GOOD ENOUGH>NEW AND IMPROVED
Yesterday, Seth Godin wrote in his blog:
"So, just about everything that can be improved, is being improved. If you define "improved" to mean more features, more buttons, more choices, more power, more cost.
The washing machine I used this morning had more than 125 different combinations of ways to do the wash... don't get me started about the dryer. Clearly, an arms race is a good way to encourage people to upgrade.
I wonder, though, if "good enough" might be the next big idea. Audio players, cars, dryers, accounting... not the best ever made, not the most complicated and certainly not the most energy-consuming. Just good enough.
For some people, a clean towel is a clean towel."
Which reminded me of this funny diagram from http://www.thediagram.com/6_3/leisurearts.html which attempts to diagram the occurance of the phrase "is the new."
The Six Million Dollar Man
"Is the new..." is the engine of our economy; it is the creation of demand. New, fresh, more, more, more. Like the The Six Million Dollar Man; better, faster, stronger. True, a clean towel may just be a clean towel--a Chevy Geo will get me from point a. to point b.--but in our maturing marketplace, newness and improvement (read progress) is more and more the principal mover of demand, through the creation of desire.
de-mand
a. The desire to possess a commodity or make use of a service, combined with the ability to purchase it.
b. The amount of a commodity or service that people are ready to buy for a given price: Supply should rise to meet demand.
de-sire
a. to long or hope for
b. to express a wish for
Creating desire is the primary aim of advertising [as opposed to the identification of products and services that are needed and useful, which is to say, commerce.] Without desire there would be no demand. Therefore, we might think that we could not be satisfied with a product that was simply good enough [unless price was the only factor, which it rarely is.] And good enough certainly wouldn't hold as a market strategy for long. Market share will dwindle as new and improved products appear. Competition would crush such a strategy, right? In the past, yes. But it may not be so true anymore. Not by Godin's reasoning anyway.
No. 2 Pencils, for Instance
Suppose I am going to take the GRE and I need No. 2 pencils [which I was, and I did, but I'd rather not recount that experience. This is just a 'for instance.'] At the store I have a choice between two products; pencil A. and pencil B. They are nothing fancy, just old-fashioned, yellow, No. 2 pencils. But, pencil B. does not come with that pink eraser at the tip, it comes with an oversized, black eraser molded into the shape of the head of Darth Vader. Very cool. I love Darth Vader [saw Star Wars twelve time in the theatre.] All things being equal, it should be pretty obvious that I will choose the Vader pencil.
But all things are never equal; we always pay a premium for the new and improved, better, best, and the undisputed, best in the history of the universe. That Vader pencil will cost me an extra nickel. Is it worth it? The makers of that Vader pencil are betting on it. And right there is the dilemma; how can the makers of the regular pencil, the good enough pencil, get me to value their pencil more highly than the Vader model? How can they get me to buy it?
The Trick
The trick would be for the makers of the regular pencil to make a good enough product appeal to a new and improved consumer, apart from, and/or in addition to, price. Something like:
good enough ≥ new and improved
or
good enough "is the new" new and improved
One way to accomplish this feat, is to create a brand that leads it's industry in one or more of the following values, and by helping consumers view that brand as a "like-minded." [It's like the idea of 'voting with your dollars'] Some possibilities include:
- resource conservation (environment)
- saving money for a more worthy cause
- exercising individuality
- setting an example for your kids
- doing the right thing
- philanthropy/giving back
- being the first to do it/tastemakers
- owning your products, your products don't own you
- the future/sustainability
- patriotism even...
The old version of good enough was the strategy of volume discounters and second-hand clothing stores, but Godin's take is different. Price is not the deciding factor in this new model.
Good Enough v. 2.0
It's about reinventing/redefining good enough.
It's about identifying an emerging set of values and building companies around them.
It's about recognizing that in today's market good enough really can be the best ever.
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