The Zen Vision W launched in the US today and I took a look at the specs on Creative’s website. Looks like a pretty cool product, but they’ve got some work in the marketing department. Maybe they figure this thing will market itself.
Apple has probably the best marketing team in the consumer electronics and computer world right now. Creative should consider taking a page out of their book to win in the marketplace. Below are a few examples how they might combat Apple’s marketing team.
#1. Make your product pages clear and concise.
A little bird sent me this page today:
When you click “Learn More” find out more, you are taken to this page:
Um, ok, whatever.
#2. Sell the benefit, not the specs.
Ok, so it looks like the Zen will hold 15,000 songs. Cool.
Except, maybe there was a misprint because one of them costs more than the other one and it has 60GBs instead of 30GBs of space.
Nope, they meant to put that there. Congrats, my mom just bought the cheaper one!
So, if you can’t accomplish the other 2, at least:
#3. Try not confuse users.
Creative seems to have sent their “B” marketing team on this product. How the hell are you expecting to beat the iPod if you can’t figure out how to sell your device. For a device named the Zen, the site and the product seem awfully difficult to use.
This post is a little mean spirited, but I want the Zen to be better. Competition is the thing that drives product development and gets us better products. Maybe the Zune will bring their “A” team to the table.
While Showtime lacked a few expected items, overall, this was a nice big present to current iPod owners and a cue that Apple has nothing to worry about from their competitors.
Here’s a little weekend fun for you and your iPod.
