How good does your product or service have to be before
prospects start to notice? You probably can point to
several ways that your business is better than your
competitors.
But is that difference in quality big enough for the
general public to notice?
Marie spent a lot of time learning how to design her
own web site. The project had its frustrating moments,
but in the end Marie had a fine looking site that
promoted her business. Her friend George had more
money to spend and paid a web designer $4,000 to
design a web site for him.
Marie could see some big differences in their sites. Just
having spent a month getting aquainted with web
design, she immediately noticed George's custom
graphics, forms, and nifty columns--features that she
could not figure out how to create.
Imagine Marie's amazement (and secret delight!) when a
customer noted her site looked just as good as George's.
"Wow!," Marie thought. "Customers don't notice the
difference between my 'pretty good' site and George's
'spare no expense' site. I just saved $4,000!"
Psychologists spend many research hours studying this
sort of thing for major corporations. They call it "Just
Noticeable Difference." When researching a new
product or service, they ask, "How much better than the
competition do we have to be before people start to
notice?"
The answer, of course, is that sometimes you have to be
MUCH better than the other guy before the average
customer (who may not be an expert) starts to notice
the difference. One example of this are the radio
stations in your town. Chances are they're all holding
contests of one kind or another right now. To the
people who work at those stations, their contests are all
very different, some better or more exciting than
contests on other radio stations.
I'll bet that you, as an average listener, don't really
notice the difference. All contests start to sound the
same. Studies have shown that the people who win
those contests can't even remember which station they
won from a year down the road. There isn't enough
noticeable difference.
On the other hand, Just Noticeable Difference can work
the other way. It costs Marsha $10 to produce a chair.
I've just discovered that I can make a chair not quite as
good as Marsha's for $5. As an expert on chair
manufacturing, I know that my chair isn't as good as
Marsha's, but my customers don't really notice the
difference.
Guess who comes out ahead on profits?
Now this whole concept is very upsetting to some
people. Even though American business is smartly
based on not putting any more quality into the product
than the customer demands, a lot of people will claim
that your customers somehow intuitively know the
difference.
Not so! When developing a new product or service, or
revamping an old one, run your own marketing test.
Have a few unbiased, but honest people compare your
product with one that is better. Then have them
compare yours with one that is worse. At what point
does the customer notice the difference?
Keep these three points in mind when thinking about
Just Noticeable Difference:
1. If prospects don't notice your improvements, then
your improvements aren't big or obvious enough. This
is the case even if they seem plenty big to experts in
your field (like you and your associates).
2. Look for the ways that your product or service is
much better than your competitor's. Make your
marketing accentuate those better features.
3. Also look for ways that you can save by cutting back
on expenses that buyers don't notice or care about.
Keep an eye out for areas you spend lots of time and
money on that don't attract comments from
buyers.
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