by Alex Goldfayn on March 10, 2010
I’ve been writing in this blog six days per week since January. I didn’t write this much when I was a syndicated Chicago Tribune technology columnist. I didn’t write this much while working on my book, Going Digital.
I can tell you, though, coming here to work so regularly has been wildly valuable. Writing so much has:
- Forced me to think creatively, daily.
- Created a systematized way to create new ideas and intellectual property.
- Allowed me to analyze products, companies and strategies from new points of view.
- Generated new credibility with clients and prospective clients.
- Got me thinking about working on a book again.
- Connected me with people I would not have been in touch with.
- As a formed big media writer, it has allowed me to learn about how much more interesting this small media is.
- Paid off unexpectedly in Google search rankings. Wordpress is brilliant at this.
This is also my first “off-topic” post, that doesn’t have to do with creating consumer electronics evangelists, which some people, like my IBM Lotus blogger friend, Ed Brill, will be particularly happy about.
I can picture my Tribune editors screaming about staying focused.
So, allow me to circle around to bring it together: what if consumer electronics makers — executives, marketers, PR professionals — spent a few days a week writing about your insights. About what works and doesn’t work. About your perceptions or your company, your products, your market, your strategy, your techniques, your competition. Most of this writing would not be public in nature. It could be on your intranet, or your notebook in the drawer.
How valuable would it be if you had to spend 15 minutes per day thinking creatively, about ideas?
Even if you did it twice a week, in regards to new ideas and intellectual property, you would launch yourself ahead of nearly everyone.
by Alex Goldfayn on March 9, 2010
Panasonic’s first 3DTV hits the market this week in Best Buy stores.
LG 3DTVs are coming in May. Vizio models will start selling in August.
Sony is set to debut its first 3D television in June. It’s a 46-inch display that will retail for $3,875.
Bluray players capable of playing three-dimensions are coming. Sony’s PlayStation 3 can support 3D Bluray discs now.
Three-dimensional video games are coming.
Discovery Channel is working on a 3D TV network. So is ESPN.
Starting to feel pretty close to critical mass, no?
Don’t mistake the fledgling, aspirational three-dimensional attempt at new TV revenues with the mainstream adoption of HDTVs. People will not jump on 3DTVs with nearly the same energy. Mainstream penetration is only possible:
- When prices fall. I can get a good 46-inch HDTV with a crystal clear picture today for $700. The 3D model costs five times that.
- When content skyrockets. Nightly programming on non-premium channels will be necessary.
- When people feel they are missing something by not having a 3DTV, they will buy one. When the SuperBowl is broadcast in 3D, with players flying around your living room, and ball zipping past your nose. When Gweneth Paltrow walks past your coffee table on the 3D Oscars telecast. That’s when people will adopt 3DTVs en masse.
High definition TVs only caught on when all of the above occurred. They became affordable. Our local network channels started broadcasting in HD — for free, over-the-air. And the tipping point came when our friends and neighbors started getting HDTVs. The instant you saw an HD picture, you knew what you were missing.
There’s no guarantee that 3DTVs will ever go mainstream. But the gathering manufacturer support and development is a very strong sign that at the very least, consumers will get to make a choice on whether 3DTVs hit the big time.
Most new technologies never make it this far.
by Alex Goldfayn on March 8, 2010
In his post today, Seth Godin talks about doing just five minutes of exceptional work per today. It’s enough, he says, because that would be five minutes more than just about anyone else.
In consumer electronics, this translates thusly:
- Call 10 consumers and ask them how they use your products today. Talk to each person for five minutes. That’s less than one hour total. Imagine the invaluable marketing insights you’d generate. Do this, and it would be 10 more consumer conversations than just about any other manufacturer has in our business will have today.
- Ask five people what words they use to describe your products. That would be five more than anyone else.
- Try to think about your products like grandmothers and grandfathers might. How would they perceive your devices, and the way you’re talking about them? Do that, and you’d probably be the only one doing that today.
- Come up with five single words — just five — that describe the lifestyle value of your products. (Helpful? Energizing? Simple? Intuitive? Freeing?) Do this, and you’ll have five more words than just about anyone else.
- Write a grammatically sound, interesting press release. You’d be the only tech company THIS WEEK to do so. Trust me.
I can write 50 more of these. Maybe one day soon I will. But for now, all of the above activities can be done quickly, and each will generate a significant competitive advantage for you. Because in consumer electronics, manufacturers rarely talk to consumers unless it’s about technical specifications.
Now imagine if you executed one consumer research activity every day. Just one. Time spent: no more than 15 minutes daily, on average. Resulting value and competitive advantage? Easily priceless.
What’s stopping you?
by Alex Goldfayn on March 6, 2010
Here’s what Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had to say in January about consumers’ changing views on Internet privacy:
“When I got started in my dorm room at Harvard, the question a lot of people asked was ‘why would I want to put any information on the Internet at all? Why would I want to have a website?’
“And then in the last 5 or 6 years, blogging has taken off in a huge way and all these different services that have people sharing all this information. People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time.”
Problem is, the social norm is not driven by society. It is driven by inventive manufacturers with tremendous vision who make terrific products, in this case Facebook.
Before TiVo, recording television shows and movies to a hard drive that could be viewed at any time (no tapes!) was not the social norm.
Before Palm, keeping a calendar and task list on a handheld device was not the social norm.
Before Apple, listening to digital music files on tiny players was not the social norm.
Before Ford, driving around on four wheels was not the social norm.
Zuckerberg’s quote was in reference to Facebook’s loosening up of privacy terms. People don’t mind sharing their private lives publicly because it’s the new social norm, he said. Yeah, and Facebook made it that way. Without Facebook, that social norm doesn’t exist.
That’s a hell of a responsibility. And today’s top consumer electronics makers like Apple, Microsoft, Google and, yes, Facebook must be aware of their massive influence on society — and tread carefully and respectfully.
