When people buy from us, they buy more than our products, our services or our labor; theyre buying an experience. With some purchases thats more obvioussay, a Disney vacation or a shopping trip to Nordstromthan otherssay, a new printer for the office or bookkeeping services. But the desire for an experience is still there.
When we forget about the experience, and focus solely on our product, we often strip away why people buy from us in the first place.
Here are two examples I recently experienced:
Dark Star Orchestra, or DSO, is a Grateful Dead cover band, but not just any Dead cover band. Their claim to fame is that they recreate a specific set, such as the 11/30/73 show from the Boston Music Hall, song-for-song, in the style of the Dead from that period of time. In other words, theyre more than a cover band, they replicate a specific moment in time.
I had never seen them, so when a bunch of friends bought tickets for their recent House of Blues show in Boston, I made the trip down there. At dinner before the show I was told that they have recently been playing some original set lists, which was a bit disappointing. Unfortunately, that night was an original set list, with songs from the 70s through the 90s.
Now, I can understand that if youre a creative musician, that playing in a group-specific cover band can be, well, restrictive. So playing in a cover band where you dont even get to choose the set list could be soul crushing. But thats what side projects are for. Or, say that Tuesdays are original set nights, so people know what to expect when they come in.
If I want to see live Dead performed, I can just go down to the nearest college bar on a Saturday night; I was looking for a specific experience which I didnt get.
Pabst Blue Ribbon, or PBR, or Pabst, is a good, cheap beer. Its better than Bud, better than Miller, and its cheap. (Did I mention that already?) In fact, nothing follows a glass of single-malt scotch better than a 16oz can of Pabst, aka the PBR Pounder (IMHO). However, as I listened to National Public Radio, or NPR, the other day, I heard a story about how PBR was moving their headquarters to LA.
El-freaking-Ay!
Not that I have anything against LA per se, but as Im hanging out in my favorite hipster joint and I reach down for my PBR Pounder I dont want to have images in my head of Hollywood, palm trees, or worse: Kobe Bryant.
Now, as far as I know its not the brewing or bottling thats moving to LA, just the corporate headquarters. It wont change the taste of the beer, but it will change the experience of the beer for me and many others who like its blue collar vibe. Lets face it: a lot of PBR is consumed because of its cult statussomething that may well be lost when they relocate.
Whats the Takeaway?
I feel too many of usespecially those of us in the B2B spacefocus too much on the physical product or the exact service that we bring to market, and not how our customers will experience our offerings. We need to remember that even in B2B, its people who are making the buying decisions, and we need to know what experiences theyre expecting and deliver on those expectations.
Have you had a good or bad experience recently with a product or service? Would love to hear about it in the comments below.
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