Summary: In this post, I imagine a world where companies want customers to make the best choice even if it means buying from someone else. A marketplace based on this model would have some distinctly positive characteristics.

Do you want people to buy your product because it will really benefit them, or because it will be good for your bottom line?

Yes, yes, I know the ideal answer is ‘Both!’ Which would you prioritize?

If you knew that a product wasn’t right for someone, would you try to sell it to them? Should you try to sell it to them? And how can we define whether a product is ‘right’ for someone, anyway?

The present state of the market is one in which advertisers tend to bring a ‘win-at-all-costs’ attitude to their work. Just look at Gord Hotchkiss’ Search Insider column last week, Infomediating a Broken Marketplace:

A terribly inefficient marketplace has evolved in the past century, with some very wobbly power structures. The communication disconnect is almost laughable in its dysfunction. Advertisers spend more and more, hoping to penetrate a barricade set up by increasingly militant consumers. It’s literally a war, with strategies to match. The only hint of concession to the increasing power of the consumer has been search, and that has been done reluctantly. Remember Einstein’s definition of insanity? “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Gord’s column is about infomediaries, people or companies that step between the vulnerable consumer who just wants a decent product and the predatory companies that are only looking to suck dollars from wallets. But what if the companies themselves approached things differently?

Imagine for a moment what would happen if your company’s primary goal was to make sure that customers received the product that was most suited to their individual needs, even if that product wasn’t yours.

Progressive Insurance does this, by allowing people to compare rates from competitors on their website. They’ve been doing this for a number of years, and, amazingly, they’re still in business! It seems that transparency and profitability aren’t mutually exclusive.

Now imagine a world in which every company followed that same strategy and adopted an attitude of, “Hey, if this product works for you, that’s terrific. If not, that’s fine too. We just want you to be happy.” What would happen?

1. A bunch of companies would go out of business
   Okay, so Progressive is still around. The lesson from them is that you don’t have to be afraid of what your competitors are doing, if your offering is strong enough. A good percentage of companies in the market wouldn’t stand up to that kind of scrutiny.
2. Value propositions would become a lot clearer.
   Right now, there are a fair number of companies out there that aren’t clearly distinguished from their competitors. In our imaginary world, a bunch of them would have to take a hard look at what they have to offer—and ask themselves whether they really provide anything of value.
3. Companies would become a lot more efficient.
   A clear mandate of “Do right by the customer” can provide a simple litmus test for company activities. Under the current system, a lot of time and energy is spent to convince consumers that the offering is right, no matter what the offering is. In our imaginary world, companies wouldn’t even offer a product or service unless they already believed it was the absolute best thing at the best price.

This is, of course, a silly and imaginary world for a number of reasons. First of all, there’s no way to be totally objective or accurate about what customers want or need. Second, people like advertising. Not all of it, granted, but consumers certainly to positive brand associations wherever they’re created. Third, the graph of consumer desires and interests is continually shifting—what may be appropriate for a customer today will change tomorrow. Fourth, products and services grow, change and improve. Fifth, the value of a product or service frequently resides in intangible, apples-to-oranges characteristics that can’t be neatly compared. And so on.

So we’re unlikely to achieve any sort of advertising-free world, or a market in which companies don’t try to ‘convince’. Take another look at the three characteristics of our imaginary world, though. Companies that don’t deserve to be in business go out of business, while those that remain have clearer value propositions and become more efficient. Those are good things, right?

What do you think? Think for a moment about your or your company’s product or service. Would you let somebody buy it if you didn’t think they needed it?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 4:42 am and is filed under People matter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.