Three of the icons we talked about in the book exhibited some significant signs of tuning out over the past 30 days. All three of them are resonators who got to a position of leadership (admiration even) by following the process we talk about in Tuned In. Yet, they each somehow found a compelling way to connect with the market in ways that tarnished their brands. Why would anyone do this?
In less than a year, Barack Obama has gone from an unknown junior senator from Illinois to break from the pack of more than 21 candidates for President of the United States into a leadership position. Obama's campaign has been brilliantly tuned in because he spoke to problems that people had in new ways, connected authentically with a new class of voters and spread a message of hope and change that identified him as unique. Then he started to focus on what he didn't have and try to fix it. Obama's weakness is widely assumed to be his lack of experience, particularly in the area of foreign policy. He'd never really travelled abroad in a leadership position and with the war in Iraq being a major campaign issue, it made sense for him to visit both Iraq and Afghanistan to assess progress and deal with his stateside impressions that the United States should withdraw and that the 'surge' was a bad strategy. All well and good until he tacked on a trip across Europe that had the look and feel of a victory tour. In Berlin, he passed on an opportunity to meet with injured troops to instead prepare for a Kennedy/Reagan-esque opportunity to speak in front a large crowd at the site of the Berlin Wall. The reception back home was largely incredulous from both those who support him and those who don't. What problems was he trying to connect to ... Europeans, Americans or his own?
Apple lost a lot of credibility this past week as well. Seems for the second time in less than a year they've introduced a product with limited battery life (the other being their MacBook Air). In the case of the iPhone 3G, the life is five hours. Now, what part of 'mobile device' are we missing here? A phone is something we charge at night and carry around all day isn't it? But, if that wasn't bad enough, the company also introduced a series of tips and techniques to extend battery life. On their support pages you'll find all sorts of valuable ideas like what temperature to keep your iPhone in, how to turn off applications that chew up processing power like Maps, and my favorite, turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. This is not good folks. I've also heard anecdotal evidence about problems with Outlook e-mail as well all of which goes to once again prove the point that it takes three generations to produce a business-critical solution.
Then there's my friends at Starbucks. I don't know what's up with them anymore. The thinking was that when Howard Schulz came back in to run the place that the core mission of great coffee at your third stop would be revitalized. Far from it. There was a good start with their community idea buttons, a new Pikes Place offering and retraining all barista's in the Starbucks Way. Today though when I go into a store, or look at their website for that matter, all I see are advertisements for things I don't want from Starbucks (like the Vivano) and promotions to 'come back in the afternoon' or try our new breakfast meals (which smell up the place by the way and don't taste very good). Their numbers are terrible right now and the latest investor view has them closing more stores than they are opening.
If these three icons can tune out, is it any surprise that 90% of the companies we studied do as well? That is, they are tuned out more than tuned in. The real question is ... why? How can a company (or person) get started by so completely tuning in to a market problem that they create a breakout and then lose it over time? The answer is simpler than you think. We see it in athletics all the time when a player or a team starts out well and then fades. The issue:
When you starting thinking more about you, your needs and the outcomes you desire vs. what value you are providing to your customers and what problems need to be solved for them, you're tuning out. This month, a few of the mighty fell.
