Should you adapt yourself to a new product? Or should it be the other way around?
Yesterday I posted about my first experience with a Gillette Fusion razor, and one of the comments I got was from Paulo Pires. He said that maybe I didn’t really like the new razor because first my skin needs to get used to it.
I understand Paulo’s point of view, but I believe that for most products, especially things I consider as commodities, it’s the product that should adapt to me and my characteristics, not the other way around.
I work as a consultant and, believe me, I know how hard is for people to get used to new things, whether products or services, especially if their current situation suits their needs.
I believe that a major flaw of marketers and salespeople is to think that people will gladly change their behaviors (or even physically change) or whatever just to use their products. Wrong…
Some examples:
- New Coke – People really didn’t get used to it.
- Apple Newton – It seems like people didn’t want to dramatically change their handwriting.
Always remember that there are times when people do need to adapt to your product/service/solution. Most of times, though, make an effort it can be the other way around
Última actualização: 03/12/2010
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Praying for people to get used to your product is a sentence to dead, I believe. Why don’t people change to Linux, for example? May be is because people behave as you said:
” …hard is for people to get used to new things, whether products or services, especially if their current situation suits their needs.”
Men, and some women also 🙂 buy a shaver to have their shave done, not to have a shaver, and if they could have their shave done with a hammer they would have a hammer instead 🙂
JMP,
Couldn’t agree more with you.
The problem is that most technologists (and, unfortunately, some commercial-oriented people) don’t understand this simple fact.