Monthly Archives: February 2005

GM Auto Marketing: Find Your Style (Wife, Girlfriend, Mistress)

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Driving back to SFO recently, I noticed this GM (General Motors) billboard. In essence, the message to Northern California drivers bound either for SFO or their jobs on the Peninsula or in Silicon Valley was:

Advertising is often a useful way to peer into the soul of a company, or in other words, think about their dna and how the firm views its interaction with the outside world.

This campaign smells desperate to me. I’m reminded of Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy’s spot on statement regarding software: “The quality of a company’s software has an inverse relationship to the amount spent on marketing.”

I must admit that this ad campaign doesn’t click at all for me, from any angle. The whole pitch, including the website, seems like a lot of fluff. I visited the site and it promptly crashed my computer (PC, in this case). I tried again and it worked, although it later crashed just my browser.

Perhaps this all makes sense for some car buyers…..

I think GM would be much better off seeding cars to bloggers and schools for long term reviews (with the agreement that they write about their year or two with a sedan, minivan, SUV or sports car). This will take some doing, but I think it would be money well spent. Essentially, they need to route around the legacy media (see Bob Lutz’s notes on this).

Losing Control of Your PC – Thanks to Dell

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Paul Biggar:

It seems that horrible day has come when my computer will no longer truly be mine. Since about 2000 we’ve heard about Palladium and Trusted Computing waiting in the wings for the day that I can no longer trust my computer, and my computer demands that it can trust me.
Digital Rights (restrictions) Management means that you can no longer play media which is not yours. Or, in its current implementation, you cannot use something which you have bought, in a way which you are legally entitled to play it, because the content owners do not wish it. Once Dell and others start shipping these chips, and Windows provides for it, then everything must be DRM, and non-DRM applications and hardware are rendered useless.

What can you do? Support the EFF and perhaps, buy a mac while it’s still open.

Madison Small Business Series: Mike McMahon & Pinnacle Health & Fitness

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Mike McMahon
CEO, Pinnacle Health & Fitness
On starting and growing a business

I visited with Mike recently and talked about:

  • The experience necessary to successfully start a business, and avoid losing your relatives money.
  • Hiring the right people
  • Customer Service
  • Competition
  • Career Advice

Check out this 7 minute mp3 audio file or a 7 minute Quicktime Video.

Madison WiFi/Broadband: Incumbent Telco’s Dirty Bomb

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Glenn Fleishman on incumbent telco’s (SBC & Verizon) latest lobbying/pr efforts to thwart municipally owned broadband systems:

There’s a lot more readily available details about the New Millennium Research Council than I realized: The NMRC is the co-publisher of a report that says municipal broadband is anti-competitive and a waste of taxpayer dollars. eWeek broke the news yesterday that they’re a division of Issue Dynamics, Inc., a group that specializes in creating the appearance of grassroots and independent support for ideas on behalf of their clients. They don’t hide this speciality.
The NMRC lists this relationship on their About page; I’m embarrassed that I missed noting this: “The NMRC is an independent project of Issue Dynamics, Inc. (IDI), a consumer and public affairs consulting firm that specializes in developing win-win solutions to complex policy issues.” (IDI lists the US Internet Industry Association as a client; the head of the USIAA wrote part of the NMRC report.)
An email correspondent who prefers to remain anonymous but has had dealings with the NMRC and IDI wrote in to note, “If you need an ‘independent’ third party to provide support for your particular issue interest, IDI will find an independent expert who will write a supportive piece for you—the report will then be issued by the NMRC or another front org. There is no direct money passing from the corporation to the person writing the research, and as a technical matter, the funding for NMRC comes directly from IDI. However, people like Verizon pay IDI a pretty stiff retainer, and IDI essentially uses part of that to fund NMRC.”

Glenn also takes a look at fiber to the home projects in Palo Alto, Provo, UT and Lafayette, LA. Keep in mind that the US lags many other countries in true high speed (20mpbs+), economical two way broadband.

Recent Rental Cars: Kia Amanti & Toyota Solara Cabrio

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First up, the Kia Amanti. Think of this car as Kia’s version of a Toyota Avalon or a Buick LeSabre. My points:

  • Styling: Not for me.
  • Interior: Not bad. My black rental had a grey leather and (fake?) wood accents. The controls were reasonable except the odd radio. Kia has adopted a display screen which monitors time, temperature and “enteertainment” options. I found it rather difficult to use. Time might solve this problem. The stereo’s sound system was reasonably good (Why don’t they add an audio in jack? iPod users would be much happier).
  • Handling: I cannot make one positive comment on the Amanti’s handling. In a word – terrible. Far too soft for my tastes.
  • Fuel Economy: I drove 76 miles, 2/3 of which were highway miles. I filled the tank prior to returning the car with over 4 gallons!
  • Quality: The car felt reasonably well made, but, the very sloppy handling left an overall bad impression, along with the poor fuel efficiency.

The bottom line: would I purchase this car? No.

Next, the Toyota Solara Cabrio. The Solara is a two dour coupe based on the best selling Camry sedan. The Cabrio is simply a convertible version of the Coupe. I’m sure Toyota’s sterling quality reputation will sell many of these. My points:

  • Styling: Not for me.
  • Interior: Straightforward, easy to use. (Disdclaimer, I’ve driven Toyota’s for years, so the controls are quite familiar). The interior looked like the plastic it was. Functional but not all that aesthetically interesting. I thought the automatic transmission’s stick shift Mercedes-like pattern was silly. Stereo sound was not bad – again no sound input jack.
  • Handling: Reasonable, but not great – a bit soft on the corners. I did have one major dislike – the cabrio has a rather large blindspot. Perhaps this is the nature of convertibles, but it’s a safety issue.
  • Fuel Economy: I did not keep track of my miles.
  • Quality: The car felt and operated like a Toyota, which is generally good. However, dropping up to $30K on a Toyota leads on to expect more. I think the Germans still have them on the fun to drive question (and styling).

Bottom line, would I purchase this car? No.

The Intersection of Traditional Media & Politics

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Dave Winer muses on the cozy relationship between traditional media companies and politicians. He’s on to something.

My view on the problem is that activists/bloggers need to use the internet to increase awareness of local races that the traditional media ignores or downplays. Wisconsin’s DPI (Department of Public Instruction) race cleanly illustrates the problem. The incumbent, Libby Burmaster – supported by our current Democratic Governer, Jim Doyle and the state teacher’s union, has apparently not been showing up for any primary debates or forums. I’ve not seen the traditional media organs call her on the carpet for this (our event moderator, The League of Women’s Voters mentioned that incubments lack of participation is a growing problem).

Libby may or may not be a great candidate. Unfortunately, it’s rather difficult to compare, given the lack of interaction with the other candidates.

In an effort to address this problem and increase public awareness of the race and the 2/15/2005 primary, a few of us put together a DPI candidate forum on 1/29/2005. Three of the four candidates appeared. In addition, several TV stations appeared to interview the candidates. This event, to my knowledge, is the only Madison pre-primary DPI candidate event. We archived the forum with video & audio clips in an effort to broadly distribute information on the candidates. This effort is a very modest beginning.

Feingold 2008?

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Craig Gilbert chats with 3 term US Senator Russ Feingold on his Presidential ambitions:

“I’m trying to be one of God knows how many Democrats who are going to get out there and try to help turn this thing around,” said Feingold, the third-term senator from Wisconsin who has sent a variety of signals that he would like to raise his national profile. He spent three days last week making appearances in Florida.

“If at some point people say, ‘Hey, we think you ought to run for president’ (and) it’s a serious thing, I’m going to listen. I would only run if I honestly believed that I was the guy that really could win, that I was the person who was the best candidate to run,” said Feingold, who sat down Wednesday at a reporter’s request to talk about the Democratic Party and the 2008 presidential contest.

Miracle-Gro’s Horace Hagedon Obituary

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Douglas Martin:

Miracle-Gro, which produced the world’s biggest cabbage, cantaloupe and dahlia, soon became as familiar a sight in the American backyard as the station wagon in the carport. The gardening business is now estimated to exceed $35 billion in annual sales, and Miracle-Gro’s share of the home fertilizer market is estimated to be about 85 percent.
Mr. Hagedorn orchestrated the growth of his product like the marketing genius he was. He hired a Norman Rockwell colleague to paint homey advertisements, and the actor James Whitmore, whose gnarled face suggested a trustworthy farmer, for television commercials. The $100,000 prize he offered for a tomato of world record size was conditional on the use of a certain plant food.