About Making Sure Your Product Doesn’t Suck
November 6, 2008 – 7:47 pm | by Daryl TayMy stand on companies entering social media has always been that the very first step is to make sure your product doesn’t suck. By that I don’t mean it has to be perfect (I love Sony but I can’t stand their sensitive hard disk), but it needs to do what it says it does. If you put it out there saying “Try this, it will do X”, then it damn well better do X. And if it does Y instead, don’t get angry and blame the blogger for a negative review or reaction to a sucky product.
Priscilla mentions correctly that making products requires a lot in terms of money and investment. But here’s the thing, if you don’t do that properly in the first place and thing social media will make up for whatever wasn’t done properly in the development stage: it will not.
One of the best examples I have is Claudia’s coverage of Podcamp Singapore. At the bottom there’s a little banner saying all the pictures/videos are taken from the Samsung Innov8 which has the tagline “the ultimate entertainer.”
Now, if the Innov8 has that tagline, but took grainy pictures and/or videos, it’s just going to get smashed online. The Innov8 does it pretty well, that’s why it can stand up to public scrutiny.
If you tell me it’s an ultramobile PC, I can overlook a slightly slower processor, but it shouldn’t weigh more than 2kg.
If they’re noise canceling earphones, I can excuse a lack of base, but not hearing the noisy person chatting next to me on the train.
If it’s a relatively good product that does all that it says it does, but consumers want more and send that feedback to you, then that’s how you win in social media because you’ve created a feedback channel that will be beneficial to your company over a long time.
The problem is companies tend to want to over-hype their products and tout it as the second coming. Consumers are smarter than that. Create the proper expectations and live up to them. If your product doesn’t do anything well, then send it back to the R&D lab. The consumers these days are way too demanding for such a product to survive.
Tags: innov8, make sure your product doesn't suck, overhyping products, priscilla tan, samsung, social media, social media for companies, sony, standing up to public scrutiny, sucky product
