Uncomparable: anchor a new mama
You know how baby ducks think the first big creature they see is their mother?
In the book Predictably Irrational, tests show that people do the same thing with prices.
When we first consider buying a product or service, the first price we see is the anchor to which we always refer. Cheaper than that seems cheap, and more expensive than that seems expensive.
I noticed this when I moved from New York to Portland. Everything seemed so cheap! In New York City a little 1-bedroom apartment would cost $1,000,000, while in Portland a nice 3-bedroom house with a yard would cost $150,000. Amazing!
Then I’d hear people complain how expensive Portland was, because they had moved there from even-cheaper places like Idaho or southern Oregon. I had anchored to New York City prices, but they had anchored to Idaho prices.
Now, here’s where it gets interesting:
From the beginning of time, until 1990, a cup of coffee had historically always been under a dollar.
So how did Starbucks successfully start charging $4 per cup? How did they get people to switch their price-anchor to consider $4 a normal price for a cup of coffee?
They made sure it was such a different experience, that you could not directly compare it to your previous coffee-buying experience.
They focused on ambience, to make it feel like a continental coffeehouse. Instead of small, medium, large, you say short, tall, grande, venti. They made drinks with expensive-sounding names like Caffé Americano, Caffé Misto, and Frappuchino.
They did everything they could to make the experience feel so different that you would not use the regular “cuppa joe at the diner” as an anchor, but instead would be open to a brand new anchor.
This is what Cirque du Soleil did for circuses, too. You’d hardly think to compare it to the old Ringling Brothers circus with its sticky-coke-covered benches and dumb clowns selling popcorn in the aisles.
This doesn’t always have to move upscale, either. One old-fashioned traditional CD distributor complained that CD Baby wrecked his distribution business, since potential clients would now ask him why it cost more than $35, why he couldn’t pay them every week, and couldn’t show them the name and address of everyone who bought their CD!
So how does this apply to you?
Can you say that your product or service is cheaper-than, more-expensive-than, or about-the-same-as the average price for your product or service from competitors?
If so, can you instead imagine doing something so different that your answer to that question is, “What competitors? There’s nobody doing anything like this!”
Instead of being yet-another wedding band, maybe you become a unique service that writes a custom song for each member of the wedding party and family.
See “reversible business models” for more examples of thinking opposite.
Doesn't this idea of "no one's doing anything like this" kind of run contrary to all the CD Baby statements about "style", though? It has been so rigorously drilled into us that people desperately want to compare what we do to SOMETHING. I agree that the Residents totally invented their own game. Maybe, in terms of somehow MARKETING ourselves, we can come up with something, but that is a REAL challenge.
Good point! :-)
Excellent post! I have been thinking about this a lot lately. Taking something that is common, then just doing something so new that there's few competitors.
With my blog Lyved, I'm turning it into a online magazine; a blogzine if you will. But what is completely different is that I'm keeping Lyved extremely positive. I'm also infusing a variety of topics in one. I'm combining news, personal development, business, and lifestyle all together.
I've been searching for a similar online media property doing the same but I really can't find anyone. Huffington Post comes close but they're more political and carry the same negative news as the mainstream media.
Being different is one of the major keys to success. Here's a great quote: “…success is related to standing out, not fitting in.” – AMC’s Mad Men
Again great post Derek!
-Andrew
David: (first comment) - believe it or not, I woke up this morning thinking about your comment.
I think the difference is this:
It's great to compare yourself to others. People find it useful. When Harry Connick came out, he was "the new Sinatra", and that hook alone made him famous. Easy to tell your co-workers at the office about the new Sinatra.
If you're really ready to be a truly innovative product or service, though, there's still a comparison. Starbucks is still a coffee shop, but so different that they could break the price-anchor. Cirque du Soleil is still a circus, but a classier one than Ringling.
Either way, you need to be able to describe what it is you do - and I think that was my main point you're referring to. You still can't say, "We're like nothing else, just check it out." You have to tell people what it is, in a way that is easy for them to understand.
I love this a lot! A great side effect to this is moving from being a 'red ocean' competitor to being a 'blue ocean' innovator--way more powerful (and positive!).
Plus, I think you can still be innovative WITHIN a style. Bowie, Madonna, Prince--all innovators, all stand as the control in the experiment that their musical offspring are judged against.
But they're still pop, funk, glam, etc. They just took it to the proverbial 'next level' and never looked back.
I know these probably aren't new references to you, Derek, but to anyone else wanting to do a little more research on this, check out blueoceanstrategy.com and http://www.sethgodin.com/purple/. Both are great books on innovation and great online resources to boot!
Great point. I'm not sure where I fit. I move all over the place when making music and art. I don't know what happens to me but I just do a certain thing one day and the next day I'm in a totally different space and follow the lead.
I've always wanted to be different but it seems the only time I arrive at that is when I'm not trying. When I try to be different I think I end up copying something. When I'm totally clear and free something wonderful happens and perhaps I do arrive at that new contribution level. Isn't that what true Art is suppose to be? A New contribution, something that hasn't been done before so that we're adding to the big picture in time and therefore become worthy to be studied in later generations.
I'm focused and trying but it's when I don't try so hard that I come closest.
I'm not sure I'll ever put my finger on the answer but I keep moving and as they say we're only as good as our last work, last performance etc.
Very stimulating stuff Derek.
There is a saying: "Be You And Change The World" which I think points to one often overlooked yet significant factor: we are all individuals who can offer our own "spice" to whatever possibly otherwise generic thing we do.
So rather than imitating any model success formula, I prefer to ask what can I add of myself (that nobody else has!) to make the/my product that "thing unlike any other" in some way?
That seems to be the question that unlocks things for me--
One must learn to dare to be different, but make sure it's in a positive memorable way. I want to
embed my name into the long term
memory of current and potential
fans.
Derek Sivers,
You are awesome, this is great stuff you are sharing, thank you!
You are incredible and have so many awesome make you really think points. Thank you so much, YOU ROCK
Great post Derek...
it reminds me of the phrase "perception is reality"...
We have to strive to create value in our customer's mind. For me personally, I'd rather be seen as "more expensive" than my competitors - "gross profit" is what puts money in my pocket.
I think everything you do - from your name, logo (if you have one), website, business cards, email signature, blog, myspace page - EVERYTHING - combines to form the "perception" in the market... and you always have a choice in how you approach each one.
Some of the business books in your list(most notably Michael Gerbers' Emyth series) are great helpers...Bottom line is it must be real and genuine - "do what you are" is the mantra.
Keep the great content coming!
Cheers,
- Gary
So many people so many taste's
As a musician you can completely get lost in your mission to be succesful, that you miss enjoying life. In the course of time you have good and bad idea's for your carreer, good ideas work, but bad ideas work for you( it make's you aware of how things work)
I say anchor the old and take it to the future, make a new styling and see where it goes.
It's a slow game because most humans need some semblance of the familiar before they bridge to the unknown. Thankfully there are those who charge in, but it appears they're the minority. I wonder, would Starbucks have done it if they weren't dealing with a product people already knew about?
I believe there is the essence of timing and dharma with anything.
Salem from Jones
THE MUSIC BUSINESS IS NOT ABOUT WEARING PANTIES OR NOT. YOUNG WRITERS AND ARTIST NEED TO REMEMBER IT'S ABOUT GREAT SONGS AND BEING TRUE TO YOURSELF AND WRITING ABOUT THINGS YOU KNOW ARE TRUE. PEOPLE, PLACES, FEELINGS. I'M TOO OLD TO REINVENT MYSELF BUT NOT TOO OLD TO CONTINUE TO WRITE BETTER SONGS. I DON'T THINK I'VE EVER PAID FOUR DOLLARS FOR A CUP OF COFFEE. ACTUALLY, THERE'S A SONG IDEA. KEEP US THINKING, DEREK.
I loved this article - and even more I loved the mouse-on-a-frog-boat photo that suddenly scrolled into view right at the apex of the post. I had a little beyond-mere-words satori moment when I saw it. So thanks :-)
Your Berkley speach is the best!Great stuff but now that the boom is over so is Starbucks and the others who appeal to egos.Many fast food places give you many coffee choices for much less.The $.99 per song era we are going through is being challenged by the $.60 per song Corporations and soon cheap music by the song will be a loss-leader for other money making endeavors of these corporations once they gain the attention of the masses. Then the artists will have to do with much less money per song. Staying ahead of this rat race will be a challenge. but remember that the lower to middle classes are the big customers of most artists.
Hi Derek,
I've got something that is along these lines, but have been afraid of pricing too high. I've got a DualDisc - hybrid CD and DVD with the DVD stuff a totally new kind of product. Anyone who sees it is amazed and wants one. I settled on a 19.95 price point because I was concerned about breaking the 20 point. Anyway, love your input on this. You can see what the product is at www.visionsound.com.
Peace,
Ben Dowling
Something to think about: a Hollywood executive once told me that what Hollywood always desperately wants is a new movie EXACTLY like a recently successful movie -- but with one twist. One. Only one. Two twists and it's too much. One twist and they'll fall all over you.
I think this is worth thinking about. In a couple of ways.
First, when it comes to marketing, Hollywood is right: this is the clearest way to market something, giving people what they have demonstrated with their wallets that they want, with just enough variation to pique their interest. (Even the Hollywood sequel is built on this concept - think about them)
But this works because Hollywood is a marketing industry. The marketing precedes the product.
As an artist, however, I make what I make, and then have to poke around to find a niche for it.
Let's make this personal: with the help of a devoted intern, I spent three months this year asking hundreds of listeners who I sounded like.
About a third said, I have no idea. The rest gave answers all over the map. I mean ALL over the map.
Now, almost all of them really liked what they heard - I got a nice bunch of fans for my efforts. (The resulting elevator pitch: "A mix of SUFJAN STEVENS art-folk and GILLIAN WELCH country, sung in JEFF BUCKLEY's voice") But my being a "niche of one" is not proving to be a great marketing tool. Quite the opposite. It's still a one-by-one struggle to get people to listen in the first place. Fans can't explain back to me what they just heard.
What if the truth is that for oddball-artists there really is no silver bullet? I beat my head against the wall, I rack up great reviews on blogs, I pick up email addresses for my list one at a slow time.
I guess for people like me, the question might be: what emotional/personal need does our music fulfill in the people who love us? I keep thinking that if I could answer that in some easily definable way I might find an inroad.
But maybe not. What if each listener has a completely disinct and personal relationship to my songs? In a sense, that's been the response I find most flattering, but it does explain, maybe, why my listeners don't run around excitedly evangelizing the Gospel of Dudley. So to speak.
Is there no answer? Or is the answer just to plod on the way I am, gathering one email at a time until I'm world famous at 70.
Seems like there must be a better way.
Hi Derek, would love to see the day, perhaps sooner than later, when "competition" and "comparison"
was not part of the enevitabilty of a lifes anchored experience. Why? Get 10 innocent children playing together, they're happy just Experiencing the discovery of what they can do and where's observation of what another can do that oneself is unable to keeness of interest, sharing and learning all with joy. Remember those days?
Move those children on a few years,
line them up to race say 50 metres and you've CREATED if only for a short while 9 LOSERS. Do this regularly and allways 9 losers are caused in most parts of the world.
After a while those who did'nt "win" begin to exhibit the seeds of "loss"[legion for some]. Inferiority complexes just to name one, because of somebody else's "standard" they were not designed to achieve, too fat, too skinny, short, tall, different metabolic rate etc.
So “What competitors? There’s nobody doing anything like this!”
THERE'S NOBODY ELSE WITH YOUR FINGERPRINT...YOU ARE UNIQUE..
I remember at a meeting in LONDON where you defended "your open to all" cdbaby policy for putting music on your site. You said simply "who are you to judge" whats good or bad, I would endorse that again.
Gnarls Barlay had an amazing line in a song, "everybody wants to be somebody else and nobody wants to be themselves. So will the real Elvis stand up please, for rockers, for rappers Slim Shady will do.
So find your standard[these have to be real] and they will be your ANCHOR, that FOCUS thing mentioned
elsewhere.
Respects.
OZ
PS. A couple of final ponders.
Somebody BUYS "your" song/music. If it cost you nothing to make it and they've PAID for it, do they have more rights to it now that they own it?? You buy food, eat it, who does it belong to.
For Ozzie at comment #22, envisioning a world without competition and comparison,
someone who like you have imagined and acted is Terry Orlick who invented New Games/Cooperative Games. You know, like with children around an army surplus parachute bouncing a ball in the middle. Today you don't need old surplus, you can buy multi-coloured game-sized 'chutes brand new. Terry invented these games after he analyzed competition as being a part of the cause the U.S. experience in South Vietnam.
I was too old to do these games at summer camp (and too poor for camp) so I learned about them when I hit a college "life time leisure" class. I had to teach the concept to my peers It took me the entire class-time of leading by example, because the students kept wanting to compete, wanting to use their old behaviour patterns, but by the end of the class they "got it."