October 07, 2005
37signals & Google: A Tale of Two Launches
This week, the microcosm that is the Web world was treated to two much-hyped product launches by two of its brand darlings. One at the beginning of the week; one at the end."Why do we care?" you ask. "Products launch every day. I thought this was a marketing blog?"
Good googly woogly. Give me a minute.
Why should you care about a product launch? Because it’s one of the most tangible representations of your brand. Every product you put into the marketplace influences your brand perception. And if you put a dud into the market, that tarnishes your image. If you actually hit the mark, your brand gains ground.
Better? Or are you still bored with my choice of topic? Look, I need to cash in on the Web 2.0 stuff, just like everybody else. So bear with me. And when hypocritical gets the chance to sell out (fiscally, I mean; I sold out artistically ages ago, silly goose), I’ll make sure you get a little something special.
So where was I? Oh yes, the grassroots media darlings and their product launches.
Neither launch was terribly groundbreaking in terms of functionality. Neither was really a market-leading foray into new territory. Neither of them cost anything to use. Neither of them were advertised or promoted beyond some word of mouth, with the right words in the right mouths.
(Not to be completely derogatory. There were aspects of both launches that embraced the evolving tenants of Web-application development. And there were some thought-provoking bells & whistles to each. Don't get me wrong. This was not a non-event.)
One was put out by a scrappy small company. One was put out by a well-funded technical braintrust. One hit the mark. One was a dud. And you don’t have to have an RSS reader wet-wired into your brain to know where I’m going. I’m talking about 37signals Writeboard (winner) and Google Reader (loser).
I’m not going to review the products (please note: shirking another task). There are plenty of review out there much better than I could write. There are probably tons for Writeboard and soon there will be literally tons for Google Reader. No, I’m going skip the reviews. Instead, I’m going to focus somewhere a level or two down. Somewhere where it gets really interesting. Just beneath the surface. Just under that veneer that is the launch hype.
And, no, it’s not about the pervading view that Google continues to reinforce, the "they still don’t get it" reputation in the world of RSS. Blogger purchase, good start. Keeping a proprietary format like ATOM, well okay. Not making it’s news accessible as RSS until long after others had, whoa getting a little slippery. Releasing a feed reader that doesn’t really bring anything new to the table buy Google’s brand... You get my point.
No, I’m going to focus on the motivations for the development of these products. Or at least, what I perceived were the motivations for the products. And interestingly enough, you’ll see that the successful product focused on your needs, Billy, and your needs, Jane. While the one that fell short focused primarily on the needs of the company that created it.
Was 37signals under the gun to develop a collaborative editing tool? No. Was Google under the gun to develop a feed reader? Not by the market.
So why do it? Why spend the cycles? Well, I have some theories.
For 37signals, they seem focused on the customer first and their own needs second. From my vantage, it appears that they were generally trying to solve two problems: 1) How could they use the influence of their brand and their "less is less" skills to make the copy-side of the creative process a little more bearable, just as they had done for project management, with Basecamp (customer oriented), and 2) How could they drive more use of their Backpack product (37signals oriented).
The Google effort, on the other hand appears to be the converse. Google Reader solves Google’s problem first; the customer’s problem second. From my perspective, Google Reader tries to solve the following problems: 1) How can Google continue to create keyword-rich content pages that provide millions of more pages for Google AdWords ad placement (Google oriented), and 2) How can they leverage their brand influence and reach to make RSS feeds a little easier with which to deal (customer focused).
In the end, 37signals delivered something that improved upon a concept and solved a need. Google, at least at this writing, didn’t. And the market, subconsciously or not, understood. And because of that, Writeboard was heralded as another work of genius. Google Reader was sidelined as an also-ran, Johnny-come-lately. Which is a wee bit sad, given that, for so long, Google’s brand has been associated with, first and foremost, solving problems.
Which brings me to the point at which I take a few puffs from my pipe and cast a cocked eyebrow to the audience. You see, kids. All the money in the world and all the power of brand? It doesn’t matter if you put the customer second. Because when it comes right down to it, that’s where your brand lives: with the customer. And all the money in the world, all the development resources in the Valley, won’t change that.
What do you think? Is Google rushing customer-oriented product to market? Does 37signals have some secret ploy to control all media by controlling the creatives creating the content? I’d love to hear what you have to say. Comment away.
37signals & Google: A Tale of Two Launches
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