Twitter and Yammer Test Dot-Com Business Models - NYTimes.com

The 2nd half of this article is another example of the philosophy of getting the product right first, then worrying about revenue. Read my older post where I discussed this.

Key Bank / iPod Nano Marketing Campaign - Was it worth it?

In the Seattle Metro area and perhaps elsewhere as well, Key Bank was running a marketing campaign: Sign up for a checking account, meet a few basic requirements, and get a free iPod Nano.

The campaign was mostly advertised on billboards, or at least that's all I saw of it. I had seen them before but never did anything further to really see what was involved with satisfying the requirements. The billboard ads went away, but soon came back, so I decided to look into it.

The requirements:

1. Open a Key Bank Checking account (their basic was one was sufficient)
2. Fund the account
   
3. Get a debit card (free) and use it at least once in a debit (non-ATM) transaction
4. Make two merchant-initiated* bill payments of $100 or more each
   

These things had to be completed by a certain date as well.

* Merchant-initiated are the kind that you sign up for on the merchant or biller's web site by providing your routing & checking account number so that they can pull the funds out of your account. Doing regular bill-payments from the checking account are different and wouldn't meet the requirements.

So, I funded the account with $300 (or thereabouts), enough to cover the two payments and the debit card transaction, made a purchase, and setup two payments within the time frame required.

I even received a nice and quick call from a local Key Bank branch asking if I had any questions about meeting the promotion requirements.

It took 6-8 weeks (as advertised) to get my iPod, but it just arrived today. The FedEx guy asked what they were all about -- he said he had tons of them to deliver, so apparently Key Bank shipped them all out at once. Anyhow, the iPod was actually the new slender 8gb model (with rotation, shake support, & Genius), not the previous and more-squarish 4gb model they were advertising at the time. Key Bank included a little note to remind me that they had given me the newer version.

So anyhow, the business part of me is wondering what Key Bank is getting out of this -- and for that matter, what Apple is getting out of it. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that Apple put up money for this campaign either through direct funds or by providing the iPods to Key Bank at a very low wholesale cost. Did this promotion help Key Bank or Apple more?

Either way, let's do some quick math:

The average retail price for the new 8gb iPod Nano is $149 at the Apple Store (slightly lower average of about $132 elsewhere online). Let's say Key Bank got a killer deal on them at $40 each. How much money does each recipient of this promotion need to generate Key Bank to make it worthwhile?

They must be hoping that they can make money by leveraging my funds, perhaps sell me a mortgage or other financial product, and/or that I tell my friends how great Key Bank is so they all sign up too.

I don't know -- it just doesn't add up. Anyone with mad banking industry and marketing skills want to provide some insight?

All in all, I'm happy with my FIRST iPod and first-ever purchased Apple product (other Apple products I own: an old Power Mac G3 and a iMac for software testing purposes).

PS -- the packaging and presentation was wonderful as expected, unlike the Microsoft Office 2007 experience in my previous post! Although the casing was not completely obvious, they were smart enough to put clear little stickers and diagrams to show what to do.

Q. How do you open Microsoft Office Packaging?

Interested in how to frustrate your customers with a new product? Make the packaging ridiculously-confusing and unintuitive to open.

DISCLAIMER: I am aware that by writing this post, I risk comments from people thinking I'm an idiot, but I'm going out on a small limb here, betting that there are others out there that have had this same experience. If you haven't tried to open one of these things, I suggest you try it, then come back to my post and comment...

It's Monday evening. I am attempting to install Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 which comes in the type of packaging shown. The package is made of very rigid plastic and looks shiny and sleek -- points to Microsoft for that accomplishment. On the edge of the case just below the curve are two "tabs". After attempting to squeeze them while moving, sliding, and whatever-elseing the case, I couldn't get the damn thing open. By this time, I was already reminiscing about the wonderful experience of opening Apple [iPod|iPhone|etc] packaging and wondering if Microsoft completely designed their packaging in a vacuum.

On the top is a red plastic-film tab that begs to be pulled. I pulled it a little; nothing really happened. I pulled it more; it broke. At this same time, I saw the big sticker that goes across the packaging and was aware that it might be preventing the thing from opening. HOWEVER, the reason I didn't remove it was because there is a barcode sticker with a possible product ID (the thing I thought I might need to activate the product) -- so I hesitated removing that sticker (Why would I? I'm going to need that thing right? Seems like it should stay with the packaging).

So at this point I think to myself, "I bet there are tons of Google results on this exact issue.". Sure enough, there are -- there are even numerous YouTube videos. Here's a hint: If there are Google & YouTube results about how to open your packaging, you're doing something SERIOUSLY wrong.

It turns out that you need to remove the sticker (which in itself is a bit difficult and frustrating), then you pull the red tab (which I already ripped off) and the case hinges out.

To quote Seth & Amy, "REALLY?!?!?"

Here's a YouTube video of a guy having a similar experience and eventually opening it (why he was recording it is uncertain; if he knew it was an issue and wanted to record a video of it, it sure took him a while to do it the 2nd time around):

Airline Reservation Change Fees: Unbelievable

Look, I understand that costs are rising across the board and the airline industry is certainly no exception. What I don't understand is at what point the airlines started giving all of their customers (you know, the ones responsible for their revenue) the middle finger by deciding to charge them for every little thing they can think up.

I recently had to make a change to a US Airways ticket. I knew there would be a change fee -- that's really nothing new, even in recent history. How much was the fee? $25? $50? $100? NO! $150!!!! Are you kidding me? This is totally out of control.

Some other examples of ridiculous fees that put the customer LAST:

• AirTran charges a flat $20 for exit row seats; United charges $14-$109
• Spirit charges passengers for choosing their seats: $15 for a window, $10 for an aisle, and $5 for a middle seat. They're charging for a middle seat???
  
• JetBlue charges $7 for a pillow & blanket!
  

Compare this with Southwest Airlines, who DOES NOT CHARGE for any of the following:

• first checked bag
• second checked bag
• reservation changes
• even more things (see www.southwest.com)
  

By the way, Southwest is also one of the few major carriers that is actually profitable through Q2 2008.

See my post on Virgin America for a brief example of a company that is putting the customer first, where they should be.