Seth points to some mind-boggling mastery of minutiae over at eBay, on why they redesigned the eBay Stores logo.
The closest thing I can recall along these lines was Ask Jeeves' press release on an upcoming advertising strategy that included the heart-wrenching decision to "downplay the butler imagery." Presumably reporters would talk about this, and people would think they were a more serious search engine company. (When I asked questions about search in that interview, I was referred to the talking points in the release, the ones about the exciting new strategy developed by the ad agency.)
Seth is relatively lucky, in that he can say these things without directly offending clients (readers and other colleagues, maybe, but not clients, since he doesn't apparently do consulting).
Once you've got the hang of observing this type of "insider, Beltway mentality" inside the cosy confines of companies, it can be fascinating to watch.
My good friends at Client X (they appear to account for about 40% of the traffic to this blog, so hey guys, if you recognize yourselves, it's nothing personal!) have a diverse range of indispensable products, plenty of energy and new ideas, and a profitable growing business in a tough industry sector. If they fall victim to groupthink, think how many less-spunky companies must be susceptible. The example I'm thinking of is the last six times I've called or visited someone from the company, religiously they each asked if I "knew division X was now upstairs?"
Upstairs, downstairs, hanging from your ankles... at a certain point, everyone's got desks and chairs and computers and customers. Internal corporate chatter just ain't that interesting to outsiders and particularly customers. We can't remind ourselves often enough of this. After all, it could be a symptom of something bigger, like completely misreading your market because the engineering department developed something cool that everyone "should want."
I'm guilty, too. My company has finally got the keys to our new office at 119 Spadina Ave. I've been telling anyone within earshot about this, but if it reaches the point of them becoming visibly nauseous on hearing this yet again, I'll stop.
Posted by Andrew Goodman
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