RJ van Spaandonk, common sense of a garden gnome?
by Stii
Tech Central recently did an interview or “personality profile” of RJ van Spaandok, Executive Director of the Core Group. The Core Group has the monopoly on Apple and Nintendo products in South Africa, just in case you did not know. I don’t think people are refuting the fact that RJ is a learned business man. He has a MBA from my esteemed ex-employer Wharton School of Business. Like he says:
“There are people who have an MBA and there are people who have an MBA. It’s something people in SA don’t want to hear but it’s very different studying at a local school and studying at one of the world’s top universities. If you want to do an MBA, go to one of the well-established institutions, otherwise you’re wasting your time and money.”
(Photo credit: Tech Central)
It is just a pity that they did not have a class in Common Sense. After the Twitter PR disaster and more recently the article on Tech Central in which he states that he “prefers fine wine to bloggers”, I thought I’d lay out a couple of facts.
Let me start by stating that my decision to acquire an Apple Mac can directly be contributed to 3 prominent bloggers. Mike Stopforth, Dave Duarte and Justin Hartman. Today I own 2 Macbooks, 1 Mac mini, 1 iPod Touch and 2 iPhones. If I’m not mistaken it was Mike, Justin and myself that also tipped Mark Forrester‘s decision to buy an Apple. (Mark, am I correct in saying this?) I can think of a number of bloggers that has invested in Apple Macs and I think I’d be safe to say their decision was greatly influenced by their peers [read: bloggers].
Thats all good and well, but let’s face it, these couple of sales won’t buy RJ an year’s supply of fine wine. Hardly. So I turned to Afrigator and extracted a couple of statistics regarding bloggers and Apple:
“Apple Mac” 3372 blog posts written by 754 bloggers.
“iPhone” 7552 blog posts written by 949 bloggers.
“iPod” 4344 blog posts written by 1242 bloggers.
“OS X” 1272 blog posts written by 520 bloggers.
Not quite so insignificant. Consider that the average Apple user tends to vigorously defend the Apple brand whenever anything is said or whenever Microsoft Windows gets a bit too much exposure. I wrote two bashing Windows 7 posts just last week. RJ, money can’t buy this. Just to put it into perspective:
“Windows 7” 845 blog posts written by 207 bloggers.
“Windows Mac” 1474 blog posts written by 551 bloggers.
Consider that Windows 7 is probably the best operating system ever to be released by Microsoft and Snow Leopard the biggest ball of fluff by Apple, I’d say it would be common sense to nurture the relationship with your product’s greatest fans, wouldn’t you? Instead RJ prefers fine wine.
Sure, one can argue that the internet does not reach much of their target market. If you’re a garden gnome. Tell me, how many articles was written about Apple in the last 12 months in traditional media? This many? I doubt it. What makes it even more significant is that this is unpaid word of mouth marketing. Yes, RJ, unlike you, we don’t get paid to write. When we say something about Apple it is an honest opinion. Thing is, our words carries a lot more weight with some of our readers and friends than your paid writings ever will. EVER. Should I say it again just for extra effect? Okay. EVER!
RJ, here is the best advice you’ll ever get for free:
Put on a pointy red hat, a fake beard and register under the name Fizzcrank Fullthrottle for UCT GSB’s Nomadic Marketing course. It may be worth much more than your MBA in the long run.
“Common sense is not so common”. – Voltaire
Yeah, macs rule the roost. Fortunatley my data contract with Vodacom is almost finished and then it’s back to mac as my #Dell 620 would serve better as a frisbee thrown from my balcony
In addition, if the iphone camera had been better I would have gone for that too.
But I’ll get the next version as the augmentedreality apps look interesting
nice post
Stii, you are spot on. Agree with every word.
Since when did anybody actually care what a Dutchman says anyway? :P
That addresses sveeral of my concerns actually.
well put Stii! I find it mind-blowing that RJ has the attitude that when the greatest fans of the product you sell are deeply dissatisfied with your company and service, the correct response is to alienate them further.
Clearly RJ was bunking class on the ‘relationship marketing’ days
Just came across this now, thanks for the Nomadic Marketing link, Stii:)
For me the purpose of education is to open our minds to new possibilities. A closed mind is a sign of ignorance, whether the person has attended school or not.