Keeping the consumer in sight
Three big announcements in the media today. Not equal, but the same; the consumer isn’t ready to play the game in the old ways, and it’s time for business to take notice. Yesterday, we learned that two of the larger players in the Canadian cellphone oligarchy (I know, it’s not le mot juste, but it’s really hot and I’m tired) have decided to charge their clients for incoming text messages. Pretty small apples in the larger salad of life, but still vexing. Paying for spam, disadvantage to young people who pay as they go, etc.
I did my part to protest, by going to our firm and trying to send a comment. No email address, but an online form with the space to get textish. To my surprise, I couldn’t send the message without giving my address and daytime telephone number, but their form had no space to add anything of the sort. A cellular catch-22. Well, now the government wants to know why the new fees. I wonder if they have a better communications channel?
A certain segment of the population is waiting for the Canadian iPhone debut in a few days. The only company offering the treasure has a fee structure for data transfer that ranks right up there with the worst in the world. However, given the intensity of the bad press, the company has decided to offer a better rate, for now. The consumer has spoken and the beancounters have listened.
Quebec has been the only place on the continent where margarine couldn’t look like butter, by law. A foolish attempt to protect the colourblind from “the taste”. Today, the newspaper announced that the law will be revoked, allowing people here to be like people everywhere. Free to cover their toast with whatever they want. A small victory for the multinational oleo companies, a giant grease spot for the mom who wants her kids to know that butter/not butter is yellow.
On a personal level, all three incidents leave me blasé, but for a change, the consumer feels empowered. And that’s a good thing.
