Parenting Guru

I remember when I was six years old and my mom was pregnant with my baby brother. I still have a photo at about month 8.5. It was not a pretty picture (not Mom, she was beautiful), but the fashion they put her in. Then later, we took pics of my baby brother in his trendy infant wear. Not too much prettier. What was wrong? No bundling of products is my theory.

I remember being totally surprised when the headline news, a few years ago was Bill Gates being sued by Netscape for bundling I.E. They called it “unfair trade practices” or “creating a monopoly” or some kind of legal jargon. I remember chuckling and asking myself, “Then why did they drill bundling into us in business school?”

One of the great early car makers was the first to make bundling popular by including added features such as spare tires and automatic transmission as “all-inclusive”.

Another example of bundling is when vcr players added remote controls.

Microsoft had to spend a lot of money defending itself in this case, and, though didn’t come out smelling like a rose, didn’t have to completely comply with the total complaint. Many legal scholars quoted the case as frivilous as did the Wall Street Journal.

I would never buy a computer without operating system software included, and I bet you wouldn’t either. It would be a bit silly to pay more for what you get included. And if the monitor is included, so much the more better. Again, a perfect example of “bundling products”.

For the life of me I still never understood why Microsoft had to bend and compromise its product. But it did. The case dragged out, I believe because it was high-profile and technology-based. It is as hard to explain technology to an attorney as it is law to a computer scientist.

It may sound a little arrogant, and I am no Bill Gates, but a small fish in a big pond, I will continue to bundle because it was how I was taught to market. It is win-win. To my knowledge, bundling has never been done in the trendy maternity wear business; at least not the way we are doing it with matching funky infant wear, mugs, teddy bears, etc. It makes sense as parents love early photos of baby and parents together.

Speaking of taking pictures, I’ve never bought a camera that didn’t have a lens attached. (more bundling).

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