines? When you release new features do you release them so your customers have the newest, coolest feature or do you wait until they are fully stable. Obviously, I think most people would go for reliable, cool features but at what cost? How long will that take to release some new feature fully stable? So, then a company must decide what the consumer tolerance is. How long will a consumer deal with a poorly released feature?

Take a page from Apple’s playbook recently, they released the iPhone 3G with software and features that weren’t ready for primetime. They hedged those concerns by limiting supply and allowed consumers to waddle in a pool of core features that did not work well. Dropped phone calls and browsing your Contacts worked when it seemed like it felt like it. It was a good thing that you never call people or need to find their information on your PHONE. But what was Apple to do? They had to please consumers and shareholders by releasing new features over stability. However, how long would it take if Apple waited for a complete stable iPhone? A few months after they release of the iPhone 3G and stability was just now promised today!

However, that being said I don’t believe many consumers or shareholders want a company to wait, they want to move product.

How would you suggest companies balance this out?

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You Already Have What You Want

Too often companies short change themselves by neglecting to offer additional, paramount,  and even sine qua non information that could transform their customers’ business. It is very possible that instead of looking for new margins and markets you may already have exactly what your customers need; your knowledge.

Diamond In The Rough

I had this client of mine that my brother and I were doing some consulting work for and they only had one product to sell. They made software and they didn’t have the means to expand into new markets, to reduce their expenses, or to blaze the trail of new marketing campaigns. As we were sitting over coffee as we usually do, a bustling, steamy hot cup of Italian Roast with a splash of cream or soy, whichever would normally suit me that day we found something absolutely interesting about this client of ours. We normally find our best ideas and meetings come from local coffee houses. This was astounding, staggering, and unbelievably phenomenal; our client knew something so subtle, so very powerful and vital to every one of his customers he had and his future clientele he so relentlessly attempted to gain. The information he beheld was so vast yet he considered it so trivial and menial in his efforts for gaining new clients.

As we sat there stunned by this knowledge we knew that there had to be some way that we could communicate this to his clients. We discussed the thought of developing multiple methods and venues for disseminating this information to his customers. At first it seemed so foreign, taboo, and down right absurd that his good money was creating this most obvious and horrid idea. As we dialogued further he began to see our point of view. If you know how to fix your customers’ problems and your product/service fixes it then there is a huge chance that the information you’ve gleaned from understanding their problems could actually immensely help your bottom line and theirs.

The Humanity Offers

We finally came up with three great ideas that could help him bring value to his customers before and after the sale. First, he would release an audio podcast with simple tips about sales, marketing, staffing, workflow, call management, managing customers, and about a hundred more. He had built his software to help his clients manage their customers and staff, he knew how to effectively work in that environment with strength, agility, and ease. These simple tips were a way for him to help his customers be effective and successful outside of his software. Second, we produced a annual publication that went out to all prospects and customers, all the material was very specific towards the industry he was working in. The publication helped his customers understand the basic use of certain methodologies (which could also be streamlined using his software) that could transform any business in that industry. Thirdly, and lastly, we suggested he change his annual users conference into a much more diverse and in-depth conference that focuses much more beyond his software and on the methodologies of the industry and software. It would be obvious to his customers and attendees that the company putting the show on really had a tight grasp on the movements of the industry and how their customers viewed them and how they could help their customers.

It was uncomplicated, as we talked further we agreed with us, even as a software company you have to expect that your clients will most likely still do a great amount of work outside of your software, even if it is made to manage your office such as his does. With that in mind if you can get your clients to understand and implement your methodology even if they switch to a competitor they will most obviously see that your methodology through the software and in the office implementation would be so strong that they would feel the need to move back to what is comfortable, reliable, and successful.

It Really Worked

It was a beautiful spectacle to see mature, his customers and his prospects consumed it voraciously and began to share the content amongst themselves without my clients hand in it. It was pure community sharing and experience collaboration at its finest, no marketing hype, no PR blitz or trap to entice customers. Just simple, honest, useful information that could be implemented quickly and effectively without the heavy lifting. There was no catch and it was obvious, the knowledge was given away and even charged for but they continued to happily be involved because it was genuinely needed information that brought real change to their business.

It is this concept in the coffee house that we began to see as so obvious, it was our race to be more human. We weren’t asking our client to put on some dishonest show for his customers we simply asked him to be more human, he understood that and now embraces it. There is no marketing hype that is involved in the information disseminated. Of course we make the resources look nice and available to everyone but the information isn’t some trick to get someone to call it was information given to them because it will help them. Imagine that, helping for the sake of helping with the general consensus that if we continually give the right information away they will come to us when they really need help.

It even opened up a new service line for him, he is now able to consult with his clients on best practices for their industry!

So in the end was the race for humanity worth it, absolutely, it now attributes for a 50% increase in lead generation and 65% increase in customer retention. With this extra information in the market it gives him a competitive edge because in order for his competition to sway his customers they have to disprove general/best practices for the industry to disprove the usability of his software.

How is your race for humanity going?

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