analysis | Not the product, but the idea: Why New Coke failed with consumers.

New Coke.

Nothing else continues to evoke such fear and wonder in the world of marketing than these two words. It was an unmitigated disaster, a cautionary tale of poor planning whose very mention conjures powerful images of corporate hubris gone awry.

The quintessential marketing failure of the 1980s, New Coke was a popular name for a product heralded as the reformulated replacement of Coke, one designed to appeal to changing consumer tastes and counter sliding market share. But its eventual failure and phaseout raised an uncomfortable question the soft drink behemoth, The Coca-Cola Company, had never before confronted:

What were they selling?

news | Ford and GM attempt to move into luxury sector with release of new models

Marking a resurgent entry into the highly competitive luxury automobile sector, Cadillac and Lincoln have both unveiled new high-end sedans at the New York Auto Show intended to compete with leading German marques. The resurrection of the storied Lincoln Continental brand marks parent company Ford's effort to broaden its portfolio following the sale of its luxury marques late in the last decade. Cadillac's CT6 represents GM's efforts to compete with offerings like the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and BMW's 7-series.

analysis | Fool's Gold: Apple Watch Edition is not for sale.

© Apple

Credit where it's due: Apple's announcement of the Watch Edition starting price of $10,000 has stunned the tech world in its sheer audacity. Why charge an obscenely high price when aside from the casing, it's identical to the basic $350 model? No convincing explanation has developed, but that's because people are viewing it wrong.

Watch Edition is not a product, it's a brilliant marketing strategy.

analysis | Go (small) or Go Home: Project Ara and the future of Android

The Lego set is Google’s vision of the future smartphone: choose the features that matter, connect them to a basic frame, and swap parts at will. Broken screen? Pop in a new one and keep the rest of the phone. Drooling over a new camera? Buy the upgrade and snap it in place. The device is flexible, customizable, adaptable to any user, easy to upgrade and maintain.

The last part should sound familiar—it’s the same core idea behind the Android operating system, it’s innovation in the stagnant smartphone market, and most importantly, it’s the future of Android.

©2014 Motorola Mobility LLC

review | Noteworthy 2015 Super Bowl Ads

The first of February marked the broadcast of Super Bowl Clicks (apparently spelt XLIX), which for the unpatriotic and the uninformed is when every major advertiser in America releases their latest 60-second film, and even features a sideshow where some blokes run about playing catch. Since those of us stateside are condemned to view these commercials ad nauseam for the better half of a season, it seems like a good time as any to analyse some of Madison Avenue’s more innovative ideas while skewering their more tasteless excesses.

rewrite | Unstable, paradoxical, and prone to implode - A simple(r) explanation of Bitcoin

Money is only worth what other people think it’s worth, an adage that forms the socioeconomic bedrock of Bitcoin. But while “strength in numbers” shields the cryptocurrency from outside influence, it also gives Bitcoin its notorious volatility.

Imagine if everyone in the entire world suddenly threw up their hands and said "alright, we don’t accept the US dollar (a fiat currency) as valid payment." The US government would still provide a good or service in exchange for that USD, which effectively gives it value.

Now imagine if everyone in the entire world suddenly threw up their hands and said "alright, we don’t accept Bitcoin as valid payment." There is no large body or entity that would continue to provide a good or service in exchange for a bitcoin, making the cryptocurrency effectively worthless.

Paradoxically, the only way Bitcoin can become mainstream is by gaining the support of a large, financially steady organization that will guarantee its value, much in the same way a government guarantees its own currency. But doing so would undermine its purpose as an unregulated, “pure” currency that can’t be influenced by any one entity. Its greatest strength is its own greatest weakness.

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Rewrite is the writing process in action, where old topics are revisited, taken apart, revised, and redrafted. Now rewritten is "A simple explanation of bitcoin", completed 28 September 2014.

analysis | Seeing Past Glass: What Google’s withdrawl of its headset means for its future

Google’s recent decision to withdraw Google Glass has drawn an immediate, almost visceral reaction from both Silicon Valley and Wall Street. Finally, they proclaim, Google has come to its senses! It’s grown up at last; time to put away the balloons and the toy cars, and move on to the things that actually matter!

Make no mistake, Google Glass in its current iteration has failed to become a tenable product, something no amount of marketing spin can cover. If Glass really was doing brisk business, Google would be beside themselves singing the praises of the just-released second generation. That the wearable computer was pulled from the market altogether without so much as a projected date indicates its failure to resonate with consumers.

But the failure of Glass does not mean the company is cubbyholed in the same way Blackberry has been unable to move beyond making mobile handsets. Rather, it is the inevitable result of Google’s “leap without looking” approach, where the game is not necessarily to make the best or the most polished product, but to capitalise on first mover advantages…then figure everything else out, including how if it prints money. Google Search, after all, began life as a pageranking research product until someone realised just how many zeros advertisers were willing to tack onto a cheque in exchange for targeted advertising.

This approach couldn’t be any different from their traditional rivals at Apple. While the Cupertino based technology giant keeps products under wraps for years, testing, redoing, perfecting, and grandly unveiling a highly polished, finished product, Google favours a scattershot approach, floating products to the market to “see what sticks”; ruthlessly killing things that don’t make money or otherwise fail.

While this would send most investors running for the hills, the Mountain View company has an uncanny ability to “sniff” out good investments. Google has historically supplemented itself by making several very smart acquisitions in key areas, nurturing them until they became industry powerhouses: it was prescient enough to buy YouTube near the start of the video sharing revolution, and made an equally prophetic acquisition of a small software startup called Android, Inc.

Most outsiders fail to realise the inherent danger in sticking to core strengths. The obvious cost of playing it safe is missing out on the next big thing. Intel was so wrapped up in its indomitable chokehold of the desktop and laptop market it completely missed the mobile revolution, and now finds itself fending off Qualcomm, VIA, Texas Instruments, and a horde of other eager competitors, some of whom have even begun to encroach on Intel’s traditional leadership in laptops and desktops.

“Failures” like Google Glass are the necessary price of keeping ahead. While some of Google's products may be tone-deaf and poorly timed, the spirit of “giving it a go” remains ingrained in the corporate culture and should be insulated from the fickleness of investors. There is no harm in throwing things against the wall when you have the finances of a developing nation, and an idea need only work once to be successful.