Category Archives: Ideas

Predictability + Desirability

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One marketing lesson stood out for me in 2011.

It was the reminder that the combination of (1) predictability and (2) desirability in a product portfolio can deliver outstanding results to beat your competitors. This is especially true in the consumer electronics business.

Apple does this really well with the iPhone and iPad. And up until recently, Samsung has started to replicate this theory with its lineup of Galaxy smartphones and tablets.

Ever since we launched the iPhone in March 2010, I have bumped into many customers that know what they want to buy, and when they want to buy it. I always thought this was plainly about the desire of owning an iPhone – but it seems to be driven by more than that.

When customers view the line-up of phones from HTC, they see a bunch of random sexy models every year. Once you buy a HTC Sensation, what do I look forward to next year? It is hard to put your finger to it. At least for now.

Making desirable products (a little) more predictable over the course of time seems to be the recipe “du jour”:

  1. Predictable timelines help create more anticipation: that there is a new iPhone every year,  usually between August – October. Customers tend to plan ahead and build up savings just to buy the latest device. And knowing when something is going to be released makes them feel more in control of the situation.
  2. Predictable branding helps create free publicity for an “unborn” product: “I am waiting for the iPhone 5″. Some customers hold off their purchases in anticipation of a new model that they seem to know before Apple has even announced it. The iPhone 3GS was succeeded by the iPhone 4, and now the blogs are buzzing about the iPhone 4S successor, the iPhone 5.

We will see more of this in 2012.

The iPhone 5 and iPad 3. And let us not forget the Galaxy S3 =)

Social knowledge sharing

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Wow. I am now a father.

My wife and I welcomed our son last month, and it has been tiring. Sure, there is the whole joy of welcoming a newborn, but it is downright tiring.

Nothing has gotten me prepared for parenthood unlike experiencing it myself. In the span of thirty days, I have learned a lot about diapers, hunger cries, gripe water, the miracles of breastfeeding (and how to use the washing machine). Things I never knew before.

There have been many moments where my wife and I have turned to each other, feeling unsure and not knowing what to do:

How many times should he be pooping?
Is it OK to mix bottle feeding and breast feeding?
Which diapers work best?
Why does he have acne?

In many of these moments, we have turned to the Internet. Babycenter, Kellymom, Dr Sears, and even the aging Yahoo Answers. All this, to get some comfort from social proof. That feeling of conformity, knowing that other parents have experienced it too. And let me tell you this – it works.

My guess is that social knowledge sharing is the next big area of growth in the quest to make search even better. What we called “forums” way back, but simpler and more genuine. Services such as Quora are defining this space, and I believe there are more opportunities to provide Q&A services for other “real world” segments such as parenting.

There is a wealth of untapped information sitting in the minds of real world heroes. Mothers and my parents for instance. They have experienced practical and useful anecdotes of life and are unaware of the positive value it can bring to others if shared within the right context.

What our real world heroes need either does not exist or has not been communicated to them, and that to me is a gold mine of an opportunity for startups looking to pivot.