By Kevin Maney
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Published September 15, 2009 (Hardcover) Broadway Business
More Info: Kevin Maney
I’m impressed. Kevin Maney’s Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don’t sets out — and illustrates — his main principles simply and well. While this is a business book, and focuses on products like the successful iPhones and flunky Yugo cars, its brilliance is applicable to individuals.
Consider your own brand. Are you quality, which Maney calls “fidelity?” Or can you pump out your product quickly from accessible locations? That would be “convenience.”
Maney says companies like Coach and Starbuck’s nearly lost their cachet by increasing their numbers. They were “high-fidelity,” but figured they’d roll out more and more of those expensive purses and the expensive coffee drinks. They landed in a place Maney calls “fidelity mirage.” The best of both worlds — fidelity and convenience — does not, and probably cannot exist. In going for convenience — both — their aura lost sparkle, and sales plummeted.
Other companies find themselves in the “fidelity belly,” which is something of a no-man’s land for products that are kind-of quality and kind-of convenient. When you break down fidelity, you find aura, identity, and experience. It’s the stuff that makes you cool. And, if you shoot for convenience, you hit your target with ease and cost.
Once, on a plane ride home, I whipped out the last of my five books I’d brought on the trip, and began reading. My seat partner pulled out a Kindle, and read her book. I saw some value in her choice — my suitcase weighed 48 and-a-half pounds, after I had pulled some stuff out. She carried one device, which contained five books, and weighed about what a paperback would weigh. But I love the feel and heft of books, their smell, the texture of the pages. I love to look around my living room and office, and see books lined, double-layer, in ten floor-to-ceiling Dania bookshelves. How could I give up that aura? That’s what Maney discusses when he mentions the battle facing the Kindle. It is pushing for convenience — an entire bookstore shoved into one paperback-book-sized device. But something is missing that hasn’t yet been solved.
I’ve been hearing so much about brand, as well as other business terms. This book is the first that makes thorough and complete sense to me. You and I have to decide — before we produce a single item — whether our goal is fidelity, or whether it is convenience. It is fascinating to me that the root word of fidelity is the Latin word for Trust. My choice is a slam-dunk — Fidelity. And, I will continue to be convenient, too, but to the degree necessary. I don’t like Wal-mart-type stores.
Maney’s journey is completely comprehensive, utterly divine. It is packed with excellent lessons. I’d rather be an iPhone than Joost. Trade-Off becomes an efficient marketing tool, fascinating to behold.
