Fortunate Customers
I was inspired to write this post by something in this photo:
It’s not the word Billions. It’s the text “(Page 70)” written in tiny text in the very bottom left corner.
For years it has been a pet peeve of mine that magazines force you to flip through ads to “find” the table of contents so you can get to their cover stories. I think it’s supposed to help sell advertising by forcing readers to look at advertising as they try to “find” the table of contents.
Fortune magazine is taking a different tack in this week’s edition and putting those page numbers on their front page:
I checked my last edition of Fortune and this appears to be a new development (though don’t hold me to that). Whether it’s actually new or not is beside the point – I hope they stick with it.
In magazines and most other kinds of product development, it is awfully hard to have a tight feedback loop and get the customer feedback you need. It is often harder to convince management to let users have what they want – especially if there is no quantifiable business case for it.
Fortune appears to on the right track with this change. Nice job Fortune. Heading into year four of my subscription and still looking forward to every issue before it arrives.
Copyright © 2000-2009
6:21 pm
Yes! About time and a smart move on Fortune’s part.
“It is often harder to convince management to let users have what they want –especially if there is no quantifiable business case for it.”
This mindset completely astonishes me. Isn’t what user’s want the very definition of the absolute BEST business case you can make? It certainly is in my mind, but it still amazes me how “new” this idea is and it supports my view that old-school business practices have been primarily about making a profit first and listening to customer needs only as a last resort. Making a dollar is not the bottom line. (Business leaders everywhere faint in the aisles.) Making your customers happy is the bottom line.
Management that must be convinced to let customers have what they want is management that should be fired faster than they can reach for their morning latte.
Great post; great points!
-Z
6:14 pm
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