Businesses are constantly morphing; sometimes because of industry shifts and sometimes because of competitive factors. So, as you think about your strategy and consider the next tweak to your own business, think about whether your business is a ‘nice’, a need or an addiction.
Nice isn’t nice
If your product or service is nice to have, it’s incredibly vulnerable. If money is tight, time is tight or something better comes along, something that is purely ‘nice to have’ will lose out to something that is mission critical for the customer.
A need
If you fulfill a basic need for your customer, you are better off than nice. But once the need is filled (or if someone fills it in a different way), you may still limit your growth opportunities.
An addiction
Starbucks coffee. The iPhone. Integrity Toys’ Fashion Royalty dolls. Angry Birds. What do all of these products have in common? To their core customers, they are an addiction. They aren’t a basic need, but they fulfill an emotional part for the customer that makes them a critical component of their happiness. Their customers crave them and will go to any lengths to get them.
Look at your current business. Are you delivering a product, service and/or experience so craveworthy that your customers will do just about anything to get it?
Will they stand in line for it?
Do they drive past more convenient options to experience it?
Will they pay a premium to be the first to have it?
So, ask yourself how can move beyond the rational customer need to create something so addictive to your customer that they will go out of their way for it, that they have to have it and that it casts aside all sensible behavior. If you aren’t there yet, keep pushing towards that addictive offering.
