Lower prices don’t often fix a product strategy problem. Tesla just reported first-quarter deliveries of about 358,000 vehicles. Way below expectations, again. Production continues to outpace sales by a wide margin. And growth, routinely projected at 50% annually, has slowed to low single digits. What’s going on here? It’s probably not a pricing issue. Tesla’s already introduced cheaper versions of the Model 3 and Model Y. And guess what? It didn’t move the needle. Which points to other...
1 day ago • 1 min read
Desire intensifies when the future suddenly feels reachable. In I Need That, I explain something I call the Coveted Condition. We feel compelled to buy when we can clearly see a product as the key to a future state we really, really want. Not the actual thing we pay for and hold in our hands. It’s the version of ourselves that comes out the other side when we use that product. The answer to “Who will this help me become?” Probably happier. Fitter? More capable? Less stressed? Admired?...
2 days ago • 1 min read
A few wrong words can reduce connection, as well as curiosity. A recent set of experiments by Yang and Tian tested something simple, with significant consequences: What happens when you TELL customers a product was “AI-designed”? Across categories like perfumes and snacks, purchase intent collapsed. By as much as 28–29%. That’s enough to mean product failure. Your margins probably aren’t that big. Participants also perceived way less human involvement in those products. Which is where the...
3 days ago • 1 min read
The difference customers pay for is often the part competitors fail to replicate. In our business, several of us use the Apple Studio Display. I’ve tried not to. (Oh my gawd, how I’ve tried…) On paper, it IS hard to justify. There are plenty of cheaper monitors that claim UHD resolution, wide color, and pro performance. So I’ve bought them. And every time, they fell wa-aaay short. The difference isn’t any single spec. It’s the accumulation of details, on a product I spend hours daily staring...
4 days ago • 2 min read
A strong brand turns an incident into global participation rather than embarrassing damage control. A massive shipment of KitKat bars goes missing ahead of Easter. Over 400,000 bars, 12 tonnes, tied to a Formula 1 promotion in Europe. That could have been an awkward logistics problem. Instead, it became one of the biggest social media events of the year. The brand posted an official statement on Instagram. Within minutes, the comments filled with variations of the same joke. “Drivers needed a...
5 days ago • 1 min read
What happens when a fake product reveals a real need? Every April 1, brands invent ridiculous products. If you got up wondering who would ever buy the Matcha Mayo Heinz revealed a few hours ago, there you go. Most, like Matcha Mayo, will disappear by the next day. (Hopefully.) But sometimes, on rare occasions, the reaction is different. People say something surprising to the brand: “Hold on … I’d actually BUY that.” A few years ago, Nvidia joked about an AI assistant that would help gamers...
6 days ago • 1 min read
If you’re going to make a claim, please be sure it means something. A visit to the toothpaste aisle delivers a boatload of confident claims. “Strengthens enamel.”“24-hour cavity protection.”“Designed with dentists.”“Sugar free.” Recently we bought several tubes of Sensodyne Pronamel Kids toothpaste at Costco for our girls. Sensodyne makes solid products and has a legitimate position around sensitivity and enamel protection. That’s a real functional benefit where the brand grew by standing way...
7 days ago • 2 min read
It’s not that LEGO “grew up.” Better: it learned how to package therapy, nostalgia, and display status, and sell it in a box. Trot through a toy aisle today and you’ll see strange things indeed. A LEGO bonsai tree. A bouquet of plastic flowers. Maybe a 9,000-piece model of the Titanic. None of these “toys” are designed for kids. They’re all made for big’uns. Seriously, the toy industry calls these buyers “kidults,” and they’ve managed to become one of the fastest-growing segments in toys. I’m...
8 days ago • 1 min read
The brand collaborations that explode online usually amplify something consumers already love. Walk through the snack aisle lately and you’ll see products that look like high-speed shopping cart crashes. Skippy peanut butter inside a Milk Bar dessert pie. Or Pop Secret popcorn paired with Kraft cheese flavors. A few years ago these mashups might have felt weird or gimmicky. Now they regularly generate headlines, social chatter, and lo-oong lines of curious buyers. The obvious explanation is...
9 days ago • 1 min read
