People Aren’t Concrete
Whether Henry Ford actually said, “You can paint it any color, so long as it’s black,” it underscores Ford’s success at building for a mass market. He brought together an acceptable standard of quality, price, and reliability to sell 15,000,000 Model T automobiles.
It might seem that all we need to do is find our own “Model-T” and get it to the mass market. Some companies are trying to do that. The ones that are succeed understand that no product can serve a mass market in the 21st century.
If you’re marketing a Model-T — a single version product — in this century, here’s how to do it.
- Identify a clearly defined key customer group who buy for reliability and low-price point value.
- Study the products that this group currently buys to see the features those products have in common. Look beyond the features to the benefits that each feature offers.
- Within the key customer group, meet with the car mavens — folks who offer friends detailed advice on car buying — and customer evangelists for the products that the key group is currently buying.
- Build a product that includes all of the features that key customers value and none of those that they have no use for.
- Offer it at a competitive price that requires no negotiation.
- Provide fast delivery and excellent service.
- Make the product modification friendly. Allow consumers to personalize it. Offer mod kits and merchandise that let’s folks feel part of a club for owning the product.
- Take care with any new versions that you don’t revise out the value that developed the customer base that you’re enjoying.
- Consider a limited and temporary brick and mortar presence and a huge online selling model. A consistent product with a simple sales story works well in an online situation.
A single version product that fits its customers perfectly still has a place in the 21st century market.
Liz Strauss
Find out about working with Liz.
Take The Long Road
In the days of the Great American Depression, the most available work was manual labor. It was the time when sweat could earn a dollar. More sweat meant more dollars. More sweat meant more commitment to getting things done. Jobs like that are still around, but is that what your job is about?
In today’s economy, working on the right stuff is critically important. Working hard on something that doesn’t matter will get you worse than nowhere. It will frustrate everyone — even you.
Before you invest in heavy lifting on a project . . .
- Think about the outcome you’re going for.
- Think about the people your work will serve.
- Think about what they value, not what you think is good.
Hard thought pays off even more.
Liz Strauss
Find out about working with Liz.
Stories Are Sticky
Once upon a time when we were young our parents and teacher told us stories to pass on information. Long ago the oral history of nations was shared the same way.
Many of us blog for our businesses. Blogging allows us to share our expertise and our knowledge base. It can give us a podium on which to stand and deliver our message to the world. Don’t go there. Podiums make lecturers.
We might like to learn, but few folks like to be taught.
Great teachers share stories, and in that way, pass on what they’ve experienced. They follow the writers’ rule of “show don’t tell,” pointing out examples that bring home ideas and lessons that are meaningful in ways that principles alone could never illuminate.
I want to know how you know what you know so that I can be sure what you’re learned will work for me.
It’s my experience that telling stories lets people find their way into a situation or an idea without a wall of information between. Stories entertain without being intimidating or intrusive. We can see how to apply good story without feeling that we’re being judge for what we may have done wrong.
Stories are a sticky way of teaching and learning,
Share a story about how stories have helped you.
Liz Strauss
Find out about working with Liz.
