What’s the Big Idea?
You’ve got the budget, charged your marketing team and are ready to execute. Your tactics and analytics are solid, and you’ve honed your audience down to wafer-thin segments. Great. You’ve...
The story all is too common:
International Widgets spends years and countless R & D dollars developing “the next big thing,” unveiling it with the usual hue and cry. It’s a smash hit. People can’t live without it. Then, six months later, ten other companies are offering the same thing or better, often for less. Suddenly, the wonks at International Widgets are in a state of panic, struggling to hold margins and maintain market share. Erstwhile heroes become zeroes. Heads will surely roll.
Welcome to the vicious cycle of commoditization—a byproduct of light-speed 21st-Century commerce.
It’s the circle of life—and death
Affecting both products and services, commoditization is a familiar waypoint in a lifecycle that includes innovation, birth, growth, maturity, decline and, ultimately, end of life. After all, nothing lasts forever—aside from maybe Hostess Twinkies®.
Who or what’s to blame?
Insatiable demand from a rising worldwide consumer class. Digital workflows. Global networks. Collaborative software that lets dispersed teams work together in real time. Instant customer feedback through social mediums. They all conspire to make the jaunt from innovation to commoditization fast, furious and endlessly challenging.
The good news is that developing inventive new products and services is still the best path to success. The bad news is that if you want to play in the park you’re going to have to get on the merry-go-round, no matter how quickly it’s spinning.
When whining fails to work
Before you go off and sulk like International Widgets, consider what you can do about this alarming situation. Here are a few suggestions that will help your offerings stand out:
The same drivers that power the vicious cycle of commoditization create a world of opportunity for companies willing to embrace it. So, unless you want to bail out altogether and become a florist, why not sharpen your game, dive in reap the rewards?
[1] Ragan: “8 Ridiculous Ways Zappos Keeps Customers and Staffers Happy.” Working, Russell. August 2013.