Insanely Cool - Feb. 2008

I like to go into the local Apple store the day after Thanksgiving. It’s the only day of the year that the store has a big sale on standard Apple products. Not everything is reduced, but there’s enough stuff to make it fun to look. My kids all got new iPods for Christmas last year, so I was under strict instructions from my wife to not buy anything. We have two kids in college right now and are feeling a bit poorer than usual, so my wife has declared this Christmas gift free. (Okay, not totally gift free but not the usual indulgence I like so much.) Luckily, it’s completely free to look at the cool stuff in the stores.

I’ve been going through the sale advertisements in the newspaper looking for some compelling stuff that will overcome my wife’s temporary Grinchness. I’m waiting for the moment when I can say, “Look at this. How can we NOT buy this for one of the kids?” The inspiration has not come. The memory sticks and cards get bigger, but how many and what capacity do you really need? I didn’t even get up early the day after Thanksgiving to get bargains this year. Somehow, I felt un-American to not partake in this great tradition.

Major American retailers have trained millions of shoppers to wait for the big discounts—the trick is that once they have the shopper in their stores, the shoppers will buy other stuff that isn’t on sale. Though sometimes, the people who get up early to be at the store at 5 a.m. just want the really good deal and nothing else. It seems the retailers are getting the behavior they reward. People always respond to the reward systems that are in place in the market or in the organization where they work. In this case, if you are patient and buy at the right time, you get rewarded with good deals.

Is there any way to get out of the trap of only selling stuff at the lowest possible retail price? Looking at the number of bargains in the newspaper that arrives on Thanksgiving morning would make a typical consumer think that he or she should wait for the big sale as a rule. One company, though, does not seem to need so many sales: Apple.

The products from Apple are so compelling that they only go on sale one day a year and even then, only a few items at very little discount. Years ago, Steve Jobs said that Apple needed to create and sell “insanely cool” stuff. They have achieved that goal and, as a consequence, the price they sell at is fixed at a high profit margin.

It is that simple: Create insanely cool or otherwise compelling products and the consumer will pay the price asked without hesitation. I know that seems easy to say and pretty hard to do. But is it? Customers want high relative value for their money. An iPhone with its bright screen and smooth surface is way out there in terms of value for money because there’s nothing like it available. But still, it must compete with every other consumer product available. Can you tell I really want one of those toys?
We don’t sell high-tech gadgets, but we do sell beautiful living plants and flowers. Our plants are really beautiful if they’re grown to full glory, packaged and delivered well, and displayed and maintained well at retail. Failure to execute any of these steps results in product that’s far from a compelling value to the end customer.

It’s much easier to blame “the market” for our own failings. We should look in a mirror and accept responsibility for the failure of our products or stores. Yes, a local event can have profound effect on sales, like the major drought in the Southeast. But those are exceptions. Most of the time, the failure to execute all of the boring details leads to low product quality. Doing the extra work to make the product right every time isn’t nearly as exciting as dreaming up the next idea, but we still have to do it.
We need to constantly remind ourselves that we, too, can have insanely cool products if we put a little more effort into them.