It seems the most doable strategy to address buyer resistance is to remove or massively minimize behavior change. It’s a great match to combat consumer loss aversion because it obfuscates or just entirely minimizes loss from their perspective. I found the BMW example really fascinating because it was almost a different approach to minimizing behavior change. While it did expect a new behavior (nitrogen fueling stations rather than gas stations) it kept the old behavior as an almost safety blanket. It allows users to feel like they can fall back on the familiar option, while reaping the benefits of the new innovation.
I am really interested by the often unrealistic option of eliminating competition. It seems like this is really only possible if a company is already well funded or established a somewhat monopoly on a (doesn’t necessarily have to be this product’s?) market. I’m wondering how often we really see this outside of examples like the US Mint, does it happen often with just really rich companies acquiring all the other options?
I’m also wondering how one can work out a long-haul model when innovating on a new product. To me, it seemed like innovations like the TiVo were popular and important culturally/technologically. It seems like maybe the problem is they didn’t have the understanding that it was a long-haul type of product. While I know it isn’t attractive to executives/investors, I’m wondering how you would approach releasing a product that you know is a long haul? Do you just start with low amounts of production and high amounts of marketing? And just truly be patient and ramp up production as time passes?
