Con­sumer Reports almost never endorses the same prod­ucts a niche enthu­si­ast mag­a­zine would. They rarely pick the same car that, say, Car and Dri­ver might. Like­wise, most seri­ous skiers — like those on Ski Magazine’s edi­to­r­ial staff — tend to select dif­fer­ent skis as “best buys” than the ones Con­sumer Reports chooses each winter.
Why is that?
For one thing, Con­sumer Reports tries to objec­tively cal­cu­late the “sweet spot” on the Quality-to-Price Ratio. Enthu­si­asts, on the other hand, gen­er­ally give more weight to sub­tleties, refine­ments and other semi-intangible qual­i­ties; things like aes­thet­ics, ergonom­ics and brand affin­ity. Such things aren’t as big a fac­tor for Con­sumer Reports when they’re try­ing to help you find “the most [what­ever it is] for your money.”
Enthu­si­asts go beyond the point of so-called dimin­ish­ing returns because, to them, the return doesn’t feel diminished.
The Per­ceived Value Curve
In case you still don’t know what I’m talk­ing about, I graphed it…
Con­sumer Reports thinks in these terms. They look for prod­ucts that sit neatly on the inflex­ion point; that spot on the curve just before it gets too steep. They do this because their audi­ence wants an objec­tive, sub­stan­ti­ated and dis­pas­sion­ate analy­sis of the prod­uct for which they might — just maybe — exchange their hard-earned (and deval­ued) dollars.
They’re look­ing for those 85%-as-good-but-half-the-price prod­ucts because, for them, there’s no joy in spend­ing a dol­lar more than they can objec­tively rationalize.
From “Con­sumer” to Enthusiast
Unlike the Con­sumer Reports crowd, enthu­si­asts are more con­scious of a product’s refine­ments, or lack thereof.
The enthusiast’s min­i­mum stan­dards are higher than aver­age. Audio­philes can dis­tin­guish between a CD record­ing and a 192-bit encrypted MP3 file. Dri­ving enthu­si­asts appre­ci­ate the smooth clutch and slick jolts of a great man­ual trans­mis­sion. Wine con­nois­seurs can antic­i­pate the black­berry notes and soft min­er­al­ity of their favorite Cab Franc.
This is why acquir­ing a taste for expen­sive wines, stereos and cars can some­times “ruin” you for lesser qual­ity goods, because as Kathy Sierra insists, “Learn­ing increases resolution.”
Enthu­si­asts con­tinue to per­ceive notice­able — and sub­stan­tially increased — ben­e­fits well beyond the nor­mally per­ceived point of dimin­ish­ing returns. So, if can’t sub­stan­ti­ate your product’s supe­ri­or­ity in a no-nonsense Con­sumer Reports-style man­ner, your best bet may be to write copy that evokes the Enthusiast’s experience.
When you cre­ate a high-resolution expe­ri­ence with your Web copy, you help the aver­age, unini­ti­ated con­sumer pic­ture them­selves as enthusiasts.
The Fuji F30 Cam­era is a good exam­ple. The F30 is com­pact dig­i­tal cam­era with rather unim­pres­sive specs (6 megapix­els with a 3X zoom) that’s sup­pos­edly been sup­planted by the newer F40 and F50 mod­els — but it’s STILL sell­ing for between $220 and $300, which is as much or more than either the 12 megapixel F50 or the 8 megapixel Canon SD850.
Why is it com­mand­ing so high a price? Because enthu­si­asts have embraced the lit­tle cam­era for its unmatched abil­ity to take high ISO and low-light pho­tos. It’s the only pocket cam that’s able to take really great low-light shots. And as soon as you “sell” a con­sumer on that abil­ity, the lower megapixel count stops mat­ter­ing so much. A smart copy­writer would focus in on this “hid­den” abil­ity of the F30 in order to raise its per­ceived value.
Roy Williams gives an exam­ple of copy that does just that:
“The pret­ti­est cam­era in this price class has a shut­ter speed of 1/15th of a sec­ond. But the shut­ter speed of the ugly Canon Pow­er­Shot S500 is a super­fast 1/60th of a sec­ond, allow­ing you to take fab­u­lous pho­tos in low-light sit­u­a­tions. Your indoor pho­tos will look rich and vibrant when all the oth­ers look dark and grainy. And your night­time pho­tos will make people’s eyes bug out. Beau­ti­ful con­trast and lumi­nance, even with­out the flash. This cam­era can see in the dark. Take a pic­ture of your lover in the moon­light. It will become your favorite photo ever. And that super­fast shut­ter speed is also very for­giv­ing of move­ment. That’s why no one ever replaces their Pow­er­Shot S500. Go to your local pawn­shop and see if you can find one. We’re bet­ting you can’t. But you will see sev­eral of that “pret­tier” cam­era avail­able cheaper than dirt. So if you’re look­ing for a great price on a sleek-looking cam­era, that’s prob­a­bly where you should go.”
Who wouldn’t want a cam­era like that?If copy alone won’t do the trick, think about stag­ing live events, webi­nars, stream­ing videos… what­ever it takes to show a glimpse of the hi-res expe­ri­ence. (Here’s another exam­ple from Kathy Sierra.)
Don’t lower prices. Stay ahead of the curve by build­ing per­ceived value with your Web copy.

paris_hilton_car-727169Con­sumer Reports rarely endorses the same prod­ucts that enthu­si­ast mag­a­zines do. They rarely pick the same car that, say, Car and Dri­ver might, or select the same stereo that Audio­phile would deem a “best buy.”

Why is that?

Because Con­sumer Reports tries to objec­tively cal­cu­late the “sweet spot” on the Quality-to-Price Ratio, while enthu­si­asts give more weight to sub­jec­tive sub­tleties and refine­ments; things like aes­thet­ics, ergonom­ics and brand affin­ity.  Such things aren’t as big a fac­tor for Con­sumer Reports when they’re try­ing to help you find “the most X for your money.”

Enthu­si­asts go beyond the point of so-called dimin­ish­ing returns because, to them, the return doesn’t feel diminished.

The Per­ceived Value Curve

Just to make this as clear as pos­si­ble, I graphed it…

Quality vs. Cost-4

As you can see on the chart, Con­sumer Reports looks for prod­ucts that sit on the inflex­ion point, that spot on the curve just before it gets too steep. They do this because their audi­ence wants an objec­tive, sub­stan­ti­ated and dis­pas­sion­ate analy­sis of which brand/product offers the best bang for the buck.  They’re look­ing for those 85%-as-good-but-half-the-price products.

From “Con­sumer” to Enthusiast

Unlike the Con­sumer Reports crowd, enthu­si­asts are more con­scious of a product’s refine­ments, or lack thereof.

The enthusiast’s min­i­mum stan­dards are higher than aver­age. Audio­philes can dis­tin­guish between a CD record­ing and a 192-bit encrypted MP3 file. Dri­ving enthu­si­asts appre­ci­ate the smooth clutch and slick jolts of a great man­ual trans­mis­sion. Wine con­nois­seurs can antic­i­pate the black­berry notes and soft min­er­al­ity of their favorite Cab Franc

This is why acquir­ing a taste for expen­sive wines, stereos and cars can some­times “ruin you” for lesser qual­ity goods, because as Kathy Sierra insists, “Learn­ing increases res­o­lu­tion.” Enthu­si­asts con­tinue to per­ceive notice­able, worth­while ben­e­fits well beyond the nor­mally per­ceived point of dimin­ish­ing returns.

How to use this in your copy

So, if you can’t sub­stan­ti­ate your product’s supe­ri­or­ity in a no-nonsense Con­sumer Reports-style man­ner, your best bet may be to write copy that evokes the Enthusiast’s experience.

When you cre­ate a high-resolution expe­ri­ence with your Web copy, you help the aver­age, unini­ti­ated con­sumer pic­ture them­selves as enthu­si­asts, which in turn helps them jus­tify pay­ing more for the ser­vice or item.

Back in 2008 when I first wrote this arti­cle, Fuji’s F30 Com­pact Cam­era was a per­fect exam­ple. The F30 had rather unim­pres­sive specs (6 megapix­els with a 3X zoom) and had sup­pos­edly been sup­planted by the newer F40 and F50 mod­els — but it was STILL sell­ing for between $220 and $300, which was as much or more than either the 12 megapixel F50 or the 8 megapixel Canon SD850.

Why is it com­mand­ing so high a price?

Because enthu­si­asts had embraced the F30 for its unmatched abil­ity to take high ISO and low-light pho­tos.  At the time, it was the only pocket cam­era able to take really great low-light shots.  So as soon as a retailer “sold” a con­sumer on that abil­ity, the lower megapixel count no-longer mat­tered. Smart copy­writ­ers could have focused in on this “hid­den” ability/refinement of the F30 in order to raise its per­ceived value.

Roy Williams gives an exam­ple of copy that does just that:

In this bril­liant Mon­day Morn­ing Memo, Roy writes this (made up) sam­ple copy which per­fectly illus­trates my point:

“The pret­ti­est cam­era in this price class has a shut­ter speed of 1/15th of a sec­ond. But the shut­ter speed of the ugly Canon Pow­er­Shot S500 is a super­fast 1/60th of a sec­ond, allow­ing you to take fab­u­lous pho­tos in low-light sit­u­a­tions. Your indoor pho­tos will look rich and vibrant when all the oth­ers look dark and grainy. And your night­time pho­tos will make people’s eyes bug out. Beau­ti­ful con­trast and lumi­nance, even with­out the flash. This cam­era can see in the dark. Take a pic­ture of your lover in the moon­light. It will become your favorite photo ever. And that super­fast shut­ter speed is also very for­giv­ing of move­ment. That’s why no one ever replaces their Pow­er­Shot S500. Go to your local pawn­shop and see if you can find one. We’re bet­ting you can’t. But you will see sev­eral of that “pret­tier” cam­era avail­able cheaper than dirt. So if you’re look­ing for a great price on a sleek-looking cam­era, that’s prob­a­bly where you should go.”

Who wouldn’t want a cam­era like that?

And if copy alone won’t do the trick, think about stag­ing live events, webi­nars, stream­ing videos… what­ever it takes to show a glimpse of the hi-res expe­ri­ence. (Here’s another exam­ple from Kathy Sierra.)

Over­com­ing Con­di­tioned Irrationalities

Very often in com­pet­i­tive indus­tries, cer­tain specs get dis­torted in com­sumers’ minds as being, the only thing that really mat­ters.  In cam­eras, that fea­ture is megapixel count, but this con­sumer symp­tom ain’t unique to cam­eras, it hap­pens in every­thing from gran­ite coun­ter­tops to jew­elry to kitchen knives to com­put­ers.  Just try explain­ing why Macs are worth the pre­mium to a spec and price-conscious PC-buyer ;)

In fact, I’ve heard it said (prob­a­bly in jest) that there’s only 2 real busi­ness models:

  1. We give $5 hair­cuts (max­i­mum spec per $)
  2. We FIX $5 hair­cuts (Real value / all the sub­jec­tive good­ness most peo­ple “in the know” want)

While I may not fully agree with that, it cer­tainly clar­i­fies the point: build­ing per­ceived value often means over­com­ing the “con­di­tioned blind­ness” around “the one spec that mat­ters.”  A con­di­tioned blind­ness that often requires get­ting burned to break free from.

So for com­pa­nies using busi­ness model #2 who would like to expand mar­ket share beyond the once-burned crowd, (re)creating the enthusiast’s expe­ri­ence and dra­ma­tiz­ing the ben­e­fits beyond the specs is usu­ally the surest and best way to cre­ate Per­ceived Value.

[The “From the Vault” series is an attempt to spot­light some of my older Grok posts that remain rel­e­vant for today’s read­ers.  As always, I’m open to sug­ges­tions, if you’d like me to re-visit a topic of inter­est to you]

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Comments

  1. Shane Arthur on 12.16.2009

    I remem­ber about 10 years back a video cam­era that had night vision capa­bil­i­ties. Used dur­ing the day, how­ever, and it could see through clothes. The com­pany quickly moved to cor­rect this “prob­lem” and cre­ated the Enthusiast’s expe­ri­ence; you couldn’t find those cam­eras any­where after that.

  2. Jeff on 12.16.2009

    Yeah, I vaguely recall that. Too funny. I bet those cam­eras did end up sell­ing 2nd hand for a lot of money.

  3. Ayako Vaske on 08.17.2010

    Paris Hilton is def­i­nitely one of the most beau­ti­ful women in the whole

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