Y!ou W?ho

Russ Beattie lays a deserved smackdown on Yahoo's new ad campaign and 'mission statement': "To be the center of people's online lives." Yet another bland marketing makeover on the wish buried in the heart of every cableco, telco and erstwhile portal out there - to 'own the customer'. But the slogan, and the associated ad campaign so far as I've seen it, fail to make the case that an Internet user - maybe we ought to say customer - should go along with that idea. This is an expensive burnishing of a brand that's lost significance to a population now largely used to finding their own way around the intertubes. Just what are you offering us, Y!hoo? Russ' post gives examples of mission statements that propose values for the customer, and offers a suggestion for Yahoo. Management should contemplate on that, and the fact that they've gotten their behind kicked by a company that was short on media budget, but long on value actually delivered to users.