De-commoditising Through Potential Promises

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Ed Byrne had a great thought the other day on how to de-commoditise your product:

Why do people buy branded premium (eg. Apple) products? Why do people stay as ‘label’ (eg. Apple) customers? Answer: It’s not the product they buy – it’s the promise of new + exciting products in the future. This is how to de-commoditise your product! This is how to move your business UP the value chain and stop having to compete on price in an un-differentiated market!

While I don’t think that this is the exclusive mechanism for de-commoditising a product, I like the thought and think it is an interesting step towards de-commoditising a product.

What’s the underlying element of the thought? Well, it sure sounds a lot like a key to de-commoditising is to build a potential promise into the user experience.

Hugh offers advice to advertisers: “Your job is not to sell. Your job is to de-commoditise.” And to do that they need to develop, grow, and nurture potential promises.

  • http://disruptivethoughts.com/2006/04/24/the-keystone-of-building-network-value/ The Keystone of Building Network Value at Disruptive Thoughts

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