For control freaks like Apple, partnerships must be really frustrating. Famous for wanting to control every aspect of their product - hardware and software - plus sales, service etc., the torrid iPhone experience over the last 24 hours must have sent Steve Jobs fuming to say the least. It’s not absolutely clear who is to blame, but the guns are pointing at Apple’s partner, AT&T (and other carriers overseas).

So even though many decry Apple for being a relatively closed platform, the events of the last 24 hours may have brought some people round to Apple’s way of thinking, or at least made them more sympathetic.

But the reality is that partnerships in most sectors are an increasing necessity. As markets mature, product life cycles and development lead times shrink in today’s ever competitive landscape, organisations have to pair up to provide services they couldn’t do themselves, or at least not cost/time effectively.

Apple clearly sees the mobile market as a crucial one. So would it make sense for them to become a mobile carrier to control the experience end-to-end? Well, that would seem overkill. The bad experience involves activation, the general experience using AT&T and other carriers doesn’t seem to be a particularly big issue (or is it?). Apple is not in the pipes business, so why worry about the mobile pipes if it doesn’t worry too much about the fixed broadband pipes?

So, this got us thinking. As the title of this post conjectures, is the Apple/iPhone brand damaged by having a partner that is a weaker link in the brand experience chain? Anecdotal evidence from people being interviewed outside Apple/AT&T stores would seem to suggest (a) many folks attributed the blame to AT&T, and (b) the diehards waiting in line, sometimes for hours, love the iPhone so much that hurricanes probably wouldn’t have stopped them. And although mainstream news covered the travails, we can’t really see it denting iPhone desirability or demand.

But then you wonder, did Apple anticipate this beforehand and decide to accept the consequences because to have improved it (the back-end systems supporting activation) significantly may have cost too much or been too much hassle? Was there a trade-off?

We are, of course, drawing a parallel here with the BAA/BA fiasco a few months ago at Heathrow’s Terminal 5, where some believe BA may have skimped on the staff training to try to save a bit of money. If that were true, it would have been a spectacular own goal given how much it’s cost BA in compensation and negative publicity, not to mention the senior heads that rolled.

Conspiracy theories aside, it seems we need a clearer way of showing senior decision-makers the short and long-term costs of making key decisions like those discussed above. Because just as environmental costs are starting to be factored into the price of goods, businesses need to be aware of the full hinterland affected by the occassional short-sighted decision.

Series:AdTalk
Series:MarketingTalk

Update: This post is getting around 3-4 visits per day or over 100 per month via search engines against the query ‘pc specialist’ or similar. Assuming even a small proportion of these have decided not to use PCS as a result, it just goes to shows how short-sighted they have been: they’d rather lose thousands of pounds worth of business than pay out a few pounds under warranty - I’m sure that’s a sensible business strategy on some planet!

This post is aimed at those considering a purchase from custom PC retailer PCSpecialist.co.uk and should serve as a warning.

A couple years ago we were looking for a high end PC and our natural instinct was to look at Dell and other well known brands/retailers. It quickly became clear that while these brands were very competitive at packaged systems, customization attracted a hefty premium.

We happened to mention this at a client meeting and this immediately triggered a recommendation. You guessed it, PCSpecialist.co.uk.

The recommendation was from someone who could be trusted - he had bought two systems from there himself. And sure enough their pricing was competitive against the better known brands. They even compared favourably to the cost of the underlying components so there didn’t seem to be any real financial benefit in self-building.

The next couple of months were spent deciding on the configuration (in which PCSpecialist.co.uk were helpful) and waiting for the ‘best’ time to buy. We then took the leap and ordered.

That’s when the PCSpecialist.co.uk nightmare started.
(more…)

The fact that companies like Toyota and Tesco and Proctor & Gamble in many of its categories have shown that you can in fact keep improving delivery on the basics, shows that it’s not just a commodity…
(Patrick Barwise)

 BACK TO BASICS  The renowned marketing Professor Patrick Barwise is a relatively rare animal, an academic with commercial instinct and pragmatism. Here he talks to Michael Warren about the ramifications of his two most recent books, ‘Simply Better’ (which won the American Marketing Association’s 2005 prize for the best recent book in marketing), and one that he is currently writing with the working title: ‘Customer Insights - Beyond Market Research’. His ability to cut through marketing myths, hype and meaningless jargon using solid reasoning reinforces his position as one of the industry’s most valued thought-leaders

Listen to other podcasts featuring Patrick

 STARRING 

• Prof. Patrick Barwise, LBS, and co-author, Simply Better
• Michael Warren, research consultant

(more…)

 Sponsored by 
Our team of brand specialists tell us what’s hot in branding, why they love the iPod brand, and why staff need to live the brand and product experience to maximise brand effectiveness. Markets mentioned: drinks, electronics, financial, Internet, retail, social media, telecoms

 STARRING 

• Bob Morrison, Elephants Can’t Jump
• Peter Walshe, Global Brand Director, Millward Brown
• Rob Holdaway, Clear Ideas

This JuiceCast has been produced by ResearchTalk for BrainJuicer. BrainJuicer’s Chief Juicer, John Kearon, has kindly allowed us to host the podcast as a service to the community, to stimulate debate and innovation

(more…)

How does First Direct manage to consistently excel on customer service? Does it offer different levels of service depending on customer value? Does it hold aspirations to extend it’s brand beyond finance? What prospects lie ahead?

 STARRING 

• Matthew Higgins, Head of Brand Communications, First Direct
• Andrew Smith, founder, Andrew Smith Research and ICG member (Host)

(more…)