Having just driven 500+ miles back home from Brooklyn to NC (to attend our granddaughter's with birthday) with holiday drivers I'm happy to settle down with a gin and tonic and report on both the sublime and the ridiculous of my chosen profession - marketing. The good first, before I turn on my rant mode
So, to the sublime. You will, I'm sure, remember the tale of my Schiit Freya. Since the 'Wrong Tubes (with a nod to Wallace and Gromit') episode my Freya has been back to CA a couple of times, after a checkout each time being returned with no fault found. The problem was that though it worked well in CA, I was getting crackles and pops both when nothing was playing and when listening to music. I did due diligence here to change tubes, input sources, cables etc. and nothing I did would eliminate the problem. It was spoiling my enjoyment and causing considerable frustration. Not least of which because I now had to turn off the system at night as on a few occasions the crackles, pops and bangs had been loud enough to wake us - and the system is in the living room! Back to the story; I dropped a note to Jason and let him download recordings of what I was hearing. I also acknowledged that this was not a complaint per se, just a plea for help in resolving differences between my in-house sound and their place sound. Jason reassured me that he had heard the Freya in the workshop and it sounded fine. But before I got that message from him, I'd already received by email a pre-paid shipping label to send my unit back to CA for an exchange.
Laura Z in support 'played a blinder' (look it up!) and arranged shipping so that the unit arrived after we got back home (last week California, this week NY - retirement is worse than working). And now, with my new Freya having a few hours under it's belt, I need to sprinkle plaudits, as it were. Recall that this all started when some idiot (me) plugged in the wrong tubes and turned on the Freya. I felt at the time - and continue to do so - that Schiit would have been well within their warranty to replace the circuit board and charge me for it. I still think so. To have Schiit stand behind their product in such circumstances is way above and beyond what was necessary. Thnkyou
@Jason Stoddard and team. You deserve all the accolades that come your way.
So let's go to the other end of the spectrum. I love (LOVE) my double impacts. I do mean love them. And Tekton deserve support as a small, American, producer of amazing products. As a marketing professional I often bit my tongue (or wished I was closer to Utah). Actually, I never wished I was IN Utah. But I hope you get my drift. Marketing at Tekton, if it existed, was 'unsophisticated'. Eric and I talked about some of that
But in recent times, it seems like some enthusiasm and expertise has appeared on the scene. Facebook see a steady stream of posts and Eric appears in video last week. Yaaaaaay Tekton! Welcome to the third millennium. Then I get home, read email - including one from Tekton that pushes every button I have. Primarily because I am too often ashamed of my chosen profession based on their abysmal lack of understanding of people and of marketing principles. Jody's youngest teases my for being a 'Patagonia man'. And it's true, apart from my collection of t-shirts and my underpants (you wanted to know that didn't you
) much of my clothing comes form Patagonia. Why? Because I like their business ethic, their marketing and their sensitivity to their audience and the world. They send out emails that encourage me NOT to spend money on Black Friday, but, instead, to reuse and recycle. In short they are faithful to their brand and their vision. So, it seems to me, are Schiit. Jason's ethic and marketing message in his chapters resonate with me.
OK, get on with it you shout. Why are you pissed off with Tekton? Because they have fallen into marketing purgatory. Someone has told them that every opportunity to market - however inappropriate - must be seized. And this person - or organization, persuaded them to turn off their brain, their empathy, and they common decency and wish me 'Happy Memorial Day weekend.' As Ms Jody said 'That seems to have a little cognitive dissonance.' Ya think?
So I Eric (or his robot) has an email from me with my thoughts. Direct but polite. And an offer to help with marketing. You see, I really want them to succeed. But in a way that makes me feel good about them and their products too. Hopefully, they'll take me up on my offer. Or
@Jason Stoddard - he gets this marketing stuff too. And I'm so happy he does.
Now I'm off to a) finish my gin, and b) start my annual pilgrimage through the Band of Brothers which occurs around Memorial Day every year.
