I hate it when people talk or blog about branding.
It’s almost as bad as this constant B.S. being written about engagement. These two words make me want to puke. Enough with that already!
Everywhere I look, there are “proven methods” to create a brand culture and following; to entice customer engagement, and generally – become more like Apple.
The Real Secret Sauce Of Branding
You know what makes a good brand?
You know what makes customers feel engaged?
A bloody good product; Fantastic service; Great experience; Over-delivering; Quality; Fixing a problem; Fulfilling a desire – these are the core.
Of course you should have the same photo on all of your social profiles, have your own tone and claim your domain names – but without the core, all you have is a balloon full of hot air.
This is a story about a woman named Linn, who travels a lot and reads most of her books on Kindle (much like me). Some time ago, as she loaded up her Kindle app, she found out to her surprise that Amazon have destroyed her account and erased its contents (i.e. her books), with no notice what-so-ever.
You think that when you buy a book on Amazon Kindle you actually own it? Hell no, you are just paying for the (temporary) right to consume it digitally.
This story (which already unfolded and has been remedied) is quite scary, and is an eye opener to all these “Terms & Conditions” that we’re so eager to agree to, just so we can put our hands on the next ‘Hunger Games’ book (I prefer this one though).
Being locked out of her Amazon account wasn’t the worst part. The worst and most scary part is the response Linn received from Amazon when she contacted their support, as described on Martin Bekkelund‘s blog, who was the first to feature this story:
Dear Linn [last name],
My name is Michael Murphy and I represent Executive Customer Relations within Amazon.co.uk. One of our mandates is to address the most acute account and order problems, and in this capacity your account and orders have been brought to my attention.
We have found your account is directly related to another which has been previously closed for abuse of our policies. As such, your Amazon.co.uk account has been closed and any open orders have been cancelled.
Per our Conditions of Use which state in part: Amazon.co.uk and its affiliates reserve the right to refuse service, terminate accounts, remove or edit content, or cancel orders at their sole discretion.
Please know that any attempt to open a new account will meet with the same action.
Michael Murphy
Executive Customer Relations
Amazon.co.uk
So, as Amazon’s Michael offered, Linn sent him some questions, such as – what the hell was Amazon accusing her of?
The emails went back and forth, but the answers repeated themselves: Amazon wouldn’t tell Linn what she did, or even if she actually did something. They wouldn’t tell her which account (allegedly) related to hers was violating their terms either.
They just shut her account down, told her to never try to open a new one, and called it a day.
What??!
The good news is that after this story got some media coverage (somebody said NBC?), Linn’s account was restored.
The bad news on the other hand, is that for better or worse – you can’t just march on to “the other Amazon store”. There is no other Amazon. In this day and age, as world’s authors are publishing more and more books solely on the Kindle platform, this is a disturbing thought.
P.S. Please don’t tell me that there’s always the iTunes book store. Not the same reach, and it’s limited in sooo many countries, that it ain’t relevant for now.
Banks should close at 4, books should be 200 pages long, CEOs should go to college, blogs should have comments, businessmen should be men, big deals should be done by lawyers, good food should be processed, surgeons should never advertise, hit musicians should be Americans, good employees should work at the same company for years…
Wow, it’s been a while. So much happened during the last 90 days.
After being disconnected from the Internet for some long time, I knew it’s time to get back writing. But you know that feeling. You must do something, but you can’t find the time? Ever?
Now, I have a million reasons to not write this post. My To-Do list is exploding, this is my day off, and more than anything – I don’t feel like writing.
BUT, as I was watching this video by my good friend Ralph Quintero, I realised that I’m just making excuses.
So what If I just finished travelling 60,000km in a month and a half, moving from GMT-11 to GMT+7? Is that a reason to procrastinate? Plans change (I’ll update you on that!), timings aren’t always great – so?? Just put the ass on the chair, and get the stuff done. Now! not later!
P.S. Ralph, if this is any consolation for you, some good few years ago I was pacing towards the bus station on my way home from college. I was distracted, and just SLAMMED into a an electric pole. In slammed, I mean the noise was so bad that people walking the street stopped and pointed.
I had a huge bump for some good time afterwards. The silver lining though, was that because I was living in Israel at the time, I just told everybody that a sleepy soldier accidentally turned around and hit me in the head with his M-16 gun. Few months later, this is exactly what happened. Lesson – be careful with what you wish for 🙂
Cute T-shirt I saw in Sydney, but very applicable to the minutes after getting hit in the head 🙂
On the last issue of Inspiring Innovation Magazine (get it at http://bit.ly/InMagApp), I discussed how bold actions scored me 4 days and a dinner with Internet Marketing guru – Ed Dale.
This post, that my good friend Ralph Quintero found and shared, gives you the ultimate method, system or recipe for luck. Much like the Liquid Luck potion in Harry Potter:
What It Takes To Be Lucky
Professor Wiseman find that optimistic people are luckier and sets out four principles that can help any of us become ‘luckier’ in our lives. All we need is to:
maximise our opportunities
listen to our hunches and grab the ‘right’ ones as they come along
