I’ve gotten a ton of mails about my bad ideas post.
The bad news is that almost every letter writer misses my point. They want to have an argument about whether pull downs for states is a good idea.
Let’s say that there were no pull downs for states. And then let’s say someone invented it. Would everyone immediately adopt it because it’s so much better? Of course not. The reason it’s being defended is because of the status quo.
To save myself some typing, here are the reasons, if you insist, on why pull downs for states are silly:
1. No, you can’t just type the first letter of the state, at least not in Firefox on the Mac. And hey, a state is just two letters, so who exactly is being helped here?
2. If you really want to use computer power to help me, have me type in my zip code. Then the computer should look up the city AND the state and save me 10 or fifteen letters!
3. the pull down, even if it’s better, which it’s not, causes me to switch from one mode (type and tab) to another mode (arrows and mouse.) All for two letters.
4. there is no #4.
5. The biggest reason of all: half or more of all shoppping carts online are abandoned. If this happened at the supermarket, they’d be bankrupt in less than a week. This is a crisis for anyone who sells online (except for Amazon, which doesn’t have this problem–because people don’t have to see any of this nonsense.) instead of Dilbertly defending the engineering status quo, teams should be working around the clock to test every single thing they can to fix the problem.
Thanks.
February 15, 2005
There are fifty states (proof: Clickable Map of US States.) This is a problem. If there were 5 states or 500 states, programmers would never have been tempted into forcing consumers to scroll through a pull down menu to enter their state when shopping online.
This means everyone from Texas or New York or heaven forfend, West Virginia, has to scroll all the way down in order to buy something.
This scrolling led to a similar breakthrough to enter your country. Afghanis get a big break (so do people from Andorra) but those in the biggest online consuming country on earth have to scroll all the way down to the ‘U’s.
No wonder so many people abandon shopping carts online.
This is not a post about how stupid this is.
This is not even a post about how easy it would be to fix (it’s actually easier to put a text field in than the pull down menu).
Nor is it a post about how useless the precision here is. Knowing the state is not nearly as important as knowing the zip code, and the scroll down is unlikely to get you the right state every time anyway.
No, this is a post about how bad ideas stick around forever.
The reason is simple: in most organizations, you don’t get in trouble for embracing the status quo.
More than a hundred years ago, Kaiser Wilhelm wanted to get rid of his enemies in the German government. He noticed that they were all over 65. So he decreed that this was the official retirement age, and it still is.
If you want to see what happens when you challenge the status quo, just say this at a party, "I know how to fix Social Security. Let’s just raise the official retirement age for everyone who is currently under fifty. We’ll take it from 65 to 70."
Stand back and beware the flamethrowers.
February 14, 2005
Thanks to Tim Manners (Link: reveries – cool news of the day.) for sharing this insight from a story on Fastcompany.com (Link: Jonesing for Soda.)
Pop Soda Jones. "The reality is that consumers don’t need our
stuff," says Peter van Stolk, founder, president and ceo of Jones Soda,
in a transcript of an interview with Ryan Underwood posted on FastCompany.com.
He says that’s the one simple insight that made him a better marketer.
As he puts it: "You’re not listening to your customer when you tell
them, ‘You need me.’ You listen to your customers when you say, ‘You
really don’t need me.’"
Here’s how TV networks got popular:
step 1: make sure the FCC gives you a low channel number. 2 is better than 12.
step 2: during sweeps week, run lots of special movies.
step 3: have the local news do an expose on iced tea sold at delis (with bacteria in it, no less)
step 4: have the local news cover a lot of fires
Here’s how blogs get popular:
step 1: run some sort of poll that lots of other bloggers link to
step 2: if the poll is about you, link to it: Link: The 2005 Business Blogging Awards � Best Marketing Blog.
step 3: be controversial. Try to get a CNN VP to resign under pressure. Yell when you can speak, scream when you can whisper.
step 4: write stuff worth reading. The thing is, it’s up to you/us, the readers, to decide what "worth reading" means. If we read, talk about and link to the stuff that’s thin or short-lasting or flamboyant, then that’s what we’re going to get, right?
My hero, Hugh Macleod just announced his evil plan to corner the market on bespoke suits. gapingvoid: english cut (cont.).
He points to: English Cut perhaps the first, and certainly the most complete blog ever written about custom made English suits.
In an era where you don’t have to wear a suit, where a suit from Today’s Man is only $89 and where you never even meet most of the people you work with, a $3,000 suit is nothing but remarkable.
Good luck, Hugh.
February 11, 2005
Sure, it’s off the topic, but this article just cracked me up.
Everyone with a blog is an expert, but everyone in England appears to be an expert on this topic as well.
Link: CNN.com – Good wishes – and a note of warning – Feb 10, 2005.
Ingrid Seward, editor of Majesty magazine: "When I got a call earlier this morning, I was completely astounded. The fact that it is happening, and that it is happening that quickly is the surprising element here."
New to me, anyway. David Coe at: PDG Graphics sent over this chart. I was immediately grabbed by the terms "above the web" and "below the web". It’s a little bit of a riff on the movie business (certain expenses are "above the line" and thus out of the hands of the producer), and it feels right.
Imagine dividing up your world this way. Worth a thought.
February 9, 2005
I clicked "unsubscribe" at the bottom of an email newsletter I got tired of.
This is what the web page it brought me to said:
To ensure the privacy of the subscriber base, you must enter the eMail address that this eMail was initially sent to.
If the eMail address you provide does not match that address exactly, it will not be unsubscribed.
I can’t tell you how pleased I am that they’re looking out for my privacy with such vigilance.
Marketing dollars are getting spent on product placement (Panasonic provides plasma screens to Tony Danza, Pontiac gives cars to Oprah). Marketing dollars are also moving from magazines (stagnant) to adwords and online media (skyrocketing). Marketers are busy building viral campaigns, funding blogs, and yes, by the way, investing in products that are cool enough to actually blog about.
But who’s deciding?
My guess is that this is not an organized, top down effort led by the fancy CMO or VP of Marketing. I think it’s all happening around the edges while the middle (TV etc.) implodes.
This is accidental and random and it’s going to get ugly, fast.
I wonder how long before smart marketers realize the new middle of the marketing department is all that extra stuff.
