Monthly Archives: April 2011

great (cost) expectations: why ebooks make people angry

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image by theunquietlibrary, flickr artist

when people are in the market to buy things, there’s an expectation about how much that product or service should cost. this expectation comes from a variety of sources including marketing, historical purchases, environmental factors, supply and demand, and more. perceived value plays a large part as well. have you ever walked down the aisle of the grocery store and picked up a larger jar or can because the cost of 5 ounces more of apple juice or crushed tomatoes was worth the 10 extra cents? you will especially see this most prominently with sodas (or pop, if you’re from one of those crazy areas of the country). a 2-liter will run you a cool 99¢ while a 16oz bottle will cost you nearly a full dollar more. many will opt to by the 2-liter because it’s a better value. however, there are still people who will pay more for the ability to tote around a more mobile package. this is important!

unlike the crushed tomatoes which is perceived as just ‘more’ in the same kind of package, when you buy the 16oz pepsi, you’re also buying utility. it’s easy to carry around. you can take it with you in the car, or while you’re walking around campus, or keep it on your desk as you’re trudging through your 9-to-5. there’s certainly value in that utility; value worth paying for. this is the argument that dan ariely tries to make regarding ebooks. i, however, think differently (and apparently so do others).

soda and ebooks are vastly different, so the concept of utility can’t honestly be applied to each of them in the same way. the reason for this being that with soda, the smaller packages which offer the consumer more utility still cost the bottlers and distributors as much, if not more, than the 2-liter versions. the plastic bottles, the machinery that cranks out the carbonated diabetes sauce, the massive trucks to distribute their contents across the land, and the shelf space at your local grocery store — these are all costs that the coca-colas and pepsis of the world have to pay for. this is why people don’t get angry with the cost of soda. when you enter the digital arena, though, the game changes.

ebooks don’t cost any more money to ‘print’ one billion copies as there is for one copy. and there’s no greater cost to distribute one billion copies than it does to distribute one copy. and there are no more warehousing or shelving costs for one billion copies than there is for one copy. scale doesn’t matter in the world of digital publishing so there’s an expectation from consumers that the cost of digital books would be lower than the cost of an actual printed copy of the text because those cost savings — one would imagine — would be passed along to the end consumer.

but you know what happens when you assume…

just look through the amazon kindle store or the apple ibook store and run a comparison of digital copies to their printed brethren. in many cases, the digital version costs nearly the same and — egregiously — in some cases they actually cost more. there is a significant cost savings being realized for these publishers that is not being passed on to the readers. and that’s why ebooks make people angry.

get ready for a lot more one-star reviews.

don’t give them an excuse

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bill mccreary image from nhl.com

some nights in hockey — especially if your team has a reputation — referees will blow the whistle a little more than usual. it just happens that other games are merely called tight with little room to interpret the rules. whatever the cause, you never want to have your players cutting ruts to the penalty box.

on the bench during those kinds of games, there’s a common saying that gets passed around among coaches and players: “don’t give them an excuse to put you in the box.” it’s a simple message. even if what would normally not be called an infraction earns you a 2 minute trip to the sin bin, as a player you have to be smarter than that and adapt. you can’t give the referees any excuse to call you for it. keep the sticks down, keep both hands on your stick, and watch the play along the boards.

business can be much the same with clients instead of referees. some might love everything you develop for them or the kinds of services you provide, but others may be insatiable still and find flaws with anything you bring to bear. if you know you’re dealing with the latter, follow the same simple rule: don’t give them an excuse.

don’t give your clients a reason to question the validity of your statements; be sure to practice each and every one of your presentations and always perform the proper amount of due diligence in defining answers to their questions.

don’t give your clients a reason to believe that your products are broken; test, retest, and test some more until you’re absolutely certain that your products or services are programmed properly, or mathematically sound, or have multiple research studies to support them.

don’t give your clients a reason to feel like they can go elsewhere and get the same service; go out of your way to prove your organization’s commitment to them by answering their phone calls promptly, replying to their emails the same day, and generally making them feel like you give a damn about them as customers.

if you’re dealing with a difficult client, don’t complain if they’re bitchy or a hard-ass or they’re calling bad penalties. just don’t give them an excuse to call one in the first place.