I don’t even use an iPhone.\u00c2\u00a0 As I’ve stated previously, I was on AT&T Wireless, the connections were so poor I switched to Verizon and have been happy ever since.<\/p>\n
But this story fascinates me from a public relations viewpoint.<\/p>\n
Apple doesn’t respond.\u00c2\u00a0 You can call Jobs a megalomaniac, you can say Macs are overpriced and the company remains mum.\u00c2\u00a0 Except for Jobs himself, who notoriously responds to an occasional e-mail.\u00c2\u00a0 I have my own theory about this, I believe in addition to wanting to gain customer feedback, take the pulse of his constituency, he loves the human contact.\u00c2\u00a0 After all, we’re all animals at the core, and one can be surrounded by sycophants for only so long.\u00c2\u00a0 Without input from Joe Average, you lose touch.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is one of the reasons why the first album by an act is so much better than the fourth.\u00c2\u00a0 Then there’s someone like Joni Mitchell, who went to Greece and was inspired to create "Blue" and drove cross-country and created her other masterpiece, "Hejira".\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t want to lose touch.\u00c2\u00a0 But once word is out, that you’re traveling amongst the unwashed, the haters pile on.\u00c2\u00a0 Ever notice it?\u00c2\u00a0 A star gives one autograph, and then the hordes descend upon him.\u00c2\u00a0 Worse is the need to tear down everybody above you, as Dylan so eloquently put it: That’s where Jobs is now.\u00c2\u00a0 Knowing that he reads and responds, haters bait him.\u00c2\u00a0 And part of this baiting and posting revved up Antennagate.<\/p>\n But really, Antennagate was fueled by the news media.\u00c2\u00a0 Both old and new school, online and print. And Apple tolerated it all until truly old media, "Consumer Reports", entered the picture.<\/p>\n Let’s be clear, Apple made an initial announcement, that there really was no problem, that it was all a software issue.\u00c2\u00a0 If only the company had stated that how you grip a phone is responsible for signal strength back then (then again, in e-mail, Jobs did say just to grip the phone in a different way).\u00c2\u00a0 Point being, you’ve got to be truthful from the inception, and one can argue Apple broke this rule, they obfuscated.\u00c2\u00a0 This hurts the company’s image.\u00c2\u00a0 To what degree and for how long?\u00c2\u00a0 Time will tell.<\/p>\n But once "Consumer Reports" stated it could not recommend the iPhone 4, despite the handset getting its best rating, old media piled on.\u00c2\u00a0 After all, when CR trashed the Lexus GX 460, Toyota immediately did a mea culpa, took the car off the market, fixed it.\u00c2\u00a0 Because you don’t argue with "Consumer Reports".\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, Suzuki did and it almost put the company out of business in the U.S.<\/p>\n So not only are blogs piling on, but the "Wall Street Journal" and the "New York Times" too…they’re baiting the company like bloggers bait Jobs in e-mail…WATCHA GONNA DO!\u00c2\u00a0 Apple’s finally fucked up.\u00c2\u00a0 Didn’t that Microsoft employee call the iPhone 4 Apple’s Vista?<\/p>\n And one thing we know about Jobs is he has a high opinion of himself.\u00c2\u00a0 He can’t apologize.\u00c2\u00a0 And can you really recall three million phones?\u00c2\u00a0 And does the company have a fix anyway?<\/p>\n Word immediately leaked out from the press conference, Apple would provide a free bumper, even give a refund for those who already bought one.\u00c2\u00a0 Good will, but doesn’t speak to the problem.\u00c2\u00a0 I bought a defective unit and you don’t care about me!<\/p>\n So, either you’ve got to stonewall, like Live Nation, saying there’s no problem, or immediately roll over like Lexus, with the GX 460.<\/p>\n Jobs did neither.\u00c2\u00a0 He presented facts.<\/p>\n Watch the presentation.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s mindblowing.\u00c2\u00a0 You may still hate Jobs, but by time he’s through he’s convinced you there’s nothing truly wrong with the iPhone 4, it’s the equal, if not superior to its competitors, and Apple truly cares about its customers.<\/p>\n This is like the health care debate.\u00c2\u00a0 No matter which side you were on, pro or con, we can all agree that after Scott Brown got elected, the mainstream media said health care reform was finished.\u00c2\u00a0 But it passed.<\/p>\n You can analogize this to Reagan breaking the unions, most specifically, that of the air traffic controllers.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to back down, don’t mess with the unions!\u00c2\u00a0 But Reagan did, and union power hasn’t been the same since, irrelevant of your opinion of this.<\/p>\n In this case, Steve Jobs forged a new public relations path.\u00c2\u00a0 Addressing the conflagration while minimizing it, not getting his dander up, like Michael Rapino and Jason Garner at yesterday’s Live Nation presentation, Steve said I’m your friend and let me show you the facts.<\/p>\n It’s hard to argue with the facts.<\/p>\n Where were the facts in the Live Nation presentation?\u00c2\u00a0 The ones we truly wanted.\u00c2\u00a0 Exactly how many shows were canceled?\u00c2\u00a0 How many tickets were sold at a discount or even given away?\u00c2\u00a0 Release all this data, show where the Ticketmaster fees go and…the public would be silenced.<\/p>\n Live Nation’s got to make a profit.\u00c2\u00a0 Show that the profit is in the fees and suddenly, it’s the act’s problem.\u00c2\u00a0 And then the act has to back down.\u00c2\u00a0 And there’s progress.<\/p>\n But Live Nation believes it must protect the acts and the agents at all costs.\u00c2\u00a0 Certainly Ticketmaster believes this.\u00c2\u00a0 So both are whipping boys.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, Live Nation could admit its mistakes.\u00c2\u00a0 It did say it overpaid for shows, but the mea culpa was limited.<\/p>\n In the new world, the connected Internet world, rage can build overnight.\u00c2\u00a0 But you’ve got the ability to respond instantly, from your own platform.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, the below video was hosted by Apple itself.\u00c2\u00a0 Will everybody watch it?\u00c2\u00a0 No.\u00c2\u00a0 But fanboys will, and continue to use their iPhone 4’s, and the mania will continue, the positive mania, that is driving Apple’s sales and stock…we all want to play with a winner, and somehow Steve Jobs and Apple are still such, even though yesterday it appeared they were on the ropes.<\/p>\n Confront adversity head on.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t lose your cool, don’t get defensive, when those in power do so they become objects of ridicule.\u00c2\u00a0 We live in an era of transparency, air your dirty laundry yourself and everybody else calms down.\u00c2\u00a0 What, yesterday Live Nation said reporters were keeping bands from hitting the road in the fall?\u00c2\u00a0 By writing about summer tour disasters?\u00c2\u00a0 You get to create your own perception, via facts.\u00c2\u00a0 If Jason Garner and Michael Rapino want bands to go on the road, they’ve got to convince them with facts, not innuendo.<\/p>\n Then again, you’ve got to have a good product to begin with.<\/p>\n But if you do your best, create something great, and are truly transparent, the public will be on your side, not that of the haters.<\/p>\n It’s a new world.\u00c2\u00a0 Pundits mean less than ever before.\u00c2\u00a0 You control your own destiny.<\/p>\n
While one who sings with his tongue on fire<\/span>
Gargles in the rat race choir<\/span>
Bent out of shape from society’s pliers<\/span>
Cares not to come up any higher<\/span>
But rather get you down in the hole<\/span>
That he’s in<\/span><\/p>\n\n