The problem with businessmen

I was reading this quote from an Activision exec:

It’s up to them to win the value argument. If you do a focus group of a gazillion people and you show them two prices for two competitive products, 100 percent always prefer the lower price. I think from a first impression standpoint the win goes to Sony, at least as it relates to pricing. Microsoft is going to have to win the hearts and minds and convince people that the higher price point is worth it, and that it provides really meaningful capabilities that will be meaningful to consumers. And it’s a long game, so I am sure that’s what they intend on trying to do.

While it’s not coming from Microsoft, you can imagine that it’s the mantra everyone repeats over there: we must convince people that our product is better!

That’s the epitome of what’s wrong in business management. All their efforts go into CONVINCING PEOPLES.

If they actually were building a console that they wanted to sell, “convincing people” would be a secondary objective. It’s very obvious for one who still has contact with reality, that the best way for Xbox to win back customers without changing that price is about delivering a BETTER product.

They’d do their best to have a smooth and fast interface, hassle free, with the customer in mind. They’d have an online infrastructure that is rock solid and never gets in the way. If they handle all this better than Sony, and if they are able to offer a BETTER SERVICE, then “convincing peoples” comes naturally.

People buy your product, are pleased by what they find, spread their opinion.

But nope. Being a businessman means seeing the world ass-backwards. They’ll try to persuade you the Xbox is a better product through marketing.

What happened with the Xbox in the last couple of weeks is instead the actual PROOF that you can’t convince people. These last weeks have demonstrated that this strategy IS A FAILURE. They tried as hard as possible to convince us how NEXT GEN the Xbox was, and how all its limits were indispensable to go INTO THE FUTURE.

Did it work?

Did they learn?

What’s the new strategy? Convincing people.

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