I’m always hearing people say, “What we need to do is to think outside the box. We need customers that are new, that our competitors aren’t going after! We need new markets!” Well, that’s all well and good. What gets forgotten, however, is that out-of-the-box customers typically aren’t trained in all the downsides of your business and what you do. I once worked for a company that tried a major ‘out of the box’ effort..and failed.
I was in the rental uniform industry at the time, and the problem with that industry was that we (and our competitors) knew of the types of businesses –and types of workers – that used rental uniforms. So, in an effort to expand the marketplace, we made a major selling effort to attract ‘business casual’ uniform wearers. The problem was that these new customers weren’t trained in all the issues of rental uniforms, and they weren’t happy with what they bought. Our normal customers understood shortages, damage charges, change fees, etc.; these new customers weren’t accustomed to these things – and our ‘out of the box’ selling didn’t extend itself to ‘out of the box’ servicing and production. Hence, we failed. That stands in contrast to one of the biggest ‘out of the box’ success stories ever – Honda.
Up until the 1960s, motorcycles were, as one noted motorcycle journalist says, “contraptions rather than machines.” The majority of motorcycles here were either Harley-Davidson or British, and required arcane and complex kickstarting procedures. Even if you got it right, sometimes the kickstart lever would kick back and bruise – or even break – a rider’s ankle. Other times, a bike would just refuse to start, leaving the rider to jump up and down on the lever like a deranged chimpanzee. Motorcycles vibrated, they leaked oil on the floor, the road, and the rider, and they dropped parts behind them. If you were a biker, you needed to be a mechanic – or good friends with one. Engine rebuilds at 15,000 or 20,000 miles were thought of as routine.
The image of bikers wasn’t good, either. Bikers were thought of as outlaws or hoodlums, a bit of the rougher type. The motorcycle shops of the time were dark, dingy places that were forbidding to new riders. And the truth was that bikers expected all of these hassles to come with their riding passion. Into this market, in the early ‘60s, stepped Honda.
Honda revolutionized motorcycling both in terms of advertising and marketing, as well as the delivery of the buying and ownership experience. 1962 saw a huge ad campaign targeted at non-motorcyclists with the tag line, “You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda.” The ads depicted not rough leather-clad guys, but young, attractive and clean-cut men and women cavorting around on the small Hondas of the time.
Those ads interested a lot of people in motorcycling on a Honda. And when they decided to go to the dealers, the dealers typically had clean showrooms and friendly staff. When the young motorcyclists got aboard their new Hondas, they simply pressed a button and the engine came to life. The bikes didn’t shudder, they didn’t vibrate excessively, and they didn’t shed parts. They also tended not to break down, even over long hauls. For the first time, there was a truly user-friendly motorcycle. Honda didn’t entice buyers into showrooms and then train them to define their expectations downward – instead, they redefined their product upward to meet the expectations. Honda didn’t ask their new customers to become mechanics; instead, they built a bike good enough that their customers didn’t need to be mechanics.
The result? Hondas sold like hotcakes. At first, the bikes were small and non-threatening, though well engineered. Then, as the ‘60s went on, Honda went a little bit bigger to 450cc engine capacity (the then-current ‘big bikes’ from Harley were upwards of 1200cc; the Brits were at 650cc), and their 450 performed as well as the larger competition – still with the conveniences of electric start, brakes that would stop it, and complete reliability. Finally, in 1969, Honda released the 750cc bike that most journalists have termed ‘the first modern motorcycle.’ It, and its brethren, revolutionized the industry.
This didn’t come without consequences for its competition. Unable to compete with Honda and its other similarly-engineered Japanese competitors, the British bike industry was basically dead by 1975 (One manufacturer, Triumph, has regenerated as a top brand again after restarting in 1990 – they did so by building a bike to Honda’s quality standards.). Harley went through some terrible years before finally upgrading their product to approach Honda’s standard of engineering – and has since benefited from the new bikers in the market.
All this happened because of a proper ‘out of the box’ customer acquisition effort. Honda went after new customers that didn’t ride motorcycles, and they sold them with sales efforts targeted at their needs and wants. More importantly, they didn’t ask these new customers to put up with previously-tolerated problems in their industry; instead, they set their product and service experience in accordance with the new buyers’ wants and needs.
Today’s motorcycle buyer can be much different than his (or her) counterpart from 50 years ago. Today, you can go into any motorcycle dealership, and the bike you buy will be user-friendly enough, and reliable enough, to hop aboard, flick the switch, and ride from coast to coast. Bikes are no longer contraptions; they are finely tuned and engineered machines that owe their quality standards to Honda. Not coincidentally, motorcycle ownership has blossomed. In 1962, there were 646,000 motorcycles registered on the road. Today, there are over 7.1 million.
What does that have to do with you? Quite a bit…if you’re wanting to step “outside your box” and attract new customers that aren’t using your products or services. Before starting on that great sales or marketing project, ask yourself first what issues you’ve trained your customers to put up with. Then ask yourself, is it reasonable to expect new customers to be trained to put up with them as well? The answer may be no; and the solution may be in your products rather than your sales.
