Seth's Blog : In search of competition

 

In search of competition

Most companies (and non-profits) fear competition. American Airlines, our worst possible domestic airline, always does best in routes where travelers don't have a choice. When customers don't have a choice, you can raise profits and lower quality and people just have to deal with it. You can happily be the profitable choice of last resort, the place for people with nowhere else to go.

Some organizations, though, work to find competition instead of fleeing from it. If you have a system, a point of view and a process for growth, then a market that already exists is your friend, the next place you can grow. And so, for example, small chains like Five Brothers and Shake Shack are happy to set up shop right next to fast food places that might represent competition.

This is one reason Amazon's efficiencies are so fearsome--they prefer to start in a market with competition.

On the other hand, if you're depending on being alone in your field, then your charitable cause, your brokerage business or your industrial entity is going to have a hard time finding the next place to grow.

(Semi-related trivia: In high school and college, I was so bad at school elections—losing every single one—I finally decided I would only run for slots where I was unopposed. Amazingly, I lost that one too, and wisely stopped competing for votes—sometimes, competition is a choice.)

       

• Email to a friend •

 

More Recent Articles

• Most of all, money is a story
• The opposite of why is now
• Framers and polishers
• Emotionally obsolete
• The most important question

[You're getting this note because you subscribed to Seth Godin's blog.]

Don't want to get this email anymore? Click the link below to unsubscribe.

---

Click here to safely unsubscribe from "Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect." Click here to view mailing archives, here to change your preferences, or here to subscribe • Privacy

---

---

Email subscriptions powered by FeedBlitz, LLC, 9 Thoreau Way, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA.

 

Seth's Blog : Most of all, money is a story

 

Most of all, money is a story

Money's pretty new. Before that, we traded. My corn for your milk. The trade enriches both of us, and it's simple.

Money, of course, makes a whole bunch of other transactions possible. Maybe I don't need your milk, but I can take your money and use it to buy something I do need, from someone else. Very efficient, but also very abstract.

As we ceased to trade, we moved all of our transactions to the abstract world of money. And the thing about an abstract trade is that it happens over time, not all at once. So I trade you this tuition money today in exchange for degree in four years which might get me a better job in nine years. Not only is there risk involved, but who knows what the value of anything nine years from now is?

Because of the abstraction and time shift, we're constantly re-evaluating what money is worth. Five dollars to buy a snack box on an airplane is worth something very different than five dollars to buy a cup of coffee after a fancy meal, which is worth something different than five dollars in the grocery store. That's because we get to pretend that the five dollars in each situation is worth a different amount--because it's been shifted.

Most of the time, when we're buying non-commodity items, we're asking ourselves questions like:

• How much pain am I in right now?
• Do I deserve this?
• What will happen to the price in an hour or a week? If it changes, will I feel smart or dumb?
• What will my neighbors think?
• Does it feel fair?
• and, What sort of risks (positive and negative) are involved? (This is why eBay auctions don't work for the masses).

Pricing based on cost, then, makes no sense whatsoever. Cost isn't abstract, but value is.

       

• Email to a friend •

 

More Recent Articles

• The opposite of why is now
• Framers and polishers
• Emotionally obsolete
• The most important question
• Should you teach the world a new word?

[You're getting this note because you subscribed to Seth Godin's blog.]

Don't want to get this email anymore? Click the link below to unsubscribe.

---

Click here to safely unsubscribe from "Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect." Click here to view mailing archives, here to change your preferences, or here to subscribe • Privacy

---

---

Email subscriptions powered by FeedBlitz, LLC, 9 Thoreau Way, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA.

 

Seth's Blog : The opposite of why is now

 

The opposite of why is now

Questions are good. A legitimate, "why?" is enough to change the world.

But stalling, stalling is the last thing you need. And why is often an escape hatch for people who know what they should do, but fear doing it. It's easier to ponder, to question the meaning of this or our role in where we go next.

The best answer for the stalling why is: Go.

[and of course, the best response to the impestuous, status-quo driven 'Go' is to ask, "why?"]

       

• Email to a friend •

 

More Recent Articles

• Framers and polishers
• Emotionally obsolete
• The most important question
• Should you teach the world a new word?
• Taking umbrage

[You're getting this note because you subscribed to Seth Godin's blog.]

Don't want to get this email anymore? Click the link below to unsubscribe.

---

Click here to safely unsubscribe from "Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect." Click here to view mailing archives, here to change your preferences, or here to subscribe • Privacy

---

---

Email subscriptions powered by FeedBlitz, LLC, 9 Thoreau Way, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA.

 

Seth's Blog : Framers and polishers

 

Framers and polishers

The framer asks the original question, roughs out the starting designs, provokes the new thing.

The polisher finds typos, smooths out the rough edges and helps avoid the silly or expensive error.

Both are important. Unpolished work is hardly worth doing. 

Polishing is relentlessly reinforced in school and feels safe. Framing is fraught with risk and thus avoided by many. Too often, we spend our time on a little more polish, instead of investing in the breakthrough that a framer can bring.

       

• Email to a friend •

 

More Recent Articles

• Emotionally obsolete
• The most important question
• Should you teach the world a new word?
• Taking umbrage
• Doing what gets rewarded

[You're getting this note because you subscribed to Seth Godin's blog.]

Don't want to get this email anymore? Click the link below to unsubscribe.

---

Click here to safely unsubscribe from "Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect." Click here to view mailing archives, here to change your preferences, or here to subscribe • Privacy

---

---

Email subscriptions powered by FeedBlitz, LLC, 9 Thoreau Way, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA.

 

Seth's Blog : Emotionally obsolete

 

Emotionally obsolete

Innovations often succeed by creating obsolence.

There's functional obsolence which is powerful but rare. If I own a word processor so I can create documents and edit them with others, a new version of the software (with a new file format) makes my software obsolete. When my colleagues send over a document, I have no choice but to upgrade.

Functional obsolence is almost always caused by interactivity--when files or cables or parts or languages don't connect any longer, they become obsolete.

Far more common is emotional obsolence. The rage you feel when an improved laptop is announced a week after you bought a new one is an example of this. Your old laptop does everything it used to do, of course, but one reason you bought it was to have the 'best laptop' and the launch of a newer model undoes that for you.

Modern architecture has made many existing office buildings emotionally obsolete, because they are no longer the trophies they used to be. A newfangled digital device for audiophiles doesn't do anything to make old CD players functionally obsolete, but it certainly can shatter the illusion of sound perfection that a stereo lover who doesn't own one may be experiencing.

Start by realizing that most people who buy a new innovation are not brand new to the market. They buy the new thing as a step up from an old thing. Most hockey equipment is sold to people who already play hockey.

It's tempting to argue, logically and step by step, why your new product or service is better than the one that's already on the market. It's far more likely, though, that your story will resonate most with people who aren't seeking functionality but instead were happy with the thing they had, but now, thanks to you, believe it has become obsolete. Our neophilia is a powerful desire, and buyer's remorse is its flipside.

       

• Email to a friend •

 

More Recent Articles

• The most important question
• Should you teach the world a new word?
• Taking umbrage
• Doing what gets rewarded
• Is it time for a competitor to the Olympics?

[You're getting this note because you subscribed to Seth Godin's blog.]

Don't want to get this email anymore? Click the link below to unsubscribe.

---

Click here to safely unsubscribe from "Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect." Click here to view mailing archives, here to change your preferences, or here to subscribe • Privacy

---

---

Email subscriptions powered by FeedBlitz, LLC, 9 Thoreau Way, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA.