Astonish Your Customer(s)

Can't have it = Want it

Hugh MacLeod: Advice for Entrepreneurs includes the following gem (along with others in his list).

"People want what they can't have. In fact, that's pretty much all they want." 

That question would be a great starting point for a product innovation exercise.

Start by finding and listening to a community (a group of people who are proven to actively, frequently and passionately interact with one another) and find out what they want and don't think they can have.   

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

"Critics are our friends ...

... for they show us our faults." Benjamin Franklin

Market research data is often abundant, sometimes too much so, especially for big brands. Despite having the data, brands still find it difficult to define a breakthrough opportunity. Try this.

Create a detailed critique of your industry:

• Question and challenge all the conventional wisdom & practices of an industry
• Challenge some fundamental dimension or driver in the category
• Challenge some aspect of the way the consumer shops for, experiences, or consumes a product
• Challenge the culture surrounding the category (e.g. wine is snobby) 
• Challenge some broader aspect of contemporary culture (e.g. Sex sells)
• Challenge some dimension or quality of the competition/market leader
• What would it take to make people change behavior

Go ahead, become a critic - you'll be your own best friend before you know it.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

TY: Adam Morgan

Stick, then Switch

Read, learn and act on the recommendations of the Heath Brothers. I read "Made To Stick" (what marketer hasn't), I read them in Fast Company magazine and I subscribe to their blog and Twitter feeds.

I just pre-ordered their new book "Switch" from Amazon after reading the insightful excerpt  in Fast Company.

My uptick: When confronting any type of problem in any setting, don't look at the just the problem, nor the enormity and complexity of the problem. Instead, zoom in, find even one thing that is going right or bucking the negative trend, ask a few simple questions about why it is going right and start cloning the positive things. In typical Heath Bros. fashion, they give practical everyday examples that show that we can indeed make it happen ourselves, in our everyday life.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.   

Try to change behavior or leverage existing behavior

When I worked on REACH toothbrushes, the brand faced an ongoing dilemma - few people changed their brush as prescribed (4x per year and after an illness). The brand team obsessed about and implemented plans to change consumer behavior using education, sampling, product innovation and advertising. The price range at the time was between $1.99 and $3.29. Nothing worked.

I was at a meeting and suggested that since people were not changing behavior, maybe we should introduce a higher priced toothbrush - after all, $5.00 is not that much money and if customers were only going to buy 2.235 toothbrushes per year, might as well be a higher priced version. It was just a random comment, I had no data and no deeply held conviction about my suggestion. My suggestion was denounced as unviable as it was not aligned with the price elasticity study that had been conducted.

A few months later ORAL B, the market leader, introduced the first $5.00 manual toothbrush (the Cross-Action). It had a cool-looking design which gave it a high tech image. It was a huge hit.

I'm sure I'm the only one that remembers this story and remembers it that way but that is the way it happened.

The point - you can either try to change behavior (very, very hard) or accept it and leverage it (not easy but doable) - your choice.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

Logic be damned

I just received one of those internet emails that outlines some of the basic contradictions in and around our life and world. It is always good for a laugh but it may be an even better lesson for marketers because it shows what humans are really like ... individualistic, idiosyncratic, irrational and deeply impulsive beings.

Why do we marketers try to create things that appeal to the rational mind, when that part of the mind is seldom engaged, nor is it the decider when people make a decision. Find the contradiction in your ideal customer's mind, as well as your own behavior as a marketer, and build to that.

• Why do people order a double cheeseburger, large fries and a DIET Coke?
• Why do people leave cars worth tens of thousands of dollars in the driveway but lock their useless junk in their garage?
• Why do people buy and install expensive home security systems and then never use them? 
• Why isn't their mouse-flavored cat food?
• Why do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counter?
• Why do food stores make the sick walk to the back of the store to get their medicine but healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front of the store?  

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

Give me this and I'll give you money

What do I want? 

I want More, of course.

But what are the More items?

• Safety (avoid imminent death)
• Happiness (in my everyday life)
• Freedom (autonomy)
• Peace of Mind
• Acceptance & Connection (avoid loneliness)  
• Stories (to tell myself and others)
• Entertainment
• Meaning
• Need to take care of #1 (selfishness)

If your product can give me one of those things, in a way that is noticeably different and demonstrably better than what is available, I will gladly trade you my money for your product.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B. 

I have an idea - now what

If you have an idea for a product, what should you do to develop that idea? 

Follow the example of two tech executives who had an interest (a deep interest) in bacon. They conceived of a product called Bacon Salt . They searched for people on social network sites who professed a love for bacon, then friended them. After many months, the community of Bacon Salt fans swelled to 37,000 and then Oprah called (cha-ching).

This is not a case study about how to hook Oprah. The success of these food-industry neophytes hinged on first finding a very small group of self-identified fans to serve. They started in the right place, finding an audience they knew for certain they could reach who would respond very favorably to their offering.  

What now? Maybe you should rummage through social networking sites looking for groups and, more specifically, sub-groups and super niche groups that are interested in the things that you are passionate about. See what bothers them, see what they want and yearn for, listen to their frustration. Then create a solution and go back and ask them if they absolutely love your idea (not like it, or like it a lot, or like it better than whatever they are using now) - do they love it.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

TY: Jackie Huba & Ben McConnell as told in What Matters Now

Sacrifice vs. Prioritize

When deciding on your goals, why is sacrifice better and different than prioritization?

Sacrifice means that there are just some things, sometimes worthy things, that you just won't do, no matter what.

Prioritization is flawed because it still lets the plate get overloaded with secondary and tertiary goals.

At best, you can only do a few things really well and it is better to go all-in on the things that will definitely make a difference than try to fit in the other stuff.

What are you sacrificing this year?

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

TY: Adam Morgan 

"x" for people that hate "x"

"A Church for people that hate Church".

Apparently, that was the positioning that Rick Warren pursued when he started, developed and evolved his wildly success ministry, the Saddleback Church, which has over 20,000 people attend weekend services.

That positioning, "x" for people that hate "x", would be a great starting point to create a relevant product in just about any category.

• Diet program for people who hate to diet
• Video camera for people that hate electronic gadgets
• Hat for people that hate hat-head
• Scrub brush for people that hate to clean a toilet or tub 

What do people hate about your product or product category and how could you create a product for that distinct group?

O.D.O.o.O.D.B. 

What Matters Now

Looking to follow relevant and breakthrough thought leaders and people of action? Looking to get inspired?  Looking for ideas to get from point A to B or even Z?  Looking to get moving? Looking to get yourself over the hump? You MUST read this post, then download and read the FREE ebook.

The book as described by Bill Taylor, co-founder Fast Company magazine:

Seth Godin, the innovator, writer, and blogger extraordinaire, has persuaded 70 other innovators, writers, and bloggers to participate in a project he calls What Matters Now. The idea is simple: Each of us suggests one word — literally one word — that all of us should think about in 2010, and then takes one page to explain why and how that word matters. The result is an intriguing, inspiring, and at times downright moving collection of unconventional wisdom that is available free to everyone.

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.