Made it back to Minneapolis this weekend to spend some time with the family. Cold or no cold, Cora just loves being outside. She was a good sport in letting me snap these 3.
Opinions And Ramblings By Adam Kmiec On All Things Media
Monthly Archives: March 2009
The Pure Genius Of Elmo
Whoever created the concept for the Sesame Street character Elmo was a genius. Elmo appeals to kids and adults (usually in a parody or humor based environment). Since Elmo was first introduced in 1985 he’s graced the covers of books, starred in movies, interviewed Robert DeNiro, and even been a talking – laugh happy toy.
Elmo
A quick search of Amazon.com will show you that there are over 20,000 Elmo related products in their inventory. I probably own 50 of them. My daughter loves Elmo. He’s been responsible for her wanting to learn to read, knowing her shapes and colors, and even learning to potty. Probably too much information in that last example. But, seriously, Elmo has become an integral part of our lives. It’s scary on some level.
There’s such passion for the Elmo brand (I think he’s bigger than a character) that people have taken to creating mashups of Elmo. Here’s a great example.
Elmo has helped extend Sesame Street and Walt Disney into markets like Indonesia, Brazil, and India. As their presence has grown so has the revenue. Elmo has single handedly generated millions of dollars in revenue for Walt Disney. But, hear is the genius of Elmo. Rarely does Walt Disney or Sesame Street actually produce any of the items that are created and sold. All Disney does is license out Elmo’s rights. Companies like Hasbro, Fisher Price, and P&G are actually taking on the responsibility, overhead, and risk. Brilliant! Or Genius, if you prefer. You could make the argument that Elmo doesn’t even really belong to Walt Disney anymore, he belong to all of us.
Don’t believe me? After this vide launched, Wired ran an article questioning if robots (Elmo TMX would qualify) should have rights.
This is the quote that sticks out to me:
I’ve seen videos of the incineration of T.M.X. Elmo (short for Tickle Me Extreme); they made me feel vaguely uncomfortable. Part of me wanted to laugh—Elmo giggled absurdly through the whole ordeal—but I also felt sick about what was going on. Why? I hardly shed a tear when the printer in Office Space got smashed to bits. Slamming my refrigerator door never leaves me feeling guilty. Yet give something a couple of eyes and the hint of lifelike abilities and suddenly some ancient region of my brain starts firing off empathy signals. And I don’t even like Elmo. How are kids who grow up with robots as companions going to handle this?
Elmo has gone from a leftover prop that showed no promise to multi-million dollar industry that has us questioning if the Elmo robot toys deserve human-like rights. That’s Genius.
The Project 100 Is Complete
The Project 100 is a great project. I’ve been a big supporter of the initiative and I’ve blogged about it several times in the past. In short Jeff Caswell had this fantastic idea to gather 100 brilliant minds to author a book together. Each contributor was asked to write a chapter (visuals were optional) about social media. Jeff, bless that man’s heart, then assembled all of the contributions into an actual book. The kicker is, ALL of the profits go right to the Susan G. Komen foundation. So, by purchasing the book you’re not only getting smarter, but you’re also contributing to a great cause.
If you’re looking to get smarter in the social media space, this is a great start. The book retails for $19.95 and with shipping ends up being around $25.00. Hmmm 100 thought leaders for only $25.00; that’s a damn good ROI. I ordered two copies this morning and I’d encourage you to do the same.
Twitter Needs A Thumb
Tools on the internet continue to get smarter. Pandora Radio is one of my favorite examples. It serves up music based on the music I like and the music I don’t like. They do this in a real simple fashion. When a song comes on I can elect to click either a Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down icon. Simple, right?
Based on that feedback, Pandora optimizes my playlist. Pandora gets smarter with each piece of information I supply it. This isn’t exactly revolutionary right? Tivo, Amazon, and Netflix have been leveraging this type of approach for years now. Heck, even Facebook let’s you do that to the ads that are served. Yes, you can thumbs up or down an ad. Based on that information Facebook is supposed to get smarter and no longer show you an ad you clearly aren’t interested in.
This brings me to twitter. As you know I’ve been a big fan of implementing a rating system for twitter for a while now. When twitter was a kiddie pool this feature was a nice to have. But, now that twitter has become an ocean it’s a must have. Imagine being able to thumbs up or down a tweet and having twitter get smarter based on that feedback. Twitter could recommend new people to follow based the feedback and even filter out people from your stream.
To me, that’s value. Much like NetFlix you could compare rankings with your friends/colleagues and let their feedback influence the recommendations. That’s social media at its best right there. What would be even better is if twitter aggregated all the feedback across their membership base to score tweeters. Think about it. No longer would you have to simply look at the number of followers someone has a means of evaluating their value. The community would be able to influence and determine their value. On some level the community would be similar to deputies policing the twitterverse.
Of course not all of this would be free. Twitter after all needs to make some money. From a monetization standpoint, twitter could sell back the information from the community to individuals. Wouldn’t you like to know the raw numbers? If you care about your brand (personal or corporate) you should.
I have a sneaking suspicion as to why they won’t implement this feature, but that’s a whole other post.
Am I crazy? Let me know what you think.
What Happens When Consumers Are In Control
I love the Simpsons. It’s one of the longest running shows on TV because it somehow remains relevant, funny, timely, and simple. Lately it seems you can’t open up a link without hearing, “consumers are in control” and “let the consumer decide.” I’m finding it tougher and tougher to swallow these statements. It’s almost gotten as bad as “stimulus package” messaging advertisers are flocking to. This isn’t the time or place to get into a lengthy debate on whether consumers are in control and if we should simply let them decide what products are launched, in addition to controlling the messaging/marketing used to support the product. I’ll make time in a future post to discuss this in detail.
Coming back to the Simpsons…there’s an episode called “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” The Wikipedia entry does a great job of providing details of the episode. In short here’s what happens:
- Homer learns about his half brother Herb
- Herb owns a car company, called Powell Motors
- Herb and his team are working on a new car
- Herb decides to let Homer, the average consumer, have full control over the development of the new car
- Homer leads the development and names the car, The Homer
- The Homer is unveiled and is a complete failure – not only is it ugly, but it’s insanely expensive
- Herb’s company goes bankrupt
Here’s a video showing what The Homer looked like:
Consumer input is one thing. Marketers have been doing that for years through product testing, ethnographic studies, focus groups, and more. The methods for how we engage these consumers for feedback has changed; it’s evolved. That’s a good thing. But, to think that we can blindly shirk our responsibilities and simply do whatever the consumer wants is potential recipe for business suicide.
Herb, learned this the hard way. Let him be a lesson.
Why Isn’t The Car Buying Experience Better?
I recently got into the market for a new car. It was time to trade in my wife’s 2002 Jaguar X-Type. But, for what? Getting from the requirements to completing the purchase was a harrowing experience. The short story is we ended up with an Infiniti G37X. You can skip down to the bottom of this post for the lessons learned.
Here’s the long version. It took us roughly 45 days to go from the beginning of the process to the end. It was painful. We’ve purchased 3 houses and I can tell you that buying a car was a much worse process. Here’s why.
Requirements
It wasn’t too hard to figure out the requirements. This was probably the easiest part of the process. We wanted All Wheel Drive, Built In Navigation, Heated Seats, 4 Doors (not a coupe), Automatic Transmission, Seating for 5 (ideally 7), and a set budget. We wanted either a new car or a certified preowned.
Research
Wow! There were too many options to choose from. Do you look at Edmunds? Car & Driver? Road & Track? Can you trust JD Power or customer reviews? Searches on Google don’t exactly help you out either. There’s too much noise out there on the web. Even if you start at sites that are supposed to help you compare, contrast, and choose cars that meet your requirements you’ll get different answers. Cars.com, AutoBuyTel.com, and the like all create muddy water. There’s no consistency in how you compare vehicles. They all seem to be basing their GUI off of different data. There’s really no data integrity or consistent repeatable model for evaluating cars. That said, using a hybrid of tools and sources we had a short list of vehicles to check out: Acura MDX, Acural RL, BMW 528xi, Ford Fusion, Cadillac CTS, Infniti FX35, Infiniti G37x, and Volvo XC90.
Try, Trial, and Error
OK, so you’ve got a short list based on primarily unemotional information. Pictures, spec sheets, reviews, and charts are only part of the equation. You have to actually touch the car, hear the engine, and of course experience the ride. You’d think this would be easy, however finding a dealer that’s has the car you want to test drive on the lot can be tougher than you’d imagine. There’s a noticeable gap between the inventory information contained on a dealer’s site and what’s actually there when you show up. On more than 1 occasion we showed up at the dealer only to find out they didn’t have the car we wanted. For example, we showed up at a Ford dealership to test drive the AWD version of the Fusion, but they didn’t have any on the lot. After test driving every car on the list we had it narrowed down to 4: Acura MDX, BMW 528xi, Infiniti FX35, and Infiniti G37x.
The Money Game
The cost of a car is really made up of several things: Base Price, Less Trade In, Less Incentives, Less Negotiating Room, Plus Tax, Plus Title, Plus Other Fees…and of course the financing options. I listed out all the items, but how each dealer approaches them is completely inconsistent. There’s even inconsistencies by car model from the same dealer. Trying to figure out the net-cost is quite difficult. Shouldn’t it be easier? Sites like Cars.com list the MSRP, Dealer Invoice Price, and even sometimes the average cost people are paying. A site like KBB.com even gives you an idea for what to expect for your trade-in. Armed with all that information it should be really easy to guess how much you should be paying. It’s not that easy though. For example, the amount of money I was being offered for my trade-in varied as much as 25%. The money game also generally involves 4 players: the salesman, finance guy, technician, and a more senior salesman. After figuring out the “out the door” price for each vehicle we decided on the Infiniti G37x.
Paperwork
Cool, you’ve picked the car. We even picked from a variety of G37x’s on the lot. That meant we could choose color and features. That’s very cool, but we were lucky. Not every dealership was as well stocked. For example the Acura dealership only had 3 options to pick from for the MDX. At this point in the experience things should go fast, right? Wrong. This is where things come to a screeching halt. The dealer has no incentive to move things along, because you’ve already agreed to buy the car. From the time we agreed on the specific car, net cost, and finance options it took nearly 3 hours to actually drive off the lot. The dealership had to get a bunch of paperwork put together and clean the car we wanted. I don’t mind the cleaning the car part, but given all the paperwork we’d already filled out it the “final” paperwork should have gone much faster. The salesman passes you off to to the finance guy. The finance guy has you sign some papers and then passes you off to the guy who will actually handle the “final” paperwork. This guy is also the guy that will also try to up-sell you on an extended warranty, clear shield protectant, and many other wonderful things. Rather than have all the paperwork ready to go, he had to print each form individually while we were there. Crazy.
The Grand Finale
The dealership didn’t have the second key FOB on hand. Another salesman apparently had it on him and he was not working on the day we purchased the car. This means we need to swing by and pick it up. We’ll also need to stop by to pick up the license plates.
Apologies for the length, but given how long this post is, you can only imagine how long the process was in real time 
After going through this process here’s my take-aways on how to make the experience better:
- Data Consistency: There’s just too many holes in the data. Everyone seems to be using a different source. This applies to even the dealer. The inventory being reported on the dealer’s website needs to represent what’s on the lot. It would also be fantastic if independent sites like Edmunds were leveraging the same data for their reviews and comparisons.
- Stop Killing The Trees: The amount of repetition in paperwork was staggering. I still can’t get over the number of times we provided our name, address, social security number, and date of birth. From the minute I walk through the door they should be collecting data, dumping it into a consumer profile, and leveraging it to accelerate the whole buying process.
- Transparency: I can’t believe I just typed that word. But, it’s true. Despite all the payment calculators, information on financing, advertising, and “free” honest information it’s impossible to figure out how much you’re going to pay. I should be able to have a damn good idea of how much the final cost is going to be. The haggling on price is one of the most time consuming parts of the process.
Shouldn’t it be easier? Why isn’t it?
5 Brands Succeeding Without Social Media
With all of the world seemingly in love with twitter and “social media” I thought it might be nice to ground us in a little bit of reality. Social Media can be fantastic. Several brands have found success by leveraging social channels like Facebook and Twitter. I’m a big supporter of the concept, approach, and strategy. I find myself encouraging clients to invest in social media. At the same time, social media isn’t for everyone. It just isn’t. This isn’t a crazy concept – TV, Direct Mail, and Print aren’t for every company either.
With that in mind, here are 5 brands that aren’t playing in the social media space, but still doing quite well:
The blue box says it all, doesn’t it? They rarely, if ever, offer items on sale. While other jewelry chains are closing up shop or shrinking down, Tiffany & Co. has remained strong. They have a brand with staying power, strong emotional bonds, margins that are insane, and limited expansion.
It’s kinda funny huh. Apple the brand people love to love is also one of the most closed off companies out there. They have products, hardware, and software that’s setup for the social media space. But, they’ve shied away from engaging people directly. Their forums are useless, email support poor at best, and you don’t see them sharing and dialoging with people. It’s not like there aren’t enough fans and owners with problems out there. Yet, people flock to the brand. They’ve created a situation where the consumer is willing pay between $300 and $500 more for an equivalent PC.
As a watch fan I gotta tell you Rolex isn’t a great watch. But, it’s a fantastic status symbol. That said, they’ve done very well and continue to do well. Watches are great splurge items. I should know; I’ve splurged on a few You don’t see Rolex on Facebook engaging their staunch advocates…and believe me Rolex owners are true believers.
You gotta love Dolby. Their stock price has continued to grow and why not; they’re at the center point of the movie and entertainment business. BlueRay DVD isn’t just about amazing picture quality. It’s the audio as well. That audio, more often than not, is in a Dolby format. There are however people who will tell you that DTS is a better format and Dolby lacks the punch in sound. That doesn’t even cover the segment of the universe who sees Dolby as nothing more than a hype machine…churning out new formats and certifications to just generate cash. Seems like the type of situation perfect for social media huh? So why aren’t they participating.
Kinda ironic isn’t it. Twitter, the fad du jour is one of the least social companies on the internet. They’re one of the few start-ups (can we still call them that?) that are generating venture capital funds and who’s valuation continues to rise. Have you ever tried engaging them for support? Sigh…it’s painful. Even if you @ the twitter staff, you’re lucky to get a response. They don’t develop apps, instead relying on the community to do it instead. The most social thing they’ve done is make the twitter API wide open. This has allowed people to build around twitter. But, beyond that, are they really invested in social media?
There ya go, 5 brands that are doing well, but who haven’t been playing in the social media space. Pretty damn cool if you ask me. Think about it.
Note: Interpretation about success was derived from data sourced via Wikinvest, NPD and Bloomberg. The Bloomberg data is publicly available, but I don’t believe I’m allowed to embed/share data from NPD.
Northwest Airlines – It’s Not An Emotional Thing
It’s not an emotional thing.
If you’ve ever flown on an airplane you know how emotional of an experience it can be. From booking the ticket to landing at the destination the whole experience is one giant emotional roller coaster. To use a simple word, it’s stresfull. Here are some of the questions that go through my mind:
- Did I get the best fare?
- Did I pack enough/too much clothes?
- Will they charge me to check a bag?
- How long will the security line be?
- Will my belt buckle set off the metal detector?
- Will the flight take off on time?
- Who’s going to sit next to me?
- Will the flight land safe?
There’s dozens more, but those are some of the major ones. I think you can see what I mean when I say: stressful.
Well, as many of you know this has been a stressful week for me. Getting carbon monoxide poisoning and ending up in a hyperbaric chamber kinda does that to you.
I was due to fly out of Pittsburgh, PA on Northwest Airlines flight 1921 on Saturday March 21, 2009 and return to Pittsburgh on Northwest flight 3272 on March 22, 2009.
But, after the insanity of this week, all I wanted to do was get home as soon as possible. I was in Chicago on business Tuesday through Friday morning. Rather than fly back to Pittsburgh on Friday and then fly back across the country to Minneapolis on Saturday, I simply booked a Southwest Airlines ticket from Chicago to Minneapolis on Friday. That put me back together with the family 1 day earlier. And I tell you, after nearly dying, there ain’t nothing like family to make you feel alive.
Tonight, I tried to check in for my flight online at NWA.com. I received an error message and it wouldn’t let me check in. I called the Northwest Airlines customer service number, made my way through 5 minutes of automated prompts, and finally ended up with a human being. I explained my problem and he quickly diagnosed.
Northwest Airlines canceled my ticket for Sunday because I didn’t take the Saturday flight out to Pittsburgh. This was news to me. I’ve changed flights dozens of times; especially when on business and I’ve never run into this problem. I asked what that meant and he responded that they could reinstate my ticket for a penalty fee of $150.00 and the price difference between the old ticket and new ticket. By new ticket, I mean literally the SAME ticket I already had, but they canceled.
I sought a higher power and asked to speak with someone else. Surely, this must be a mistake, right? I was transfered to, Michael, a supervisor. From the get go he was cold. I re-explained my situation and he said amongst other things
it’s not an emotional thing.
He pointed out that had I read the full terms and conditions before booking the flight I would have known that this would happen. Gee, thanks for making me feel even dumber. As he put it, “we’re in the business of selling tickets.” That was in response to my questioning why they canceled my flight. See, Northwest assumed that since I didn’t take the first leg of my trip I wouldn’t be taking the 2nd leg. They wanted to sell my ticket at a much higher cost. In doing so they’ve sold the seat twice.
I was amazed…stupefied really. Michael explained to me that the rules are the rules, I should have known better, and it wasn’t his fault I took a different flight out. Wow. He even prodded me to go into details about why I changed my ticket. I explained to him the carbon monoxide situation and he that’s when he said, well “it’s not an emotional thing.” The conversation went back and forth for about 20 minutes. During that time I even flat out asked him do you think this is right? He fell back on the old rules are rules bit. He was condescending, argumentative, and cold as ice.
Before hanging up the phone I asked him 3 things:
- Since I didn’t agree to any terms on the call about recording the conversation was he ok with me posting the call to my blog? This freaked him out and he explained I had no legal right to do so. I have no idea if he’s right. Until I find out, I won’t be posting it.
- Are you sure there is nothing in your power or someone else’s to fix this problem without forcing me (I believe I indicated they had a gun to my head and I had no choice) to pay? His response, was “I didn’t say that, you are putting words in my mouth.” Wow.
- Can you please mail or email a copy of the terms and conditions? He declined and said I should look on Expedia.com (where I booked the tickets) for that information.
As you can imagine, I was a little more than hot under the collar. I couldn’t get over the rudeness, lack of civility, and coldness exhibited by Northwest and their “customer service” staff. I looked on twitter to see if Northwest had a presence. I was hoping to correspond with someone else before writing this post, but as you’d imagine I didn’t find anything.
To be clear, yes the rules are the rules. Yes, I should have printed them, read them, and I guess followed them explicitly. But, I also believe there is a difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law.
When you compare this experience to my experiences with Southwest it’s no wonder Southwest continues to thrive will Northwest struggles to maintain it’s existence. Now that Southwest is flying to Minneapolis, you can be sure all my future flights from Pittsburgh to Minneapolis will be on Southwest…even though I’d have to connect in Chicago. Yes, that’s right. I’m giving up direct flights for connecting ones. The difference in customer service is just staggering.
Southwest thanks for coming to the Twin Cities; it’s nice to have an alternative.
The Worst Night Of My Life
Short Version
Buy a carbon monoxide detector for you home. It could save your life.
Long Version
When a bunch of guys get together for some drinks, without failure the conversation will turn into a category requiring one-up-menship. It could be anything from the worst date, worst job, or worst injury. Ladies I’m sure you’ve had similar types of discussions. Well, I can officially say that when the conversation turns to the worst night ever, I will have everyone beat. Seriously. Let me tell you about the night of March 16th and the very early morning of March 17th.
Monday night around 9pm I had a noticeable headache. That should have been my first sign, because I never get a headache or get sick. The headache was so bad, I opted to turn into bed early. Again, something that rarely, if ever, happens. At about 2:00 AM in the morning I woke up and was feeling quite light headed and somewhat disoriented. Basically it felt exactly like it does when you go to bed drunk and wake up half drunk/half hungover. I thought to myself, maybe I’m just a little dehydrated and need some fluids. Off to the kitchen. I stumbled into the kitchen and struggled to get a Gatorade from the fridge. I hit the floor like a ton of bricks, conking the back of my head and my elbow. All of this are things I learned later on the morning of March 17th.
I was on the floor of the kitchen passed out until I heard the some seriously loud knocking at the front door. Stumbling, I made my way to the door and was greeted by paramedics. I didn’t have the wherewithal to connect and comprehend why they were there. The rest is a little foggy. I was placed into an ambulance and driven to the UPMC Hospital near the University of Pittsburgh campus. I spent the next several hours receiving oxygen, getting a CAT scan, and undergoing a bunch of tests.
It wasn’t until about 7am on the morning of March 17th that I learned what had happened. Apparently, I was suffering from sever carbon monoxide poisoning. A normal healthy person has a 0% level of carbon monoxide in their body. A smoker has 5%. I had 27%. WTF? How did this happen. There was no answer on that yet. After being told why I was in the hospital they moved me over to receive the “serious” treatment. I had no idea, but the main course of treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning was spending time in a hyperbaric chamber. I can officially tell you that laying in a hyperbaric chamber is not fun. The chamber is designed to literally push out the carbon monoxide from your bloodstream and replace it with oxygen. Fascinating, effective, but still creepy.
Following my stint in the hyperbaric chamber I met with a homicide detective, yeap you heard me right, who was investigating the situation. Damn, only 2+ weeks in Pittsburgh and already someone was trying to put a hit on me In all seriousness though, he took my statement (pretty much everything you read so far) and filled me in on what happened. Basically someone left a maintenance vehicle running in a closed garage. The carbon monoxide from the vehicle made its way into all the condos next to it. My condo was the closest, which is why I was rocking a 27% on the carbon monoxide meter. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette covered the story; I’m the “one man in serious condition.”
After the interview I spent the next few hours undergoing a battery tests (I passed them all) and trying to convince the doctors to let me leave. My negotiation skills were quite strong and they agreed to let me leave. But, that’s when I realized I had a big problem. In the insanity that was the previous night, no one had the presence of mind to grab my shoes, pants, or wallet. So there I was standing in my shorts and a t-shirt trying to figure out how I’d get home. The hospital was nice enough to call me a cab and the cab driver was nice enough not to ask questions.
I made it home, paid the cab driver, took a shower, and hopped a plane to Chicago for some business meetings. That sounds nuts, I realize, but work doesn’t stop just because I’m poisoned
I wanted to write this post so that:
- I could get my story down on paper
- I could share with you all why I was noticeably absent lately from the blog, twitter, Facebook, etc.
- To encourage you all to purchase a Carbon Monoxide detector.
You can’t smell carbon monoxide. It can paralyze you and leave you unconsious. I got lucky because a guy living above me had a carbon monoxide detector that went off. He was the one who called 911. If he wasn’t there, who knows what would have happened. Let my story be a kick in the pants for you all. Run out to your local True Value and spend the less than $30.00 (usually) to keep you and your family safe.
Are You In The Collection Business?
Quality not quantity. How long have we heard this battle cry? We council our clients that it’s about quality. It’s now about amassing millions of email addresses if only 10 of them are people who want to hear from you. It’s not about buying lists from Experian and direct mailing the entire country. These types of frivolous concepts are expensive, wasteful, time consuming, and take focus away from reality.
A trend that’s been on the rise for a while, but now getting absurd is people focusing on the number of followers they have on twitter and the number of friends they have on Facebook. This isn’t limited to people who don’t know any better. Industry leaders like Sarah Evans have started focusing on this as well. I asked Sarah why she wanted to be friends with someone on Facebook that she didn’t know. Her response was
it’s another way for me to get to know ppl. plus there’s a way to create groups on Facebook.
Gotta tell you, while I respect Sarah a hell of a lot, I’m just not buying it. People like Robert Scoble, Loic Le Meur, and Chris Brogan have either reached Facebook’s 5000 friend limit or are close to it. Please tell me how it is you can consider 5000 people your “friend?” Can you really have a meaningful dialogue with these people? Maybe I’m missing something…and believe me I totally could be. I’m not infallible.
Are we simply collecting friends like we did garbage pail kid cards in the 80s?
Think I’m crazy? OK, there’s now a service that asks the question
What If You Could Press Just One Button & Automatically Start Getting 1000′s Of Legitimate New Twitter Followers On Autopilot… Even If Nobody Knows Who You Are Now?
Of course the service promises to help you get those 1000s of followers.
People we’re missing the point. How can you maintain solid, strong, and meaningful relationships with millions of followers and “friends.” You can’t. I’d argue that focusing on more hurts your ability to create value.
Make no mistake, VALUE, is the commodity we should be trading. People are not cards, comic books, or coins to be collected. If you treat them that way they’ll eventually treat you that way and trade you in for something else.