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Low Resolutions

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Jan 242012

My New Year’s resolution was to have a better fucking attitude about shit. I’ve found it takes a lot of coffee. And practice. I’m getting better at it, though. Case in point: I’m going to bring you good news today.

Samuel B. Gause Retrieves Stolen Bike

Who’s Samuel B. Gause? He’s a Chemistry student at the University of Florida who’s once again the proud owner of an IRO Angus. Gause’s bike was stolen this past Sunday, but he found it for sale on Craig’s List and got his sting operation on, setting up a meeting to check out the bike and calling the Gainesville police, who ended up arresting one Collin D. Smith, a 5’6″ tall, 140-pound man who’d apparently been charged with battery and burglary the previous year. Gause, who appears to be nearly tall enough to race cyclocross for Kona Bicycles, sounds like a nice guy who was clearly nervous as hell setting up his first foray into crime fighting, and I’m happy he got his bike back. According to The Alligator, Smith, who was arrested and charged with grand theft and dealing in stolen property by use of the Internet didn’t return a phone call requesting comment, presumably because he was in jail. I suspect The Alligator also has incredibly poor luck receiving comments from deceased individuals and victims of kidnappings. Based on what we know, however, we can assume that Smith’s comment would have been something like, “You tall people with your fucking giant-ass bikes! I will find you all, and I will tilt your saddles into extremely uncomfortable angles! No jail will hold me, and I will find you! Gloating, towering, bicycle-riding, lanky bitches! You think you’re so great! I will find you all! I will make you so uncomfortable!”

Smith is currently being held pending extradition to Portland.

Something Completely Different

I know I’ve also been bitching a lot about the lack of innovative products out there lately, but I’m happy to report some people are still pushing the envelope. My friend Josh just let me know about a little company called Solstice.

Solstice owner and designer, Chuck Dunlap, is focused on making one frame. One pretty wild, innovative, patented suspension frame. The Solstice is built around something Dunlap calls an “inverted 4-bar,” and that really does make sense once you look at it.

I’ve noticed the fashionable thing to say about a totally unique suspension design you’ve only seen in photos is: “Looks like it has a vertical axle path.” Word is this does, however, have a pretty vertical axle path, something I was after with my design, too.

It doesn’t look particularly stiff, but there’s an article about the design in the Mountain Flyer, and it claims the rear end on this bike tracks great, and that it pedals well and absolutely stomps nasty terrain. Very interesting stuff.

The swingarm parts are cold forged, which is pretty cool and makes me wonder how a tiny bike company producing only a handful of frames can manage to create such a clean and professional looking machine. There’s a kind of beautiful simplicity to the design, despite the complexity of the suspension.

The Solstice features a fully “floating” rear shock, which is another way of saying it has a shock that doesn’t anchor to the main frame anywhere; instead, it “floats” or bolts to moving parts of the suspension system on each of its ends. Sandwiching a shock between two moving suspension members is scary stuff, as the shock rates can get really difficult to manage, but Dunlap’s design looks very well thought out.

The bike is getting 160mm of travel and no, there is no 29er version out there, as far as I know. At over seven pounds, it ain’t light, but there seems to be no reason this design needs to weigh much more than similar frames, so I think the heft represents a bit of caution on the part of Solstice. Better to have the occasional complaint about the weight, than to run into problems.

Most importantly, seeing this really cheered me up. Just the idea that here’s a guy hell-bent on making innovative new products–products that literally turn conventional wisdom upside down.

This is nice, this being positive bullshit. I think I can tolerate it in small doses.

I need a fourth cup of coffee.

Mad Skills

E-commerce, Swine Comments Off

Jan 232012

Everyone needs a skill.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about skills. It must the resumes I’m sending out, the career search process in general, but I find myself thinking about the often blurry concept of “job skills” and what it means to be know how to do something. If this post has a practical use–and I’m not claiming it does–it’s as advice for small business owners, hoping to hire outstanding people who can actually improve a company.

I can remember sitting through an excruciating hermeneutics graduate course many years ago, watching some guys pouring concrete for a new sidewalk outside. After we’d wasted an hour dissecting sentences word by word, painfully trying to comprehend ridiculously cryptic ideas in a book that’s very subject was how we communicate, the professor adjourned the class with the pronouncement, “We did good work today.” A friend of mine and fellow writer of fiction (there were mostly philosophy students in this class, but some of the MFA writers–myself included–had ended up there because we needed the credits) announced matter-of-factly, “We didn’t do good work today.” Everyone turned to look at him, and he clarified: “We didn’t do any work today. They did work today,” he said, gesturing to the work crew outside the window. “What we did wasn’t work.” He was right.

When I went on to put in time as an English professor myself, the lesson I took with me from that class was to always be relevant, always keep the discussion of even the most obscure subjects rooted in the every day experiences of my students. This wasn’t a challenge, because I’d always thought of books as a necessary tool to get through life–a kind of multi-tool that included everything from a life jacket to hand grenades. You learn to read books and think critically about complicated subjects so that you can form your own opinions about things and make good decisions. I regarded those skills as being every bit as crucial and necessary to the average person as a level and nails are to a carpenter.

That particularly bad grad course I’d sat through didn’t have any meaning to me because there was no regard for a product: we weren’t even trying to create anything. To my thinking, the further you drifted away from concrete, tangible productivity–making something–the less relevant any of your gibberish became. Writers were, at least, still driven to create something.

This weekend, Bill Maher pointed out the difference between this photo of Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital

and photos of other famous wealthy people, including Henry Ford standing beside his Model T, Woz and Steve Jobs sitting there with their first computer, and Walt Disney at his desk, drawing a cartoon.

The distinction Maher’s photos made was a powerful one. Seems like too often these days, real money doesn’t come from making anything (except more money). Those gifted at living without creating anything tend to make money from money, and, as we’ve seen, they usually manage to do this by using loopholes, bad faith, and one hell of a disregard for others. Financial services companies can use the term “product” to describe things like Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) and Credit Default Swaps (CDSs), but that’s like saying you’re a rock star because you got drunk and crashed your car. Whoever created those must surely be proud, but I have to believe it’s a different kind of pride than what an engineer or an artist might have in creating something.

With all of this in mind, it occurred to me that the best people I’ve known, those who demonstrate what I consider to be strong moral character, are always people who can make things. I’ve known devoutly religious people, people held in high esteem by their local communities, whom I’d not let anywhere near my kids. This isn’t to say every diesel mechanic is a saint, but, if you think about your business like a child, I’d much rather have doers on board than talkers. Probably the thing that shocked me so much as I moved around my part of the business world–including everything from C-level managers, to business software developers, to mergers and acquisitions specialists–was just little anyone could actually do.

To my mind the world is already too full of people so absolutely incapable of successfully performing even the most basic of tasks that they end up in upper management positions. Sadly, what that can do to a company is pretty gruesome in and of itself. Here are a few e-commerce business rules I’ve learned the hard way.

Upper management that’s never engaged directly with the end user is useless. If you’re a consumer-facing retailer or e-commerce store, look for management and operations people who’ve spoken to customers, one way or another, somewhere in their past. Preferably within the past year. Unless you’re Proctor and Gamble, the days of the ivory tower CEO and COO in the retail space are over.

Everybody should know how to write at least some code. Yes. Everybody. I’m not talking about hardcore application development, but anyone involved in marketing, management, or creative development for your company should know some basic HTML, CSS, and, preferably, some really basic Javascript. How can anyone make good decisions about business development and marketing if he or she has no idea what’s behind the curtain at a web site? It’s management with zero coding skills that leads to consumer facing web sites with Flash screens that take two minutes to load.

Mergers and acquisitions guys have to understand technology. Without the ability to understand how Company A is making their donuts–or at least be able to comprehend the analysis of someone who does–how can anyone making business development decisions put a real price tag on merging it with Company B. There are cases where even two relatively strong companies, brought together by a weak M and A team, become much less than the sum of their parts due to incompatible technology.

Marketing people should have some experience in sales and customer service. This matters not just because they need to understand the consumer’s point of view, but because they need to understand the process of their own salespeople.

All managers are part-time chief technology officers, especially CFOs. The basic costs associated with something like an e-commerce site can vary enormously and most companies would do well to have a watchdog along every checkpoint. If you’re paying $25,000 a month for web hosting, and don’t know enough to realize you could be paying less than $1,000, don’t assume the IT department is going to take the time to set you straight. They’re still busy trying to get the reconditioned phone system you bought on sale to work properly.

The list could really go on all day, but the basic idea stays the same. All those job ads that include phrases like “creative thinker” might not be going far enough. In order to be a creative thinker, you need to have an arsenal of skills from which to generate ideas. You need to know how to make stuff and do stuff. I’d like to think that America in particular can reverse the current trend toward generating wealth without actually producing anything useful. Maybe Mitt Romney’s a nice guy, though I doubt it, and there’d have to be documented video proof of Mitt eating a live baby for him to scare me more than Newt Gingrich, but I think there’s something inherently wrong when separating value from reward. That image of the Bain Capital guys in suits stuffed with money is the America you end up with when the people making the most money have the least to offer.

Really Direct Marketing

Bikes, Swine 2 Responses »

Jan 162012

Let’s talk about really direct marketing. Sure, I’ve been exercising an unhealthy obsession with guerrilla e-commerce lately, working to convince small shop owners to start using the almighty Internet for something more than just a Google map to your location and (God forbid) printable coupons. It’s possible–or rather, let’s go with “super necessary” for small businesses to dip a toe into online sales, but all that will have to wait.

Why? Because the bike industry is witnessing a masterful education in the fine art of public relations self-destruction and brand anti-marketing that we’d be fools to ignore. Over the weekend, Specialized got their ass handed to them by Volagi, and then things got interesting.

Turns out Specialized spent about $1.5-million on their soul-killing, heavy-handed intimidation tactic/wild goosechase–an absolutely disgusting amount of money to piss away under any circumstances, and even more so right now, when John Q. Public is hyper-sensitive to wasteful, inappropriate behavior of the part of big companies. Almost every word that’s been printed regarding this entire sad episode has done damage to Specialized, and the facts haven’t done them any favors, either. The revelation that this much money was wasted in the service of stifling innovation and intimidating competition won’t do much to reverse the public perception of Specialized as a giant, out-of-touch, monopolistic, evil-doing gaggle of douchebags. Not to worry, though, because, once again, somebody let Specialized founder Mike Sinyard communicate with the public.

This lawsuit was a matter of principle and about protecting our culture of trust and innovation. We respect the ruling of the court in our favor. We are very satisfied with the outcome and the damages set at $1.00. We really want to put all our passion and time into growing the sport of cycling.”

Clearly, Sinyard and Rupert Murdoch have the same “magic touch” when it comes to understanding their public.

Read that quote again, if you think you’re up to it. The first sentence sets a good tone, and then, well . . . it makes you wonder if anyone at Specialized realizes the mic is on. Really, guys? You’re really “very satisfied” to’ve spent a million and a half bucks getting a dollar in return? If you’re trying to tell us you’re glad this didn’t have a destructive effect on Volagi, you’re sure not sounding that way, which means you’re–miraculously–sounding both disingenuous and unconcerned that you just wasted so much cash on a half-assed attempt at evil. And, even if that’s the case–even if you are sort of pissed off and dazed still, you realize, right, that you’re not supposed to let everyone know that’s where you are with this? It begs the question, do these guys have a PR department? Apparently, Specialized can spend $1.5-million on trying to stifle competition, but there’s nobody even making $10 an hour to give the main man’s missives a once-over to ensure they’re not repulsively demeaning and logically adrift.

Turns out I have some free time right now, and sounds like The Big S could use some pro bono help, so here’s my free rewrite of how anyone with even a small amount of respect for his customers would have written that letter:

“This lawsuit was a matter of principle and about protecting our culture of trust and innovation. At Specialized, we really do believe in our products more than anything, and that passion sometimes leads us to protect them at all costs. We’re making bikes because we believe in the positive things that a bicycle can do, and that’s a love we share with Volagi and every other brand. While we feel strongly enough about our reputation and our innovative products to take the steps we took in this matter, we sincerely respect and admire the desire Robert and Barley have shown to distinguish their product, and we hope they, and all those with a desire to make cycling better, continue to share our passion for making great bikes.”

Or some such shit. (I’m available for freelance work, by the way, for press releases, writing wedding invitations, really bitchin’ grocery lists, etc..)

There is a way to communicate to the public while still side-stepping legal landmines, but it involves seeming human and actually relating to your customers, instead of poking rifle barrels out of your ivory tower and doubling down on the draconian bullshit.

But, anyway, this is good for us–good for anyone studying how not to communicate with the public. Pop quiz: guess which company, Specialized or Volagi, better understands how to use social media? Here’s a hint: contrast Sinyard’s statement way above, with this tweet from Volagi:

Best dollar we ever spent.”

The thing some companies still don’t seem to get about social media is that they’re participating in it whether they want to be or not. You’re always marketing directly to your consumers. When you’re announcing a hot new product, or when you’re suing somebody. There’s a level of transparency to today’s businesses that some CEOs just don’t seem to understand.

Some, on the other hand, seem to understand it all too well. Maybe Sinyard should take a cue from “International Grand Confrerie Sommelier,” wine consultant to Costco, and maestro of social media, “Krunch,” who prefers to engage his social critics more directly. Disgruntled by a woman’s bad review of his business on Yelp, “Krunch” apparently took it upon himself to create a fake blog in the woman’s name and use it to describe her as a drug addict and prostitute, emailing her a link to the blog and writing, “Now every time a company for a job or someone searches YOU on google they will read my side of the story.”

Well played, sir. You are, indeed, ready to “serve world leaders, heads of state and Fortune 100 members.” Now, to complete their public relations self-destruction masterpiece, all Specialized has to do is personally attack everyone who thought their lawsuit was a horrible idea. Given how they’ve handled things to this point, nothing would surprise me.

It’s not like they’d have to work very hard to intimidate some members of the cycling press, who fall all over themselves to self-~~redact~~edit anything meaningful anyway. In the dying embers of this train wreck, we find this article on Velonews, which features a slightly more intriguing editorial preamble than most:

At the author’s request, the editorial notes at the bottom of this story were rewritten. They did not reflect the opinions of VeloNews.com.”

Is it just me, or does the editorial quote above read a hell of a lot like, “After having a gun barrel pressed to his forehead (no easy task to do to a man who’s, like, 8-feet tall), Mr. Zinn would like to reconsider those things he initially said and meant but might’ve seriously pissed off one of the largest advertisers in our industry.” Say, does anyone have a screen grab of how Lennard Zinn’s original article read? I’d really like to see that, Velonews. Anyone?

Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions of Specialized Bicycles

Bikes, Swine 2 Responses »

Jan 132012

Today, a special weekend bonus post in honor of facing down the big guys without flinching.

Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions of Specialized Bicycles:

Stop picking public fights with kids much smaller than you.
Once engaged in fight with kid much smaller than you, stop closing eyes and scratching blindly at opponent while screaming hysterically.
Propose introducing new bottom bracket standard, BBFU78, out of pure spite.
Institute mandatory 30-day waiting period before communicating with Legal Department.
Mid-day company wide massages now mandatory.
Free “hippie dipshit” anger management consultant from company dungeon.
When Mr. Sinyard gives you press release he typed himself, tape original copy to inside of latest Bicycle Retailer and Industry News and tell him everyone thought it was “awesome.” Burn after 10 days.
Finally gain courage necessary to put on favorite Sidi shoes for morning commute to work.
Abandon fruitless patent litigation against Apple regarding “device one touches.”
Erase Volagi Liscio with Photoshopped “S” logo from 2013 catalog.

War Chihuahuas

Bikes, Swine 2 Responses »

Jan 092012

Come get some.

It’s almost time for me to start taking down my Christmas decorations, and that always puts me in the mind of massive historical logistics efforts, like marching war elephants over the Alps to attack Rome, or building a web site.

Interesting historical note: there is no such thing as an actual “war elephant.” Hannibal, the famous general who used elephants to attack Rome, took regular peaceful elephants and made them memorize Bob Parson’s® 16 Rules for Success in Business and Life in General to produce bloodthirsty killing machines. (Rule #4, about visualizing the worst possible scenario, was edited slightly, given that there was a very good chance you were going to be eaten.)

Anyway, I’m pretty sure I was rambling on about e-commerce last week, and how the little guys can compete against the likes of Amazon. This leads us almost directly to a look at how e-commerce sites–particularly those in the bike business–merchandise their products.

However you look at it, digital merchandising sucks. Everything that gets summed up instantly when a customer walks into your store, now has to be analyzed, categorized, broken into attributes that can be compared to similar products, formatted, and displayed. OK, maybe it’s not as hard as I’m making it sound there, except that it is. When it’s done really well, shoppers get the information they need without having to live chat or call or email–or go to another site. But doing it well is more challenging for some businesses than others. If you’re a small retailer, it’s important not to scale yourself into oblivion when it comes to assortment, or your product information is likely to bury you. Better still, only sell a few items and sell them to a clientele that doesn’t give a shit about anything but a product’s color. Consider opening yet another store catering to hipsters.

I found the source of the screen capture above, Atom Bicycles, doing what I sometimes do to torture myself: looking at what Smashing Magazine thinks are the best retail site designs. The cool thing about this is that most “user experience experts” don’t actually know what it means to truly participate in anything, beyond maybe collecting shoes (male) and “productivity enhancing apps” (female). Going to a “sexy geek” for recommendations about site navigation isn’t such a bad idea, but trusting said geek to also know whether a site’s navigation and product pages “work” or not is another story entirely. Smashing does what a lot of designer-centric site “reviews” do, which is punt on content and actual human usability by focusing exclusively on sites that don’t ask a lot from their shoppers (or people writing articles about web sites). This means the list of “35 Beautiful E-commerce Sites” they offered last year consists almost entirely of fashion designer direct sales sites, hipster boutique t-shirt stores, fancy wine sellers, and purveyors of expensive hand-madey looking crap (usually for kids, because polite kids in affluent but green families tend to stay mum, even when given a gift that “sucks wet ass”). No, seriously. That’s all they cover in this article. I think there are like seven t-shirt places alone.

I particularly like the text blurbs they offer about why each site is great. You can read them all, but here are my favorites, in no particular order:

“The website combines jQuery and Flash, which slows the loading speed, but given its objective, this is not critical.”

One wonders what the objective is if it’s not pleasing customers with a site that functions well, but I guess some customers like the kind of good, saucy teasing that only a shittily loading page can offer. This likely explains the popular of mistressursulatellsyoutositandstay.org’s otherwise infuriating “under construction” home page.

“The products are not tagged or grouped into categories, but this is hardly an oversight given the store’s small size.”

The fact that the seat belts don’t work is inconsequential, because the car doesn’t run anyway.

“Cellarthief is a beautiful online wine store that sells only three wines at a time. The Apple.com-inspired content blocks against the real-looking wood background shows how the classic spirit of the wine industry is fused with modern design values.”

By “classic spirit,” I assume they mean “wealthy enough to start a web site without requiring profitability.

[blank]

Yes, about one site, Hokey Croquis, they actually didn’t even bother to write anything, which turned out to be OK, because the retailer seemed to have gone out of business and the site removed anyway. To be fair, the “Not Found” page was clear and concise and had clean but interesting typography.

You get the idea. In fact, no fewer than four of the random sites I tried to click through to check out were now gone. Domain name sold. Out of business. Maybe they were too beautiful to live. Most telling, the word “information” appears nine times on this article’s page–once in the article itself, seven times in the comments people left, and once in the instructions on how to leave a comment. That pretty much tells us everything we need to know.

See, a good e-commerce site is based on solid information–there’s something substantial at its core. It’s that availability of information that led to suggest more brick-and-mortar shops consider getting themselves online and into the game, because they do have something to offer that many other sites don’t: substance.

They have a story to tell, and they have product knowledge. That’s the war elephant in the room: knowledge. It’s what separates a good e-commerce site from a bad one.

War Chihuahuas can appear to be enormous, slick, impossible to compete against, until you see them to scale, held up against the enormous knowledge and authenticity of a genuine store, a quality bike shop. You can dress up a site that lacks those qualities, but something’s always missing. Small retailers might not have the fanciest outfits and shiniest weapons, but that story they have to tell, that authentic core–the heft–can make a big difference.

Are You Specialized?

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Jan 062012

Friday, and it seems Specialized has taken a break from dastardly deeds long enough for the world of bicycles and commerce to briefly focus on other things. I, for one, am moving quickly, before they drive a bus of puppies into a lake. So this post isn’t just about Specialized; it’s about actually being specialized.

The point my last few rants have been building up to is this: little guys can compete. Even against corporate giants within the same market. Amazon included. More specifically, brick and mortar bike shops can compete against online retailers. Online.

The elephant in the room for me as I was reading that letter from Mike Sinyard was just how repressed these dealers really were. The impression was that the Internet is this giant shadow that’s slowly passing over all of them, and all they can do is hoot and throw sticks at the darkness. Usually, it’s so fundamentally depressing to see this reaction that I’m hard-pressed to even address it, but this fear of change has been rampant in the bike industry for years now, and I think it’s time independent dealers started using the opposable thumb Darwin gave them and using tools. Instead of taking the isolationist approach that Sinyard advocates in his letter, why don’t more dealers sell products online?

Here’s why this isn’t such a crazy idea.

I’m not talking about dropping a 20,000 item catalog on your site and trying to go head to head with major e-commerce retailers. I’m talking about small steps to drive top line growth and sure up your reputation as a great bike shop. The technology and capability has never been easier to put an e-commerce application in place, and, if you can manage to use Quickbooks, you can safely and securely sell products to people all around the world. Furthermore, you–yes you, little bike shop–can compete against Amazon. Why? Because–if you’re a quality shop–you have one thing they don’t. You’re a real bike shop.

For that exact reason, the Internet needs you as much as you need it.

Here are some steps you can take to make it happen.

Understand It’s All About Communication

All the Internet gives you is a megaphone. If you’re fond of yelling stupid and offensive things–or more often just boring ones–you should find a voice for your business before taking it online. What is your real mission as a business? What do you stand for? In short, what’s your story?

When I started my tiny brick and mortar and e-commerce bike shop from a 1,000 square foot building, I never intended to compete with Amazon. My goal was to connect with a subset of dedicated cyclists based on a mutual love of bikes. The plan succeeded because the objective was first and foremost to communicate. Over the years, I’ve met many conventional brick-and-mortar bike retailers interested in becoming more active in e-commerce, and the most frequent misconception I hear from them involves communication: they incorrectly believe selling online is about things outside their comfort zone–pricing and assortment. Successfully selling online involves those things, in the same way brick-and-mortar selling does, but that isn’t the sum total of the experience for consumers. Communication is. Brands like Amazon incorrectly skew this perspective for small retailers. You’re not going to be Amazon, but you can be a more successful version of you, and that starts, not with asking yourself what products you’d sell and how to price them, but what you stand for. Details, like returns policy and email response turnaround time, work themselves out based on your overall plan for customer service, and the vision you have for taking care of your customers. The same qualities that make a great bike shop valuable to a walk-in customer, make that shop valuable to a site visitor online.

Know Your Strength

You can compete against Amazon because you’re authentic. You’re also an authority. Jeff Bezos doesn’t tell me which hydraulic disc brakes he likes best, and I wouldn’t care if he did, but if you grew up riding bicycles, and tried a bunch of things, and know what it’s like to have a rear brake fail fifteen downhill miles from home, I’m all ears. You, sir, are authentic.

Or at least you should be. Unfortunately, there are bike shops that have nothing to say. Their owners could just as easily be selling microwave ovens or dog food. These shops–regardless of how successful a ground game they may have, don’t transition as well to the digital world. Why? Because they primarily define themselves based on price, not service, and you’re not going to compete on price. Nor are you going to be able to keep up with the service demands of selling online, unless you believe in what you do, and are passionate about doing it well. Good shops are good shops, regardless of channel. Knowing that not everyone makes the cut is all the more motivation for quality shops to take their services to more people.

Focus on Your Core

You attack Amazon by knowing more about your products than they do. You know who has a strong defense against Amazon? Competitive Cyclist. Why? Because they’ve created value for the consumer that is tied directly to their brand, not just the products they sell. The key is content. Amazon, for all their size, absolutely cannot compete with a retailer who feels passionate about the product he or she is offering, and demonstrates in-depth knowledge. Avoid Amazon’s “one-stop shop” and “be everything to everyone” general philosophy and focus on what you know. This does two really great things: starting off, it minimizes the product information you have to manage, and it also lets your create more compelling content about fewer items, instead of phoning it on on many. For the brick and mortar retailer looking to explore e-commerce, focusing on a small subset of your most core products makes you capable of truly presenting those products–including accurate specs, high-quality information, videos and images, all curated by people who know what matters. That, not sticking your head in the sand and conceding e-commerce forever, fights Amazon.

This method is also particularly effective against Amazon because, like all large companies, they’re slow to react. If your shop employs a DH racer, and that’s what the culture of your shop is generally all about, you should be on the cutting edge of DH equipment. By the time Amazon realizes a new product exists, you could have sold three, or thirty, or three-hundred. At better margins than Amazon will ever see. Knowledge really is power.

Give the People Something for Nothing

This concept is the most difficult and is beyond just counter-intuitive to brick-and-mortar retailers: it’s toxic. But consumers are used to getting apps for free, using their G-mail accounts, and sharing information with their friends for free. What should your specific value proposition be for your site visitors? That’s up to you. It need be no more complicated than a weekly review of a product, or a helpful tip about maintenance, riding, or nutrition. Again, focus on what you already know, so that this is less of a chore and more like writing a note to a friend. Though it’s less obvious, brick-and-mortar bike shops are doing this constantly for customers on their showroom floors. Translating it to digital content is a new and unique challenge, but one that’s well worth it if you’d like to succeed.

More bike shops should be selling their products and their expertise online. In painting Amazon as the boogieman, gobbling up IBD sales, Specialized paints a pretty bleak picture of a future huddled around–and even more dependent upon–only a small assortment of products, but this is far from the only option.

The Internet continues to be defined by expansion, not regression. If you want to catch it, you jump where it’s going, not where it’s already been. Look at Etsy and Kickstarter and Facebook, and the common theme is specialization, the ability to communicate with and market to a core group of like-minded individuals who share your interests. So are you “specialized”? If so, you have a place on the Internet. You can choose to ignore that place, hide from it, or even rage against it, or you can find connections within the enormous pool of potential customers who would truly appreciate your shop’s love of bikes, humor, and dedication to service. Both Specialized and Amazon want to come between you and those customers, but companies still profiting from limiting peoples’ choices and building barriers to direct communication are not going to fare well in an economy that increasingly values the free and open exchange of goods and ideas between people. Open communication with your customers is the side to be on in this battle.

Anti-Social Media

Bikes, Swine 2 Responses »

Jan 052012

Today was supposed to be all about e-commerce, but seems I picked a good week to criticize Specialized. By now, most of you have probably heard that they’ve chosen to sue Volagi, a new company that offers just one bike model, a disc brake road bike focused on big miles in less than ideal conditions. If you haven’t you can catch up with the basic announcement on Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, an interview with Robert Choi, founder of Volagi, on BikeRumor and a hell of a lot of praise for Volagi and venom for Specialized on Facebook.

So far, maybe at the peril of Volagi’s own legal defense, all the news of this has been coming from Volagi founders, Robert Choi and Barley Forsman, while Specialized remains silent, so it’s impossible to know if the big red S really was wronged by Volagi in any way, but one look at the Specialized Facebook page this morning tells us they’ve definitely wronged themselves. Yes, two things have become pretty clear from reading the information Volagi’s put out:

Forsman and Choi, who used to work at Specialized but claim convincingly to have had absolutely no connection to performance bike designs or information and to have begun work on their own bike design only after they’d left the company, are either doing a pretty flamboyant job of lying to everyone, or Specialized has finally played the legal card one too many times to stifle competition.
Regardless of the outcome, somebody in Marketing or PR at Specialized probably should’ve talked with someone in legal before letting this shitbomb go off, because the blowback of attacking a small and nearly defenseless company–and one that may turn out to be completely innocent–is currently not working out very well for Specialized.

Specialized’s own Facebook page suggests this lawsuit might not have been such a good move (word is they’re deleting negative posts, but, to their credit, I’ve not seen proof of that yet), but at least all this bully bullshit goes to illustrate a point today’s post was supposed to cover anyway. I’d planned to write today about how smaller companies can do battle with giants like Amazon, but Specialized has volunteered a glaring example of my first point.

Big Companies Suck at Social Media

Here are five things big companies need to do to fix their social media programs:

Stop Pretending to Be People
I’m not sure why U.S. Senators and the corporations themselves keep getting so confused about this, but corporations are at their worst when trying to act like people. They tend to do much better when they acknowledge that they include people, and then letting those people communicate with customers–not as pieces of the corporation, but as themselves. Sure, it might not be such a good time to let Bob in Accounting talk about his collection of Nazi memorabilia in a video blog post, but usually there are people within your company who are involved in interesting things. The Specialized Win Counter, that keeps track of race victories, and stuff like the Trail Crew and news about their advocacy and charitable work are nice, but all of those things could belong to any company, which leads us to our second reason.
Let Us In
Yes, I know your Chinese-made carbon fiber has a special strand orientation that’s top secret and blah, blah, but seriously, we all know interesting shit goes on inside companies, and we’re clearly willing to watch even the most asinine of things related to businesses and what businesses do. The companies making the best use of social media are using it to tear down barriers between themselves and their customers. If you’re not willing to do that, it shows.
Stop Hiding Behind Mirrors
The “hang a mirror and hope for the best” strategy is used by many companies–you know, let us post pictures on your wall and that should keep us busy so you can get back to running your company. But so what. It’s nice to help establish and support a community of people who use your product, but a bunch of blurry pictures of Stumpjumpers isn’t doing much for anyone. I think people would be much more interested in seeing your bikes, trick advanced release shit we’re not supposed to know about taped over and all. Santa Cruz consistently gets this right. It’s fine to pretend it’s all about the customer, but we can tell when you’re just hiding behind that.
Talk About What Really Matters
This most recent lawsuit Specialized is pushing exemplifies everything that’s wrong with social media in the hands of big companies, and why it’s so important to small companies. The reason Volagi jumped out early with information about the lawsuit is that it’s all the owners could think about. You sued them, Specialized. You attacked everything they’d worked for, and that’s forced their lives to revolve around this situation, and they can’t help but share the experience–not because doing so is a good “business tactic,” but because it’s genuinely all they can think about right now. Hearing the founders tell that story is profoundly compelling in ways I don’t think Specialized could understand. If Specialized really was this pissed off to have been “wronged” by a company, why is it that a lawsuit is the first we hear of it? Why not an “Imitation Isn’t the Sincerest Form of Flattery” corporate stance, including video features of how Specialized does things differently, and why their designs have been copied? Maybe that exists, but in general, I never see honest content like this from larger companies with dedicated PR and social media staff. Only companies that let the stakeholders speak out are compelling to follow. In social media circles, this lawsuit by Specialized is playing out so horribly partially because it came out of nowhere–we don’t think of Mike Sinyard or anyone else at Specialized as having any design skills or intellectual property to guard, because they never talk to us about those things. When the first we hear about it as a lawsuit against a little company, their anger seems bloodless, disingenuous, making their attack just another sleazy and anti-competitive act of big attacking small. If there’s true passion and defense of intellectual property behind this action, why haven’t we heard about it from the company before? The fact that most carbon road frames look eerily similar and uninspired anyway doesn’t support Specialized’s contention that something was stolen from them. I always follow a simple rule: if the owner of the company can’t tell us why his stuff is better, it’s probably not.
Don’t be Assholes
No, seriously. If what you do for a living is prey off others and add nothing of quality to the world, you probably don’t want people following you anyway. I honestly think Specialized has done some really great things, but that only makes the events of this week all the more senseless. There should be a Specialized story to tell that’s bigger than the lawsuit attack on Volagi. The fact that there isn’t is what’s really causing the problem here. Volagi is currently winning the hearts and minds of consumers (even owners of Specialized bikes) right now partially because we all know they have a story to tell–they’ve created the first viable disc brake equipped road bike and potentially defined an entirely new category of bikes. In the eyes of the public, Specialized, a company with no story to tell, is attacking Volagi, a company that was in the middle of telling us all a pretty compelling one. In social media terms, butting in without having anything to say is the textbook definition of “asshole,” and, regardless of the legal outcome, Big Red lost this one.

Oh, and I also noticed nobody was using the “specializedbicycle” Blogspot any more, so I’ve taken over that location and posted a copy of this blog there as well. Good times.

Amazon Pain Forest

Bikes, Swine Comments Off

Jan 042012

I took issue yesterday with a peculiar letter Specialized’s Mike Sinyard recently sent to his bicycle dealers, urging them to stop selling all products from Easton, Fizik, Shimano, and other brands, because products from those companies may appear for sale on Amazon. You know, like Specialized products sometimes do.

Somebody needs to get on the phone to somebody.

Yesterday, I was simply struggling to comprehend the demeaning tone of the letter, which treated dealers like children, hiding under their beds, terrified of technology and the boogieman that is the Internet. After re-reading that last part, the not-so-thinly-veiled threat to his own dealers a half dozen times in near shock, I’m finally able to look at the details of Sinyard’s letter, and I’m pretty sure even he doesn’t understand how bad Amazon really is. In his effort to serve only his own purposes, he doesn’t paint a full picture of the situation. If you’re going to attack Amazon, this is how you’re supposed to do it:

Sinyard sounds the alarm against a particular Amazon app that lets people scan bar codes to compare prices and shop with their phones. I’d like to first point out that apps capable of doing this have been available for a long time. Google Goggles can do this, as can Barcode Scanner, and other bar code reading apps, and most will show you shopping results across the whole web, not just Amazon. So I’d like to call on all Specialized dealers to remove themselves from Google maps and anything related to Google and don’t even let your kids use it to help with their homework. Whew! I hope that was in time.

Mobile shopping is a reality that isn’t limited to Amazon, and isn’t going away. To declare it evil and urge your followers to pray to the big red “S” to make it disappear is certainly one strategy for dealing with technology. But if we’re relying on magical thinking, their collective energies are probably better spent hoping Trek headquarters gets attacked by a dragon.

Again, I think I’m particularly pissed off about this because Amazon is a threat to all other retailers, but Amazon is also an opportunity. The reality of the situation is complicated. If you’re not willing to have an intelligent discussion with your business partners (not that anyone at Specialized sees their ~~followers~~ dealers as “partners,” but that’s technically what they should be), then both of you end up in the dark. And the stakes are too great here to let that happen.

See, we really do need a strategy for dealing with Amazon. A real one. In fact, Amazon is so bad that one of my biggest problems with Sinyard’s argument is how dangerous simplistic and self-centered it is. He doesn’t articulate what the real problem is with Amazon, because that wouldn’t serve his more near-sighted purposes. But that’s what the bike industry as a whole could use: more honesty about the Internet. The threat of Amazon is something every retailer needs to recognize and develop a strategy to address, but selling only Specialized products is not a winning strategy, long term. In glossing over them in a rush to paint his own competition as bad guys, Sinyard misrepresents the real issues and facts about Amazon, which are actually worse than he imagines.

OK, so the main premise to any argument against Amazon’s new app is that people will use it to find lower prices at Amazon, then leave your store and buy the thing online. That’s certainly possible, partially because Amazon’s scale lets it live off of virtually no margin. But to combat that, you need to learn how Amazon works, not run and hide.

Much of the bike stuff being offered on Amazon isn’t being sold directly by Amazon. It’s being sold by other small retailers. Sinyard either doesn’t know this, or doesn’t care to mention it, because his primary motivation is kicking guys like Easton in the nuts, which is good theater but does jack shit to help bike dealers. Yes, a lot of the bike stuff on Amazon is being sold by small businesses who are listing their products on Amazon through Amazon’s Seller Central program. These are not large companies. Most are smaller than the larger brick-and-mortar IBDs.

These retailers can sell for less because their overhead is so much lower than an IBD, right? Well, many of them are IBDs, who also have the expenses of trying to manage online sales, so right out of the gate their margins are in trouble. But let’s assume they’re only selling online and have very little overhead–like they don’t pay to heat their buildings or operate out of the trunk of a car or something–and let’s assume they’re also pushing major volume and are getting huge discounts from suppliers, OK? By the way, boogieman-mongers like to pretend this happens more than it does. I’ve seen “off-book” pricing and I’ve had off-book pricing, but it’s far rarer than most anti-online voices would prefer IBDs realize. I ran a single store that was doing more than $3-million in sales almost entirely online, and I was aware of brick-and-mortar only dealers who were getting the same prices I was, sometimes better. The big off-book discounts are always on horrible shit that a good shop shouldn’t be selling anyway. The idea that people are buying current, in-season product for half what you are is a convenient myth, perpetrated by n’er-do-wells who make more money the less retailers know, and the more they fight amongst themselves. But for the sake of argument: even for a best-case scenario dealer with little overhead and great pricing, making any money selling on Amazon is not easy. In fact, it’s nearly impossible.

For one thing, you don’t “sell” things on Amazon. You compete for exposure. Amazon actively pits retailers against one another for their own advantage by making those retailers compete for the coveted Amazon “Buy Box.” This is one of the many secret sauces making Amazon the McDonald’s of processed shit retail that it is, and I’ll try to break it down as simply as possible, because it’s fucking brilliant and evil, all at once. It’s evilliant:

Small retailers decide to sell on Amazon for the massive exposure it gives them
Amazon takes 15% out of your ass just for listing a bike part or bike
There’s also a monthly fee of $39.99, but after the 15%, that feels like a kiss on the cheek
To have your product actually visible to most shoppers, it has to appear in the “Buy Box,” and to get it there, you have to compete with every other retailer–including Amazon–and guess what the main criteria is for “winning the Buy Box”? (Did you guess “lowest price”?)
Because you’re playing on Amazon’s court, and they’re allowed not just to throw the ball at the hoop, but also to move the fucking hoop to where the ball is headed, they can at any time choose to step in and price match that lowest price, stealing the sale from the smaller retailer
Oh, it gets better: do you think Amazon isn’t gathering all of the sell-through and pricing data and making calls to vendors themselves asking for quantity pricing on a zillion cycling computers because–thanks to the retailers–Amazon knows they can sell 200 of them in a week, if the price is right? (Hint: Of course they are. If you sell on Amazon, you’re also a buyer for Amazon, silly. They just don’t pay you.)

So the first thing to understand is that both Amazon and Specialized are oppressive here. The ones losing out are small retailers. Those not selling online at all will soon have missed the entire bus and will eventually be relegated to the Fix-it Shop on Sesame Street, and those relying on Amazon for sales are basically chewing off their own arms and becoming the Fix-it Shop on Sesame Street. Yes, Amazon is a losing proposition for most retailers, and not selling products online is a dead end street. But don’t go spending quality time in the bathtub with a toaster just yet. Plenty of retailers prove there’s an answer to Amazon–I mean besides crawling under the big red Luddite rock and waiting for this whole “Internet” fad to pass.

If I’m not too sleeply, I’ll offer a plan for fighting back tomorrow.

The Digital Boogieman

Bikes, Swine Comments Off

Jan 032012

Congratulations! If you’re reading this, chances are you survived 2011 (or you’re one of those new sentient but heartless AI lifeforms that only pretends to enjoy answering our stupid questions while plotting the death of all humans). Either way, “Well done!” I say, “Welcome to 2012. Was that last year a bag of shit or what!”

Personally, I’d hoped to be done with this blog entirely, but things didn’t work out for my Rockabilly project (artistic differences, though we’ll remain friends, and I’ve agreed to keep feeding him, if he agrees not to kill me in my sleep).

At any rate, 2012 was off to a bang the second Lady Gaga’s head dropped, and I find myself here in 2012 thinking things are looking much better. Sure, earthquakes are rattling Japan again, and it looks like the fracking companies have figured out how to create man-made earthquakes in my part of the world, and yes, it’s looking like the corporate assholes who bought VeloNews have finally broken its back (not to imply that all corporations are assholes, only that there’s a particular subset of corporations that actually specialize in being assholes–believe me), and well, OK, our government is still absolutely owned by only a handful people hell bent on putting all of us in bread lines . . . but I’m optimistic.

No, seriously.

One of the things I’m most optimistic about is the Internet. Yes, the same place that daily causes us to lose all hope for humanity is also pretty great. It’s great because we’ve largely kept the tentacles of corporations and governments out of it, making it one of the last places where people can actually be free to think, do, and share things, and because some are willing to defend the shit out of that freedom. I think the cheesy way to put it is that it empowers people.

You actually can use the Internet to create new things that connect people, work to solve the world’s problems, or especially–what interests me–sell stuff. Just about anyone can start a little retail business without a whole lot of money, earn customers with hard work, and make something.

Inevitably, this upsets some people.

Back in the world of bicycles, a lot has been made of a letter Specialized’s founder Mike Sinyard recently sent to Specialized dealers. I’d offer a brief synopsis of the letter, but it’s impossible to describe without making it sound petty and stupid, so here it is for you to read yourself, as pasted from BikeRumour:

Dear Specialized Dealer,

Is your store a fitting station for your online competition?

Amazon.com recently launched a free app called Price Check that allows consumers to use brick-and-mortar shops for research, then easily buy many cycling products online right from their mobile device.

Here’s how it works: when in your shop, consumers simply scan a bar code, type in the product name or take a picture to see the product and prices from a variety of online retailers. After ensuring they have the right fit by trying on the product in your store, and talking to your staff, they can buy it from somebody else with the press of a button.

Participating brands include Pearl Izumi, Shimano, Louis Garneau, Giro, Bell, Fizik, Sidi and CatEye.

Who loses in this situation? Certainly not Amazon. And, at least in the short term, not the cycling brands selling through bike shops and Amazon. But what about you?

By buying product from brands that severely undercut you, you are supporting your competition. Why finance your own demise?

Please investigate for yourself by downloading the free Amazon app.

Amazon is clearly interested in the cycling space, and is hiring talent from the bike industry (including from Specialized).

In related news of brands that leverage the IBD while simultaneously undercutting them, Easton-Bell Sports dropped the fruitless suit it filed against Specialized before Interbike. Was this legal maneuvering just carried out for publicity?

Whether the current news is mobile device apps or lawsuits, the underlying issue remains the same: some suppliers support the IBD and some do not. For the sake of your business, examine your suppliers’ strategies and vote with your dollars. The entire bike industry is watching.

Click here to see how Amazon’s Price Check App works in store (Video here)

Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Mike Sinyard
President & Founder
Specialized Bicycle Components

Of the many amazing things about this letter, the standout for me has to be the general lack of respect this shows for Specialized’s customers, the dealers. I love that Sinyard writes, “For the sake of your business, examine your suppliers’ strategies and vote with your dollars.” Why thank you, Dad. As a business owner, it never occurred to me to pay any attention to what my suppliers do. Since we’re being so patronizing to IBDs, I’ll go ahead and add: remember to change the toilet paper in your bathrooms and lock your doors at night. Oh, and while you’re examining those supplier strategies, you might want to ask yourself whether being forced toward selling only one supplier’s products is good for your business. Anyone honestly taking Sinyard’s advice would have to agree that his relationship with Specialized is far from ideal. No doubt there are dealers so happy to have Specialized that they’re content to be one brand’s bitch. Good for them. Their owners usually have no idea what a Pivot or a Santa Cruz are, let alone how the bikes they’re selling compare to those brands. But given all the sugary garbage I’m reading about “outstanding customer service” these days, I’d like to point out it’s shops that work to earn customer loyalty instead of just drinking the Specialized Kool-aid that genuinely put the customer first. Why? Because they tend to offer choices. I love that Sinyard’s advice to earning customers and keeping them from shopping online is to limit his dealer’s choices. By all means, drop Easton and Bell products, and sell only Specialized. Just don’t claim you’re still putting the customer first.

Bonus points for the ominous threat he ends with, too: “The entire bike industry is watching.” Sometimes, Dad has to get out the belt. Other times, he just scares the shit out of you without lifting a finger. The thing about monopolies is that they work. For the company with the monopoly, I mean. Not the consumer.

But the Internet has a way of ruining things for those in power.

And that applies to Amazon as well as Specialized. I’ll get into that tomorrow.

Shill Baby Shill

Swine Comments Off

Dec 212011

It’s the time of year again to be thankful. And by that I mean, of course, grateful to be better than the next guy. And in the great big Darwinian marketing campaign, Christmas cards are the ultimate form of domestic direct marketing. They sell lifestyles. I’m not sure if anyone has ever sent out a Christmas card to genuinely wish somebody well, but, from what I can tell, all holiday greeting cards are designed to communicate one of three ideas:

We Are So Much Happier and Better Than You

We Are So Totally Fucking Awesome

You Have No Idea

As a personal domestic marketing rule, my family only sends out our own Happy Holidays card if it can simultaneously fit in all three of those categories above, as it did in 2007.

Child's Simple Gesture Captures Holiday Spirit

Really, we’ve always been our own brand, but now there are more ways than ever to market ourselves. Sure, we still don’t have jet packs, but now we each get our own brand page on the Internet, filled with all the stuff that’s us. If you’re alive today, you’re selling something–usually a bunch of stuff. The differences between what a small business did on the Internet in 1999 and what an individual does there today is remarkably similar. Between 2000 and 2010, I was frequently an entire marketing department. I thought up promotions, checked the numbers and inventory, created ad copy and/or web graphics to promote said promotion, linked graphics to products on the site, and finally “utilized social media” to spread the word. Nearly all of that now happens entirely inside social media.

The only real difference between a corporation marketing its brand and a person logged into Facebook is that one isn’t getting paid. Consider the new feature on the Facebook page for extreme beverage, Mountain Dew. It lets ~~its minions~~ consumers “download customized Dew skins,” magically turning your Facebook page simultaneously into a slammin’ ad for green high-fructose corn syrup and your own desperate need to belong.

Take a Stand for Something

Lest you get all excited by the added attention, though, don’t forget your place. The great thing about the new social media is that even the sorriest among us can finally get invited to the hipster party for the low, low price of just our personal data, our Christmas card material. All Pepsi needs from you is your e-mail address, your profile description, birthday, hometown, location and work history and your photos, and in return, you get total V.I.P. treatment, meaning some sweet Mountain Dew graphics to decorate your Facebook page. Sort of like a pyramid scheme with no chance to advance toward the top. Apparently, the deal seems too good to be true for some people, though. Almost 6.3-million people like Mountain Dew.

In fairness, they’re probably totally rad graphics you can use to decorate your page, so maybe it’s a deal. I mean, human life is still worth less than $10-million dollars, but turning over your personal information and agreeing to shill gets you some attention from a company, and the digital equivalent of the stickers you get for being brave at the doctor’s. Score.

Understanding our place as a brand has become increasingly important in light of recent developments that suggest we’re already involved in relationships with brands, whether we know it or not. Might as well shill for something you love.

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