Crastinate

The recent backlash over the latest ebaY’s feedback changes is just the latest problem with the auction company. The fact is that ebaY isn’t exciting anymore. The newness of auctions is gone. I can, many times, get cheaper prices from Amazon for a new product than the price of a used product on ebaY. It’s still useful, but not something that I would use often. I think it boils down to a lack of innovation on ebaY’s part. Without innovation, there isn’t growth.

Today, I see a blog post by Michael Arrington talking about how Facebook is shunning the Android platform because of the bad blood between Facebook and Google. This situation, amongst many others, makes me think that Facebook is going to be the next ebaY. By that I mean, Facebook will continue to grow until it reaches maximum capacity within its own market. But I don’t see the seeds of innovation wihtin Facebook to continue that growth into new markets such as Google has done. In other words, Facebook is a one-note company, and once the excitement is over, that growth will stagger. People will still use it. People still use ebaY. But without constant innovation, that growth will disappear. I’m calling it now. I’d give it 3 years. Facebook will have major growth problems.

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As many of you know, I’m in school full-time getting my MBA at Baruch College (Zicklin) in New York. Last March I entered the Baruch Microsoft Marketing Competition. The goal of the competition was to come up with a marketing plan that would use a $5 million budget to achieve 50,000 downloads of 3 or more Windows Live Suite services (Messenger, Write, Photo Gallery, Mail, etc) and 20,000 registrations of Windows OneCare ($50 a year).

My teammate, Jason, and I carefully weighed our options. We could play it safe and come up with a marketing plan that a typical agency would come up with. This would entail a nice mix of search, display and print advertising to the relevant target markets. Or we could come up with something totally unique and show the judges something they haven’t seen before.  We chose the latter option.

We immediately took aim at the metrics we were being judged on. Downloads don’t tell you much. Anyone can download something. Using the product is what’s important. We focused on product usage, not downloads. Inspired by AMEX points and Marlboro points, we created a program called Microsoft LivePoints. Users accrue points by interacting with the products they downloaded. They also accrue points by referring friends. Users with the most points win weekly, monthly, and yearly prizes. It’s not the best program. But at least it wasn’t typical.

We had all the details written out in our proposal document. Got accepted into the semi-finals where we presented our plan to high-level Microsoft executives. We made it to the finals and presented to some even higher-level Microsoft executives. Eventually we came in 2nd place. The criticism we got on our plan that while the execs loved the focus on use rather than downloads, they felt the plan required some implementation on Microsoft’s end and they have a history of not implementing well (I’m not kidding. That is what they said). We ended up getting a couples of Zunes as prizes. It was good experience and I’m glad I did it.

Last week Microsoft announced a new program called SearchPerks. The program allows users to accrue tickets by using their search engine. Users can submit these tickets for prizes. While somewhat different, this idea sounds eerily similar to the pitch my friend Jason and I gave to Microsoft execs 6 months ago.

Check out my presentation from the competition embedded below. Then check out SearchPerks. Our team was named after the first prize…an XBox, Zune and a dinner with Microsoft executives.

[slideshare id=650149&doc=msftpresentationforblog-1223671148154395-9&w=425]

What do you think? Do you think my pitch had any influence on this new SearchPerks program? I’ll let you decide.

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A few months ago I went to a local car repair shop to get my oil changed. I don’t drive my car that often because I’m usually taking public transportation to school and work. About two weeks ago I noticed my oil light had gone on and I started hearing a strange noise from the engine. I had not even driven 1500 miles from my last oil change so I knew something was wrong. I didn’t have time right then to go, but I knew I had to take it back to the shop very soon.

My friend Avi, who, unlike me, is quite knowledgeable about cars, asked to take a look at it before I take it to the shop. Apparently, the mechanic forgot to put the cap back on the engine. Oil has been sputtering out of the engine causing me to be extremely low on oil. Yes, I know I should have opened the hood myself before I went back to the shop.

I went to the mechanic yesterday to complain and they quickly filled up my oil for no fee and replaced my engine cap. Then I mentioned, per Avi’s suggestion, that if I start hearing problems from my engine, I’m coming back.

I hate situations like this. They made a stupid mistake and should be held accountable. If my engine has serious issues, my mechanic should pay for it. And yet, I walked out of there with no guarantee that if I have issues, they’ll fix it without payment (or with a heavy discount). I hate relationship-based commerce. I also hate to haggle. I shouldn’t need to be pushy or have a better relationship with a vendor to get the exact same level of service or price as anyone else. I think the consumer could use a car agent.

A car agent would be someone who would look after the best interests of their clients at the mechanic. A car agent could represent many clients (cars that need servicing), and can negotiate bulk pricing for standard services (regular maintenance). If the mechanic tries to screw over a client, the car agent could threaten to move all his/her clients elsewhere. That would keep mechanics in check.

I’m not saying I’m getting ripped off (even though it would be nice if they remembered to put the cap back on my engine). I just don’t know if I’m getting ripped off and I don’t have someone who is looking out for my best interests. I’ll ask Avi, but I bet I’m not alone in this situation.

The web community has already recognized this problem and have come up with different solutions. MyDealerReport gives car dealerships ratings based on user reviews. RepairPal and DriverSide help you find user reviews and prices for local mechanics. I think these sites are a start but we need something more to represent the consumer’s interests when dealing with mechanics.