• Blog

Customer desire. Isn’t that what running a business is really all about? Identifying what the customer desires and will pay his hard-earned money for. I think it is. And I also think not many companies in India have really nailed it.

In our country, for some weird reason, the word ‘need’ takes precedence over the word ‘desire.’ I do not know if it is because of our conservative nature that says all desire is bad or a sin. Or is it because we have been, for a while now, a nation that had to first live within our means to fulfill our needs? Either way, in an Indian boardroom, you are more likely than anywhere else to hear, “The Indian customer really needs this product.”

No Indian business, big or small, understood that good business is to first incite the desire for a product, farm it, and then manage it to a point where it is unbearable for the customer to not have it. So much so that the customer feels like he has won a bloody lottery even though it’s him doing the paying up bit.

A good example of a company that does it well overseas is Apple. The most expensive of products. The most expensive products to buy accessories for. The hardest products to get repaired. And you still see swords unsheathed in the race to get the latest iPhone model.

Sony does it well, too. Though Apple may have overshadowed it in the last few years. More examples? Body Shop. Mercedes. Bose. Ikea. There are many. Desire is first and foremost connected to aspiration. Desire is for products and services that are aspirational for the customer. They must represent a step-up for the customer in terms of the price, which translates to a social point made by him or her. The product must elevate them out of their limbo and push them to the next consumer segment. Or social class. Not maintain a status quo.

Hence, to be able to play the desire game, businesses must know their customers’ aspirations and then create a product they will desire to fulfill those aspirations. As against creating a product they will need to fulfill those requirements.

While something like the Apple Nano is a good example of how a small piece of metal has managed to do just that, the Tata Nano is a much bigger example of how not to do it.

As latest figures have rolled in, only some 500-odd Nanos were sold in November this year. On the other hand, almost all the major motorcycle companies saw double-digit percentage growth rate in sales for the same month.

Do you remember that speech Ratan Tata made? The one where he had a dream about the India family on a motorcycle migrating to a Nano?  Across India? That did not quite turn out the way he imagined. Tata went for a cheap answer to fulfill a need for that customer. That can work in India, but only in the short term. India is moving up. So are its people. Get a little classy, please.

©Entrepreneur January 2011

AUGUST SHARK is a once-failed, second-time successful bootstrapper who resides in Mumbai. He can be contacted at august@stumpspeak.com.

Tags:
August Shark