Comments on: Brand attitude: Moo beats Sony http://alchemycontent.com/blog/brand-attitude-moo-beats-sony Digital Content Production and Strategy Specialists Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:16:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: tomkihl http://alchemycontent.com/blog/brand-attitude-moo-beats-sony/comment-page-1#comment-2439 tomkihl Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:02:42 +0000 http://alchemycontent.com/?p=952#comment-2439 It's a huge generalisation of course. The BBC does a fine job, but as a public broadcaster it really should. I'm more interested in why a company like Sony, that makes electronics for the web, has such a bad online customer service policy. But I imagine the answer is that - at present - it pays better to have people frustrated and angry on a few forums then to invest in a complete global policy of 2-way conversation. It's a situation that will change as the culture changes, and some companies will suffer for sitting on their hands at this stage. I hope Sony are paying better attention than they did over the Walkman brand... And yes your, ahem, certain employer is quite typical of a company panicking at spending money on an unproven web policy. It's still the Wild West out there, but hopefully this presents some exciting new opportunities borne out of the current frustrations. (Apparently if I tape 2 bits of wire to an AA battery, touch them to either end of the motor in the door of my MiniDV Handycam, the casette mechanism will start to work again. I don't think I'd get that advice from any customer service rep anyway, but it would be nice to see them on the forums regardless.) It’s a huge generalisation of course. The BBC does a fine job, but as a public broadcaster it really should. I’m more interested in why a company like Sony, that makes electronics for the web, has such a bad online customer service policy. But I imagine the answer is that – at present – it pays better to have people frustrated and angry on a few forums then to invest in a complete global policy of 2-way conversation. It’s a situation that will change as the culture changes, and some companies will suffer for sitting on their hands at this stage. I hope Sony are paying better attention than they did over the Walkman brand…

And yes your, ahem, certain employer is quite typical of a company panicking at spending money on an unproven web policy. It’s still the Wild West out there, but hopefully this presents some exciting new opportunities borne out of the current frustrations.

(Apparently if I tape 2 bits of wire to an AA battery, touch them to either end of the motor in the door of my MiniDV Handycam, the casette mechanism will start to work again. I don’t think I’d get that advice from any customer service rep anyway, but it would be nice to see them on the forums regardless.)

]]> By: Gavin http://alchemycontent.com/blog/brand-attitude-moo-beats-sony/comment-page-1#comment-2426 Gavin Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:09:47 +0000 http://alchemycontent.com/?p=952#comment-2426 Can I disconcur ever so slightly? Whilst it is not a brand working in the same field as Sony and Moo, and just one off the top of my head, but the BBC have an absolutely fantastic online presence. They are a company as old as they come, and they have a diverse, content driven, innovative site (the iPlayer is right up there with the wheel in terms of modern invention), with strong efforts to drive user engagement through embedded discussion and so on. I do agree that so many companies do it horribly, due to having to completely go against everything they know and understand, but it takes balls to really go for it and long term gains are seen as too risky. A certain former employer of mine changed their digital strategy every five minutes, as a few months into a long-term digital redevelopment strategy they would get nervous about seeing their money spent without any short term remuneration coming back at them. Acquisition takes time, engagement takes time, SEO takes time... You can't just put up a website and expect this stuff to magically happen. It basically just went against everything that had made the business a success over the fifteen years previous. I think the challenge for media developers is in ascertaining the right balance between the low hanging fruit required to keep the money men at the top happy, whilst moving towards a gradual shift towards more modern web methods. Some of what you outlined would be quick fixes, but the problem goes far deeper than that (which you well acknowledge) and it's a very scary bridge for many established companies to cross. Can I disconcur ever so slightly?

Whilst it is not a brand working in the same field as Sony and Moo, and just one off the top of my head, but the BBC have an absolutely fantastic online presence. They are a company as old as they come, and they have a diverse, content driven, innovative site (the iPlayer is right up there with the wheel in terms of modern invention), with strong efforts to drive user engagement through embedded discussion and so on.

I do agree that so many companies do it horribly, due to having to completely go against everything they know and understand, but it takes balls to really go for it and long term gains are seen as too risky. A certain former employer of mine changed their digital strategy every five minutes, as a few months into a long-term digital redevelopment strategy they would get nervous about seeing their money spent without any short term remuneration coming back at them. Acquisition takes time, engagement takes time, SEO takes time… You can’t just put up a website and expect this stuff to magically happen. It basically just went against everything that had made the business a success over the fifteen years previous.

I think the challenge for media developers is in ascertaining the right balance between the low hanging fruit required to keep the money men at the top happy, whilst moving towards a gradual shift towards more modern web methods. Some of what you outlined would be quick fixes, but the problem goes far deeper than that (which you well acknowledge) and it’s a very scary bridge for many established companies to cross.

]]>