Comments on: The customer is the scarcity

By: Hiten

Hiten — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:41:38 +0000

JP, the scooter photo evoked thoughts about Suketu Mehta’s commentary on the ‘adjusting consumer’. The telegraph has a cute piece on it: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/india/732181/Crush-hour.html

By: John Cowan

John Cowan — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:54:33 +0000

JP: Doing those things basically turns you into a state (and indeed, The State is a landlord writ large). William’s right: ownership of unimproved land and natural resources (I emphasize unimproved) does function like a monopoly, even though it’s divided up against many oligopolists, because in a pinch (namely when land prices rise) the landowners act as a natural cartel. Intellectual property, so-called, is even more fragmented in ownership, but the owners pull together against the rest of us.

By: JP

JP — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:45:53 +0000

Thanks for all your comments.
@anant interesting case study, hadn’t seen it before
@srijith the hulu case is a classic artificial scarcity and just like DVD players got “chipped” there are artificial abundances available so that people do watch hulu here
@mehul there will come a tme when people realise that digital is actually a great try before you buy medium, and that sales in box offices as well as DVDs will increase as a result. especially if releases were global simultaneous.
@subhankar cooking pot and recipe theories are actually sophisticated and serious. see if you can get a copy of “CODE” edited by Rishab Ghosh
@john glad to see the comment finally made it in!

By: Anant

Anant — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:06:11 +0000

Kraft launched their Vegie Pourover in Australia without ANY mass media; the power of the Internet was harnessed by asking consumers to send in recipes. Incredible and instant success — with all stakeholders winning.
Details here: http://showcase.draftfcb.com.au/kraft/vegiepourover/

By: Srijith

Srijith — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:07:03 +0000

The DVD region coding is something that has irked me for some time now. But unfortunately this kind of geographic handicapping is becoming more and more prevalent in other domains too. Try out Hulu outside US or even worse try to access Chris Anderson’s ‘Free’ over at scribd http://www.scribd.com/doc/17135767/FREE-full-book-by-Chris-Anderson or over at shortcovers

By: Mehul

Mehul — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 07:07:52 +0000

I don’t know how relevant this is but I have another reason to indulge in piracy. The artificial ‘buzz’. I went to watch the sixth Harry Potter movie yesterday, after reading decent reviews from the Indian press (ToI gave it 4 stars on 5), I was utterly disappointed by the movie which made me realize that I would rather screen the next movie privately and then decide whether it’s worth watching in a theatre (the experience is always better!) I feel lucky to have watched all the Lord of the Rings movies in a theatre, no wide screen TV would have done justice to it, and the buzz was justified.
I as a consumer don’t want to be cheated and the only way to screen would be free (if only the critics weren’t such sell-outs).

By: Subhankar Ray

Subhankar Ray — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:41:37 +0000

Thanks for the thought provoking ideas that is almost free.

However, applying the benefits of ‘almost’ free cooking recipes to other intellectual rights may be simplistic. Balancing between ownership/control and the freedom of openness/creation may be the right recipe – the ‘middle path’…

By: John Dodds

John Dodds — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 19:45:42 +0000

I agree wholeheartedly. Although it seems to me that the idea of satisfying your customer is not a revolutionary one – but something that has inexplicably got lost in the marketing mix.

And I’m never entirely convinced that customers want a relationship in any traditional sense of that word – they just want to know that the supplier will be rapidly responsive whenever they want them to be. They’re less keen on the supplier having a relationship with them for fear that that leads to interruptive marketing.

By: Theodore Taptiklis

Theodore Taptiklis — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 11:46:19 +0000

Many, many threads cross in this post.

To take up just one, IPR. I think some history is helpful. A hundred years ago, patents seemed a benign innovation, protecting the interests of the lone inventor at his humble workbench against the unscrupulous exploitation of his work by a streetwise imitator. However, patents and IPR have gradually moved to the dark side, becoming instruments of corporate hegemony – complex forms of market manipulation, often supported by asymmetric legal resources.

However well-meant is the intention, the law, unfortunately, is always a blunt instrument. When the delicate and nuanced world of human curiosity and creativity is colonised and governed by ponderous litigation, many kinds of possibilities are forever lost.

But throwing out the law is not enough. I still have a concern for that lonely inventor. For me, earning pennies from iPhone apps is a necessary but not sufficient alternative. We need to replace an adversarial inventor-exploiter construct with something new that has collaborative potential as its driving force.

By: JP

JP — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 08:28:31 +0000

@William you can protect land rights in a number of ways. Hire guards. Erect fences and moats and drawbridges. Keep rabid dogs. Lock doors and windows.

There are alternative ways to assert all rights bar intellectual property rights.