What if Amazon REALLY pushed the Kindle?

I know that Amazon is doing well with the Kindle and they are promoting it so well that this Christmas it’s next to impossible to find one. So, doing something to expand Kindle adoption may not be in the forefront of their mind, but I had an idea that I think would be pretty cool and push me over the edge.

This morning I was thinking on my way to work (that happens when you’ve got to drive through a foot of snow to get to a road that’s been plowed)…”Why haven’t I bought a Kindle yet?”

Sure, there’s the price thing, but I love reading so much that I could find a way to justify it.

I think one of the biggest reasons I haven’t bought one yet is that I have a HUGE backlog of books I want to read on my bookshelf already. I would hate to have to re-purchase all those books in order to take full advantage of the Kindle. But, if I don’t, what’s the point in having one?

Then it dawned on me.

What if Amazon had a deal for new Kindle owners? What if they said, “Buy a Kindle and if you send us books you already own, we’ll replace them with the Kindle version”? Then, Amazon can sell those paper copies as “used” books on their website.

Sure, there’d be some big issues with the publishers and the logistics. (I like to think of myself as more of a big picture guy! HA!) I know that putting a program like this in place would be tough, but how cool would that be?

I, for one, would definitely use a program like this to buy and fill a Kindle and use THAT for my reading going forward.

Technorati Tags: Amazon,Kindle,marketing,business,books

How to cure buyer’s remorse

Everyone knows what buyer’s remorse is. Whether they are in business or not, they understand the concept. They may look at it from the other side of the coin, but they get it.

I have had many cases of buyer’s remorse in my life and I expect to have many more. So many times, I’ve bought something and (occasionally right afterwards) felt, “Boy, I really shouldn’t have bought that. Sometimes that leads to me keeping the product, sometimes not…but suffice it to say, I’ve felt it.

New Egg, in my opinion, has a handle on a great solution for that remorse.

I recently bought a Drobo for backing up my computer at home. As an aside, if you don’t have one of these yet…you need one. So, I ordered the Drobo and then a couple of 500 GB hard drives from New Egg.

Now, there wasn’t much chance that I was going to return those because I needed them, but there was always the possibility that I would change my mind and go with a different brand. Or scrap the Drobo idea completely and return the whole lot. But, it was unlikely.

New Egg, though, didn’t know that.

A few days after my drives showed up I got an email from New Egg. The subject line said, in essence that my product had either recently won or been nominated for an industry/consumer award. (Don’t remember exactly what it was, so I probably shouldn’t have deleted the email. Oh well) Then the email went on to explain the award and some comments about the product.

How great is that?

If someone started to get uneasy about their choice, here comes New Egg to say, “Hey, you made a great choice. This group is so confident in the choice you made they gave it an award. You are so smart.” Ok, so they left the last part off…but you get the idea.

Now, this obviously is contingent on a product ACTUALLY winning an award, which they won’t all do. But, New Egg sees the opportunity presented by the product winning an award and uses it to help THEIR business.

Very well done New Egg. Keep it up.

Technorati Tags: new+egg,buyer+remorse,marketing,business,good+idea