HappyMacs Blog

Good Enough

2009-06-10T16:13:44Z

Mass Markets
Unless you have a pre-WWII relative living with you, you may not realize that there used to be a world without mass markets. There was a time when everything was invented, produced & sold locally. And these goods and services were strictly targeted to the VERY small audience of a local, regional area. If you search really hard, you may be able to find pockets of this kind of lifestyle in small, localized markets today. We often refer to those areas and towns as "backwards" - a derivation of "backwater". To be more succinct, these places (and the people in them), enjoy "the simple life".

Fast-forward to post-industrial, post-WWII America. The industrial revolution had been in full swing for 60 or 70 years (2-3 generations). People benefited from cheaper consumer goods, for sure, but by and large - folks still shopped in small, local shops, knew their neighbors and behaved like thousands of regional, niche markets. Then - BAM! Everyone - and I mean EVERYone had the same hairstyles, the same clothing, drove the same cars, use the same laundry detergent and ate the same TV dinners. What changed?

TV dinners. Well, no. Not the dinners - so much as TV. TV made it possible to send one, uniform, compelling message to hundreds of thousands, then millions, then 10s of millions of people very cheaply. Mass Marketing was born. That's right. 60 years ago, Mass Marketing didn't exist. Your great grandparents would say things like: "If everyone else jumped off a cliff..." They were used to doing simple things for them selves - not simply doing what everyone else was.

All this SINGLE MESSAGE for a SINGLE MARKET led to one thing: homogeneity & "Good Enough". Think McDonalds. Think WalMart. Think Old Navy. Think Ma Bell. Think GM.

Fast-forward to 1998. The birth of the Internet. Yeah, yeah - I know - the Internet is older than that. But, I'll argue, not really useful or valuable until the advent of Google: 1998.

The Long Tail
The Long Tail describes how markets have fragmented into an infinite number of "niche" markets since the advent of online shopping and "search".

If you have not read Chris Anderson's seminal work: "The Long Tail" - you should. (I "read" all my books on audio on my iPhone using my Audible account these days - but I still prefer print for magazines)

Mr. Anderson describes how, in any given market, if you measure the success of a product or service, there will clearly be front-runners. If you plot these results, you get a curve with a large "head" to the left and a long "tail" trailing off to the right. Mass Marketers only focus on the "head" of the curve - not the long tail trailing off to the right. WalMart only sells the top-selling CDs in it's stores. You won't find any rare, indie, obscure music there. But, they are the number one music retailer. The stuff they carry is "Good Enough" for 80% of consumers. At least, it was...

Micro-markets & being the best
Apple, on the other hand, decided to sell into the long tail. The iTunes Store carries thousands of times more tracks than any music retailer. It doesn't matter if they only sell one copy of a track to one customer. The music is digital & takes up no shelf space. This allows Apple to be the best music vendor for their customers. Not just most of their customers - ALL of their customers. They can sell into ANY niche market. They can carry ALL my favorite songs - and ALL of yours.

Think about that.

Why would anyone want to shop anywhere but the store that is the BEST (for them)?
They don't. They WONT.

This is the dawn of the Micro-Market; the Niche Market.
You can't every be all things to all customers - but you CAN be the best - to a select few.

So get out there! Stake your market claim and BE YOUR BEST.

Having sleep issues?

2009-05-27T21:35:48Z

If you are having sleep issues then try some over-the-counter sleeping medication. Unfortunately I will not be touching on that topic, seek advise from your family doctor. If you are having sleep issues with your computer that is where I can help. There's a few small troubleshooting steps you can perform before calling Apple or HappyMacs. These steps can help when:

Your computer is not going to sleep
Your computer will not wake up from sleep
Your computer is having problems turning on
Your computer is showing the wrong amount of time remaining on your battery when running off of battery power. For instance, you know you should be getting two hours and are only getting 30 minutes.

MacBook, MacBook Pro except MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2009)

If the computer is on, turn it off.
Disconnect the AC adapter and remove the computer's battery.
Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds and then release the button.
Reconnect the battery and AC Adapter.
Press the power button to restart the computer

MacBook Air (Original), MacBook Air (Late 2008) andMacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2009)

If the computer is on, turn it off by choosing Shutdown from the Apple () menu.
Connect the power adapter to a working power source.
On the built-in keyboard, press (left) Shift-Control-Option along with the power button once.
Wait 5 seconds and press the power button to start the computer.

Note: You must use the keys on the left side of the built-in keyboard.

If you happen to have a PowerBook or iBook prior to the Intel processor switchover then check out Apple's KenowledgeBase article here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1431

If you continue to have any issues after doing this, contact us or give Apple a call if you are under warranty.

10,000 hours

2009-05-16T00:39:02Z

I just finished reading Malcolm Gladwell's fascinating new book called: "Outliers"

The book covers the MANY things that lead to statistically abnormal success. What are the factors that contribute to an individual becoming a statistical "Outlier"? Gladwell conveys that, while we are very interested in the factors of "success", we tend to focus too much on the individual. He states:
"We've been looking at tall trees, and I think we should have been looking at the forest...we've been far too focused on the individual—on describing the characteristics and habits and personality traits of those who get furthest ahead in the world. And that's the problem, because in order to understand the outlier I think you have to look around them—at their culture and community and family and generation."

After reading this great book, you will come to realize that among these nebulous factors are:
1) Your birthday
2) Your family
3) Your culture
4) Your opportunity to access scarce resources
5) Your intellect (but only to a point - past "good enough", it may work against you)
6) Your passion

Huh. So it IS true. Find something you love. Do that really well, and you will find success. Nice.

Here's a great interview Mr. Gladwell did with Jimmy Kimmel where he goes into a little more detail:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoH4cgSUVCY

Here's to all your future success. Or, perhaps, the success of your children...

Oh. I almost forgot; "10,000 Hours"? Well, no one who ever achieves greatness in any field has done so without first putting in 10,000 hours. Not Bill Gates. Not the Beatles. Not Michael Phelps. Not anyone.

Now get to work. ;-)

Words, Words, Words

2009-05-08T20:49:37Z

The English language is about to break the 1,000,000 word barrier this month (so experts say).

I've been reading a lot of great books lately on technology, business and marketing (I'll post some reviews later). In all this reading, I've come to realize how important those words are.

Many consultants will argue that information is king. Clients hire IT and Business Development consultants to find them information. They Google info and get Alexa ranks. They write up lengthy reports and fill pages of email with information.

But it's not really the information that's important, is it? It's the words. It's the value of a word. The weight of a word. The exact meaning of a word. A new word that we need to educate our clients about.

You see, anyone with only moderate Google skilz can find information. Parsing that information down, filtering it; choosing just the right words, tossing out the noise...that's the the bit that's important. And that's what we strive to do. We sincerely hope to improve the signal-to-noise ratio.

Well, we are now embarking on blogging for all our loyal (and soon to be loyal) readers. We hope that our words will have value and be meaningful. And maybe we can teach you something new. :-)