Why did the RAZR ultimately ruin Motorola? Why does Wal-Mart dominate rural and suburban areas but falter in large cities? Why did Starbucks stumble just when it seemed unstoppable?
The answer lies in the ever-present tension between fidelity (the quality of a consumer’s experience) and convenience (the ease of getting and paying for a product). In Trade-Off, Kevin Maney shows how these conflicting forces determine the success, or failure, of new products and services in the marketplace. He shows that almost every decision we make as consumers involves a trade-off between fidelity and convenience–between the products we love and the products we need. Rock stars sell out concerts because the experience is high in fidelity-–it can’t be replicated in any other way, and because of that, we are willing to suffer inconvenience for the experience. In contrast, a downloaded MP3 of a song is low in fidelity, but consumers buy music online because it’s superconvenient. Products that are at one extreme or the other–those that are high in fidelity or high in convenience–-tend to be successful. The things that fall into the middle-–products or services that have moderate fidelity and convenience-–fail to win an enthusiastic audience. Using examples from Amazon and Disney to People Express and the invention of the ATM, Maney demonstrates that the most successful companies skew their offerings to either one extreme or the other-–fidelity or convenience-–in shaping products and building brands.
From the Hardcover edition.
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In Kevin Maney's new book, "Trade Off - Why Some Things Catch On and Others Don't", we are treated to a simple world set apart from the latest theories on the complexity of our economic systems. Most intellectuals writing on the subject today will tell you how truly difficult it is to understand market pressures and the dynamics that determine what happens in our commercial market place. Even Malcolm Gladwell, who has given us the "The Tipping Point", which allows us to visualize how a product or service with sufficient critical mass, the right "stickiness", and the right combination of salesmen, connectors, and mavens a product might tip, catch-on as Maney would say, didn't quite give us something practical to use when making decisions.
Maney has given us something practical to use. He has given us a lens, as he calls it, a mirror as I would call it, to understand the very basics of human psychology when it comes to seeking out products and services. It's a mirror because the markets are a reflection of ourselves. First, since we are sensory beings we like to be fully engaged in a high fidelity environment. In essence we like the high bandwidth experience of being there, live and in concert. Second, if we can't be there in person, then we are extremely lazy. These are the two extremes. We pay for things that simulate our senses, or we prefer the habit of convenience where we don't have to use our senses at all. We are willing to pay for the convenience as well.
Gladwell was never able to definitively explain "stickiness", that unknown phenomenon that produces an attraction to a product or service. Maney has given us the essence of the Gladwellian "stickiness". It is that characteristic about a product or service that compels us to either love it deeply or require it as a necessity. The two extremes of that which we love, those high fidelity, high quality experiences that move our every sense which we are willing to sacrifice and pay top dollar for, or that which we need, to use, consume, and connect with everyday by either force of habit or necessity that must be simple, convenient, and cheap. The markets continuously trade between fidelity and convenience because every consumer makes the same swap in their daily lives. What can be more simple than that?
With all that has been written about the complexities of the economy and drivers of our markets Maney has given us something simply, intuitive, and even more important, fundamentally true. I have used his simple lens to view my own experiences and a host of other examples beyond what he has included in his book. I have not found a single instance where I would argue his fidelity swap lens does not hold up. Five stars for this very useful concept.
Tiffany's Sells Swatches! Extremely unlikely, given there pull-back on $100 Charms because they recognized the trade-off they were making in serving that Customer verses serving the Elite Quality Oriented Customer, that they built their reputation on, according to Best Selling Author Kevin Maney in his recent book Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On And Others Don't (Random House) Forward by Jim Collins.
In his book he explains how organizations who excel, inherently understand this trade-off. His book will help you get crystal clear about the Trade-off that you need to make if your going to compete in the market place and have your product or service catch on. He gives examples of both those who never made the trade off and shrank into oblivion. And those who made the brake-out that most organizational leaders envision. This book is not an academic tomb, it is alive with wonderful examples that remain with you long after you put it on your bookshelf or archive it on your Kindle.
One of the examples he provides in fact is of the development of Kindle. I marvel at the richness of his social network and how it elevates the details and understanding that he draws from these relationships. It provides credibility and insight that many books miss.
Business books often over do it just to fill pages, where you likely will feel diminishing value after the first three chapters. Not this one of them, Kevin keeps it interesting from the first page to the last or from the first click to the last. I read all his reviews on kindle and I thought I would give him a chance to respond to those critics (not that there were many critics) in an upcoming interview on Just Ask Leadership's Blog.
Many academics give you a list of what to do, Kevin gives you a mental model that will help you think about your business and the Trade-off the market is wanting you to make to get your products or services to catch on. What is that Trade-off for your organization?
Interview with Kevin Maney Author of Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On And Others Don't - can be found on my blog Just Ask Leadership (can't post links so you will have to google it.)
Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don't
Of all books that I've read on why products succeed or fail, Kevin Maney's new book - "Trade-Off" - presents the most cogent approach. Maney's focus on the concept of trade-off puts customer experience at the center of his conceptual framework and analysis of Fidelity vs. Convenience for products and services. Maney argues that, when developing products or services, it may be prudent for a business to focus on either high fidelity or high convenience but not both, i.e., high fidelity as well as high convenience. Although customers ideally want products with high fidelity and high convenience, they are willing to accept trade-offs involving 'good enough' fidelity and high convenience on the one hand and high fidelity and high inconvenience (including high price) on the other hand. This insight alone could save startup businesses and venture capitalists a lot of money and heartache. Achieving high fidelity and high convenience such as in a Blue Ocean Strategy is possible but highly risky. In fact, Maney refers to such an approach as chasing the Fidelity Mirage.
Ambitious startups, product developers, and venture capitalists should be strongly aware of the Fidelity Mirage. Otherwise, in pursuing the Fidelity Mirage, a business may end up in what Maney calls the "Fidelity Belly," a space where products and services struggle or flop.
Throughout the Trade-Off book, Maney provides numerous examples of products, services, and businesses that illustrate his core theory about the need for pursuing high convenience or high fidelity; high convenience may be a more attractive option for small and medium-scale businesses.
I found Maney's book to be an insightful and entertaining read. If your focus is on improving customer experience in order to obtain 'hit' products and services, the Trade-Off book provides a rich language and robust Fidelity/Convenience framework for developing effective competitive strategies and tactics. I therefore have no hesitation in highly recommending Kevin Maney's "Trade-Off."
Best,
Rod King.
[...]
If overwhelmed and not sure where to go with a business "Trade-Off" is a good, simple book to help start the process of stepping back, orienting, and deciding. There are two key concepts - fidelity and convenience. Fidelity refers to a total, unique experience, e.g., going to a rock concert. Convenience refers to how easy it is to get something, e.g., buy the band's CD. Using these two concepts the book focuses on business risks. The first of two extreme risks discussed is the Fidelity Mirage - an attempt to provide unique experiences in a mass market approach, e.g., Coach Bag wanting to mass-market products. The other extreme risk is the Fidelity Belly with low fidelity and low convenience, e.g., Kodak holding on to film-based cameras for too long.
The above concepts combine and work towards a simple truth, i.e., the boundary between fidelity and convenience never sits still. So, staying aware of factors that can shift that boundary should be an on-going activity. It is important to decide how close a business can get to one extreme or the other and thrive.
It is not deep with data and models. If it were, the ability to step back and look at things from a fresh perspective would be lost. Again, it is a good place to start to generate a realistic view of where a business sits and the odds of survival.
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