Any of you used to travel will be familiar with the blue and gold IAPA tags, of the “International Airline Passenger Association”. You would immediately identify fellow travelers who were members.
IAPA felt like a club. They had a small and handy booklet (yearly update) with the hotels where members could have a discount, plus other information. Handy to locate hotels at home and on the road, in a glance.
IAPA has caught the disease of so many companies: “rebranding”. Some PR agencies need to invent meaningless reasons to change logos (and often company names), so they can make money.
Now IAPA has a new logo, their tags are bland and just look like any other. So, no more visibility. Worse, with the “modern age”, no more printed booklet, you can only use their website. Tags for the spouse never arrived. The old tags: no more use?
In the past, messages sent to their office would be promptly answered. Now, forget it. Try to cancel the automatic renewal: impossible on the website.
After several registered letters and complaints, they finally reacted and cancelled the automatic renewal.
A sign of the times. Meaningless rebranding, less service, only web contact and online information. Certainly not always “progress”. Call me old-fashioned if you want – I’ll quit IAPA.
I do not think you are old/fashioned.
The problem with this world is, all focus are on money. And decision makers think as long as they have a website, they are progressive. When they have forgotten is, even a website needs to have human to maintain.
I have seen so many well run, active, properly managed websites gone completely dead because decision maker wants to save money and stop having facilitators to manage the site. So, it is not because of using website, it is just plan BAD management.
Funny thing is, I am just about to write an article on this particular issue to a website called DDN … Digital Divide Network … a once very active, robust site where many of us spend time discussion issues concerning digital divide. About a year ago the funding stopped. Our very capable facilitator had to look for another job. Volunteers recruited. And now it is a very dead site.
Why is it so difficult to convince management that a website is just another way of managing a business. A website is nothing more, nothing less, than a SHOP, an OFFICE, an ESTABLISHMENT etc.. Online vs physical present. So what should be there to manage a shop, an office etc. should be there to manage a web presence.