In this day and age of marketing savvy and unbridled media opportunity, you would think understanding of crisis PR management and the ability to avoid the customer media fiasco would prevent the following, but alas.

Creative Labs is a computer hardware manufacturer that has built a modern day monopoly brand around their peripheral computer sound cards and consumer digital music equipment. Though the company has diversified the company brand in recent years, its core customer base remains the geek and gamer enthusiasts. These customers could be rightfully called fanboys and contribute mightily to the company’s market monopoly.

That’s why it’s even more baffling why the company would snub its core audience. Here’s the lowdown:

Creative, like many hardware makers had certain difficulties dealing with the New Microsoft Operating Beast, Vista. Driver development for current past and new products to work on the new platform became a bit of a headache. So you would think they would buckle down and take care of business? No, certainly not! We are mighty Creative and can do as we please. And that’s exactly what they did. Here’s where it gets good.

While Creative shipped all their new products over a period of months with a shiny new “Vista Certified” sticker on all its packaging, the truth is the firmware drivers the company developed wouldn’t work on the new bloated platform. So like many community driven hardware, in stepped a very talented fanboy and respected community member Daniel_K. Not only did he figure out HOW to make drivers and firmware that allowed Creative devices to work with Vista, he went ahead and DEVELOPED THEM! (This is where Creative coders hang their head in shame) So, suffice it to say a giant hurray went up all over Creativeland and once again soundcards worked with the systems to which they were attached. But alas again!

No, unfortunately they didn’t live happily ever after. As it turned out this one man driver genus continued to provide to the community an ever expanding catalog of firmware and to cover his time and energy he asked for donations from those who felt compelled to do so. Well, here is where it gets ugly very quickly. Since the firmware the company bases it hardware on is made by other than themselves, Creative decided what Danile_K was doing violated legal arrangements. So, instead of contacting this hardworking enthusiast to discuss ways to keep the love flowing, they just decided to send out the Cease and Desist order and shut down the little guy that was SAVING THEIR LAZY CORPORATE AZZ! Instead of offering this guy a position on their team for 6 figures along with some shiny new sleek expensive auto that includes stock options in the glove box … They just shut him down and made him go the pirate route by posting his drivers to bittorrent. As you would imagine the outcry is immense. The Creative forum had to be edited by the company and monster tech enthusiast site Digg.com posted 2 massive stories, on successive days, that outlined the Creative community implosion.

Is it just me or does Corporate stupidity continue to evolve, when by every right it should have learned? It appears so. Creative will survive their current debacle, but they wont get out unscathed and as in my case and a lot of others … they lost a long time customer, to never return. Hello competition!