{"id":2538,"date":"2010-01-10T14:04:47","date_gmt":"2010-01-10T22:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=2538"},"modified":"2010-01-10T14:04:47","modified_gmt":"2010-01-10T22:04:47","slug":"what-the-customer-wants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2010\/01\/10\/what-the-customer-wants\/","title":{"rendered":"What The Customer Wants"},"content":{"rendered":"
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"Businesses should concentrate on their customers’ needs, not on specific products."<\/p>\n

"Marketing Myopia" (1960)
Theodore Levitt, Harvard Business School<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What does the music customer want?<\/p>\n

1. To easily be able to hear all recorded music<\/span><\/p>\n

Now I’m not saying such ability should be free, but this does not undermine the desire.<\/p>\n

If you read about a record, if a friend mentions a tune, you should be able to instantly click and sample it.\u00c2\u00a0 On your desktop, laptop and hand-held device.\u00c2\u00a0 Not jut a thirty second sample, but the whole thing.<\/p>\n

The public hates thirty second samples.\u00c2\u00a0 They project an image of withholding as opposed to honest, fair dealing.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like the music industry is a carny attraction behind a curtain that you must pay for, with very little advance knowledge, before you partake.<\/p>\n

The best delivery of the ability to hear music is Spotify.\u00c2\u00a0 Which has been delayed in its American introduction because certain rights holders don’t believe in giving anything away for free.<\/p>\n

Spotify is a music app, with a full catalog.<\/p>\n

LaLa’s not bad, it’s just that you have to go to Google first, you’ve got to click a bit.<\/p>\n

Rhapsody and Napster provide the end result, with very poor functionality, certainly compared to Spotify.\u00c2\u00a0 They seem to live in a land where the lessons of Apple are hidden, that usability and functionality are key.\u00c2\u00a0 Apple has also proven that people will pay premium prices for this usability and functionality.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, here’s where you tell me it’s impossible to compete with free.\u00c2\u00a0 Well, Apple is competing with a plethora of computers a third the price, yet is extremely profitable and valuable.\u00c2\u00a0 So, rather than decry theft, the question becomes how can one make a profit by delivering exactly what the public wants?<\/p>\n

And just a note.\u00c2\u00a0 The more access to music people have, the more they consume, the more tickets and merch they buy.<\/p>\n

2. A fair shot at a good concert ticket<\/span><\/p>\n

The number one complaint is not high prices, the big bitch is you just don’t get a chance at a good seat.\u00c2\u00a0 People know the value of a front row seat, they’re willing to pay for it, just give them a shot at it.<\/p>\n

Sure, it works for the act to make a deal with AmEx, to have a fan club, to put so many layers of sale between the act and the customer that people are turned off instead of turned on, pissed instead of happy.<\/p>\n

Yes, happy.\u00c2\u00a0 People may say the movie is lousy, but most concertgoers are thrilled to be able to attend the event, they fully enjoy it.\u00c2\u00a0 But, how do they get in?<\/p>\n

Until all tickets are available at one time (how many credit cards and fan club memberships do you have to get to be a regular concertgoer, this works against the industry instead of for it), and are priced according to their desirability, fans will be unhappy.<\/p>\n

If you desire to appeal solely to your fans, by allowing them to get tickets and requiring them to line up and show ID to get in…this is not a terrible strategy.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re satiating the hard core, while pissing off the public.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, most of the public is willing to shrug and say they just don’t care that much about going to this show.<\/p>\n

3. Access<\/span><\/p>\n

What’s the number one thing a fan wants?<\/p>\n

To be able to go backstage.<\/p>\n

Not everyone can provide this, but don’t decry platinum packages that allow this, for this is exactly what the public wants.<\/p>\n

If you want to make people happy, make yourself available.\u00c2\u00a0 That could be as simple as a response on a message board or as complicated as going out on a date with a contest winner.<\/p>\n

But this is what people want.\u00c2\u00a0 Think about how you can deliver it.<\/p>\n

4. Music that they want to play again and again<\/span><\/p>\n

Note, this does not mean music that is given a thumbs-up in radio callout research, when a listener hears a short snippet.\u00c2\u00a0 After all, we’ve established above that thirty seconds is not enough.\u00c2\u00a0 If a listener does not get the urge to immediately replay your music, you’re not going to have success.\u00c2\u00a0 That could be playing a three minute ditty again and again, or a complete album again and again.\u00c2\u00a0 The form is unimportant, it’s about the desire.<\/p>\n

5. More music by their favorite artists<\/span><\/p>\n

Shorten the time between releases, deliver more material.\u00c2\u00a0 Fans want outtakes, rehearsal tapes, live tapes…almost anything and everything.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, this is different from what the casual fan or the uninitiated person wants, but these are two different markets, and you make the lion’s share of your money from your hard core fans.<\/p>\n

Don’t think about how you can placate radio, think about how you can placate fans.<\/p>\n

This is as simple as a live album of the studio album a month after the original drop date.\u00c2\u00a0 YouTube broadcasts of live shows.\u00c2\u00a0 Downloadable content from your Website.\u00c2\u00a0 You can never have too much for a fan.\u00c2\u00a0 And don’t forget, fans are your number one evangelists, they’re the ones who spread the word.<\/p>\n

6. More information<\/span><\/p>\n

Where you are, who you’re recording with, the process.<\/p>\n

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, no one does this better than John Mayer.\u00c2\u00a0 And in the process he sacrifices not a whit of credibility or charisma.\u00c2\u00a0 Somehow, the public feels as if it’s in his back pocket and knows him, even though they realize the odds of in-person contact are slim to none.<\/p>\n

7. Fewer commercials<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether it be radio, television or a streaming music service, the public is fed up with commercials.\u00c2\u00a0 And unlike forty years ago, people have options.\u00c2\u00a0 Extended runs of commercials are abuse, never forget this.<\/p>\n

8. A final concert ticket price<\/span><\/p>\n

People hate being pecked to death by ducks, which is the equivalent of buying concert tickets today.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not so much about the cost, as the feeling of being screwed by hidden charges that make no sense.\u00c2\u00a0 Print at home fee?<\/p>\n

Come on.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s inane.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m using my own paper and ink.<\/p>\n

We know it’s all about profits.\u00c2\u00a0 But why can’t it be buried in a final price?<\/p>\n

9. A belief that the acts are in it for the music, not the money<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s hard to sell an art form if people think it’s just a means to an end, a good lifestyle.\u00c2\u00a0 People won’t respect it.\u00c2\u00a0 People don’t respect towels, they don’t respect toilet paper.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, they’re necessary products, the companies that purvey them make a profit, but it’s not art.<\/p>\n

Art generates profits in a wholly different way than traditional industries.\u00c2\u00a0 Look at fine art.\u00c2\u00a0 The canvas may have been produced for essentially nothing, the cost of materials.\u00c2\u00a0 But only a few years later, it can sell for millions.<\/p>\n

Stop calculating how to get to millions of revenue in a spreadsheet by maximizing this and that.\u00c2\u00a0 Just create something rawly desirable, then the revenue will come.\u00c2\u00a0 A great hit is more powerful than any marketing campaign.<\/p>\n

People don’t need music, but they want it.\u00c2\u00a0 When it’s great.\u00c2\u00a0 When it speaks to them.\u00c2\u00a0 When it’s seen as integral to their lives.<\/p>\n

10. Respect<\/span><\/p>\n

In today’s connected world, the customer sees himself as equal to the purveyor.\u00c2\u00a0 Think of the wrath inflicted upon Wall Street.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s how much people hate the music industry, and that’s a problem.\u00c2\u00a0 Yup, fat cats who screwed us for far too long who want to continue to screw us!\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve overpaid for one good track on an overpriced CD, you’ve overpaid for a shitty seat, but you’d better not steal our product, we’re entitled to our income!\u00c2\u00a0 Huh?\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t make excuses, try and rationalize your behavior, just look how stupid it appears to your customer, without whom you’ve got nothing.<\/p>\n

Record labels want to sell physical recorded product.\u00c2\u00a0 Or individual tracks.\u00c2\u00a0 Or albums.<\/p>\n

Concert promoters want to sell food and drink.<\/p>\n

None of these speak to the underlying needs and desires of the consumer.<\/p>\n

The consumer wants music.\u00c2\u00a0 It doesn’t matter what form it’s rendered in, as long as the end result pours into one’s ears. People are not locked into vinyl or CDs, tracks or albums, they just want the listening experience.<\/p>\n

As do they want the experience of hearing live music.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, they’ll buy food and drink if they’re at the show, but those are incidental.\u00c2\u00a0 How can you make the show so desirable that people will willingly come and not care about parting with their dollars for extras?<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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