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AOL, Not LOL
I see from our 1to1 Weekly story that AOL has stepped up its privacy efforts. Hey, I can be as cynical as the next former AOL customer, but it’s more than hot air as far as I can see. I think AOL CEO Jon Miller is a good man who understands the value of a brand. He’s taken AOL much farther than it really had any business going by leaning on the brand. It has had its business model taken away more times than I’ve taken away my six-year old’s Pokemon cards. That’s at least ten times over the past seven days. AOL’s brand can not afford any further erosion through security breaches. But one thing I will never give Miller or AOL any credit for is the negative option/free dial up offers that it still has out there. While it’s still doing that, AOL can never be customer-centric.
For me the question is how a badly tarnished brand can redeem itself - or if it can.
I may be happy to be jaded but I don't think AOL can really reclaim a big marketshare. They were horrible to millions of customers. That isn't forgiven easily. I was never an AOL customer but have seen the negative press and I know how horrible their interface and experience.
It will take more than a new position to change an unhealthy culture and tarnished brand into something shiny and new. We all know the internal culture change is the most difficult part here and I don't see how they are really going to shift in any reasonable amount of time (before everyone just writes them off).