Focus : the future of your company depends on it by Ries Al

Author:Ries, Al
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Marketing - Research, Entrepreneurship, Business & Economics, Business / Economics / Finance, Business/Economics, Leadership, Business & Economics / Marketing / General, Management - General, Marketing, Success in business
Publisher: New York : HarperBusiness
Published: 1997-08-05T16:00:00+00:00

COPING WITH CHANGE 151

hood. They usually move to a "more expensive" neighborhood.

If they own a Chevrolet, they seldom trade up to a more expensive Chevrolet. They usually move to an Oldsmobile, a Buick, or a more expensive brand.

If the customer has a mental commitment to change, then that commitment is reinforced by changing the company that the customer normally buys from. This is especially true when technological change or economic change occurs.

The customer doesn't want to buy a computer from a copier company. A digital camera from a photographic company. An expensive watch from a cheap watch company.

Tragically, many companies try to straddle both the past and the future. They usually succeed in doing neither. It's not a product problem; it's a perception problem. This is an important distinction. Many companies believe the problem lies in developing a superior product or service, the quality axiom. They might actually win the quality battle and lose the mental battle.

Xerox was a powerhouse in copiers when they saw a mad rush to computers taking place. So they tried to get into the computer business, but with a copier name.

After spending billions of dollars, the company wisely retreated to the copier camp. This was a good move for Xerox unless they had the courage to use a new name for their computer products (which is strategy 5: Two separate camps, two separate names).

Xerox actually introduced a personal computer several months before IBM did, which should have given them an advantage. But the Xerox launch was buried in the blitz of PC publicity and the perception of Xerox as a copier company. What does a copier company know about computers?

Eastman Kodak is a powerhouse in photography, but the market is slowly going electronic. There used to be a substantial market for eight- and sixteen-millimeter motion picture film for amateur and documentary filmmakers. Today that market is almost all videotape.

Television commercials are routinely shot on photographic film and edited and distributed on videotape. Hollywood movies are shot on film but distributed to Blockbusters and other rental and sales outlets electronically on videotape. Some television programming is still shot on photographic film, but edited and broadcast using elec-

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