Digital Mayhem | Halifax | Nova Scotia

I’m guilty, but $88 bucks for a coffee!

I love technology and especially mobile gadges. My iPhone has re-defined the meaning of “Man’s best friend”. In the 80’s I had a bag phone (e.g. for those who are in their teens please see the picture below), I owned one of the first PalmPilots with a whopping 32 mb memory chip and I was using wireless Internet when you had to insert a PCIMCA card into the side of your 40lb laptop that had a monchromatic screen. But, For the first time in probably 20 years of gadges, I found a mobile device I really wish hadn’t been invented - the mobile Interac machine.

First off I want to get the details out of the way,  I’m guilty! I went for a coffee at a little Internet cafe in downtown Halifax’s Quinpool Road shopping area and pull into a parking lot with a huge sign stating, in no brief manner, that if I didn’t visit Zephyr Rug and Home or Scouts Canada I would be ticketed, towed and or immobilized!!! I had no idea what immobilized meant, I was thinking stun gun which sounded interesting. After obviously breaking “the Law” by spending money at the wrong retailer on Quinpool Road, I return to my vehicle to find a boot locked on it’s front wheel and a note on the window telling me I owed NoGo NoTow a total of $77.98+ HST.  The note conveniently displayed a phone number to call in order to resolve the issue. As I read the note I couldn’t help but think what a cash cow of a business. Holding cars hostage for ransom. This probably wouldn’t have been possible without mobile technology like those damn mobile Interacs!

If I hadn’t of had a dumb mobile phone in my pocket to call NoGo NoTow I would have had to bum a quarter off someone on the street to use a pay phone. The note on my truck’s window clearly stated the I wasn’t to bother Zephyr or Scouts Canada. When I did get in touch with the NoGo NoTow service they were on-site in minutes using a stupid mobile GPS. When their man hopped out of his vehicle he had his  FREAK’n mobile Interac machine in hand and was eager to take Visa, Mastercard or debit. God I wish the pizza delivery man hadn’t of invent that stupid device.

Having never witnessed this type of car highjacking in Halifax I suggested  to the  NoGo NoTow guy that for all I knew he could be a criminal who would steal my credit card information and destroy my credit rating with his little debit or credit revolver. He sort of shrugged and suggested he could be, but whether true or not, I wasn’t getting out of that parking lot without paying the $88.00. All of a sudden I felt this wave of anger come over me, not at this poor guy who obviously has to hate his job as collector for the evil lot owner, but at Zephyr Rug and Home, Scouts Canada and the Quinpool Road Business Association. I mean please, $88 bucks for a parking violation, who the “H_LL” came up with that number and where does that money go? It started to feel abit like an episode of Rocket Robin Hood. I was looking for the evil Sheriff of Nottingham lurking in the corners, laughing and shaking is bag of gold.

When Rocket Robin didn’t arrive to save me (i.e. probably because I’m not exactly Maid Marion),  I started to think what a terrible brand experience for Quinpool Road customers. I have no idea who owns the parking lot, but whomever it might be they have obviously not thought thru the impact of using this service on the retailer or for that matter the whole business district. From my perspective they have just given me a HUGE reason not to visit Quinpool Road and shop.

As I said earlier, I’m guilty of parking in a parking spot that is only available to Zephyr Rug and Home and Scouts Canada cutomers. I guess my question is how did they know I’m not a customer? No one asked me before they draped my car in orange tape and slapped a sticker on my window. What if I had of gone into Zephyr the day before and spent $3000 on a dining room set? I would have gone home and pack it up for immediate return after this experience. The damaging effect on the Zephyr brand plus my perpetual conversation about how I was robbed by the evil lot owner would surely be much more devastating to their brand than having a car in their parking lot for an hour. The approach the lot owner has taken to control the evil parking bandits that rob from the Zephyr and give to the poor coffee shop seems to be devoid of any consideration for long term impact on customer relations and perceptions.

I admit, I had no intent of buying anything in Zephyr or visiting Scouts Canada, but they didn’t know that. I guess if  Zephyr Rug and Home and Scouts Canada don’t really care about new customers having the Sheriff police their parking lot is an extremely effective way of driving them off. That said, the last time I checked there isn’t a line-up of kids knocking down the doors to join the Boy Scouts and after  20 years in the retail/marketing business I can say with some authority that I have never meet a retailer who doesn’t like new customers. But much like they don’t know whether or not I’m customer, I don’t know whether or not they care about new customers. Thanks to NoGo NoTow I now have a perception that they care more about a free parking space.

There has to be a better way to improve the parking situation on Quinpool Road. The Quinpool Road Business Association has to solve the parking issues for their customers. Certainly throwing customers in jail is not the answer! The music industry used the same desperate approach on its customers when the Internet introduced downloadable songs. They sued their them, thru them in jail and closed down their businesses. Communities of music lovers revolted and boycotted big brands such as Sony. Sony had to pause for a moment and reflect on the impact all the negative publicity was having on their brand. They had forgotten the golden rule of business, the consumer is always right even when they’re wrong.

I would love to hear your comments on this style of parking enforcement so that I can forward them on to the Quinpool Road Business Association.

Tags: advertising, Bag Phone, brand, mobile Technology

Collaboration

I recently had the opportunity to go back and re-read a favorite book of mine call Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams. It was re-release in 2008 so it seemed like a good opportunity to rejuvenate my mind on the topic of collaborative thinking. Tapscott and Williams do a great job of demonstrating how traditional business models are under attack by growing collaborative structures that leverage open sharing of information. They believe that the future for all business is a global model that involves open sharing of intellectual properties (IP) with the goal of increasing innovation. What made the read more interesting this time around is I could compare the book’s 2006 predictions to 2008 realities. It’s amazing how well they called it.

Tapscott and Williams discussed the Apple iPod and sighted how Apple was under attack by a small group of enthusiastic programmers who want to hack their product. They discussed how a traditional approach to manipulation of a product would be to fire off a lawsuit and shutdown the offenders much like the music industry has done with illegal downloads. In 2006 Apple didn’t know how they were going to deal with this issue. In 2008 we see their response in the iPhone and iTouch products.

Apple looked at the effects of taking a defensive stance on iPod abuse and instead of launching a war with their customers and enthusiasts they decided to collaborate with them and build a better product. Apple looked at the music industry and saw how companies like Sony are alienating their customers. Sony’s defensive position on music and downloads has put them at odds and in some case in court with the people who buy their products. Apple realized it had to find a better way to meet its customer’s demands and create a revenue opportunity. They had to innovate.

Rapid innovation is no easy task. Traditionally it involves a team of company engineers who brainstorm, invent, develop, test market, re-work and launch new products. It can be a lengthy process spanning years and costing millions of dollars. Given today’s rapidly changing global playing field, it’s extremely risky to invest “the farm” in R & D. Today smart companies are doing their homework by asking their customers what they want before they build it. They’re listening and learning before they invest. Apple did this when they embarked on the re-design of the iPod and the development of the iPhone. What they heard completely changed the product, challenged the business model and ultimately lead to one the biggest innovations in the history of the company.

Apple created hackable devices. They didn’t go out there and broadcast it, but you can bet they intended to have it happen. Apple realized in 2006 that their enthusiasts, their market influencers, want a piece of hardware they could customize. They were already doing it so it was quite obvious where the new device’s development had to go. Apple used a collaborative approach to developing these products. They listen to their customer and found a way to give them what they wanted without bankrupting the iPod division. They could have very easily locked down their device and issued cease and desist letters to their customers. Instead Apple developed a software operating system for handhelds that allowed their customers to write their own apps.

As a result the market has exploded with innovative new tools for the iPhone and iTouch. Apple’s R & D for iApps has become a revenue generator as opposed to an expense. They now have a global network of millions of software engineers who can respond to their customer’s demands for iApps 100 times faster than a group of Apple engineers. Apple simply shares the revenues with the developers and approves their products. The new collaborative model has lead to a windfall for Apple who just announce $3o million in revenue in the last 30 days from iApps and is projecting a gross revenue of over $325 million on the year.

Apple leveraged the collaborative approach by sharing some of their IP with their customers in order to gain the knowledge they knew existed in the iPod community. By sharing their technology they have built a massive new R & D department that doesn’t require parking space at head office. This group develops applications because they can and because they want to, not because they’re being paid for it. People love their iPhone and iTouch. Christ, I love my iTouch and 3 years ago if you had of asked me about Apple I would have told you it was junk – pretty package with nothing inside! Today I see them as one of the most innovative companies on the planet.

You have to wonder if Steve Jobs didn’t read Wikinomics in 2006 because the direction Apple took parallels perfectly with the Tapscott and Williams model. I think I’ll give Jobs a ring and ask him!