I recently purchased a Jawbone ICON, the 2010 bluetooth headset from Aliph, and I was struck by their "new rules" product marketing. First, their web site is at Jawbone (the product), not Aliph (the company). They have created a different model each year with only six variations of the current model. Nice clean designs; nice clean price sheet.
Those of you who are product-oriented will appreciate the demo on the home page: "Jawbone eliminates noise" is an actual phone call that illustrates the before and after of "Noise Assassin." Marketing-types will appreciate the Media Library that includes Press Releases, News, and product imagery with product shots, people wearing Jawbones, and packaging shots. Sure makes it easy to include an authorized image in a blog post. And they're active in the social media community as well. They have Facebook and Twitter accounts--and they actually post stuff. Okay, gushing=OFF.
So I'm a satisfied buyer and user (I bought three for me and the kids) but what prompted this blog post was this:
Want to know what features they should include in a future product? Just look at the discussion board. There are 4 pages of remarks about battery life, 5 pages on support for A2DP (which, by the way, friends, is a spec, not a req; the req is to play podcasts and music), and 3 pages on volume controls.
Does a product manager need any more product research? The answers are right there in the discussion board.
A discussion board is a great way to have users help users and for customers to learn more about buying. But the sheer volume of posts indicates where the product could be improved. Happily for Aliph, the firmware on ICON can be updated via the web site. Nice!
Overall, I'd say that Aliph has done a near-perfect job of product design, delivery, support, upgrades, and a great job on their product marketing from website to video to social media to discussion board. And also comes in environment-friendly packaging.
What have you done this week to create a better product and marketing experience for your customers?
Marketing is too important to be left up to the marketing department.--David Packard
