Redefining Products
A great way to grow your business is to create new products. One way to do this is to redefine a current product.
Starbucks did not view coffee as a one-size-fits-all product. They viewed it as a product that could be customized by the customer in real time. In addition, they viewed coffee drinking as an experience.
Starbucks coffee bars are designed to offer a chic gathering place, relaxation, conversation and creative, tasty drinks customized by the customer. This did not happen overnight. Before Starbucks, the vast majority of coffee drinkers didn’t know that coffee could have such a large number of variations.
Remember when you first entered a Starbucks coffee shop? The people ordering in front of you didn’t say I want a large decaf coffee. Instead, they seemed to talk in some sort of code that only the inner circle of coffee drinkers knew. When it was your turn to order, the friendly people behind the counter had to teach you the code and give you some samples as they changed how you think about coffee.
TCBY frozen yogurt redefined ice cream by offering a low-fat way for ice cream lovers to enjoy their favorite dessert. They used the highly successful advertising phrase “all of the pleasure with none of the guilt” to quickly educate their customers.
Use Demographics to Redefine Products
Dodge redefined the family station wagon when they launched the first minivan. Station wagon sales were not growing even though baby boomers were in their prime child bearing years and their need was high. Dodge began to realize that baby boomers didn’t want to look and act just like their parents (even if most of them did) and they realized that baby boomers like vans, so they created the minivan and sales took off.
What is a family minivan for a mach man? Think sports utility vehicle. They are basically a redefinition of the pickup truck.
Ask What If Questions To Redefine Products
Research in Motion redefined the PDA. Their research showed that employees form both large and medium size corporations were getting swamped with e-mail on a daily basis, and that when they were traveling they ran the risk of missing an important e-mail. To make matters worse, when they returned they were faced with mountains of e-mail waiting to be read.
They asked the question: What if traveling employees could access their e-mail from anywhere, anytime, in a secure manner? The result was the highly successful Blackberry, a combination PDA and mobile e-mail device.
Use Random Combinations To Redefine Products One way to redefine a product is to take two or more different types of products and randomly put them together until you get something good.
How about combining a digital camera and a cell phone? In my mind, I see a small phone keypad drawn on the screen where you view your photos. You can use a small, thin, pen-like pointing device to enter the phone number of the person you want to call, or simply say the name of the person into the phone. Your digital camera will automatically send the photo you have just taken to your friend’s e-mail using its built-in wireless Internet connection.
By trying some of the product redefinition strategies I’ve suggested, you will be on your say to building a profitable tomorrow.
Daniel Burrus, one of the world's leading technology forecasters, business strategists, and author of six books
Copyright 2003 Author retains copyright. All Rights Reserved.
