Comments on: FOUR CRITERIA FOR NEW PRODUCT SUCCESS

By: Dave Pollard

Dave Pollard — Sun, 03 Oct 2004 01:01:13 +0000

Gary: That’s an interesting mapping. Marshall was definitely ahead of his time. And thanks for the links.Derek: I’ve suggested to Consumer Reports that when they publish tables of the ratings of cars vs. their costs, they add to the cost of each vehicle the predicted cost of driving it say 20000 km/year and maintaining it (given its historical repair record). I think we’d be astonished to learn the full cost of a lot of the things we buy. Information — full information — is the key, I think, to changing behaviour.

By: Derek

Derek — Fri, 01 Oct 2004 03:25:12 +0000

On a different topic, any idea how to get consumers to properly calculate #1? (lower price) I know hybrids have become more popular as people started considering gas costs (though a smaller car will also cost less in terms of insurance which will end up being a bigger savings than the gas). Should we be gumming up the works? Joining every fight against opening a new landfill? How can we move past the disposable society?

By: mrG

mrG — Thu, 30 Sep 2004 20:25:13 +0000

It might be interesting to take some example entrepreneurial success stories and compare the Mankin metrics with equivalent metrics in the 'tetrad' dimensions of Marshall McLuhan's Laws of Media, ie, chart the relative strengths in terms of Retrieval - everything new contains some existing elements from the cultural inventory, -- in Mankin's terms, it gets the job done and does so in a familiar way, often reaching back over the previous generation to pull some lost feature from the generation that preceeded the current status quo.Enhancement - new contrivances provide improved performance compared to the old, even if this is not the obvious strength of the replaced product! Consider how the image in digital photography is vastly inferior to emulsions, but the other benefits (convenience, cost, immediacy) far outweigh those other benefits of film.Obsolescence - new contrivances render previous models or versions passé, even though the old may have some superior qualities; once again, digital imaging is a good example -- Kodak is abandoning the film emulsion business.Reversal - most often overlooked, we tend to over-do the new, until we run out of benefits and into detriments; it's too early to say for digital photography, but among young writers there is a sense that the human tactile experience and mechanical pacing of the typewriter was lost in the office-steno optimization of the word processor, which perhaps may suggest entrepreneurial opportunity for a more human (and less strictly business oriented) computer keyboard.For those who want to get a better handle on what Marshal and Eric were getting at, and if you like such things, there is a free download of a powerpoint presentation -- I wonder if Derrick and Mark are right on the timeline in publishing McLuhan for Managers ...