We talk about Amazon.com here on MNB, and one reader explains why:
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve ordered things from amazon.com – appliances, food, etc. – not just books and DVDs – because:
It’s easier.
I tend to look there first, because of this. Sure, I’ve ordered from other sites and shop brick and mortar too. But I tend to check amazon. They’ve got me. A loyal customer. Someone on your site mentioned ‘the coolness factor” – it’s so true. I’ve been to their buildings, when I used to do some business with them (job and focus change, don’t any longer). They have such a great energy in their offices, very creative, upbeat, happy. Bunches of what looked like 20 and 30 somethings wandering around, all with purpose and focus. In fact, some of the walls have white boards on them, where staff can spontaneously jot down creative ideas for later discussion. How cool is THAT? Like coloring on the walls! The whole culture there felt like anything is possible, and no ideas were wrong or bad.
Prime member, one click shopping, find, click, move on. It shows up a few days later. And those “get it in two days, free shipping”! Wow, the convenience and no hassle factor count for a lot.
Responding to yesterday’s piece that attempted to draw lessons from the Leno-Conan controversy, MNB user Chris Muller wrote:
Your message this morning, "Late Night Lessons" is nothing short of brilliant. Great thinking, great writing. Wish I had done it instead.
Thanks for the effort.
My pleasure.
Another MNB user chimed in:
When NBC promised Conan the Tonight Show it was a talent retention strategy, not a ratings strategy. The decision was probably made in a vacuum and the ratings "strategy" conjured up after the fact. While talent and ratings are closely related, there are two reasons it's important to make this distinction among strategies: 1) many other things impact both ratings and talent retention, 2) a ratings strategy related to talent should start with a genre of talent, not the name of an individual.
Also notable in this mess is NBC's apparent paradigm of ratings first, people second. Mistake one: NBC promised what they can't or aren't willing to deliver. Mistake two: NBC has pimped the private, personnel matter of contract breech/renegotiation to the court of public opinion as a trial balloon for new late night "strategies." One word for mistake three: culpability. How about NBC just saying, "we made a bad call and here's what we're going to do to fix it?" This was an opportunity to demonstrate integrity and build credibility and they blew it, again.
MNB user Kayla M. Anderson wrote:
I had to echo the folly of NBC’s Conan & Leno issue.
I saw their decision as a choice between markets. The boomers love Leno, and it’s true--he’s a skilled host. But Facebook and twitter are ablaze with Gen Y’s support for Conan. An industry that is daily losing young viewers (and hence, their future) to the internet, Hulu, Netflix and cable successfully hammered another nail in its coffin. Amid their shaky arguments, Gen Y heard only one thing from NBC: We’re eliminating your go-to guy, and bringing back your parent’s show. Watch something else.
To me, this is another fatal blow to network television. This decision signifies a resistance to change, a sadly redundant theme in TV land… Good bye television, there are too many other, better muses to entertain me while you sort through your relics.
I made a joke yesterday about Art Fern running NBC, which prompted one MNB user to write:
All right, I'll bite. Who or what is Art Fern?
Only one of Johnny Carson’s more memorable characters, who simply dripped sleaze. Check him out on YouTube or Google Video.
MNB user Steve Sullivan knew who he was:
NBC got to the Slausen Cutoff and cut off their slausen!
You are correct, sir!
I cannot tell you how many times I’ve ordered things from amazon.com – appliances, food, etc. – not just books and DVDs – because:
It’s easier.
I tend to look there first, because of this. Sure, I’ve ordered from other sites and shop brick and mortar too. But I tend to check amazon. They’ve got me. A loyal customer. Someone on your site mentioned ‘the coolness factor” – it’s so true. I’ve been to their buildings, when I used to do some business with them (job and focus change, don’t any longer). They have such a great energy in their offices, very creative, upbeat, happy. Bunches of what looked like 20 and 30 somethings wandering around, all with purpose and focus. In fact, some of the walls have white boards on them, where staff can spontaneously jot down creative ideas for later discussion. How cool is THAT? Like coloring on the walls! The whole culture there felt like anything is possible, and no ideas were wrong or bad.
Prime member, one click shopping, find, click, move on. It shows up a few days later. And those “get it in two days, free shipping”! Wow, the convenience and no hassle factor count for a lot.
Responding to yesterday’s piece that attempted to draw lessons from the Leno-Conan controversy, MNB user Chris Muller wrote:
Your message this morning, "Late Night Lessons" is nothing short of brilliant. Great thinking, great writing. Wish I had done it instead.
Thanks for the effort.
My pleasure.
Another MNB user chimed in:
When NBC promised Conan the Tonight Show it was a talent retention strategy, not a ratings strategy. The decision was probably made in a vacuum and the ratings "strategy" conjured up after the fact. While talent and ratings are closely related, there are two reasons it's important to make this distinction among strategies: 1) many other things impact both ratings and talent retention, 2) a ratings strategy related to talent should start with a genre of talent, not the name of an individual.
Also notable in this mess is NBC's apparent paradigm of ratings first, people second. Mistake one: NBC promised what they can't or aren't willing to deliver. Mistake two: NBC has pimped the private, personnel matter of contract breech/renegotiation to the court of public opinion as a trial balloon for new late night "strategies." One word for mistake three: culpability. How about NBC just saying, "we made a bad call and here's what we're going to do to fix it?" This was an opportunity to demonstrate integrity and build credibility and they blew it, again.
MNB user Kayla M. Anderson wrote:
I had to echo the folly of NBC’s Conan & Leno issue.
I saw their decision as a choice between markets. The boomers love Leno, and it’s true--he’s a skilled host. But Facebook and twitter are ablaze with Gen Y’s support for Conan. An industry that is daily losing young viewers (and hence, their future) to the internet, Hulu, Netflix and cable successfully hammered another nail in its coffin. Amid their shaky arguments, Gen Y heard only one thing from NBC: We’re eliminating your go-to guy, and bringing back your parent’s show. Watch something else.
To me, this is another fatal blow to network television. This decision signifies a resistance to change, a sadly redundant theme in TV land… Good bye television, there are too many other, better muses to entertain me while you sort through your relics.
I made a joke yesterday about Art Fern running NBC, which prompted one MNB user to write:
All right, I'll bite. Who or what is Art Fern?
Only one of Johnny Carson’s more memorable characters, who simply dripped sleaze. Check him out on YouTube or Google Video.
MNB user Steve Sullivan knew who he was:
NBC got to the Slausen Cutoff and cut off their slausen!
You are correct, sir!
- KC's View:
