The Teckki Says

While we are all waiting to see the Big Game between New Orleans and Indianapolis, there's another battle of titans that's going on between electronic and the publishing industry with Amazon.com and Macmillan Publishing Company. Seems that Macmillan got tired of watching its first-run, New York Times best seller list books being sold on Kindles for $9.99, and felt the digital versions were worthy of a field-goal point price bump or better. When Amazon blocked the attempt, Macmillan took its ball (I mean its books) off the field. Amazon then decided it could not play the game without Macmillan. This was a nice goal-line stand by a publisher, but in the end, its' ball control strategy will fail, because Amazon, and a walk-on player named Apple, control the field. No one controls the clock, but it appears that time does not favor the publishing industry.

Maybe it takes a genius to understand that whoever controls the delivery system eventually controls the game, but that genius doesn't have to understand much. The publishing industry seems to think that it can dictate though content, and to some extent, it can. It may help to remember other titans who clashed with digital to see how the publishing industry will eventually fare.

The Music Industry. Who can forget, as they saw their business model fail so completely? They'd like you to believe that piracy more than anything eroded their industry. It might have been the train, but it rode a delivery system that the labels no longer owned, and couldn't control. When that didn't work, they thought that suing their customers was a road back to profitability. They were wrong.

The Print Industry, as defined by newspapers and magazines. They actually helped their own demise by putting their content online, made it free, and now want people to pay for it. If they were an ATM charging me to get to my money, their plan might work, but unless they all decide to make all of their content subscription at the same time (anti-trust and collusion laws would prevent this), they can kiss that dream goodbye.

The Motion Picture Industry. They have tried to pre-empt and modify the delivery system through devices, copy protection and legislation, but the net effect this could eventually have is to suppress the market, in the same manner the Digital Audio Tape player was killed by the protectionist music industry. The jury is still out on the Movie Industry, but music CD's once enjoyed a no-copy world before their demise (see earlier paragraph).

Macmillan's defensive stance may have kept Amazon from scoring points, and has no doubt emboldened other publishers to run up the score as well, as they are now pounding Amazon with their new ground game. Amazon punted, and Apple appears to also be giving up yardage as to not be burned by the big pass play.

For now, the Publishing Industry appears to be winning, and it would be great if the game was decided on downs or half-time scores. But holding or raising prices is like trying to keep a score tied. You eventually have to either get into the end-zone, or give up the ball. Because both Apple and Amazon sell more than books, there's a lot of time left on the clock, and they control the field.

This is the last of the series of What Your Website Should Have.

If, as an organization, you don’t have a website, you feel the heat of one question, "What is your website address?" Then there’s the mad rush to get a site, any site, that will allow you to avoid the further embarrassment of answering, "Uh, I don’t have one." However, in your panicked rush to get something up and going, usually on the cheap, you leave yourself open to having your site visitors ask another embarrassing question, "What’s the point?"

There is a song that my daughter and I really enjoy, Children's Story, by the Hip Hop artist Slick Rick. As a song, it is a wonderfully told bedtime story about a kid who is led down the path of crime and the consequences of that choice, with the moral of the song to stay straight. Its' poetic rhythm made it a favorite of ours. Although it is an old song, it recently prompted us to look up the video on You Tube. The song was so well written that it should have served as the script. I really emphasize SHOULD have, because in their efforts to put out the video, someone was rushed, lazy or clueless, as the video oftentimes barely resembled the song. Being a Hip Hop piece in the traditional sense, I guess the urge to inject scenes of sexual imagery and self aggrandizement were too much to overcome, rather than leaving it as a brilliantly-told story. It left me asking, "What's the point?"

Is THAT the question you want your website visitors and prospects to ask? Remember, the question you get asked is IF you have a website, not what's on it. You aren’t there to answer that question.
Maybe your in-person sales pitch is like that song – smooth, appealing and well done. We all have to blow our own horn to a live audience. If we hit the right notes, perhaps they will be impressed and want see the video, er, your website. If the two don’t match, I should not have to tell you what that means.

You get the point.

This is a multipart series on websites that will discuss what pages common to many websites should contain. This article discusses the Product Presentation.

Most websites sell something, whether they are goods, services or ideas. Far too many websites think the web is full of customers looking to buy from them exclusively. If your products and services aren't well presented, you might as well not have a website, because the effect on your sales will be about the same. You are not the only game in town,

Some website owners think that just getting up a site is all that matters, and just good enough will do. Presentation can become a casualty of many budgets, but I'll offer up proof of just how much it matters. Many of us have seen Walmart's print flyers, television commercials and website. You've probably also been in their stores. In my opinion, the presentation of the print, television and website advertisements are much better than the actual shopping experience in the stores. In the store, profoundly low pricing and immediate need overcomes my low expectations of positive shopping experience. Low pricing is their mantra, and bland product presentation, along with tight aisle space and a Spartan store layout, is emblematic of this. They do not replicate this on their website, because if the experience was the same, many visitors might shop elsewhere. They certainly need the reputation they've built up in the stores to make their website efforts work. However, their site presentation is not too far different from their rival Target Corp's website. They are both clean and non-cluttered, but in my opinion, Target's website reminds me a little more of their stores than Walmart's website remind me of theirs. If on the web, Target, Walmart and most online retailers are roughly competitive on price, what makes them different?

Presentation and Expectation Builds Reputation

This brings me back to your website – Pictures can be worth a thousand words, and a thousand dollars. I look at thousands of pictures a year, many from clients. I can get technical, but your eyes know the difference between poorly taken pictures and professional ones. If you plan to sell a thousand widgets at $10 a piece, is it too much to ask for you to spend $500 for a better picture so that the widgets to look better? Is it too much to ask you to spend $125 for a professional writer to produce a great description for a necklace that you want to sell 10 at $500 a pop? Should your customers have to find better written descriptions of merchandise on your competitor’s website, making them wonder if you are selling the exact same product for $50 less? Wouldn't this be better than the $85 you spent on the cheesy yellow and red flashing banner that says "hurry, only two left?"

Is it too much to ask that the services be explained, perhaps backed up by testimonials of REAL customers, rather than self-serving proclamations stating, "I am cheaper than 'competitor.com?'"

The web is all about visuals. The "Low Price Leader" recognizes this, your customers do, and so should you.

Sometimes you get more than a morning jolt when you stop by the coffee shop, although I drink decaf. I did get more than the high octane shot most of you get, and I want to share it with you. A friend stopped by my table, and we talked, among other things, about marketing.

My questions started on the topic of surviving the current recession, knowing that this friend had been through several. He’s been in business over twenty five years, so he's seen downturns in a number of flavors. The jury appears to be in, and the verdict looks like he will survive this one also.

Many of you have heard these before. However, in a downturn, the panic button gets pushed more often, so it's nice to be reminded. Here are the five tidbits I gathered from our conversation:

(1). Contact your customers. Look particularly at those customers you acquired from the last recession until just before this one. If you've been in business for less than five years, this will be everyone you’ve done business with. Rekindle and/or reinforce those relationships

(2). Find out what works. This is easy because right now, almost nothing seems like it does. All editorializing aside, someone is still buying from you, or contributing to your cause. What works with your marketing right now? What types of mail or samples gets kept, what gets thrown in the garbage? Now is the time to ask.

(3). Redeploy your workforce. You will find out just how good your hires are in this climate. If there is less work, there is more time to do other things, like calling current customers, or making sales calls. This is the time to make your organization more customer–focused by perhaps engaging with customers personally.

(4). Set your limits. Not every business survives a downturn, and yours may be one that doesn't. Know this beforehand, so you are not losing the business, your house and personal possessions, your family and everything else because you think the last quarter in the slot machine is going to hit big. For instance, you may have to adjust customer payment patterns, just know what your limits are there, too.

(5). Cut strategically. No where does the reflexive budget cut ax wield so recklessly in many companies as in downturns. All of those "25% cuts across the board" mandates may sound good at department meetings, but if your heart, brain, legs and arms are the heads of those departments, mandates like this will get you one dead person. I like the way my friend phrased this – first make the personal cut, then make the personnel cut.

One of my favorites is to get out of the office. Isolation only solves one problem I know of, and that is to focus on a problem where you need to cut out interruptions and clutter. Holding your face in your hands, while lamenting a poor economy, is not that kind of problem. Besides, you never know who you will see in a coffee shop. It might be someone who could give you five great marketing ideas!

The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is over, and there are always announcements, along with outright speculation, over what will hit and what is hoped. The biggest specualtion right now is for a product that did not even appear at the show, nor did its manufacturer exhibit there. Everyone is waiting for Apple Computer to announce a tablet computing device.

Apple does not comment on speculation regarding product releases, and has been known to announce products that no one knew was coming. A lot of us are waiting for the "Apple Tablet", a device that is rumored to be a larger, non-cellular version of its iPhone product. Since Apple is extremely successful in guarding information about new products, we really don't know. Even if we did, should we rush out to go buy one?

We should remember the launch of the iPhone. It was cool back then, but we quickly forget that iPhones weren't selling for $99 or $199 with a two year phone contract. These 1.0 versions were selling for $499 and $599. They were no where near as capable as their successors today. One thing that seemed to be better back then than today was that no one was complaining about AT&T's data network and the drag it is on Internet browsing

If Apple does produce a tablet product, there is no doubt will it be drop gorgeous cool! But Apple also has a reputation of charging at the higher end for that cool. It won't mainstream at that higher price for some time. It is also rumored that it won’t be part of a wireless carrier's data plan, opting to be a wifi device, meaning there's no AT&T or Verizon to subsidize the cost. This is the biggest single reason that $99 iPhones exist. Certainly, Mac desktops and laptops aren't dropping as fast in price as iPhones did.

The question is how much are you willing to pay for cool that happens to be first generation? Cool wears off after use, and hardware doesn't have upgrade pricing like software. One thing I've learned about the tech industry is that it usually takes about three tries to get something right. Microsoft Windows didn't mainstream until version 3.0, and iPhones are flying off the shelves at 3.0. If Apple announces a tablet, I want one, but I don't get paid to be cool, I get paid to make sure my clients have the widest reach on mainstream Internet platforms, and the tablet won't satisfy this requirement just out of the gate.

Will you buy one if it is released? Will you be the leaders that show us the way, buy one for the eye-candy effect, or really make this device catch fire?

Let me know.