Hans Schmuck - Lemming:
You need to read this (http://www.zdnet.com/macuser/onlinecol/gorey27.html)
February 13, 1997 -- a MacUser Online Exclusive
Lemmings (By Andrew Gore)
You ever wonder how lemmings decide to kill themselves? No, really. I mean, do they just get up
one morning with an overpowering desire to commit suicide blazing in their tiny brains? Or, perhaps
they take a poll: "Excuse me, Ms. Lemming, but we're conducting an informal survey on species
genocide. Are you for or against it?"
Perhaps there is a blue-ribbon lemming committee that debates the issue of self-destruction, coming
up with a democratically determined date that the lemming bureaucracy then sends off to its
citizenry through some small furry animal Internet. Or, maybe they do it just because it's Monday.
Whatever the reason or process, lemmings are not the only example of this mysterious,
instantaneous group-decision-making behavior. There is another mammal that exhibits the ability to
take spontaneous group action, even when individuals may be hundreds or even thousands of miles
apart. Of course, I'm referring to the reporter -- those creatures who live in print and on the
airwaves and whose entire existence seems to be based on the need to help foster public opinion.
Absence of Malice
Remember, each reporter works independently, with their own sources of information fueling a
relentless effort to uncover pristine gems of truth that will then be passed on to us. The fact that the
truth is the truth is the best explanation for why so many reporters manage, unerringly, to uncover
the same facts. Except, and we've all seen examples of this, sometimes these facts turn out to be
wrong.
Take the Macintosh market. It is true that Apple has been through some rough times in the last year
and that reporters who have reported on these problems are just doing their jobs. There was that
huge loss last Spring. Certainly, the fact that the media had unleashed an almost nonstop barrage of
negative stories about Apple for months before that loss had no influence on those results. After all,
this last quarter Apple's holiday-season unit shipments took a dramatic nosedive. We all read the
dire reports, which somehow overlooked the fact that the total unit shipments for all Mac OS
systems, both from Apple and clone makers, were up nine percent. Power Computing sold more than
100,000 clones last year, UMAX did nearly 100,000 units in its first six months, and Motorola did a
startling 40,000 in its first eight weeks of shipping Mac products. Obviously, such trifling details
hardly warrant mention, so no one mentioned them.
Then there was the recent spate of newspaper opinion columns opining on the impending death of
Apple. Some of these columns, often written by pundits claiming to be former Mac fans themselves,
warn potential customers that they'd be fools to buy a Macintosh. After all, they are just doing their
jobs, helping keep consumers from making what could turn out to be a foolish investment.
I can't help but wonder why these selfsame experts aren't warning people away from Polaroid's
products, since that company -- as big and as visible as Apple -- has also had a hard year. For
that matter, where was this legion of self-proclaimed purveyors of all that is right and good in
computing when Microsoft's Bob bombed? Where were the months of relentless beating in the press
the folks in Redmond should have earned for foisting such trash on the public? Or how about the
disaster that is Windows CE? I haven't seen a single story in the mainstream press about a return
rate that is reportedly as high as 30 percent on Windows CE-based devices, and I've yet to see a
column in The Wall Street Journal decrying the product's wooden interface or limited functionality.
The Media Conspiracy
At what point, then, does negative media become self-fulfilling prophecy? When it is so unrelenting
that it scares customers who would otherwise have considered buying a Macintosh out of such a
purchase. I'm sure many of you can recount a recent experience where a friend or family member
who was thinking about buying a Mac came to you asking if it was "safe" to do so. I believe that this
almost constant haranguing in the press is what has been dogging Apple, more than any other single
factor, for the last year. What should have been a year of recovery has instead been a year of siege,
with the media following that old newsroom adage: If you've got nothing bad to say, say nothing at
all.
I know many of these selfsame reporters; some are even my friends. So, as much as it would be
easier to blame the whole situation on a silent conspiracy fostered by the advertising dollars and
marketing might of the Intel-Microsoft illuminati, I know better. Each journalist is reporting what they
honestly believe is true, in a vacuum of information to the contrary. In the last year, I've talked to a
few mainstream reporters who were balanced precariously on the cliff of misinformation formed by
"experts" eager to dash Apple on the rocks. In most cases, a reasonable discussion of the facts with
a reasonable person helped foster a reasonably balanced report. Not necessarily a positive story,
but one that didn't just continue to promote the hysteria that seems to define any discussion of
Apple in the press these days.
Of course, it's not my job to play Pollyanna to legions of press people out there reporting on the
Mac. Even if I had the time, I would quickly lose the respect of my colleagues if I painted an
unreasonably rosy picture of the market, and they would stop calling. However, I have to wonder,
where are the people whose job it is to play advocate for the defense? Although it's true that no
amount of proactive public relations can change the facts, what it can do is make sure reporters
have a complete set of facts to work with so they can present the most accurate and balanced
picture of what's going on.
What Apple and the Mac market need is activist public relations, staffed by people whose mission it
is to make sure the media knows about the good things happening and who make sure the good
news -- as well as the bad -- is available to journalists before they write that next great think piece
on the decline of the Macintosh. Apple's PR department especially needs to stop expecting the
press to seek an audience with them -- the days when Apple could rely on the media to pursue
them like medieval nobles clamoring for church indulgences are long over.
After all, perhaps the only reason lemmings take the plunge is because none of them ever stop long
enough to suggest that, just maybe, jumping wasn't such a terrific idea in the first place. |
