Is Your Marketing Killing Your Consumer Electronics Product

the most successful products in the industry are various Apple devices (the iPad, the iPhone, and the Mac), the Amazon Kindle, and the Netflix service. These three companies create more mainstream evangelists as a percentage of their total users than other companies.

So what's the difference between an iPad and a Samsung HDTV? Why does one create raving fans and the other create users

Apple knows what its customers want because of its CEO, Steve Jobs. He has proven that he knows, on instinct, what will succeed with consumers. In fact, he famously avoids customer input and focus groups because he is so sure about his own gut feeling. But because your CEO is not Steve Jobs, you'll have to do talk and listen to your customers like crazy

Here are 10 questions to ask:




1. Who in your home uses our product?

2. Why do they use it? (Leave it open ended, just like that.)

3. What do you do with the product?

4. What features do you use most? Why?

5. Which features do you NOT use? Why?

6. What's your favorite thing about owning this device?

7. What do you tell your family and friends about the device?

8. How does our product improve your life?

9. Describe our product using three descriptive words.

10. How does our product make you feel?



These questions get you away from technical specifications and move you towards the real-life value of your device.

The language consumers use to describe devices is simpler and almost entirely focused on the life-improving outcomes of the products. Out of 100 customers, maybe one or two talk about technical specifications, the rest focus on real-world emotional value.

When a product is a commodity, it's very difficult to create an emotional attachment. How does a product extricate itself from commodity status? Excellent marketing. Take digital camcorders, which record the memories of our lives and our children. Companies like Sony, Panasonic, Philips, etc. have not been able to create emotional connections. But Flip did, through excellent marketing. (Forget about Cisco's decision to kill it off, that was a corporate strategy issue.) So, it's possible. The answer begins with Samsung, LG and the rest of them gathering deep insights on the emotions that their customers feel around their products.









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