Hold on, Kawasaki! (And Tippie Too!)

February 15, 2008

In a previous post, I argued that an educated customer is a happy customer. I later illustrated that point by showcasing Apple’s iPhone ads, which don’t try to sell you the product by having some sexy, lithe pixie dance around with it in some abstract, quick cut music video (which worked just fine for the iPod, by the way), but by teaching you how the thing works.

Then Guy Kawasaki (I’m a big fan!) has to go and argue that If You Want Customers to Be Happy, Give Them Less Product Information.

Sounds good. Whoa, wait…huh???

OK, to be fair, Guy isn’t really making this argument as much as he’s simply reporting the findings of a Tippie College of Business study that appear to indicate that ignorance is bliss when it comes to inducing consumer joy. Less information = more happy.

The results of this study make absolutely no sense to the rational mind, until you find out that Tippie conducted its study using chocolate and hand lotion as its products in question.

Chocolate and hand lotion???

Fine. Great. I don’t really want a detailed list of ingredients when I see an ad for chocolate. But do I want to know how an iPhone works? That a Chevy truck can pull an entire train? Why a Mac (and not that dull, spreadsheet-spewing PC) is the computer for me? You better believe I do!

I stand by my argument that product selling (and maintaining satisfaction after the sale) in the future is going to involve a lot more teaching. And that the line between marketing and eLearning is increasingly going to blur. We’re seeing a lot of that already.

And if I were a betting man, I would wager that Guy Kawasaki would agree.

Chocolate and lotion being the obvious exceptions.

As for the Tippie College of Business - I think you folks and your chocolaty lotion study need a do-over. Seriously. Try picking something a little more…relevant?

Posted in Evangelism