15 Comments to “Would You Rather Be Martha Stewart or David Armano?”

1. October 3rd, 2007 at 9:40 am
   David Armano said

   Tough call. Martha does drive a much nicer car, and has that house in the Hamptons… but I’m gonna go with me!

   ;-)

2. October 3rd, 2007 at 9:51 am
   ME Strauss said

   Hi David!
   I had a feeling you might have a response something like this. It’s so you! :)

3. October 3rd, 2007 at 10:25 am
   Robyn said

   On the other hand, Martha had a lot to give us and who she really is was tarnished by folks who may have been jealous or politically motivated. David has a special niche, but I would not want to sort out heirarchy here. We need both.

4. October 3rd, 2007 at 10:43 am
   ME Strauss said

   Hi Robyn!
   You’re generous of spirit. I so love you!

   My question was only about customers and websites — honest. :) :)

5. October 3rd, 2007 at 10:59 am
   Brad Shorr said

   Bravo. I’m always battling with clients, encouraging them to get rid of splash pages, flash animation, content embedded in images, and anything else that gets in the way of delivering content clearly. Sometimes wild design elements look awesome the first time you see them, but then what? They just become annoying.

6. October 3rd, 2007 at 11:47 am
   ME Strauss said

   Hi Brad!
   As the days go by, I’m falling more in love with that word annoying It certainly sums up what some things can be. :)

7. October 3rd, 2007 at 12:43 pm
   Mark Goodyear said

   For me, the key is #3: “the people who produce it actually talk back to us.” No matter how much I love Martha Stewart or the CEO of Coke, I don’t expect them to talk back to little ol’ me.

   On the other hand, we did interview one of the CEOs of Coke a few months ago at TheHighCalling.org. So maybe blogs and the internet just create a space where people can approach each other–if they want to be approached.

8. October 3rd, 2007 at 1:26 pm
   ME Strauss said

   Hey Mark!
   Great to see you!

   People talking back is what it is all about, isn’t it. :)

9. October 3rd, 2007 at 1:54 pm
   Robyn said

   Thanks Liz, guess I got stuck on Martha just a bit because she seemed to be a hot target for potshots for quite awhile. I know that wasn’t your focus, but still my mind went there.

   I like what Brad said about keeping things simple. Somehow when I see a lot of flashing gimmicks on a site I’m afraid something is going to come and give me a virus… No joke. I don’t trust some of this stuff… especially after all the pop ups.

10. October 3rd, 2007 at 7:13 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Oh Robyn!
    No worries! I was smiling and I agree with your lovely sentiments. :) You keep on being exactly who you are. :)

    All of those pop-ups make me nervous about viruses and other invasive creatures too. :)

11. October 4th, 2007 at 10:01 am
    Mother Earth said

    I think it’s interesting that big companies make mistakes — and actually talk about them

    martha = big, and i am going to come right out and say that I really really admire her, but her learning curve is a lesson in humility

    over and over and over

    does she get it yet?

    the company I work for launched a really snazzy site last year - flashy/ great music/ little whooosh noises - they took a very serious topic - obesity and took light of it ( ha - no pun intended!) by not looming the epidemic in front of us - they made it airy, humourous and of all things they took weightloss and made it doable. The site to this day makes me smile

    Not all of their websites are like that

    my point is companies can roll stuff out, makes mistakes and learns from them

    For what it’s worth I think it’s OK to still be learning

    sticky - what a great lesson to strive for

    Mother Earth
    http://www.bestwellnessconsultant.com

12. October 4th, 2007 at 11:25 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Mother Earth!
    A company that shows that it is a learning organization by admitting its mistakes is a good one, but a great one would do the learning BEFORE a silly mistake like this happened. Don’t you think?

    Listening to the customers really is a way of life, not a part of a job description that needs to be reconsidered and brought in with each new project.

    Responding is better than trying to defend a blunder, but learning not to do the same thing over is the best. Yeah!

    I’m with you on “sticky” :)

13. October 4th, 2007 at 10:04 pm
    Mother Earth said

    I don’t know making mistakes is human - can’t companies be human - can’t we work together customer and company

    there are mistakes that harm
    and mistakes that are like OOOPs that didn’t work

    I agree with you that listening to customers is a great idea - which companies actually do ??

    so hey starbucks pay ME to bring in my own cup when I get my coffee - we’d have lines out the door, not to mention ceramic starbucks mugs would go through the roof — reward me for not throwing away another paper cup

    think of the volume of cups thrown away every single moment at all the starbucks all over the world

    makes me crazy

    by the way I submitted that idea

    never heard back

    I still bring in my own cup

    Mother Earth
    http://www.bestwellnessconsultant.com

14. October 4th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hey Mother Earth,
    I’m all for letting companies be human. I would only hope that they wouldn’t be as human as the guy I used to date who would say he was sorry and keep doing the same thing again. Which is what companies often do. :)

    Too many good ideas cost more than the bad ideas that they would replace. It’s a problem. :)

15. October 12th, 2007 at 6:36 am
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