Over the weekend I was thinking about what the core requirements are to force a change in a consumer’s behavior. For instance, how could Microsoft get someone to not just try Bing, but become a regular user, when Google is more than good enough for most users and searches. Or, could Fox Business materially disrupt CNBC’s audience?
One of the key behavioral attributes I learned early on in radio is that in order to get a consumer, or in that case a listener, to embrace a new station, you had to get them to reject their old station, or habits. It wasn’t easy, and it’s harder today as the consumer’s attention span is increasingly challenged. However, being “good enough” typically maintains status quo, but does not increase market share for the incumbent and leaves them exposed to disruption.
I assembled a short list with examples but wanted to see what else might be an appropriate impetus for change:
- Significant product benefits: AOL’s dial-up access has been a lucrative business for years, but has also been losing subscribers since 2003. When people embrace broadband they naturally don’t look back. The product benefits of broadband access create a demarcation point in human behavior. AOL becomes OLD.
- Significant technology enhancements: This follows the standard curve of early adopters, chasm crossers, followed by the mainstream. It’s often tied to an implied quality of life benefit. The accelerated migration of film to digital still photography is a classic example.
- Newness: The allure of newness can quickly destabilize entrenched consumer habits, especially in commoditized goods.
- Price sensitivity: Price sensitivity also empowers change in commoditized goods, such as groceries and similar consumer products.
- Force majeure: A product deficiency, or perceived deterioration in the face of competition. Whether it takes the form of an individual consumer’s unsatisfactory experience, or is more widespread, such as a recall, it can evoke change.
Going back to Bing, and based on the short list above, it can only play the allure of newness card. Absent a force majeure, significant technology and product benefits – price sensitivity isn’t relevant here – is newness enough to steal and maintain a significant amount of Google’s user market share? As for Fox Business and CNBC – CNBC won that war a year ago!
