L Watson Library Visit Project
- 1. Old vs. New School A study of two internet information agencies.
- 2. Short Version • One is old and stale. Meet Naked Lime Marketing, child company of Reynolds & Reynolds • The other is new and EPIC. Enter Dropbox, internet startup rising star.
- 3. One company is stuck in the past – The other says the future is now! HERE BEGINS THE LONG VERSION
- 4. • New Digital Marketing branch of Reynolds & Reynolds, a car dealership technology solutions company started in 1866, when they made standardized forms for dealerships. • Naked Lime was born last October when 3 branches of the company all related to web products merged. • Those branches are Web, Web Services (search engine optimization & ad management), & Managed Marketing. • The new branding of Naked Lime was to distinguish their web products as separate from their very well known DMS (data management system). • So they’re a “new” company broken off from an old company and still have a very old fashioned way of doing things because they still answer to their corporate overlords at Reynolds & Reynolds
- 5. • Dropbox was founded in 2007 by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi. – Frustrated by working from multiple computers, Drew was inspired to create a service that would let people bring all their files anywhere, with no need to email around attachments. • Drew coded a demo of Dropbox and showed it to fellow MIT student Arash Ferdowsi, who dropped out with only one semester left to help make Dropbox a reality. • Guiding their decisions was a relentless focus on crafting a simple and reliable experience across every computer and phone. • Since their product launch in 2008 they’ve grown considerably, been courted by Apple guru Steve Jobs himself, and been a rising star in the technology startup game.
- 6. Mission Statements • Add a splash with Naked • Dropbox is a free service Lime. We are your answer that lets you bring all your to fresh and innovative photos, docs, and videos marketing, advertising, and anywhere, and share them web solutions. It’s hard to easily. resist our twist...Get Naked • Any file you save to your and Get Noticed! WINNER of ROUND ONE Dropbox will automatically • Trying too hard much? save to all your computers, • This mission statement is your phone or iPad, and the like that weird uncle who Dropbox website. tries to be hip and with it • Simple, easy, clear and but he’s a 40 year old concise. bachelor. • Bonus: not creepy at all.
- 7. Company Directors • One director for each • Drew & Arash – cofounders branch: Web, Web Services, are still in charge and have a & Marketing hand in everything from the • There’s talk about a new VP new office design to putting for the whole branch but in a helping hand with there hasn’t been a decision coding. about it since the new • They’re involved and company broke off from invested inof ROUND TWO WINNER the company Reynolds & Reynolds. they’ve built together. • This has really just caused a • Eventually as the company lot of interoffice politics and expands this may lead to jockeying for power from burn out on their part. each department’s • But they’ve already setup a manager. good support structure to build on when it gets to that point.
- 8. Interviewees • Kate Craig • Ryan Morehouse – Supervisor of – Core Support Team Lead Administrative Team – Worked for Dropbox – Been at Reynolds & since 2010 Reynolds for 4 years
- 10. The first thing your eye is drawn to is the big green Fresh & Innovative. Then my eye goes to the “stay in the know” which is in the LEAST fresh font ever, unless the fresh you’re going for is like the 90’s Fresh Prince of Bel Air (which I’m pretty sure that’s not what they’re going for.
- 11. Video Assesment • It’s well made and professional looking. I’ll give it that much. • But right from the start again their message is sleezy. – The first thing that happens in the video is someone checking out the girl. • Yes in advertising you want to get people’s attention but not in a negative way. • Continuing through the video, the car seems to be hitting on her and hey! look Naked Lime Marketing is helping it in a weird anthropomorphic wing man kind of way. • Videos have been proven to increase conversion rates, but I don’t think this one helps their case much.
- 12. Overall Assesment • In general the site is clean and has fancy graphics, but the design is OLD and tired. • This is a company that SELLS websites and web products, this is the best they can do? • Also those two shades of green do not work for me. • The website is informative and the customer testimonials are helpful, however the creepy advertising slogans about getting naked… do not inspire confidence in their product.
- 14. Above the fold of the website is clear of clutter and focuses on their product. Right away they get you with a call to action. Download dropbox now. The blues are soothing and easy on the eyes. You don’t need fancy fonts and cheezy lines to pick up customers. Good design and clear direction can do it way more effectively!
- 15. Video Assessment • Easy to understand for both tech and non-tech people. • They also do it in a way that isn’t demeaning to a non- tech audience. • They emphasize how their product makes your life simpler! • Who wouldn’t want to sign up after watching this video? • Also the video is fun as well as informative. The cartoonish nature manages to not come across as childish but entertaining.
- 16. Overall Assessment • Their site is clean and easy to look at. WINNER of ROUND THREE • The main focus is on their product but they don’t try to OVER sell it either. • They clearly communicate what it is they do and how it would benefit you. • If you already have their service the sign in area is easy to find and navigating the rest of their site is a breeze with their footer navigation. • In general I’m a fan of footer navigation and avoiding the dreaded “banner”. People just ignore banners altogether now. So use that valuable above the fold real estate for something more effective. – Like selling your product! And good design! There’s not a thing about this site I would change.
- 17. Types of Products Naked Lime Dropbox • Digital Marketing for auto • File storage and sharing industry • Three levels: • Three branches: – Free 2GB – Web – website design, domain hosting, email, DMS integration – Paid 100 GB with website, online service – Package for Teams scheduler • Free mobile and iPad apps as – Web Services – search engine optimization and ad management, well social media, blog, and digital • File sharing between Facebook reputation management. friends – Managed Marketing – full service print, email, and web marketing • Automatically stores photos materials. taken on your phone in your • Partnership with Zimmerman Dropbox photo file Advertising for commercial production.
- 18. Outsourced Services Naked Lime Dropbox • Mobile • NOTHING! – Gumiyo • Blogs • They would rather know it – Wordpress was done right then – Funny story- previously they outsource anything related used one Wordpress account with different domains for each to their product. site. So when they got hacked and a virus was set loose on • This allows them to take anyone’s computer who tried ownership of everything to go to any of their dealer’s blogs. related to their services. • Video – Unlike NLM’s Wordpress – Zimmerman Advertising debacle. • Parts Ordering Portal – Trademotion
- 19. Sources of Funding Naked Lime Dropbox • As a startup company Dropbox is • Is part of the privately owned funded by venture capital made Reynolds & Reynolds and possible through angel investors. receives its funding from the sale • Venture capital makes money by of their products and services as owning equity in high potential, well as their parent company. high-risk companies and gets a • In 2006, Reynolds & Reynolds was return when the company hopefully goes public or is bought bought out by Universal out. Computing Systems for $2.8 billion. • Steve Jobs once offered to buy out the company but the founders • The economic downturn has not turned him down. affected the branches that now • In their first round Dropbox brought make up Naked Lime Marketing in 7 million in investors. very much as car dealers try to make up lean years by moving • Their second round of funding was into the new online auto sales 250 million and brought them lots market. of attention. • The company is currently valued at $40 billion.
- 20. Clientele Size – numbers are approximated Naked Lime Dropbox • Web – 800 web sites • 25 mill people registered • Only about 5,000 of those are • Web Services – 150 paid customers. • Managed Marketing – 200 • According to Ryan, “Paid – This is the newest branch of customers usually make up only about 1% of most the company and is growing freemium model companies’ in leaps and bounds. clientele.” • The Teams product was only recently released so Ryan didn’t have specific numbers but they’ve already had a huge response.
- 21. Staff Size & Breakdown Naked Lime Dropbox • Web – 50 • 120 and growing rapidly – Only about 10 of these are technical – They’ve grown from 50 to over 100 people. in just a few short months and plan • Web Services – 25 to grow even more in the next year. – The majority of this department is • The ratio of professionals to made up of professionals. They have engineers is about 50/50. two graphic designers on staff. • Managed Marketing – 35 • I think this higher ratio of – Probably every 1 in 5 people on this programmers and technicians to team is a graphic designer assigned professionals allows them to to a specific group of dealers. come out with new products • You might be asking how they more quickly and not need to manage to make new products? outsource anything. • NLM shares the Reynolds & • The severe lack of creatives and Reynolds programming technicians at Naked Lime is one department. of their limiting factors. – At the moment they have 10 – The Managed Marketing team has dedicated programmers for Naked grown the most since the NLM Lime with about 25 who work on launch and proves that an internet overflow projects. company needs programmers and designers.
- 22. Administrative Structure Naked Lime Dropbox • The co-founders are at the top. • Broke off from parent • Below them is pretty much company Reynolds & Reynolds everybody else in a very but still answers to their horizontal type of hierarchy. various VPs of support, • Each department has team leads, but they’re really just the most marketing, finance, etc. senior members of the team who • Each branch has its own senior have naturally moved into manager with subordinate positions of leadership. managers and then • For instance the support team actually has three leads – Support supervisors under them. Admin, Core Support & Training • So a very traditional vertical – They’re all considered equal and management hierarchy. have just divided up the tasks of what a manager would be in a more traditional company model.
- 23. Naked Lime Facilities Web is located in College Station, TX Web Services in Dayton, OH Managed Marketing in Houston, TX
- 24. Special Features & Feel • Dayton is the nicest of the three offices. It has been designed and has the most updated feel. Most likely because it is the headquarters and where clients visit most often. Pretty much everything in their facility is just a little bit newer and shinier than the other two. • College Station is your typical cubicle farm with white walls and drab carpet. There’s no art or style to the place. It is very stark and rumor has it the building manager actually brags to people on tours of the facility that he’s spent so little on decorating the place. • Houston was much like the College Station facility, an office building like every other… until recently (after the Naked Lime launch) some of the Managed Marketing team ninja’d into the office and painted one of the walls a bright vivid “naked lime” green. • All 3 facilities have dining areas where employees can get subsidized meals pre-tax using their company badge. – Dayton and College Station both also have gyms. The one in Dayton is larger and supports a fitness staff that teaches classes free to employees. • While these perks are all fine and dandy it doesn’t change the fact that in general they are mind and soul-sucking cubicle farms where your every move is marked by keypunch pads and analyzed by your supervisor. Most people put in their time to get some experience out of college and then jump ship as quickly as possible. • Just a quick browse through the site Glassdoor.com reveals former employees’ opinions of the place. Phrases “Like living in Cuba” or “Stalinist Russia” were header for some of the reviews. – They simply can’t and won’t keep talented people around long enough to make an impact on their company. The Houston branch of Naked Lime made an effort to branch out and was reprimanded for it (the wall is still green though). If Naked Lime can’t break away from the totalitarian regime of Reynolds & Reynolds, it can never hope to reach it’s goal of being innovative.
- 25. Dropbox Office •This video from YouTube gives you a pretty good look at their new 87,000 office in downtown San Francisco right across from the AT&T Giants stadium. •It also introduces the interesting event called Hack Week they hold every so often where employees are encouraged to explore their creativity and push themselves to be innovative through individual projects that are shared with the office.
- 26. Special Features & Feel • Just moved into a brand new 87,000 square foot office in mid-February. They take up the entire fourth floor of the building with a lovely view of the stadium in one corner and lots of windows for natural lighting. • The design style is modern architecture meets comfy college couch potato. There are stylish copper countertops, couches and chairs in open sitting areas everywhere. – Even a few rooms dedicated just to hanging out like the music room equipped with all different types of instruments including a grand piano and a tv room with xbox. – There’s also two ping pong tables! • People get around the very large office on scooters and skateboards. • You won’t see a cubicle wall anywhere in this office! – Employees can choose between a sitting or standing desk and what type of computer they want the company to provide them with (PC or Mac) as well as many monitors as they might need. • They recently just added lots of greenery from some indoor plants. Also the gym and kitchen were just finished. • Currently breakfast, lunch and dinner is catered for employees 5 days a week free of cost as well as many drinks and snacks they could want. – But now that the kitchen is finished, they will have their own in house chef. • The feeling of fun and functionality that their website evokes is continued or an extension of the office culture at Dropbox. And as a result people are flocking to work there!
- 27. Problems Facing Naked Lime • The biggest problem currently facing this company is the lack of centralized leadership. The void cause by still yet no NLM VP has caused infighting and in general a lack of direction as each senior manager tries to move toward things that will benefit their departments the most. • High turnover rate, low employee morale, a lack of creative and technical people, and general short-sightedness from management is making their big advertising claims about being “innovative” and “fresh” ring hollow in both customers and employees’ ears. • If they are to survive they’ll need to separate themselves from the Reynolds & Reynolds old school, corporate 80’s style way of running things. • Some of their competitors are truly doing innovative things in both the product marketplace and back home in HR. • In 2009 Reynolds & Reynolds was listed as one of the 5 worst places to work. • Naked Lime breaking off didn’t do much to change the company culture and that will hurt them in the long run if they don’t change.
- 28. Problems Facing Dropbox • “Too much to do, not enough people.” – Ryan • Their challenge is to recruit quality people up to the resources they need and scale a team. • The demand for their product has grown much more quickly then they could hire people to support it. • My suggestion for this issue would be to look for people in unlikely places. For instance, Library Science anyone? • Another of their problems is staying competitive in the growing cloud computing market now that the big dogs like Google and Apple have come out of their own products. • Dropbox’s advantage there is that they aren’t bias to any one platform. Most people will not want to be tied to one particular type of operating system just so they can have a file cloud. (*cough*Apple*cough*) • But in general they’re doing a great job by creating a quality product, hiring talented people and instilling loyalty while fostering creativity in those employees which make them want to work hard to see the company succeed.
- 29. That’s All Folks! This has been a presentation brought to you by the snarky and insightful musings of Lola Colleen Watson.