Emotion Products for Consumers, Tool Products for Business
Monday, February 23, 2009 at 03:31PM Liza Bouchard So most marketing experts probably already know this but I am reflecting on the idea and wanted to share. What makes a product good for a consumer market is quiet different from a business market. This is probably rule #1 of business "know your audience". But specifically, businesses will buy functional tools because it gives them a competitive edge, and of course, time is money. But its much harder to sell the same kinds of tools to consumers. What then are consumers motivated by? Emotional-based products; music, movies, books, sports, food, love, religion. No wonder these are such great online markets (iTunes, Netflix, Amazon, etc...)
But try to sell consumers on functional tools and the battle is much harder. Take for example Apple, they didn't sell people on computers because they were "functional" (Windows tried that angle). Apple instead sold "cool." Why? Consumers will buy "cool." However, take for example "The Swiffer," as useful as it is, the product just doesn't evoke passion. It can be sold as functional, but not for the same relative price-point as an emotion-based sell.
On the business side however, productivity tools do sell and people are passionate about them; anything to make the operation is faster, better or give it a leading edge. But here is the incongruity... what happens if you try selling a productivity tool to a consumer market?
Reader Comments (4)
RememberTheMilk.com more than doubled it's base during 2008 from 100k uniques to 250k uniques/mo. I've always seen them as consumer oriented (I'm a customer) rather than biz-focused. I wonder what their customer mix is....
Yes, great example!
RememberTheMilk.com is a free service (per my note above... "free and uncool, but still a good tool" will get users. Now, as the theory goes, if they were charging for a list making tool on a consumer level they would have a much harder time.
37signals talked about this same issue with Backpack. It was created originally as a consumer product but it struggled. But when they switched the focus to business Backpack did better.
I should also add, your site Otalo is a good example of a cross-over; it's a consumer tool that is free, but also emotionally based (people dream about vacation homes).
IMO This is the whole crux of the Apple iMac versus Windows PC debate. And since modern generations don't mind learning multiple User Interfaces - they don't mind having a different computing platform for these two modes.