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December 26, 2009

Why did the iPod take over a crowded marketplace?

The iPod appeared late on the portable music scene. There were already a plethora of devices that used MP3 technology. Yet they took over the market and remodeled it in their image.

Google was not the first one on the internet to do search. Even with all the money Microsoft has, and all the brand that Yahoo still has (somehow) nobody looks like dislodging them anytime soon. 

Apple didn't just deliver a very nifty and well designed portable device. It provided the whole system. From iTunes and their libraries, to the anti-copying technologies, through to the transferal systems and processes.

A masterpiece...

For whatever reason Google captured our attention and our loyalty, there is no way they will lose it easily today.

This is what the Bing roll-out seems to have missed. it isn't about "search", not anymore. it is about organized information.

Google delivers us real estate listings on an interactive map, provides us with a word processor and spreadsheet programs, website development / deployment and traffic management tools, blogging tools, advertising mediums...and on, and on and on...

Another unified system.

It is not enough to just be good at something. I run consultants in an engineering field.

If I  just promoted them as "darn good engineers" then that is how they would be used. Bums on seats filling a labor hire role with supervision.

I'm not sure about the market where you live, but where I live labor hire is pretty competitive.

Clients need you to make it easy for them to buy from you. They need to see a road ahead, steps where they can measure and test the value each step of the way, and a service delivery package that ties in with what they need - and then some.

This could look any way you want it to look. Maybe - Public Course / Internal Course / Planning workshop / Pilot / measure / Continue...

Or it could be - Audit / Valued (quantified) Results / Improvement work / Additional services...

Or whatever... the point is that it needs to be a package, not just something that you do well.

When things are packaged they are easier to buy, easier to get out of if need be, easier to track and measure, and easier to determine the effectiveness of each step from a sales point of view.

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