Is innovation is overrated? I mean, come on now - why waste time innovating when one can run a thriving business without any of it? Just think about it. Innovation sure is a strong selling point - but its a lot of work and the audience is really a niche. The vast majority couldn't care less.
If you really want your business to thrive, you should be exploiting the following aspects of human behaviour:
- Fear
- Ego
- Stupidity
- Insecurity
Come to think of it - the businesses which bank on these are the more successful ones. Consider this sampling:
Insurance:
This is a business which makes its living based on fear and insecurity of others. "If you don't do this you are gonna die". Take fear out of the equation and insurance industry ceases to exist.
Beauty Industry:
Again - this industry survives on insecurity and ego. "If I am not fair-skinned, I will remain single forever." OR "Why is everyone looking at her and not at me? ".
Of course, they do have dumbness as a side-dish every now and then. Need I elaborate?
Education
Education has now grown into a multi-gazillion rupee industry in India mainly fuelled by parents' ego. The line between "I want to give my kids the best" and "I want to show others that I have given my kids the best" has blurred. In fact, the entire definition of a "good education" rests on the amount one spends for providing that education. It doesn't matter if the kid has no exposure to real life beyond the school compound. What matters is the parent spent lakhs for the donation - therefore it is the exclusive, high quality variety.
Entertainment
Most daily soaps, many reality shows, quite a lot of the movies, even a sizeable chunk of news - all feed on acute stupidity of viewers. Try coming up with an entertainment program that, to get anywhere, counts on the intelligence of the viewer. Then see what degree of success this program meets with.
Note: Intelligence, here, does not refer to Q&A reality shows which have mind-numbingly difficult questions like "How many eyes does a normal human being have?"
This is just a sampling of course. There are several more (including medicine, law ... ) which exploit one or more of the above factors. So, which one are you going to pick in order to flourish?
What? You haven't picked any? Didn't I tell you that this is essential for the very existence of your business? If you don't adopt a strategy to exploit one of these points, then you will not be able to survive. Your business will die a slow, horrifying death and you will left to fend for yourself. So, please get back to the drawing board and include one of these in your next exploitation plan.
(See what I did there? :D)
Yup, I did see what you did there! :D
Add 'else your competitors will get better of you in no time' and you have got your strategy several buyers! :P
Nice post!
You got it all here man. Making sure there is least concerns for the customers happiness is what its all about.
Fresh new experience today! Seems like Axis Bank heard you correctly on this. Their service is so bad when it comes to customer support via phone, I had to spend about a week to get hold of a person just to talk to. Forget solving the problem I have.