Less than two years ago, Netflix was the butt of jokes by late night comedians.  Remember Qwikster? Netflix was going to spin-off the DVD service and re-brand its ubiquitous little red envelopes. Members would be able to join the two services — at a higher price, of course. Netflixquickly lost 800,000 subscribers and the good will of many more.  The stock fell about 30% within 24 hours.  The company apologized (see the apology parody and the apology itself).  Many thought that the harm could be permanent.

Yesterday, Netflix’s stock shot up 24% after it announced that the number of subscribers jumped nearly 10% in one quarter. What made the difference? How do you turn around a company on the brink of a disaster?  (At least a PR disaster)

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I am not a runner.  Never have been.

I was not born in Boston.  So, locals will never consider me to be a native, no matter how long I live here.

Yet, there is something about the Boston Marathon that gets into the soul here.  Actually, the Marathon is just part of a bigger thing that celebrates the rise of the individual and the support of the community.  It is part of the unique, bigger experience of Patriot’s Day weekend.  Perhaps, it is the ultimate expression of individual freedom and the support of neighbors.

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Last week, I was mentoring one of the TechStars start-up companies — a company that I have met with many times before.  I advised them that the problem they were tackling was much too big for such a small team.  I said that they should find a smaller problem that they could solve well and then solve it better than anyone else.  I still think that was sound advice for them.

But, as I was driving home, I started to think about this advice and I compared it to what excited me earlier in my career.  As head of marketing for Dragon Systems, I felt that I was on a mission to change lives through speech recognition.  And, we did change lives.  I remember a project where we enabled workers with repetitive stress injuries to stay on the job instead of going on disability because they did not have to use their hands to work. It kept people fulfilled and active.  I also remember a favorite project of mine where we provided speech recognition on mobile devices to officers at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.  By dictating at a crime scene, officers took better and more complete notes. I was told that conviction rates went up and department efficiency improved as a direct result of the speech recognition software.

I am proud of the part that I played.  It was a defining period in my life.

But, will the founders of the start-ups at TechStars, the MassChallenge and the Cambridge Innovation Center have the same sense of purpose that I did if they take my advice?  Will they feel like they changed the world?

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“Marketing Makes The First Sales Call” is already one of my all-time favorite quotes — and heard about a month ago.  John Neeson, co-founder and managing director of Sirius Decisions, said it at the MassTLC Marketing Summit on Doing More with Less.   I have never heard it so elegantly.

Technology marketing has changed.  Marketing used to be all about getting leads and handing them off to the sales force.  We had to produce exciting events and pretty literature.  PR was suspect because it could not be quantified by a lead count.  Get the name! Sales would do the rest.

I knew that this was no longer true.  But, I had never seen the data before.  The chart above shows that half of decision makers want to meet a sales rep only to keep up on industry trends or after the decision has been made.   John says,

Marketing makes the first sales call. Buyers are doing more and more online, socially with their peers and subordinates so by the time a sales person first interacts with a buyer, a good portion of the sales cycle is complete. This means marketing is making the first impression and sales call – this will dramatically change the emphasis of marketing in the next five years.

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What will you do when the intergalactic evil takes over Google Glass.

In this week’s season opener of Dr. Who on BBC America, we learn that (SPOILER ALERT) evil protagonists can monitor the Doctor’s activities by capturing all of the images on all the cameras in the world using wifi technology.  Using image recognition and their huge databases, the protagonists can track the Doctor around London and sense when their hideout is in danger.  (“I do love London.  So many cameras,” says the the deliciously whacked Miss Kizlet.)

At first, I thought about the outrageous science.  Bah!  How could a central service capture all of the images from cameras around the world using wireless technology.  Who would allow that!

Welcome, Google Glass.  We have the technology today and it is in our midst.  Instead of a camera, you have eyeglasses with a screen that allows you to search the web.  Data is closer than your fingertips.  Email is a whisper away.  Yelp! while walking.  And, you can document your life with photos and video just by saying “Glass, take a picture.”

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Back in the early days of the PC Web, we had the portal wars.  AOL, Excite, Yahoo, Snap!, Lycos, Netscape, and MSN battled to capture the first screen when you launched your browser.  Vendors talked about “capturing eyeballs” on the way to what the user wanted to do.

These “portals” were aggregated home pages that were customized with your email, your contacts and your interests.  iGoogle, which came a little late to the party, was described as ”your personalized Google page. Add news, photos, weather, and stuff from across the web to your page.”

The PC Portal Wars are over.  iGoogle is being discontinued in August.  We all know what happened to the AOL, which was once the leader of the pack of portals.  The most common PC home page is a simple search box.

But, it looks like Facebook has decided to skip the lessons learned by AOL and the others with this week’s announcement of Facebook Home.

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There are many aspects of the battle between Samsung and Apple.  In 2012, we had the launch of the Galaxy S3 and the spectacle of the court case.  (Remember as people took sides on the “rounded corner patent” of the iPhone.  Which, by the way, was not one of the actual issues in the case.)

However, it looks like the real difference in the upcoming battle will be in trendy software and hardware.  If you have any doubt, take a look at the new S-Health app.  Samsung describes it this way:

Stay active and fit with the Samsung GALAXY S4. It will track your workouts, daily intake, and weight levels. Get the current status of your surroundings for your activities with the Samsung GALAXY S4’s Comfort Level. It shows your comfort level based on temperature and humidity. Monitor your progress with both Health Board and various charts. Together with the Samsung GALAXY S4, being motivated for better health has never been so easy.

Monitor your comfort level?  Track your health data?  (I wonder who gets to keep this data.)

And, there are more cool trends.  Group play for games.  S Voice Drive for speech activated activities, eye tracking capabilities to pause videos and hand gestures to wave for next message.  I could go on.  But, this is not meant to be a marketing blog for Samsung.

Instead, it is worth noting the Go-To-Market Strategy.  Samsung is loading dozens of cool applications in an attempt to attract the innovators and early adopters.  If you cared about fitness, might you then choose a Samsung.

Apple, on the other hand, keeps its focus on simplicity and a “Don’t Make Me Think” user interface.  Apple often makes the complicated look easy.  At the same time, they skip many trends.  The latest iPhone did not include NFC (Near Field Communications) capabilities, which was part of the Samsung Galaxy S3.  Apple relies on the App Store for trends.

Which approach appeals to you?  And, which do you think will win?  (Your answer does not need to be the same for both.)

Welcome Death By Email readers to Really Cool New Stuff.

As you know, Death By Email has been dormant for a while.  This is because once InBoxer was sold, I was no loner in a position to add comments on the email security market.  Since that time, I have spent my effort on Go To Market strategies and technology marketing for young companies.  That is now my new focus.

So, I have transferred my domain to talk about new technology introductions.  If this is a topic that interests you and you like my writing style, I invite you to stay on with my new blog.  Otherwise, I will be sad to lose you.

Best regards,

Roger