Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

At last week’s “D: All Things Digital Conference” sponsored by the WSJ, Howard Stringer (he’s Sony’s Chairman) got a great question from Martha Stewart during his Q&A session.  Martha, carrying a bag of power cords and connectors, asked why she needed multiple power cords for the Sony devices she owns.  Howard didn’t have a great answer.  Eventually, he said, “For the last three years, the most profitable division (at Sony) was the components division.”  Indeed.

The picture above is of my electronics shelf at home.  One day after digging through a box of tangled power cords, I went to the Container Store to buy special Lucite drawers to house the power cords, connectors, software, storage devices and instruction manuals for my Sony camcorder, my two Sony digital cameras, my Sony PlayStation Portable, my new Kodak digital camera, my four iPods (Shuffle, Mini, Nano, Video), my PC and my Blackberry.  Organizing these things was a cathartic event.  But, one that begs the question:  “why do we need all these cords?”  Martha, you are great at organization.  You can do the same thing!

What’s at issue here?  Most companies simply do not think about a consumer’s “total experience.”  Why?  They take a component based approach to their business. I have two Sony digital cameras.  The second one I bought was essentially an upgrade of the first.  Guess what?  You need a different power cord and a different USB cable to power the device and hook it up to the computer.  That’s absurd.  While Apple does an excellent job thinking through the user experience working across iTunes, the iPod and at retail, the cord that connects and powers my earlier iPods doesn’t fit the Nano. 

Companies need to find ways to create enduring connections with their users.  How?  By delivering a truly exceptional experience over time.  It becomes the barrier to entry that competitors must overcome.  A bunch of incompatible products and accessories does not qualify as an exceptional experience.  Sony should think about reducing the barriers for users as they add and upgrade products.  In the case above, Sony should take a total ownership portfolio approach.  An example would be coming up with a single power cord (even if its several melted together) that will power and connect multiple devices.  As for digital cameras, the company should have a strategy that reduces every barrier a consumer might find in the process of owning and upgrading.  Sony should stop thinking about launching new camera models and start thinking about owning a consumer’s digital photography experience over the long term.  It requires a change in philosophy that puts the consumer before the product manager, the advertising manager and the engineer.  It also challenges traditional marketing models.  In a consumer driven world, money will flow from advertising to service and product development as companies invest in what enables them to deliver a truly exceptional experience.  More on this in a future post.

Mark Kingdon