The TV commercial for Kraft Cheese Crumbles actually described them as “Crumbelievable,” shredding the EMF song “Unbelievable”.
It’s as painful as the “diponomically designed” pizza from Pizza Hut.
I guess it’s a perfectly cromulent word.
(OK, that was all Abby. I just blogged it)
Our move is coming up fast and I spent my afternoon calling my list of 50+ locations to change our address. What a hassle.
It’s funny how many different ways there are to change your address. Some places connect you with an operator, some let you do it online and some require you to do it in writing. A couple even let you leave message, which just seems a little awkward.
My favorite was the water company. Rather than accept my address change now, they said I had to call back the day of my move with a reading from the water meter of my old house and then another one from the water meter of my new house. Seriously? And they make everybody who moves do this?
It was almost as good as Comcast, who couldn’t transfer my service because the sellers of our new house hadn’t put in a disconnect order yet. So every time somebody moves you have to have the seller call Comast first? I hate to imagine the chain of buyers and sellers lined up because an upstream seller has to get the ball rolling.
Oh, and I almost forgot: the most entertaining was Best Buy. I went to update my address but it turned out they cancelled the credit card more than a year ago (unless you actually use the card they don’t send you statements–apparently I hadn’t used it in a while). The funny thing was they made no attempt to re-sign me up. They just let me go. Somewhere a marketing rep is kicking himself.
One more thing from Shaun Groves. In his rock stars need to get human post, he encourages musicians to care enough about their fans to do a number of simple things, including:
Add content to your site: Update the thing and do it often.
It’s good advice for rock stars and it’s good advice for anyone with a web site. So simple, yet it so rarely happens. Content is what connects with people, more than flashy details, pretty pictures or noise.
I never really get why we’re supposed to care so much that CD sales are declining. Is it my problem technology has left you behind and only a fraction of the songs on most albums are worth owning? Every other business has ups and downs. Get used to it.
And some people are getting used to it. Like Shaun Groves. I talked about him a few weeks back when he tried to take on Amy Grant (for those curious, he failed–but that’s OK, he’s still cool). The simple fact is that Shaun Groves gets it. It might help that he’s no longer on a label and is forced to figure these things out on his own. Then again, Shaun was always a nice guy, even when he was on a label.
As proof that Shaun gets it, check out a couple recent blog entries, including one where he argues that rock stars need to get human and another where he talks about the story of Jackie, a former Compassion International sponsored child (right now Shaun is more interested in helping children through Compassion than selling his music–that’s refreshing).
There’s more pro Product Red ranting over at Think Personality tonight. In case you can’t tell from the repeated coverage, I like Product Red.
I like the idea that buying something does more than just buy something. It’s not the only solution, but it’s a damn good idea.
Part of communicating effectively about yourself is responding to criticism. Of course you need to do it in appropriate ways. Another pet peeve of mine (And I do tend to have a lot of them, don’t I? Sorry, blogging is just a nice way to get them out of my system. It means my wife doesn’t have to listen to me complain as much.) is when organizations respond to criticism effectively, but don’t use all the tools at their disposal.
JetBlue was the example I gave yesterday with their massive delays and response that didn’t quite filter through all their channels.
Another good example is (Product) Red. Last week a critical Ad Age article tore into (Product) Red the same time as a critical protest site was launched. Not a good week. And Red certainly responded. Bobby Shriver responded on the Red web site. He’s also been talking to the media.
But what’s the word on the official (Product) Red blog? Not much.
In my experience it’s always hardest to communicate effectively about yourself. That’s why writers like me keep busy. That’s why users usually have better ideas and suggestions than the team doing the work. That’s why designers often complain about the ridiculous ideas clients suggest.
Part of the problem is getting perspective. You already know the whole story about your self, your company, your product, your whatever. It’s not easy to step outside that viewpoint. I often wonder if companies use their own web site (or phone service or product or whatever)–if they did, the flaws would be obvious.
All of which is a trap I think I’ve fallen into with my own company, Monkey Outta Nowhere.
Bobby Shriver responds to the AdAge article criticizing (Product) Red:
Your article says that $18 million and soon to be $25 million (when we have completed our most recent accounting) is a “meager” amount. It’s five times the amount given to the Global Fund by the private sector in four years. (emphasis added)
And it was raised in a year–five months if you consider that the U.S. launch didn’t happen until October.
The only substantial point in your article is the notion that people will stop contributing to charity because they’ve purchased (RED) products. There is actual data showing that when people become aware of crises, they give more money rather than less. Your writer doesn’t mention that data. We believe (RED) will lead to more rather than less giving.
Recently I talked about how I work for a cause marketing agency and how much I like the cause marketing concept. So it grates on me a bit when so many people pick on (Product) Red. First it was Buy (Less) Crap. Then AdAge. Now Jason Kottke. They’re all shocked and outraged that the Global Fund (Product Red’s target charity) has only received $18 million.
As I said some of this in my response to Buy (Less) Crap and Brad Abare echoed some more in Quit Picking on (Red), but it just bugs me (here comes a rant).
It’s time to eat my words. I complained before about the labyrinth that is online banking. While I maintain that it’s still overly complex, it’s not as broken as I first thought.
I’m now paying some bills online and downloading my transactions and syncing them with Quicken so I can do budgeting and keep track of stuff for taxes. Not as fear-enducing as I thought, though there is plenty of room for improvement (some bills require the multiple login crap I complained about before and some don’t). And it’s also not always a free service–you’ll have to check with your bank. It works with my personal checking account, which I upgraded last year to allow for online transfers (it’s a free account as long as we have a monthly direct deposit; otherwise it’s $7/month). My business checking account isn’t so lucky, and I’ll be ponying up $3/month for the privilege of downloading my transactions. Oh well, the time saved will be worth it.
So unless those online transactions go kerflooey, I’ve gone digital with my financial life.