April 08, 2008

Network v. Device: A Marketing Challenge

People understand things they can touch and interact with. That simple truth highlights the challenge of marketing the relevance of a network. At Cisco we have had great success marketing the value of the network to service providers, large businesses and more advanced small businesses. We are now focused on extending that effort to consumers. To do this we need to selectively leverage strategies that worked in the past, but also develop new approaches that recognize the differences between audiences. Ultimately the network is critical to the consumer experience. Getting consumers to understand this is the task for Cisco.

I’m often asked what does Cisco hope to bring to the consumer market. How are we different than everyone else? This is a wonderful question, but also one that could generate an extremely long response. Sparing the person who asked the question a long-winded answer that includes PowerPoint slides, videos, and primary research results I usually just say…we focus on the network and everybody else is focused on the device. This is perhaps an overly simplistic way of looking at the competitive environment, but it generally holds to be true. If the person is sufficiently engaged and is willing to hear more I elaborate on the benefits of a network-based approach to delivering the experience that consumers want. There are basically (3) areas where the network will have a huge impact on the consumer experience:

1.Connect – Most people get this concept. The network is what moves content from point A to point B allowing me to access a webpage or download a video over the internet. However, this is just table stakes. As the network becomes more intelligent, it allows video content to be seamlessly available across multiple devices (Mobile phone, PC, TV) allowing the user to access their favorite content on their device of choice in multiple locations. To illustrate, a child would be able to watch their favorite Saturday morning cartoon. Halfway through the program the family needs to leave to go visit Grandma. The parent would be able to pause the show, load the family into the car and re-start the video from where it left off and play it on the rear headrest video screen.
2.Discover – This concept is a bit more difficult. People understand “search” whether that is for a file on their PC, scrolling through their songs on their iPod or entering a word into a search engine. Search works very well when you know what you’re looking for. The concept of discovery is based upon the fact that in a world of infinite content choices it’s impossible for any one person to know exactly what they are looking for all of the time. The consequence of this is that we miss movies, TV shows, short form videos and music that could be of interest to us. For us to be aware of these things we need to be able to tap into the wisdom and interests of people who are similar. This requires the network to bridge across different devices, websites and social networks and the intelligence to establish contextual relationships between individuals and content.
3.Experience – As video becomes more and more prevalent in our everyday lives and is integrated into social networks and communications the quality of that video will become much more critical. Today people are generally willing to sacrifice quality for the novelty and convenience of watching a funny user generated video on YouTube. But with advances in HD consumers will come to expect a higher quality experience. Higher resolution, instant access with no delays and real-time interaction. Certainly devices will evolve to better display video, but ultimately the more important evolution will be in the networks ability to provide the best possible multimedia experience.

If you think about some of today’s most popular devices and websites, they typify the walled garden approach. To use the device or participate in the social network you consciously choose to abide by the rules of the walled garden. This minimizes consumer choice and creates layers of products/services that don’t work together. This is the dilemma faced by the consumer electronics industry. Consumers are saturated with devices and now want those devices to work together.

Our challenge is to develop products that bridge across these walled gardens and help consumers understand the role and importance of more powerful networks and the services delivered over them.

Posted by Mike Kisch at 09:45 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 20, 2008

Social Networking Evolution – Vertical or Horizontal?

Although social networking is all the rage today and seems quite new, it’s existed in rudimentary forms from the very beginning of network access with a 300 baud modem – from The Well, to GeoCities, to Friendster, and of course today the ubiquitous MySpace and Facebook. All of these “social networks” are horizontal – that is to say that anyone can (and does) join. Discussions, topics and content are free-ranging. But is a community of 30+ million people a “community” at all? If we look at the evolution of other media, we see a pattern of segmentation and specialization. Is that the direction social networking will go?

Newspapers were (and mostly still are) general interest publications. But the Internet has dramatically affected them with sites targeted at specialized content (TMZ, ESPN, Drudge, Marketwatch, TechCrunch) picking off the general interest population and leading to steady circulation declines in traditional newspapers. Similarly, magazines started off as general interest (Look, Life, Saturday Evening Post, etc) – but where are general interest magazines today? Swamped with special interest publications (People, Car and Driver, Golf, Travel&Leisure, etc) and focused web sites. Network television is also decreasing in viewership as more satellite/cable special interest channels are available to more people.

So will the general social networking sites be marginalized by vertical social networks? There are starting to be more and more vertical social networking sites – early vertical sites have tended to be organized by profession (linkedin, military.com, policelink, techcommunity, etc) as the lead-generation business model for such sites is well-developed. With the growth of tools for creating specialized social networking sites becoming more readily available (Ning, Cisco Eos) – we’ll be seeing more and more vertical social networks – and my guess is that horizontal social networks will be fewer in number and experience a plateau in growth, if not an eventual decline.

KW

Posted by Ken Wirt at 10:08 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 05, 2008

Video Changes Everything

In the past several years video has pushed its way to the forefront as the next big thing. The first major development was the introduction of high-definition flat panel TVs. People were mesmerized by how big the screen was and the fact that it could be easily hung on their wall and take up virtually no living space. These bigger and better screens spawned the development of hi-def content that could take advantage of the bigger screen and the superior resolution. The second major development was the increase in bandwidth delivered by service providers. The pipe grew big enough to deliver bandwidth intensive video in a reasonable time and at sufficient quality. The final development was the birth of You Tube. You Tube allowed people to begin to view and share their favorite video clips with friends over the internet. In essence it created a world of unlimited channels that the consumer controlled by searching or more often discovering content recommended to them by friends or related to content that they had just viewed.

While there were many other developments, these are what I call the "Holy Trinity" and stand out as the most significant. The speed in which these developed and spread was amazing and has spurred battles between the service providers, the TV manufacturers and internet video sites. Now everyone is putting their video cap on and beginning to think of new and innovative ways that video can be leveraged to change the consumer and business experience. Telco’s and cable companies are updating their networks to handle the increased network loads, amateur and professional content creators are seeking new ways to distribute content to their audience and businesses are evaluating how they can use video to be more collaborative. This competition creates confusion, but it also spurs innovation which creates business opportunities for both established players and new entrants. Most importantly innovation creates compelling new experiences for consumers and businesses.

Regardless of the different philosophies being pursued its safe to say that video is about to become a much larger part of our personal and work lives. Some will see this as a bad thing and express concern that more video will further isolate people, increase the time that we spend watching TV, etc. Personally, I see it through a different lens. Working at Cisco I already see how video is having an impact on the way that people live, work, play and learn. As opposed to being a divisive force I think it can help bring people closer together. Video will have a major impact on how people live. It will augment existing text and voice communications making them more personal, more emotional. It will change where people are able to view TV shows and movies and which devices they will be able to use to access the video content. It will change the way that we learn about new ideas and share our own knowledge with others.

It's impossible to predict exactly what the future will look like, but it will certainly be exciting for both the people who are developing the video technology and the user community who gets to sample these new visual networking experiences.

Posted by Mike Kisch at 03:26 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

February 10, 2008

Reliving the Glory Days w/Online Video

A friend sent me a link to a video on YouTube yesterday. It was of one of my all time favoriate musicians Jeff Tweedy of the band Wilco. He was telling a story about a strange twist of events that found him vacationing in Mexico next to his old bandmate Jay Farrar, a person for various reasons he hasn't spoken to for over ten years. The clip was from a show at the Vic Theater in Chicago from January 2008. It was a funny story that lasted all of 3min.

But it got me searching for old archival footage of Jeff's previous band, Uncle Tupelo. 99% of you probably have no clue who Uncle Tupelo was or who Wilco and Son Volt are. They were/are not mainstream bands that receive lots of airplay on the radio. But Uncle Tupelo was a very signficant band to my friends and I while growing up in the midwest. They blended the twang of americana with the anger of punk. They were one of the few bands that we would pay attention to and get tickets to their shows when they came through Chicago. Sidebar...Jeff Tweedy eventually married a woman that owned a club right near my apartment in Chicago. I got to meet him one night while he sat on the curb waiting for the show to start. 12 years later and it is still my coolest "celebrity" run-in. The purpose of my post is not to go on and on about a band that I used to love that broke up for the usual reasons. My point is that I can go back and experience archived shows and interviews of one of my favoriate bands that had an impact during my formative adult years. How cool is it that I can go back and find the last song ever performed by Uncle Tupelo before they broke up in 1992.

This is one of the key benefits of visual networking. The ability for a friend to forward me a video. The ability for that video to be associated with other related videos and the ability for that video to be streamed to me over my PC, TV or mobile phone. I ended up spending a good chunk of my Sunday evening checking out old music videos and user generated video from Uncle Tupelo shows as far back as 1987. I also forwarded a bunch of them to old friends so they could breathe in the nostalgia of one of our favorite bands.

Posted by Mike Kisch at 09:41 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

February 08, 2008

Visual Networking: Bringing Families Together

Pundits often focus on the negative side of our ever growing fascination with technology. Arguments are made that technology is creating distance between families and enabling anti-social behavior among our children. This may be true, but a recent experience has me optimistic about the ability of video technologies to bridge physical and emotional distance and bring a family closer together.

My wife and I are new parents. We waited a bit later than the normal couple to have children and this created a level of pent-up demand amongst our parents. In particular, my mom and dad had to wait 36 years for their first grandchild. This was especially hard as they watched all of their siblings become grandparents. Since the birth of my daughter, Ava 6 months ago we have seen my parents four times and my in-laws 3 times. Before the baby, we saw our parents at most 2 times per year. That pretty much tells you everything you need to know about how excited they were about the new addition to the family. It may also tell me something about how interesting they find my wife and I after 36 years.

Since I got married we have rotated who we spend every holiday season with. This year it was my parents turn, but because they had visited us at Thanksgiving and were in the middle of a major remodel they stayed on the east coast and we on the west. I felt bad that we couldn’t travel to see them because at this age Ava changes on a weekly basis. As an example of this, I was just out of town for three days and by the time I got back my daughter had rolled over for the first time and was sticking her toes in her mouth. This may not seem like much to most people, but to a new father it meant that I missed a series of firsts.

I really wanted my parents to be able to experience part of the holiday with Ava. The problem was that at her age she can’t talk, can’t write an email and a photo while being worth a thousand words lacks the nuance of live interaction. As I thought about this I receive a corporate-wide email announcing a program called “Home for the Holidays”. Apparently some charitable soul at Cisco sold senior management on the idea of allowing employees to use our Telepresence systems to reach out to our friends and families during the holidays. Cisco has over 100+ Telepresence facilities across the world and one of them happened to be near where my parents live in New Hampshire. I quickly set up the session and arranged for my parents to be let into the Cisco office in Boxborough. As the day approached I tried to explain to my parents what Telepresence was. They didn’t seem to get it and eventually I gave up and told them they would understand once they experienced it.

The day after Christmas my wife, daughter and I entered my building on the Cisco campus in San Jose. At the same time my parents were getting situated in a room in Boxborough, MA 3,000 miles away. As the Telepresence system came to life I watched with amusement as the eyes lit up on every member of my family including my 6-month old daughter. We talked for almost an hour. We discussed how Xmas day went, what gifts Ava received, what we had for dinner and how we planned to spend the rest of our holidays. We put Ava on the desk facing my parents. They were able to make her smile by talking to her and making exaggerated facial expressions. They commented on how her eye color was changing, her hair was growing out and the little scratch on her nose she had given herself during her nap the day before. For a moment it felt like they were in the room with her. The only thing missing was the ability to hold her and change a dirty diaper. It was an emotional moment made possible by a revolution in the use of video to bridge distances that audio and text alone have been unable to do.

In a discussion with a group of analysts the other day, they asked me if I thought visual networking experiences like Telepresence would ever be of interest to mainstream consumers. I said that I didn’t know but as our world becomes flatter and people are separated by greater distances, as the younger generation continues to develop different ways to communicate, the combination of social networking and digital video has the potential to make the world feel more personal than it has in a long time.

Posted by Mike Kisch at 02:16 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

January 21, 2008

The !@#$% Product Rating Scale

I have my own rating scale for consumer technology. It’s called the !@#$% scale. It works the opposite of most ratings in that perfection is as close to zero as possible. For every swear word uttered you add one point. Unlike most rating scales there is no finite limit. Theoretically a new product could score a 2,327 on my scale. No product has ever gotten close because I usually take a bat to the product when it gets close to 50. My !@#$% rating scale is so easy to understand even my dog gets it. For lower scores he stays close and wants to be petted. For higher scores he typically runs away and cowers behind a piece of furniture or my wife if no furniture is readily available.

It’s important to note that I’m not dumb (I can’t say that everyone agrees with this statement). I attended a lot of school and paid attention most of the time. However I’m not smart enough to have earned a doctorate in computer science or electrical engineering. When something gets too difficult to understand I either don’t do it or pay someone else to do it for me. I’m a reasonably good barometer for new technologies. If I’m compelled to buy and able to get the product to work most people should be able to.

Recently I’ve been on a bit of a buying spree of new consumer technology. In the past several months I’ve picked up a Sling Box Pro, an Apple iTouch, a Nintendo Wii, and a Canon S1000 digital camera. I have justified these expenditures based upon the fact that I work in consumer marketing at Cisco and therefore should be trialing the latest technology. My wife is a bit skeptical of this reasoning and is wondering why I can’t get Cisco to subsidize my recent purchases since they are a “business expense”.

Posted by Mike Kisch at 07:41 PM Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

January 15, 2008

Why I love Video on Demand

I may work at Cisco, but I don't consider myself much of a technophile. Of all the gadgets I own, I only use about 10% of the features. I don't like instruction manuals and don't have the time to research all that my phone, MP3 player, etc are capable of. I'm mostly disappointed with the consumer technology I buy, but recently, I've been having a really good experience with Video on Demand from my cable TV company. As an employee of Cisco, I understand what Video on Demand (aka VoD (acronym alert!) is. I just never really spent much time using the service until recently. What changed? Well, I had always rented movies the way that most people rent movies. First it was a visit to the video store and then when I got lazy began to rent over the internet. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. I eventually determined that the disadvantages outweighed the advantages and cancelled both services. Then I discovered Video on Demand. I'm an Astound customer in the San Francisco area. While I have a DVR, I often miss some of my favorite shows. While looking for a movie one night, I stumbled upon old episodes of Entourage, Weeds, Californication and Extras. I had seen about half the episodes but there were at least 20-25 I had not seen. The best part is that they were free since I subscribed to the premium services. In the last few weeks I've seen all of the episodes and continued to dig deeper into the VoD library. A lot of the content is B-grade, but a good portion is fairly entertaining. The best part is that it's instantly available, it's free, and I can order it from the comfort of my couch. Consider me a convert. I know check the library frequently to see what has been newly added. And that brings me to a few areas that need to be improved. Nothing's perfect and the Video on Demand service from my cable company has a few issues. The act of finding interesting content is difficult. Somebody needs to step up and figure out a way to better present options to consumers. The delay between the DVD release and VoD is still too long. One of my favorite movies of the last 2-3 years came out in December...The Bourne Ultimatum. Rarely do I have to have a video when it comes out, but this was an exception. I ended up heading to Best Buy to purchase it, but I would have preferred to just order it over the network.

Even with the negatives it amazes me that only 27% of broadband users use an on-demand service. VoD libraries are increasing with some service providers offering up to 7,000 titles. The quality is the same as watching broadcast TV, price seems reasonable and there is no waiting.

Gotta go. The 3rd season of Entourage just became available and I'm trying to catch-up.

Posted by Mike Kisch at 10:45 AM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

January 10, 2008

Cisco at CES: Key Themes from the Show

Day four of CEShttp://www.cesweb.org/default.asp and I’m still standing…barely. I feel like I haven’t slept in days and my knees are permanently locked in place from standing in our booth all day. As expected CES was hectic, but not as crazy as it has been in past years. I saw a few funny things...this guy certainly looked like he was having fun.

A couple observations from the show:
1. Display technology continues to advance. Panasonic featured a 150” plasma that has 2-3x the resolution of today’s mainstream HD TV sets. In addition to getting bigger they are also getting slimmer. Panasonic, Sony and Samsung all showed off new displays that were less than 1” thick. What most excites me about the new displays is that they are constantly getting better at displaying high quality video to consumers. I suspect that current flat panel sales will continue to do well and soon the majority of homes will have this technology. Check out the worlds largest plasma TV...

2. Devices connected to the network continue to flourish. The CE industry is beginning to understand the power of the network and how it can help them create a better consumer experience from installation to the delivery of new services to the device.
3. Advancements continue on the network side as well. A few cable companies announced new initiatives designed to deliver 100mbps to the consumer. This along with the fiber optic networks being deployed by the telecommunications companies is really opening up the pipe and the potential for exciting new consumer experiences. The network continues to evolve in the home as well. We are quickly moving to the 802.11N which will deliver faster speeds and better range. Particularly exciting is the dual band technology from Linksys that enables a person to stream high-quality HD video content throughout the house while also been able to send email, access the internet, etc.

Visual networking experiences are highly dependent upon these technology advancements. The ability to deliver networked digital video to a range of devices combined with the consumers ability to participate in communities of people and communicaties of content is gaining steam and we saw examples throughout the show.http://www.cisco.com/consumer

The show ends in a few hours and the attendees will board plans and return to their homes. I'm looking forward to a few days of peace and quiet...

Posted by Mike Kisch at 02:13 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

January 06, 2008

Cisco at CES 2008

Two days and counting before CES 2008. The anticipation is building. The clock is ticking and people are diligently trying to tie up all loose ends. Today we're finalizing our booth and setting up all of the meeting rooms. Tomorrow we will do the set-up for our high-roller hospitality suite at the top of the Venetian. CES is definitely an experience. It creates a level of anxiety, but also a sense of excitement. For those of who haven't had a chance to attend the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, I will give you a brief tour.

CES happens every January in Las Vegas. If Vegas is crazy for most of the year the dial is turned up to 11 for CES. 150K people descend upon the city booking every hotel room, restaurant reservation, and limo available. Celebrities, professional athletes, high-profile executives pop up everywhere. Just last night I saw Jalen Rose and Tori Hunter at a restaurant at the Venetian. As a Red Sox and Celtics fan I wasn't overwhelmed, but it was a funny coincidence that the moment they showed up our service went south.

Why do people deal with the hassle and continue to travel to the show?

Posted by Mike Kisch at 07:54 PM Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Welcome to the Cisco Consumer Experience Blog!

What better time of the year than early January 2008 to start something new – CES is upon us, MacWorld is coming up, and then there are always New Year’s resolutions.

It’s a VERY interesting time in the world of consumer electronics. There are super-changes on the horizon. It’s a bird, it’s a plane, … it’s a product, it’s a service, … it’s managed, it’s DIY, … you rent it from service providers, you buy it at retail … – put it all together and it’s a consumer experience.

Cisco is well known to enterprises and technical types, but not so much to consumers. What we’ve done historically, developing “the network as a platform” is harder for consumers to grasp than a "bright shiny consumer electronics object" because a network's not tangible and because it does so many things, rather than one specific thing. It's like trying to sell an “invisible Swiss Army knife.” But the rise of digital video delivered over a network will not stop – so the system and partnerships that are required to deliver it in a way consumers want will evolve – and Cisco’s contribution to the consumer experience will grow along with the awareness of Cisco’s role. Be sure to follow our Cisco Consumer Web Site to see what we've got at CES and thereafter. We’ll all find out together as the year develops – and we hope you’ll join us on this blog to experience the adventure of inventing and discovering how the future plays out. -- Ken Wirt, VP Consumer Marketing

Posted by Ken Wirt at 06:00 PM Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)