Change Your Customer's Behavior?
Friday June 24, 2005
As Seth Godin attests in his new book, "All Marketer's Are Liars", marketing isn't about changing people’s minds. If your customer must change his mind, they must admit they are wrong. Customers hate to say they are wrong.
Businesses have to adapt to change not force change on customers. When introducing a new product, trying to change the customer's mind is wrong and costly. The introduction of the NordicFlex Gold weight training system was a classic case of attempting to change the minds of customers. During my tenure at Nordictrack, the company came out with a new product with one limitation...the weight machine had no negative resistance. From the perspective of the hard-core exerciser this was a drawback. Even though our customers were novice exercisers, the belief that all weight training required negative resistance was well established.
This wasn't a sales problem, it was a problem with the machine fitting into the belief system of the customer. Every single demo to a client yielded the same response, "But where is the negative resistance?" No amount of overcoming this "objection" worked. The NordicFlex Gold never lived up to it's expectations because it didn't fit with the customer's beliefs. Lesson for small business: Work with existing perceptions already present or go broke trying to change your customer's mind.
Businesses have to adapt to change not force change on customers. When introducing a new product, trying to change the customer's mind is wrong and costly. The introduction of the NordicFlex Gold weight training system was a classic case of attempting to change the minds of customers. During my tenure at Nordictrack, the company came out with a new product with one limitation...the weight machine had no negative resistance. From the perspective of the hard-core exerciser this was a drawback. Even though our customers were novice exercisers, the belief that all weight training required negative resistance was well established.
This wasn't a sales problem, it was a problem with the machine fitting into the belief system of the customer. Every single demo to a client yielded the same response, "But where is the negative resistance?" No amount of overcoming this "objection" worked. The NordicFlex Gold never lived up to it's expectations because it didn't fit with the customer's beliefs. Lesson for small business: Work with existing perceptions already present or go broke trying to change your customer's mind.
Comments
I’m sorry it never took off in popularity. I loved my NordicFlex Gold machine. I did have to add exercises that “compensated” for the negative resistance when it was really necessary. However, the machine was instrumental in allowing me very fast recovery and strength when I had to have two surgeries that required intensive physical therapy (1. bilateral mastectomy and 2. anterior cruciate ligament replacement).
I still have and use my Nordicflex Gold. It is the best way to exercise. It gives your muscles the exact resistance they need and can best use. Its concept is the same as that used in the $14,000 ROM Machine.
I have had mine for 18 years.