I have seen it happen time & time again... and it always reminds me of the psychology of crowds, and how the individuals within the crowds assume their fellow crowd-members know something they don't know. So the individual continues to follow the crowd, all the while not realizing that the crowd is often an amalgam of equally confused individuals...
The Lemming Effect
Ok, enough of the philo-babble. The "lemming effect" as I call it is no doubt present within many organizations, and all of us at one time or another fall into its trap. Its influence within product management & product development is pervasive, frequently resulting in products that get bulkier & costlier over time. But we would be remiss to equate the proliferation of bells, whistles & "performance enhancers" with greater levels of customer value.
There are many drivers of the phenomenon of "Frankensteining" a product, and the lemming effect is at the top of the list. It all starts when we become more focused on our competitors than on our customers. One day Acme, our arch rival, increases the performance of its product or adds a new feature. "Hmmm", we think to ourselves, "What does Acme know that we don't? Are customers demanding greater levels of performance?" And then, voila, with limited thought or analysis we quickly 'upgrade' our product. Acme no doubts catches wind of our "2.0", and the arms race ensues.
All the while, our customers might not even be looking for the increased performance or the new bell or whistle. Perhaps our target customer looks a little different from Acme's target customer, and have somewhat differing needs. Perhaps Acme's reason for making enhancements to its product were ill-conceived or driven by internal factors that are invisible to us. Regardless of the reason, the one thing we have successfully achieved is increasing the cost of both our product as well as Acme's, who will no doubt follow suite with their "3.0". Whether we're able to "pass along" this incremental cost to our customers in the form of higher prices is something we certainly hope we can do.
Never take your eyes off your customers
The moral of the above faux situation, and of the lemming effect in general is to be wary of the moves that your competitors make. Do not assume the moves they are making are the right ones or that they have generated an insight that has given them the secret to building the perfect service for customers. The remedy to the lemming effect is quite straightforward, yet often ignored. Stay abreast of what your competitors are doing, but keep your eye on the ball - aka, your customers! Stay close to your customers. Develop multiple channels & methods for gaining access to the "voices of your customers". Understand their needs, desires, motivations, decision-making processes, changes in their outlooks or needs, etc. If you do these things right, you will be far less vulnerable to the lemming instinct, and far more confident in product decisions that you choose to make.
Your product's lemming factor: are you following your competitors off a cliff?
How watching Seinfeld can help you become more innovative
"Did you ever wonder why...?"
The above phrase captures the thematic brilliance of Seinfeld, both the show as well as the comedian. In addition to providing a foundation for Seinfeld's comedy, it also serves as a framework for exploring the world with more innovative eyes.
One of the core premises of this famous "Seinfeldian" phrase is the idea that not everything that is necessarily makes sense or should be. Most people, being extremely busy and having grown up in an environment in which "it has always been this way", are less likely to notice "the absurd" in everyday life.
Taking the time out to put on the "Seinfeld glasses" allows you to take a step back and make the types of observations that can lead to major innovations for products, services & processes. As I have written about in prior posts, becoming a more mindful marketer is the name of the game, and Seinfeld's mindfulness is one such variation on the theme.
So the next time your thinking about a product, a service, a process, or what have you, take a 60-second timeout out and ask yourself, "What about this do I find annoying? What irritates me or seems unnecessary, silly, or overly cumbersome?"
After you have discovered these irritants or apparent absurdities, challenge yourself to come up with solutions, knowing that they are waiting to be discovered.
How to spur innovation using Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Abraham Maslow, the psychologist from Brooklyn who is famous for his 'hierarchy of human needs' has contributed more to the discipline of marketing than he ever would have probably imagined. Mind you, Maslow probably spent little if any time contemplating marketing so he likely would have been ambivalent towards his contribution.
Regardless of Maslow's intentions when he devised his famed hierarchy of needs, his pyramid provides us with some extremely powerful innovation exercises for business, particularly with respect to products & marketing.
One such exercise that I run through frequently is to explore how I might inject one or more of Maslow's needs into an existing product or service to help differentiate it. For example, meditating on the esteem need begs the question of how I might make my customers feel extra special, important, and worthwhile.
With respect to the need for self-actualization, which is strongly associated with giving to others, I am led to think about giving a share of profits to charities selected by my customers. As a purely hypothetical example, let's say for every $100 car insurance premium paid by a customer, $2 will be given to a charity of the customer's choice, which she gets to select while paying her premium online.
In using Maslow's hierarchy as a potential playing field for innovation, it is critical to first identify the core benefits provided by the product you're looking to innovate around - whether it be security, guidance, hope, pleasure, saving time or money, etc. Only once you have a clear grasp of the core benefit of your product will certain needs within the hierarchy begin to resonate, and will opportunities for innovation in your marketing or the product itself begin to "pop".
More to come on innovating around Maslow's hierarchy in future posts - I have some neat frameworks & tools for you to use which will beef-up your Maslow-muscle. As always, feel free to contact me with any of your questions, comments or thoughts.
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Other posts on Maslow:
Enhance your innovation by tapping your product's value-creation web
In the continuous search for innovation and creating more value for your customers and shareholders (and hopefully for society too), it's important that you have a good understanding of your product's value-creation web (aka "value web").
A product's value web is simply an assessment of all of those people, services, products, companies and institutions that have the potential to derive value from the sale of your products or services. This assessment should importantly capture additional customer needs that are generated when a customer purchases your product (e.g., the need for plant food that is generated from the purchasing of a plant).
The Value Web in action
To provide a brief example of a product's value web, let's consider the purchase of a pair of tickets for a jazz club in the city by a suburban couple. Several possible beneficiaries ("web nodes") come to mind. First, there are the restaurants near the theater which may benefit from the couple's desire to grab dinner before the show. Second, we have the garages near the theater because the couple will want a convenient & safe place to park their car. Third we have the babysitter who lives down the block from the couple, who will no doubt earn a few dollars looking after the couples' new born while they are in the city. Fourth we have the city government, which will garner tax revenues via the couple's car tolls (to enter the city) and the sales taxes collected from the couples spending (tickets, garage, dinner, etc.)... and the list could go on.
After you have gone through the important exercise of mapping out your service's value web, you then want to ask some key questions, including:
- Can I bundle my service with one or more of the nodes in a way that would be compelling to my customers? (e.g., bundling tickets, dinner & garage into a single offering at a discounted price)
- Can I share costs with any of the nodes - marketing costs, operating costs, etc.? (e.g., including a mini-ad for the garage or restaurant within your bigger ad for the concert)
- Can I "exchange" the value created by the sale of my product with other nodes in return for something that I value? (e.g., providing a % of ticket sales to the garage in exchange for the garage providing discounts and valet parking to folks attending the concert)
More to come on value innovation & the value web in future posts. As always, feel free to contact me via email.
Improve your marcom by becoming mindful of messages that hit you in the gut!
One of the most powerful pieces of communication I have ever laid my eyes upon was not the brainchild of the hot, new Madison Avenue agency... nor the creative genius of an underground, esoteric Parisian artist. It was the creation of a couple of public school teachers and their students. It sat on display in the entry hall of their school in Harlem.
There in the display case was a can of a Coca Cola and three Chips Ahoy cookies. Right next to the can of coke was a mountain of pure white sugar. The Chips Ahoy cookies were accompanied by a similar-sized mountain of sugar in addition to a large cube of butter.
The sign above the display read, "Ever wonder how much sugar is in that can of coke you're drinking?"
Needless to say, the hills of sugar and the butter represented the exact amounts of sugar and fat in the respective items on display. It was powerful communication. It scored a knockout blow.
The goal behind any communication is quite simple. Get people to notice it. Get people to "give it the time of day". Get people to be moved or motivated by it.
Whenever I come across something or someone that communicates powerfully, I stop and ask myself, "Why? What was it about this that made it past my 'filter' and touched me in some way?" Whatever answers I come up with, I try to boil down to more generalized themes that I can apply in some capacity to my own marketing efforts. As a marketer, this is an important habit to develop, and one that has helped me immeasurably throughout my career.
Going back to the school display in Harlem, the communication was effective with me for two primary reasons, each interrelated:
- It was unexpected & surprising.
- It made the abstract concrete.
While my example of the coke can highlighted a couple common success drivers of powerful communications - surprise & tangibility - there are several other such drivers that have relative degrees of importance given the context of the communication. While understanding these drivers is helpful, it's even more important to become mindful of those communications that "get to you" - and to ask yourself, "why?" The nuances you will learn through your self reflection about what make communications powerful is where the real insight lies.
Use your customer's language so they can HEAR you
"... all I need is some cigarettes, a little food, and my HBO..."-Anonymous gentleman on downtown #1 train, NYC
Well you certainly have to respect a guy who knows exactly what he wants. I wish I had his level of clarity...
I heard the above quote on the 2 train this morning during my work commute down to the World Financial Center, and it really
slammed home a point that Sam Horn makes in her wonderful book, Pop! The key insight is to use your own customer's language in your marketing communications. Rather than playing around with formal-sounding or hip-sounding terminology, listen to the actual words that come out of your customers' mouths.What do your customers say or think to themselves when they're in a situation in which they would benefit from your product (or service)? What do they say or think when they're enjoying the benefits of your product? What words do they use to describe the product to their friends?
Why pay an expensive copywriter or worse, try to write the copy yourself when you have thousands or millions of customers doing the writing for you already? And remember, perhaps the easiest way to gain access to the language of your customers is via the web - blogs, discussion boards, etc.
If you want your copy to sound real and resonate with your prospects & customers, what better way to accomplish this than to take the words straight from the horses' mouths?
Wilton Stentz, the Yoda of online marketing...
All marketers know how important successful communication is - whether you're trying to build brand awareness, maintain the loyalty of an existing customer base, or influence key decision makers at work.
The Law of Association
While there are several core 'laws' that underlie successful communications, few are as crucial and as powerful as the law of association.
The law of association is based on the solid yet simple notion that in order to communicate effectively with anyone, you need to work with the material that already exists inside of their heads. Al Ries & Jack Trout underscored this premise in their classic book, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind.
The law of association is particularly powerful when you are introducing something new to people, especially when it is complex, hard to "size up" or hard to visualize. Through using what is already in people's heads, you can instantly communicate in a manner that is both clear & compelling.
Who the heck is Wilton Stentz?
Let's use the title of this article as an example of the law in action. Now you probably don't know who Wilton Stentz is, but you most certainly know our friend, Yoda. Let's imagine that Mr. Stentz is a wise & experienced online marketing consultant who lives in Zurich. Now I could simply say these very words to you and you would be able to comprehend them; whether you would really hear them & remember them is a different matter. But when I look into your mind to identify something that represents wisdom & experience in a rich & visually compelling way, I come up with an association that immediately brings Mr. Stentz's attributes to life. When Wilton is compared to Yoda - in an instant - you "get it".
"It's the Rolls Royce of..."
To touch upon a few additional examples, you've probably heard the law of association used with respect to a a famous luxury automobile brand. Ever had someone tell you, "It's the Rolls Royce of... so-and-so"? Or, how about the brilliant use of the law by baby toy manufacturer, Baby Einstein? What parents don't want their children to become as brilliant as Albert Einstein?
Looking at current events you can see the law of association playing out in the presidential primaries on the Republican side. Just have a look at what Fred Thompson has tried to do, attempting to associate himself with former President Reagan. Perhaps it was a clever idea; however, one requirement that Fred seems to have overlooked is that the law requires there to be real integrity behind the association that is made. There is no substitute for this requirement, nor will there ever be.
The law of association has a rich and varied set of applications within communications, and I look forward to exploring them in future posts.