Demand: Creating What People Love Before They Know They Want It [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Adrian Slywotzky (Author), Karl Weber (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 4, 2011

Demand is one of the few economic terms almost everyone knows. Demand drives supply. When demand rises, growth happens - jobs are created, the economy flourishes and society thrives. So goes the theory. It sounds simple, yet almost no one really understands demand, including the business owners, company leaders and policy makers who try to stimulate and satisfy it. Aimed at a business and general non-fiction readership, DEMAND is a book which searches for clues as to where demand really comes from, and why, and how we might control it.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In DEMAND: Giving People What They Love Before They Know They Want It (Crown Business; October 2011), Adrian Slywotzky, named by Industry Week one of the world’s six most influential management thinkers, provides a radically new way to think about demand, with a big idea and a host of practical applications—not just for people in business but also for social activists, governments leaders, non-profit managers, and other would-be innovators.
 
They all need to master such ground-breaking concepts as the hassle map (and the secrets of fixing it); the curse of the incomplete product (and how to avoid it); why very good ≠ magnetic; how what you don’t see can make or break a product; the art of transforming fence sitters into customers; why there’s no such thing as an average customer; and why real demand comes from a 45-degree angle of improvement (rather than the five degrees most organizations manage).

Author Q&A with Adrian Slywotzky

How do some companies seem to know what we want–even before we do?

We all want video on demand now. But could we have even imagined it 10 years ago? Netflix founder Reed Hastings anticipated the future shift to on-demand streaming–even in 1998, when fewer than 7% of U.S. homes had broadband: "That’s why we named the company Netflix, and not DVDsByMail.com." Demand "creators" always look to solve the next customer hassle–before we even recognize the hassle itself.

What makes us rave about some things, but rant about others–even when the underlying products are functionally the same?

Magnetic products not only offer superior functionality, but forge an emotional attachment that is hard to sever. They embed themselves so seamlessly into our lives that they become part of who we are. Take grocery chain Wegmans. More than just an incredibly functional supermarket–with an average of 60,000 items in stock–Wegmans has an emotional appeal that led 7,000 people (in 2010 alone!) to beg for a store in their area.

Can you actually create demand--or are you just getting lucky?

Smart companies recognize that we often can’t articulate what we really want… and that "creating" demand is often just a matter of recognizing untapped demand. Demand "creators" identify hassles that bedevil all of us–and instead of simply accepting them, they ask: "Do they have to be this way?" Reed Hastings founded Netflix after a personal frustration with a $40 late fee. By making the leap from the way things are to the way they should be, he unleashed demand… to the tune of $2BN.

Why do most attempts to create demand fail?

Identifying hassles that could be solved is a start–but it’s not enough. Demand creators recognize that even great products have a very low chance of success… and they do everything they can to increase it. Toyota knew the Prius’ odds of success were less than 5%. Yet instead of dropping the project, Toyota actively asked, "How can we change those odds?" The company even went so far as to create a new division for the project… and then successfully launched the Prius 2 months ahead of an already "impossible" schedule.

Does what happens behind the scenes actually matter for demand creators?

It’s easy to think that only the product itself matters… but what happens behind the scenes can shape both the end product and your experience using it. Take the market for e-readers. The Amazon Kindle provided instant, wireless access to the world’s biggest bookstore. The Sony Reader–released 10 months before the Kindle–offered wireless access to only 20,000 titles. The backstory makes all the difference: there really is no point to an e-reader that doesn’t have the books you want to read, when you want to read them!

So many great products never get purchased… while others fly off the shelves. What triggers us to buy something?

Most of us need a trigger to get from want to buy. For Zipcar, it’s density--and just a short walk to the car. For Nespresso, it’s taste and trial in a fancy boutique. For Netflix, it’s waiting 1 day for a movie to arrive instead of 6. Smart companies recognize that each product has its own trigger--and that discovering these triggers is the key to creating demand.

Why is it that some companies keep getting better and better, while others just flatline?

A great and increasing trajectory is incredibly important to demand creators. U.K. sandwich chain Pret a Manger is famous for not only refreshing its 100-item menu, but constantly revising its existing recipes–including its carrot cake (50 times), its chocolate brownie (36 times)… and even its pickle recipe (15 times!). Companies like Pret keep giving the customer better versions of what they already love–and new things they didn’t even know they wanted.

How do some companies see past the "average" customer–and create offers that solve our individual hassles?

Smart companies know that there is no average customer–and work to create offers that appeal to everyone, on every occasion. Take the Boston Symphony Orchestra: by learning to see past the "average"--and making the same concert feel "customized" to many types of customers--it expanded to a wider audience… and increased ticket sales by 34%.

All companies talk about the quality of their people. But does the whole team really matter?

Demand creators recognize that every employee can–and should–contribute to demand creation. Take Pixar, where the concept that "ideas come from anywhere" is taken seriously: all employees are encouraged to spend 4 hours a week learning filmmaking at Pixar University. Pixar even teaches its accountants how to draw… and all this translates to 11 blockbusters in a row.

Review

"Adrian Slywotsky's charming and enlightening stories of market creation will inform and inspire innovators everywhere. Demand is the book you didn't know you needed until you read it, love it, and find that you can't succeed without it."
--Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School professor, Author of Confidence and SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good

“There is no bigger issue than demand.  We need fresh thinking based on research to develop bold, doable pathways for demand creation. Over the years I’ve learned a great deal from books such as Value Migration and The Profit Zone by Adrian Slywotzky.  Now with Demand, Slywotzky shows  how to get your arms around what many see as an intractable problem. And like every good problem-solver, he provides frameworks for thinking, illustrated through warm personal stories that get you into the personalities of some spectacular – yet unsung – demand generation heroes. The personal stories make the frameworks for thinking real, and point to some inherent traits in personality that characterize the mind, approach and courage of demand creators. Demand provides a way for leaders to build a better future for their businesses.  And a big plus is that they will like – and identify with - the people they read about.”
--Ralph A. Oliva Executive Director, Institute for the Study of Business Markets  Professor of Marketing  Smeal College of Business, Penn State

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Crown Business (October 4, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307887324
• ISBN-13: 978-0307887320
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 1.3 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #122,445 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #45 in Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Industrial
  • #78 in Books > Business & Investing > Marketing & Sales > Marketing > Research

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars How to create a demand-creating culture September 28, 2011

By Robert Morris HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Many books published in recent years offer excellent advice on how to create and then sustain what I call a hyphenated culture: quality-driven, customer-driven, innovation-driven, results-driven, etc. The given objectives are eminently worthy and I have no quarrel with any of them, nor does Adrian Slywotzky. The fact remains, however, that an organization must have compelling appeal to those on whom it depends for success: employees at all levels and in all areas with talent and skills as well as character and commitment who create great value for customers. That's precisely what Herb Kelleher always stressed when asked to explain the extraordinary success of Southwest Airlines: "We take great care of our people, our people take great care of our customers, and our customers then take great care of our shareholders."

Demand: Creating What People Love Before They Know They Want It is a "must read" for business leaders in organizations that are struggling to answer any/all of questions such as these:

o "How can we get our customers to buy more of what we sell?"
o "How can we convince more of our competition's customers to buy from us?"
o "How can we convert fence-sitters into buyers of what we sell?"
o "How can we attract, hire, and then retain the people who will create the greatest value for our customers?"
o "Meanwhile, what must we do each day to improve the quality of life in our workplace and increase the appeal of what we produce there?"

In each instance, the challenge is to create and then sustain demand.

Whatever its size and nature may be, every organization must be led by what Slywotzky characterizes as "demand creators," people who "spend all of their time trying to understand [begin italics] people [end italics]......They try to understand our aspirations, what we need, what we hate, what gives us emotional charge - and, most important, what we might really love...They seem to know what we want even before we do. They wind up creating things people can't resist and competitors can't copy. Yet they almost never succeed on the first try...These demand creators recognize the huge gaps between what people buy and what they really want - and they use those gaps as the springboard for a process of reimagination that you might call the demand way of thinking."

There are hundreds (thousands?) of books now on sale that offer advice on how to increase sales, how to market with "a bigger bang for the buck," how to improve customer relations, etc. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first book - certainly one that is most cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effective - to explain "how to create what people love before they know they want it." Dozens of real-world examples are provided to illustrate key points. They also suggest all manner of practical applications. It should also be noted that the wealth of information, insights, and recommendations that Slywotzky provides are relevant to almost any organization, whatever its size and nature may be. Moreover, after reading and then (preferably) re-reading this book, almost anyone can become a highly effective demand creator.

As Slywotzky explains, "Demand creators have a hidden advantage. Many of their rivals are `anti-demand' organizations - organized in disconnected silos. Focused on meeting yesterday's demand, and often remarkably immune to the signals that customer behavior is trying to send us...Great demand creators are special, in part, because they understand that the things we buy and the things we actually [begin italics] want [end italics] aren't always the same...[begin italics] Great demand creators eliminate or reduce the hassles that make most [products and services inconvenient, costly, unpleasant, and frustrating [end italics]." With relatively minor modifications, these attributes of demand thinking insofar as marketing and customer relationships are concerned could also be said of recruiting, hiring, and training the talent needed as well as of creating what Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba characterize as "customer evangelists." It is no coincidence that employees of the most highly admired organizations, "the best to work for," are also their evangelists and refer to themselves as such.

Adrian Slywotzky has written a book in which all this is explained so well that the reader is well-prepared to become an effective demand creator. Then, after reading this book, I think that one of the first tasks at hand is to convince one's associates to develop a sense of urgency about knowing whatever is required to help create "what people love before they know they want it." Demand creators cannot do that alone. They build and excite great teams that effectively reach thousands or millions of customers. And by doing so, they seem to have a lot more fun in their business than many of their rivals do. Meanwhile, highly-valued workers do not leave; on the contrary, they are among the primary reasons why other peak performers and high potentials are eager to work with them. Read more ›

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Similar to Peter Drucker (both good and bad) October 5, 2011

By Derek G VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

My opinions tend to mirror many of the other reviewers of this book. "Demand..." consists of a collection of stories about successful companies and lavishes praise on each company for their foresight. Author Adrian Slywotzky also fits each company into a specific narrative; be it eliminating obstacles (hassle-map), striking and emotional chord with customers (magnetic), or otherwise.

The hindsight of what made a particular company successful is largely the opinion of the author but who is he to say there weren't other additional factors which played a part? For instance, I doubt that eliminating hassles for traders alone was the secret to the success of the Bloomberg news service and trader terminals. Even the author attests there were many other factors such being more comprehensive and getting news and headlines faster than the competition. So was Bloomberg a success because they were they less of a hassle to use or because they were faster and more comprehensive? (Having used Bloomberg for years, I would argue the latter). In any case, it's hard to extrapolate a single formula to success as the author tries to do.

Because of this, I have the same problem with this book as I did with Drucker in the past. The stories of companies like Netflix, Bloomberg and Apple are interesting as the stories of FedEx and Toyota were when Peter Drucker was reporting on them in the 1980's. If you like reading success stories you'll enjoy this book. Whether the information will make your business a success is debatable.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Truly an Innovator's Book September 29, 2011

By Jon Cardwell VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

This is truly an innovator's book. If you are looking for bullet point directives or the ABC's of sales, marketing or invention, this book may disappoint. The very nature of its subject prevents such a simplistic "how to" as a method to harvest results. It is very positive in its expression of ideas, providing a very enthusiastic motivation for one who is innovative (that is, for someone who innovates from the truest and fullest sense of the word: one who makes, provides, or implements changes, novelties, or something new). If you just have many great ideas that would make life convenient, and you are looking for a way to get those ideas out there, this book isn't for you.

Although a book like is not my typical read, the title intrigued me. As a Baptist pastor whose perspective is rather of the Reformed/Calvinistic/Puritanical perspective, I was interested in what a secular marketing guru had to say of "meeting a demand" before there is one, in hopes that it might give me some insights into what many churches are trying to do these days by implementing sales and marketing techniques. I read this out of pure research on my part, but had enjoyed the read. I liked it, but wouldn't have put it on my list as a "must have" book were it not for the Amazon Vine program.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Boosting Revenues in Difficult Times October 16, 2011

By J. Kolodny

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

In "Demand", Adrian Slywotzky dissects the elements that turn a regular offering into an irresistible one.

Every business owners is familiar with a breakout of customers - some love the product and recommend to others, some buy but never say much, some try and don't buy, and some just don't bother. A 10-15% swing in proportions can have a significant impact on your business. So, how do you change those ratios?

Through telling stories about many modern day successes, Slywotzky breaks down many of the elements that contribute to that desired shift. Understanding the major purchasing triggers, building the correct "backstory", and establishing a successful trajectory are but a few of the levers to be pulled to increase the magnetism of your product/service such that you get your customers down off that fence.

This is not a "5-step" process manual - specific steps are precluded by the richness and complexity of the topic. But what you will find are stories that cause you to think about your own business, and in the process lead you to successfully identify ways to drive increased demand and profits.