reduced the uniqueness of new products created by a company. Finally, research has found that a customer-satisfaction focus often results in major pressure on profits. John Naver of the University of Washington Business School described it this way: “Customers’ expressed needs and benefits can be known readily by all competitors—a situation that leads typically to competitors offering the same benefits to a given set of customers and then having to engage in aggressive price competition in the attempt to create superior value for the subject customers.”
PRACTICAL IDEAS
Follow the Questions: Take the questions from the research and use them as stimulus for new ideas.
How can we help customers anticipate developments in their markets?
How can we discover additional needs of our customers of which they are unaware?
What could we do that would make our own products obsolete?
Unlearn the Past: Dominant firms in disk drives, copiers, minicomputers and mainframe computers stayed in their existing businesses too long. Stop asking current customers for ideas. Akio Morita, co-founder of Sony said, “Our plan is to lead the public with new products rather than ask them what kind of products they want. The public does not know what is possible, but we do.” Rather, focus some energy on the fringes. Spend time with customers who NEVER EVER buy your category. Look into the future for your industry. What would you do if you were starting your business all over again right now?
Exceed Customers’ Expressed Needs: To win customer loyalty, set a standard of exceeding customers’ expressed needs. When you exceed customers’ expectations, you will reduce your need to offer price discounts in order to create a value perception.
Anticipate the Future: Clayton Christensen of Harvard, author of The Innovator’s Dilemma, described the problem this way: “An excessive customer focus prevents firms from creating new markets and finding new customers for the products of the future. They unwittingly bypass opportunities and allow entrepreneurial companies to catch the next great wave of industry growth.” Instead of discovering the one right answer, challenge yourself and your staff to create three “future-focused scenarios”: If X happens, then what will customers want? Translate your thoughts into writing, and step back and assess the probability of each scenario. Then TAKE ACTION.
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SCIENTIFIC
ADVICE
HAVING THE COURAGE TO BE THE FIRST TO MARKET NEARLY DOUBLES YOUR SALES VERSUS BEING THE FOURTH TO MARKET
When you are the first, you win a chain reaction of advantages. When you are the first to discover a new technology, the government gives you a government-guaranteed monopoly. When you are the first with a new idea, you generate real NEWS—positive publicity and “buzz.”
When you have the courage to take a stand, stick your neck out and be a pioneer, you gain a laserlike focus on your development efforts. Your packaging, pricing, positioning, and product or service development efforts are more efficient as a result of a common alignment.
Research on the impact of order of entry for new brands quantifies the advantage of being first versus being a follower. On average, brands that are second to market generate 71 percent of the sales of the pioneer. Those that are third generate 58 percent, and those that are fourth some 51 percent of the sales of the brand that is first to market.
By definition, the first to market is news. When you have news, then you have information to communicate, and as the first, you command a customer’s conscious attention.
When you have a copycat offering, you are more likely to have to resort to low prices and other Mindless gimmicks to get customers’ attention.
IMMEDIATE FIVEFOLD IMPROVEMENT IN EFFECTIVENESS: When you offer “real news,” the impact of your sales and marketing efforts is multiplied. A study found that advertising for products offering REAL NEWS was FIVE TIMES more effective at growing sales than advertising for more familiar or less novel, established brands.
NOTE TO SKEPTICS: There are studies indicating that pioneers fail. Truth be known, pioneers, followers, and followers of followers all fail. However, if you read ALL the studies—and I have—the lesson is clear. When you’re a true pioneer, you measurably increase your odds of success.
PRACTICAL IDEAS
Define Yourself from the Point of View of First: Look within your offering and find something that you are the first to offer. Ideally, this is a simple and dramatic statement: the first computer repair service that does house calls, the first beer with zero calories (we can dream, can’t we?). Don’t be surprised if you don’t have something simple to claim. Most products and services don’t. Don’t despair. You have other options.
Define First as a Limited Category: Define what you’re the first at based on a limited subset. For example, we’re the first in our town to offer in-home repair of consumer computers. Or we’re the first in our industry to offer 24/7 customer service.
Define First as a Combination: Define what you’re the first at based on a unique combination. For example, we’re the first to offer French cuisine dining in thirty minutes. Or we’re the first industrial lubricant company to offer twenty-four-hour delivery and credits for recycled oils.
Repeatedly Articulate What Makes You the First: Articulate your point of difference everywhere—at the start of every sales presentation, on every advertisement, on every brochure, on your voice mail message, on your business cards, on your letterhead, and on every T-shirt, mouse pad, and coffee cup that you print.
Meaningful Difference Affects Development Success: The lack of a Meaningful difference is a common reason why many managers have a hard time generating momentum on “small” ideas within their organizations. When you seek the support of fellow employees on an idea that is not meaningfully different, you are in effect asking them to make an operational change or disruption for no good reason.
THE SECRETS TO SUCCESS ARE SIMPLE!
First, be Bold and Brave.
Second, add Uniqueness to innovation-decision metrics.
Third, seeking new markets is ten times more successful than pursuing incremental innovations.
Fourth, a FUTURE-FOCUS strategy is ten times more valuable than a “Voice-of-the-Customer” approach.
Finally, PIONEERING results in DOUBLE the sales volume over being fourth to market.
The bottom line is simple:
S.O.S. = S.O.L.
If you offer the S.O.S. (Same Old Stuff) you are S.O.L. (---- Out of Luck).
GROW OR DIE!
THERE IS NO OTHER OPTION!
Become a FANATIC for uniqueness! Be so distinct you’re perceived to
