So you got a monopoly huh? Guess again

One of the most powerful monopolies most people don't know about looks like it is coming apart at the seams. The Associated Press, the newspaper wire service, has been in business since 1846 without much of a challenge. Until now.

The Associated Press has been arrogant, painfully behind the times and overpriced for years. Over the last few months a number of newspapers have canceled their service while regional newspapers have started their own wire service. Even CNN has seen a chink in AP's armor and has started to offer a wire services to newspapers.

As a monopoly AP has charged prices that are 4-10 times more expensive than their closest competitor for lackluster 3rd party web products hoping their partner newspapers wouldn't know any better. Sorry AP, but the jig is up. Thanks to the web, and open source tools, price has never been more competitive.

So what does this have to do with marketing? Often marketing is word of mouth and reputation. The AP has a bad reputation that carries from one newspaper to another and has continued to eroded their image. AP has a good core product, delivering accurate stories quickly, but their other products are lackluster and over-priced. AP has forgotten one of the most fundamental problems of a monopoly--they forgot about their customers. When your customers believe you aren't looking out for them--and only for yourself--eventually it will come back to bite you in the backside.

No matter how good your company is. No matter how big your company becomes, never forget your company is dependent upon one thing: your customers.

Best Buy part 2

Best Buy does pretty well. So why don't they have toilet seat covers? Sure, they provide more piece of mind than actual protection, but we're talking about customer experience here. Part of customer experience is providing something that is more mental than physical.

One a positive note: Best Buy employees tend to be helpful--how can they not be when there more of them than customers.

Really a Best Buy?

In the world where using the web is hassle free why does Best Buy want a social security number in order to pay your online bill? People are growing evermore paranoid of giving out their credit card number let alone their social security number. Aren't we told every day not to give out our social no matter what?

The web should be easy--and Best Buy doesn't seem to care about that. The problem is if someone gets a hold of this information it'll be like a nuclear bomb exploding on their reputation.

Does Wal-Mart care?

Ebay has been working hard to help you spend your money--but get a lot of stuff cheaper. We all know that Wal-Mart is the home of low prices and now that the economy is tanking they have found their niche once again.

To their credit--Wal-Mart has introduced a section called: "Money-Saving Tips" with video and posts from mommy bloggers. Moms can even submit their money saving tips.

One thought:
If a mom offers a tip that can help Wal-Mart shoppers save X amount of dollars with a great tip then give the mom a Wal-Mart gift certificate worth that amount.

Customer Service

I went into a local Radio Shack looking for an enclosure for a hard drive. The bad news was they didn't have it.. the good news was the employee told me to try a local store a few doors down.

I went to the store a few doors down, but they didn't have anything either. He told me that Best Buy definitely had one. I went to Best Buy and guess what... they had it.

Now that's customer service. Seems like those companies should be getting a commission.

We gonna rock down to YouTube

You know where my favorite place is to hear new music? YouTube. And not the videos--just songs people upload to nothing more than static images. Of course record labels are quick to yank these down for being unauthorized, but that is a mistake.

If I was an artist I'd upload my entire album as seperate songs and create a buzz. If record labels still hope that traditional markets like radio and MTV are going to break artists they are wrong. I want my YouTube--give us what we want and not what you want.

The economies of pal

In the midst of all the economic upheaval there has never been a better time than now to join forces with other companies. Friend or foe, now is a great time to explore opportunities. Not all ventures will turn massive profits--but right now saving money with economies of scale and/or exchanging help could produce more than a financial windfall. It might keep you in business.

It's time that companies understand that they may need partners to help them through tough times because you never know when you might need someone and they might need you. There has never been a better time to turn to others and create relationships that might not have otherwise happened but could lead to lifetime relationships.

What does your customer want?

So what do your customers want? I have no idea. Have you ever asked them?

Ask yourself one question: Why do I make my product/service/etc.?

Then answer it by doing the simplest of things: Ask your potential customers if they'd care.

If they don't. Either figure out what you need to do to make them care or it's back to the drawing board.

Why buying software sucks

Recently our company had to buy an editorial system. That has nothing to do with our website's content management system--except that the company that built the editorial system wanted to sell us a content management system for the web. The problem is that they use their own proprietary language for writing code and they use an very little known database system. This is great for the company selling us the software because who will we have to call for technical issues? And who will get paid by the hour for those services?

As good as this sounds for the company selling the software who will make some money selling technical services--it's terrible for the client. This is another case of a company thinking bottom line first and not customer first. If they built their platform on a software that was well known and with a large community our evaluation of their product might have been different.