I did enjoy watching Rory Sutherland’s talk. It is hilarious and it gives me insights on how marketing can create value without changing the product. There are tangible value and intangible value. Creating tangible value requires resources such as raw materials or labor. Creating intangible value, on the other hand, requires only a good idea! I get it now - consumer perception is the key. Value of a product can be added just by changing consumer perception, rather than the product itself. As it is stated in one of the immutable laws of marketing by Ries and Trout - marketing is not about products but about perceptions. It is very interesting to see how making changes in the mix without changing the product can affect the consumer perception.
Ideation is the first step in the new product development process and it has to be based on customer needs and wants. But as David Bell of Chrysler mentioned in his talk, customer needs and wants are hard to understand since customers don’t know what they need. I totally agree. In my work, we cannot just ask the customers what they need and want either. We need to carefully listen to the customers and use our creativity to anticipate what they need and want and lead them there.
When I read Chapter 2 of the marketing handbook, I was greatly impressed with Apple’s keys to success: design savvy, technological innovation, and brand image. It clearly defines Apple direction in just a few words. Reading the article on Apple and innovation, I am amazed that the keys behind Apple’s success story can be summarized in a handful of bullet points. And they sound simple and intuitive. It looks easy to say than to do though. I’ve tried to apply this in the ideation project assignment, and I found that it is not as simple as it sounds to come up with a great product that is simple and different.
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