| thepowerofpain.com :: the pain papers :: newsletter #10 |
THE PAIN PAPERS:
|
|
——————————————————————————————————- Learn How to Use Pain to Drive Innovation ——————————————————————————————————- The Pain Papers ——————————————————————————————————- PLEASE FORWARD THIS NEWSLETTER Any other unauthorized publication, excerpting, or duplication of the contents without the permission of Christopher K. O'Leary is a violation of copyright law. For past issues of The Pain Papers, see... To subscribe to The Pain Papers, please send a message
to... To unsubscribe from The Pain Papers, please send a
message to... ...or see the instructions at the bottom of this message. ——————————————————————————————————- - Help Wanted ——————————————————————————————————- I am still looking for people who can help me generate ideas for the book, provide examples for the book, and review the ideas that I am considering for the book. This will be a higher-volume list, since it will be a conversation and not just a monologue. However, flames and off-topic discussions will not be allowed. If you want to help, then you can subscribe to this discussion list by sending a message to... thepowerofpain-subscribe@topica.com ——————————————————————————————————- GENESIS For those of you who are interested, I recently posted to my site the story of the origins of the idea that became The Power of Pain... https://www.thepowerofpain.com/thoughts/genesis.html ——————————————————————————————————- PROACTIVE MARKETING This is a link to a column that I just completed for marketingprofs.com. The point is that marketing cannot do much for a fundamentally ill-conceived idea... https://www.thepowerofpain.com/thoughts/proactive_marketing.html ——————————————————————————————————- REBATES AND SWEEPSTAKES I was sitting in the basement the other day and noticed the box in which I brought my laptop home from the store. At that moment, I realized that inside that box was a $100 rebate form that I never sent in. This got me thinking about rebates and, in particular, why they are so prevalent when it comes to technology products. I believe that manufacturers use rebates because they give the consumer the benefit of a psychologically lower price at a lower-than-obvious price to the company. The company can buy $1,000,000 of perceived benefit for maybe $200,000 to $300,000. Why is this the case? Because actually sending in a rebate form is a pain in the ass. For one thing, you have to find the rebate form. Then you have to copy the receipt, which is a non-trivial task for most people. Then you have to fill out the form and send it in. In these days of e-mail, mailing a letter is becoming more and more of a pain. Just think about having to buy stamps. What a hassle! All of these hassles that companies place in the process reduce the redemption rate of rebate offers significantly. This means that the company will realize the psychological benefits of the rebate at a price far below their list price. It all depends on the redemption rate, and the point of all of that hassle and pain is to reduce the redemption rate. Sweepstakes like the McDonalds Monopoly game likely follow the same strategy (assuming that all of the winning pieces are actually distributed). Think about it. The beauty of the Monopoly game comes down to the odds, and the odds are influenced by the nature of the game. For those of you not familiar with the game, here is how it works. Each time you buy a large fry or large drink at McDonalds, you get two game pieces. What you have to do is collect those game pieces and place them on a piece of paper that McDonalds provides that looks like a Monopoly board. To win the larger prizes you have to collect three or four game pieces. Generally, only one of these game pieces is the rare one (and the casual observer doesn't know which). This is where the odds come in to play. What are the odds that a winning piece will come into the hands of a person who is actively collecting pieces, is managing the game board, and knows which piece is the key piece for the subset? I think the odds of this happening are pretty low. Why? Because the nature of the game makes it a pain in the ass to be a winner. You have to manage all of those pieces and spend a great time eating the right meals at McDonalds. As a result, most people do not actively play. They just look for the instant winners and the easy big pieces like Boardwalk and Park Place. They wouldn't recognize one of the lower-level winning pieces if they looked at it because they are not paying close enough attention. I think the odds are decent that one of you have unknowingly had a winning piece in your hands or on your cup but didn't realize it. ——————————————————————————————————- THE IMPORTANCE OF PACKAGING The other day I was walking through the grocery store and noticed a huge display of bottled water. This got me thinking about the logic of bottled water. Why do people pay money for this stuff? In particular, why do they pay for bottled water in St. Louis, where all of the water is pre-treated for Anheuser-Busch and is some of the best in the country? I think I have the answer... Packaging. Here's my theory. Everyone knows that bottled water is good for you. Most people will do what they can to be healthy - as long as it doesn't put them out. The beauty of bottled water is that it lets you be healthy in a low-hassle manner. The key element is the disposable package. You drink the water and then you throw the bottle away. What people are buying when they buy bottled water is the package, and its convenience, as opposed to the actual water. They are paying for the privilege of being able to have a convenient package that they can then throw away. The package makes it easy for them to be healthy. While people could carry around water bottles with them, doing so is a hassle. They are bulky. They got hot as time goes by. The water tastes funny after a while. You have to refill it every day and then remember to bring it with you. It's much easier to just buy a bottle of water and then throw it away when you are done with it. It doesn't require much thought. Yes, it is more expensive, but that is a price that people are willing to pay. A similar thing is likely going on with the whole Starbucks phenomenon. Again, the beauty is the package as much as the coffee. Yes, you can bring your own coffee to work, but then you have to worry about cleaning your cup and bringing it in from the car every day. The magazine also follows this trend. While you could theoretically print out the contents of a magazine and take them with you, it's much easier to just spend a few bucks on a convenient package that binds all of the articles together for you. ——————————————————————————————————- RESTAURANTS, BARS, AND CLUBS Of all of the types of companies that that I encounter, I have found that restaurants, bar, and clubs are among the hardest to help. The problem is that many of these businesses are launched for entirely the wrong reasons. They are started because someone loves to cook. They are started because someone wants to start a business. However, in most cases they are not started because of pain. That doesn't have to, and shouldn't, be the case. There are a number of good reasons why a restaurant, bar, or club should exist. - Because there is nothing affordable in the area. Unfortunately, too often issues of fashion and style win out over issues of substance and the business fails. ——————————————————————————————————- THE TABLET PC Now, don't get me wrong. Microsoft bugs me as much as the next guy. However, I think that they are on to something with their proposed Tablet PC. What excites me about the Tablet PC is its potential as a tool for artists. Basically, sketching on a computer is a huge pain in the ass. There is a huge difference between drawing with a pen and drawing with a mouse. The basis of the difference is that different muscle groups are used when you hold a mouse and when you hold a pencil. Drawing with a stylus on a mouse pad is no better. Imagine what a computer could do for the sketching process. I believe that it could dramatically enhance the process. For example, you could lay a grid under a drawing and then erase it when you are ready to print things out. I believe that a device like the Tablet PC could become the next Palm Pilot. I believe that the target market should be artists. They could use a product like this and have shown that they would be willing to pay for such a device - look at all of the expensive Macs that they have bought. Whether Microsoft will be the big winner is an open question, but I think the answer is "no". The problem comes down to the Innovator's Dilemma. Microsoft needs a billion dollar product. Something to replace the PC. Selling to artists won't be enough. They will try to sell this device to everyone and, in the process, will so water it down that it will turn into another Apple Newton. The winner will be a company that develops a custom operating system for the device - not Windows for Tablet PCs - just as Palm built its own focused device. Anybody want to start this company with me or finance me? ——————————————————————————————————- I wanted to remind you of some of my favorite sites. https://www.productwish.com/ is a site run by someone with a similar interest. Their goal is to help people design better products. https://www.tdcrc.com/ is a great site if you want to have your mind blown or expanded. https://www.hyperorg.com/ is a great site that documents the organization of the future. https://www.marketingprofs.com/ is a great site for people interested in sales and marketing. ——————————————————————————————————- Edna from Jerusalem sent me this note... "In the Hebrew language there is an etymological connection between 'TSARA' or 'sorrow', 'anguish', or 'trouble' and 'YATSAR' or 'create'." It seems that others have seen this connection as well. ——————————————————————————————————- Please send all comments or feedback to chris@thepowerofpain.com PLEASE FORWARD THIS NEWSLETTER Any other unauthorized publication, excerpting, or duplication of the contents without the permission of Christopher K. O'Leary is a violation of copyright law. To subscribe to The Pain Papers, please send a message
to... To unsubscribe from The Pain Papers, please send a
message to... Any e-mail sent regarding The Pain Papers may be published and commented upon unless the email explicitly states that it's not for publication. For past issues of The Pain Papers, see... For more information about this distribution list, go
to... This document is produced by... ——————————————————————————————————- |
| All contents © Copyright 1998-2001, Chris O'Leary. The Power of Pain, What a Pain in the Ass, and whatapita are Service Marks of Chris O'Leary. All rights reserved. This material is for personal use only. Republication and redissemination, including posting to news groups, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Chris O'Leary. |