Sticky, Sweet, & A Little Overdressed

Yes, they screwed up by announcing they would take away the Profiles feature. But then, when it became clear that customers were upset with the announcement — and by upset, I mean ready to cancel their accounts — Netflix retracted their decision, and sent one of the best apology emails I’ve seen.

We Are Keeping Netflix Profiles

Dear Kate,

You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping Profiles. Thank you for all the calls and emails telling us how important Profiles are.

We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. We hope the next time you hear from us we will delight, and not disappoint, you.

-Your friends at Netflix

Short and sweet, and to the point. “You spoke, and we listened.” That’s the essence of managing customer experience, even when it happens a little after it could have. Well done, Netflix.

• Readers Pick: 16 Sites for Web Design Inspiration
  (tags: webdesign inspiration design galleries)
• Using CSS to Fix Anything: 20+ Common Bugs and Fixes
  (tags: css webdesign tips hacks design)

I had stress dreams all night about work. Not just work, but, um, well, strategic issues that influence the future of the company.

Maybe I already need another vacation?

• 16 Ways to Harness the Power of Pictures
  Certainly not all of these apply to all e-commerce catalogs — a good many of them would make little sense with magazines, for example — but this is a good list and should help spark some creative ideas about how to showcase products.
  (tags: ecommerce webdesign photography)

• Can A New Netflix-Like Service Save Magazine Industry? - Media Money with Julia Boorstin - CNBC.com

  “I can imagine using it– I like not being locked into any commitments and it could be fun to try out magazines that are hard to find in ordinary airport newsstands. [...] While working on home construction I’d sign up for all interior design magazines.”

  (tags: maghound magazines)

• Kevin Allman: Desperate times in the newspaper & magazine industries

  “The whole point of magazine subscriptions is the set-it-and-forget-it model, which is why they always try to entice readers with steeply discounted 2- and 3-year plans.”

  (tags: maghound magazines)

• Your choice of magazines « Lou Heldman on the News Media

  “Some major challenges would seem to be: Rising paper and postal costs. The magazine industry’s traditionally slow execution starting new subscriptions. More and more magazine content being accessed on the Web.”

  (tags: maghound magazines)

• Finally! Mix-and-match magazine subscriptions : Carolyn Erickson

  “I’ve been waiting for this. While I hate to pay the newstand price for magazines, I often do. Why do I pay $4.95 for a single issue when I could subscribe for about $15 per year?”

  (tags: maghound magazines)

• Maghound Sniffing for Long Tail | Media Industry Blog | BNET

  “But, unless I’m missing something, we have a small problem here, and it has to do with the length of the magazine-lover’s best-friend’s tail. The company says it has 280 magazines signed up so far, and hopes to have 300 by launch.”

  (tags: maghound magazines)

is a Blue Coast veggie burrito followed by a blueberry chocolate chip paleta. I’d be supremely relaxed right now if 1) I didn’t have so much crap to do, and 2) I hadn’t eaten quite so much of said food.

• Behavioral Marketing for Audience Development
  My co-presenter posted the slides from our presentation out to SlideShare. Not sure how meaningful they are without the narrative, but here they are.
  (tags: marketing presentations behavioral_targeting conferences)

My colleague pointed me to a letter a friend of his wrote to American Airlines, “breaking up” with them.

Dear American Airlines,

I don’t think we should see each other any more.

I know that’s hard to hear. But you’re not the same airline I met a few years ago. You’ve changed. And not for the better. Sure, you say you love me… that you’ll take care of me… that I am “Elite” in your eyes… but those words just seem empty now. I need you to show me that your love is genuine.

There’s more. Lots more. And it’s brilliant. Check it out.

I sure hope this comes to be:

The mayor has called on the committee to identify goals and develop a plan of action that would help Nashville to first become the greenest city in the Southeast, and later one of the greenest cities in the nation.

As the article points out, there’s plenty of work to be done, from outdated stormwater infrastructure (as evidenced by the turrets of water that run down our street when it rains) to sorely lacking mass transit options, with recycling and air quality in between — but it all seems manageable in the long term. I’m glad to see attention being paid to the gaps that need to be addressed.

Now if they would just get moving on a mass transit option that would take me from Nashville to Franklin. I’m getting a little tired of these $60 tanks of gas.

Celebrity deaths don’t often prompt a reaction in me, but this one made me gasp. Not because it was so very unexpected, really, but because no matter how old he got or how sickly he was looking, I guess it’s hard to believe someone so smartassed could really die.

He’ll be missed.

I’m in Chicago to speak at a pretty big conference, and my co-presenter is a guy I’ve never met, and our topic is one I know a thing or two about but have never spoken on before. We still haven’t finished writing the content of the presentation. Our session is three days away, and he doesn’t get into town until late the afternoon before.

And yet I’m strangely relaxed today. I’m either completely delusional, or I know what I’m doing enough to feel like we’re going to pull this off anyway.

Or maybe a little of both.

The publisher of “Mango Sun” emailed us this morning to let us know he has “major” interest in the song.

Please don’t cry

Originally uploaded by Kate O’
My coworker Andy told me a sad story about a coyote killing a cat, and then left me a little chin-up note to counteract it. This place is nutty.

My work day today consisted of almost 6 hours of driving, an hour and a half of meetings, and two hours of watching a minor league baseball game. (Our team won.)

• A Practical Guide to Branding
  Great high-level summary of the importance of branding and the difference between branding, advertising, and marketing - often misunderstood concepts.
  (tags: branding marketing)
• 2008 Design Trends
  A good compilation of some of what’s showing up repeatedly in various sites around the web.
  (tags: webdesign trends inspiration 2008 layout graphics)

Karsten and I have often talked about disaster preparedness, and a lot of our concern has to do with our six cats. In an emergency, we want to be able to get everyone to safety, of course. That seems marginally feasible with six, but having now seen this picture, I’m so glad I haven’t had to try. My heart goes out to both of the men shown in this picture, as of course it does to all the Iowans trying to make life right again, but I feel a special kinship with this man who appears to put saving his cats above saving anything else in his home. I suspect I’d be that person, too.

(I also can’t help but think that those terrified cats are probably scratching the hell out of him, poor guy!)

• Maghound: a Netflix for Magazines? - Advertising Age - MediaWorks
  (tags: magazines maghound)
• cabel.name: Maghound Mystery
  The folks at cabel.name detect price testing at the Maghound site. The comments on this blog post are as good as the entry itself.
  (tags: maghound testing)
• Maghound: Time To Offer Flexible Magazine Subscriptions
  Consumerist’s take on Maghound
  (tags: magazines maghound)

I guess I haven’t mentioned that I found out that I don’t have cancer. I know I never really posted that it was a possibility, but what with the thyroid nodules and all, there was indeed a chance. But the biopsy came back benign, thank goodness. I mean, I still have to have my thyroid out, apparently, but at least it isn’t cancer with all its chances for extra complication.

So while I’m frustrated at having a mysterious new health problem emerge from nowhere, I’ve also been trying to remember to appreciate that it could be much worse.

But I’ve also been having increasing difficulties with drooping energy level, irritability, and trouble concentrating — all of which are probably at least partly attributable to my thyroid. So even with proper perspective? This pretty well sucks.

Oh, but to complete my roller-coaster thought pattern, the doc did tell me that it’s unlikely that goitrogens have any real influence in my case. He says iodine is far more likely to be a factor, and I don’t really think of myself as having a diet that is in either way extreme when it comes to iodine, so that’s good. And it means I can still eat my fill of soy and broccoli, which is REALLY good. Because I don’t think I was really prepared to give that stuff up. I’d be like one of those people with advanced lung cancer who still smokes three packs a day — only in my case I’d have an ever-growing lump in my neck while I gorge myself on stir-fried broccoli and tofu.

Hmm. I think I know what I’m having for lunch tomorrow.

Mangorita throwdown

Originally uploaded by Kate O’

Is Addison’s mangorita the superior recipe or is Donna’s the ‘rita
done right? I don’t think I’ve sampled enough to say for sure. Back
for more.

I heard from a coworker that Family Wash was robbed at gunpoint last night. Anyone heard this? He said the robber took the wallets of everyone there.

We almost went there last night, no joke. That’s so weird.

Tell your friends! Tell your enemies! Tell your cat! But be warned: this position reports to me, and it is well known that I am a hard-bitten meany-head.

Customer Experience Specialist

We know you’re out there: an excellent problem-solver, equal parts tech-savvy and marketing-minded, great attitude, maybe just a little too smart for your own good… and frustrated because there aren’t a whole lot of e-commerce jobs around Nashville. We understand – you haven’t had a lot of professional web experience. Sure you’ve built your own web site and you set up your own Wordpress blog, complete with every cool plugin you could find, and you know your way around Photoshop enough to have done your own graphics. You know a little something about usability, and you find yourself analyzing web sites and know how they could improve. But what employer would consider that relevant experience?

We feel your pain. And we have just the job for you.

(more…)

• Netflix’s social experiment. It’s time to come clean. | Technically Incorrect - CNET News.com
  Amusing riff on social commerce.
  (tags: behavioral_targeting netflix ecommerce)
• vegalicious » Blog Archive » Hearty Ravioli - delicious vegan & vegetarian recipes for compassionate people
  This looks awesome. I’ve been wanting to try to make ravioli. Must give this one a try.
  (tags: food recipes vegan)

• Tag Galaxy
  Cool flickr tag visualization app. I could burn a lot of time there. Wow.
  (tags: flickr webapp)
• Information Design Patterns
  Amazing piece of reference work showing many ways of representing information visually and the best practices for each.
  (tags: interface diagrams design charts reference gallery UI)