Consumption today is all about significance and significance is everything that isn’t utility. Despite the current turmoil, we live in a culture of huge abundance and that means we have pretty much all of what we really need. People’s choices about what to buy are driven by the significance of the purchase, how it makes them feel. The more significant your product is, the better it will do.
So what is significance?
Well it’s made up of several components, and this isn’t written in stone, but the most important aspect is design. Design is the primary reason to choose one product over another. If you look at product superstars like iPhone or retail success stories like Target, you will see that they shifted the focus of their offering heavily onto design and differentiated themselves in that way. Good ideas like TableTopics are made great through inspired design. Bizarre ideas like bottled water that costs more than gasoline are made possible through inspired design. I am sure bad ideas have slipped under the net for the same reason.
Consumer products companies that develop great products and ignore design are missing a fundamental truth about today’s market and consumer. I call it the utility trap. Be the best by all means but be sure and be the best looking too.
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