Firebrand

Timothy Keirnan of the Design Critique podcast did a great podcast on how even a brand with an innovative product can be destroyed with poor quality and poor customer service. He was referencing Art Studios Entertainment Media and the launch and subsequent boggling of their EFI-X boot module that allowed users to run Apple OS-X on a standard PC. He asked me to comment, and we will also discuss it on a future episode of Design Critique.

First let’s outline the story. Tim’s podcast and this Tom’s Hardware article do a thorough job of documenting the story, but I will run through it quickly. The EFI-X boot module plugs into the motherboard using the USB header, and would allow the user to choose from multiple operating systems installed on different hard drives. One of the operating systems could be Apple’s Mac OS-X if the computer hardware was compatible. Initial media coverage was good as it did what it claimed.

Users started to have problems, particularly after a firmware update. Problems for the user would crop up while others were being fixed. The users were using forums to voice their problems; forum moderators deleted topics. After awhile, the modules just tarted dieing altogether. Three of Tom’s Hardware units died prematurely. . There is also evidence that it is a repackaged version of another product. An allegation not helped by the epoxy hiding the electronics. The unit’s firmware was also proven to have used stolen code.

Customers were told by Art Studios that all problems would be solved in the next version of the unit thanks to better quality components and standards. What were generation 1 customers to do? Not go to the forums, they were terminated. The last straw for all users was the announcement that first gen users would have to upgrade to version 1.1 to run the new version of OS-X, Snow Leopard. This is despite promises from Art Studios that all versions would run all future versions of OS-X.

Tim points out that the experience with the product directly is not ll of the user experience. The poor treatment of users by Art Studios Entertainment Media has poisoned the customer experience. If a brand is meant to leverage positive experiences to create loyalty and recommendations, why would ASEM bother having a brand at all if they have such little regard to the customer experience. This is the sort of experience you expect from a nameless discount electronics companies and are prepared for the risk of when purchasing from. This is not acceptable when users paid a premium for the module.

David Aaker in Building Strong Brands talks about how the first generation of a product is make or break because of the scrutiny it is under. “Too often there is a delusion that brands can be created by advertising without a product or service that really delivers quality and value- in short that is the “problem” of advertising. In reality, the product drives the image.” The Microsoft Zune fell victim to this. Great advertising could not prop up a mediocre product. Aaker sites Saturn as a positive example: great advertising, press and public relations only enhanced the momentum of a high quality product.

The Art Studio’s EFIX was in that new product pressure cooker. They were the beneficiary of alot of press and buzz at the launch. But a poor quality product with extremely poor customer relations turned that momentum completely around. Now they need to face a barrage of scathing customer reports, which will create a reputation that with the new era of the web, will never go away.

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By Colin Finkle. Colin Finkle is an award winning industrial designer who works with large multinational brands everyday designing retail displays for FX Displays in Toronto, Canada. He is the principle designer at Firebrand Creative. He also writes for AMD’s FireUser.com blog.

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The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect the views of Colin Finkle’s employer, FX Displays.