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Number
3: May 21, 2003
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This week in Katydid:
Reheat Spam and Serve
A New York Times article pushed all my buttons
this week. Some e-mail marketing companies use hacker techniques to
bounce spam e-mail from home computers. The technique disguises the
sender's identity by exploiting the fact that most proxy server software
comes with low security by default.
It creates a usability dilemma. The software companies state they
leave security wide open to make the software is easier to install. They
have determined (probably through customer satisfaction research) that
the most important factor to their consumers is ease of use. However, a
customer's perception and priorities will change significantly after
making the purchase decision.
Proxy server software (e.g. Analog
X) allows computers on a local network to share
Internet access, but most companies market the software as a security
measure. Customers may make their purchase decision with security in
mind, but after purchase, their top-of-mind issue will be ease of use.
Companies should consider their own value marketing. The consumer
initially purchased the software for convenience and protection, so they
expect both. Therefore, the default should be to lock down systems
tightly and then guide the user through the tradeoffs of convenience for
security.
Customers who find that the product they purchased does not work the
way they intended it, will likely not find a corresponding question on
their satisfaction survey. They just won't buy again, nor will they
recommend the product to others.
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Additional Broadband Concerns
Broadband home access makes the virtual
office possible. Small businesses can have Internet access for their
employees without installing a trunk line, and employees of larger
companies can work remotely or from home. But it would be a nightmare if
a responsible company unwittingly allowed unscrupulous spammers easy
access to their computers.
I checked with Cox Communications, one of the largest Internet
service providers in the Phoenix metro area. Their technical support
staff informed me that with a router installed, the chances were nearly
zero that a spammer could hack a local network as described the article
above. Then they recommended firewall
software, "Just in
case."
Curiously, they also volunteered that if my computer was running
slowly, it was likely the result of their network traffic. While I
expect that broadband throughput speeds will vary with demand throughout the day, I
hadn't expected that it could drag other systems as well; but all
the network "chatter" can seriously affect performance. Some users
will increase system performance by staying off the broadband network
when not in use.
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Marketing as Therapy
Like many involved in marketing and usability, I
have a strong interest in psychology. There's a terrific book titled,
Healing the Soul in the Age of the Brain by Elio Frattaroli, M.D. It
makes a case against the current quick-fix approach to mental health of
pharmacology and self-help fads.
In marketing, we can also fall into those quick-fix traps. It may be
counter-intuitive to think so, but it's easier to write copy that
manipulates a reader than to write copy that connects with them on a
deeper level. Sex sells but peace abides.
If you pick up the book, consider how the role of the marketer
parallels the role of the therapist. Consider that the ethical
considerations facing the therapist also face the marketer. You're
trying to develop a relationship with your customer based on trust. If
you treat this relationship as seriously as a therapist would, then
imagine the success you could have.
The book quotes (p. 181) Rabbi Lawrence Kushner from Acceptance and
Change. I thought it was inspirational, so I'm including it here:
Change begins by not trying to change. What you imagine you must do
in order to change yourself is often the very force that keeps you
precisely the way you are. How else can you explain the years and
decades of your own foiled plans for growth and broken resolutions?
Consumed by an apparent passion to be "other" than who you
are, you try to be who you are not, but in so doing succeed only in
being a person who is trying to be other than who you are. Beneath all
the layers of wanting to be different, self-dissatisfaction, pretense,
charade, and denial is a self. This self is a living, dynamic force
within everyone. And if you could remain still long enough here, now, in
this very place, you would discover who you are. And by discovering who
you are, you would at last be free to discover who you yet also might
be.
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Thanks for Reading
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Kind regards,
Kevin Troy Darling
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