Seth has written a couple of thought provoking articles over the past week that I’ll share here.

The first one starts off with this text:

Ever notice that most car specs focus on acceleration, not braking? It’s more fun to focus on getting fast than it is on getting slow.

How would you manage or market differently if you knew that you had to hit the brakes, and hard? Slowing one thing and speeding up something else.

 It’s an interesting thought.  Why do car manufacturers focus more on acceleration rather than the safety aspect.  It’s made me think about my industry and how we sometimes focus on the wrong aspects of the services we sell.

The second article called Whether or Which talks about how marketing is about either trying to convince a consumer about their need for a category of product (mp3 player), or for a particular product (an ipod).  Seth asks the question:

Are you trying to make the market bigger, or just grow your share?

Depending on the product you sell, it is worthwhile thinking about this question.  Since I’ve read this article I’ve been analysing more advertising to see which category it fits in.  In the financial planning industry, most of the marketing effort is spent on people who have already decided to purchase financial planning services – their decision is about which company to deal with.  However, there are some products we use, such as life insurance, that are frequently ‘sold’ and not ‘bought’. 

What’s it like in your industry?   How do you position the product or service that you sell?