Make something inferior to be successful. Sounds crazy I know but there are two articles in the Sept 09 issue of Wired magazine that are a must read for any entrepreneur.
First Gary Wolf investigates why Craigslist.com (“The Tragedy of Craiglist” ) is so successful despite its failure to employ sound fundamental business practices. Wolf paints a picture not only of the seemingly aloof management style of the company but also the horrible experience of using the website. Everything from finding a date to looking for an apt or job on craiglsist is an example of poor user experience. Wolf goes on to say, “Is this really the best we can do?” and “Are our standards really so low?” . They have 47million unique visitors a month and generate an estimated $100 million in revenue annually. So if this is the case (I happen to agree with Wolf) then why is craigslist so successful? I think the answer is in the very next article “ Good enough revolution” by Robert Capps.
Capps goes on to showcase examples of low quality, low-fi products becoming successful and how that trend will continue. We are shown several examples. Such as the MP3 file format winning out over other higher quality formats. Another example is the hugely successful Flip Digital Video Camera, which is feature inferior to competitors. And yet another is the recent spike in demand for low-cost netbooks compared to the larger more feature rich laptops.
Capps says “In other words, companies that focus on traditional measures of quality – fidelity, resolution, features – can become myopic and fail to address other, now essential attributes like convenience and shareability. And that means someone else can come along and drink their milk shake.” He later adds, “Instead we’re now focused on three things: ease of use, continuous availability and low price.”
Sounds to me like an exact explanation of why craiglist is so successful. So what can we learn from these two articles?
There are business opportunities to make a current service, product or information into something that excels at convenience, shareablitly, ease of use and low price.
What business idea do you have where you can apply this type of thinking? Get moving on it today because these great examples are successful despite not being the “best” offering.