Priceless: Turning Ordinary Products into Extraordinary Experiences [Hardcover]

Diana Lasalle (Author), Terry A. Britton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 4, 2002

Whether their complaints are about customer-proof packaging, a never-ending voice mail loop, or a purchase that doesn't live up to its claims, customers are consistently disappointed in their interactions with companies. And while experts say that the creation of "customer experiences" is the new requirement for success, few companies have managed to deliver.Now, veteran experience consultants, Diana LaSalle and Terry A. Britton take businesses from concept to practice, offering a tactical guide to creating value-adding experiences around any product or service - whether the offering is candles or computers, catering services or consulting advice. The authors argue that most managers remain stuck in a "features and benefits" mentality that zeroes in on what a product does. That focus needs to shift, they say, to what a product or service offers and how it affects customers' lives. LaSalle and Britton provide a hands-on model for understanding the relationship between value and experience, and then show how companies can leverage that knowledge to transform ordinary products and services into experiences that customers consider extraordinary - even priceless.Drawing from extensive research and the stories of experience pioneers, the authors introduce new systems - the 'Experience Engagement Process' and the 'Experience Event Matrix' - businesses can use to: evaluate the entire consumption experience through the customers' eyes; better understand what various customer groups value and why; identify areas where new dimensions of value can be added to an offering; eliminate customer sacrifice and increase rewards at every stage of the process; align products, service, and environment to deliver a complete value experience; and translate experience creation into bottom-line profits. Lively, practical, and entertaining, "Priceless" helps managers, marketers, and strategists recognize exactly what customers want and how to deliver it. We'll never look at what we sell - or buy - the same way again. Diana LaSalle and Terry A. Britton are founding partners of True North Strategies, a Savannah-based experience consulting firm.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Have you ever bought an item you needed, then discovered something minor you didn't like about it that ruined the whole purchase? Have you purchased something totally frivolous just for fun? The authors contend that consumers are not just looking for things to buy but are searching out a rewarding buying experience. They ask, "Why can't the MasterCard commercial be true and everything we buy lead to something priceless?" This book delves into the elusive qualities that cause customers to perceive value in a product that goes beyond intrinsic worth and usefulness in satisfying intellectual, emotional, and spiritual needs. Several companies are featured whose products meet these needs and have had great success as a result, such as the OXO Good Grips line of vegetable peelers with the cushy, finlike grips. Designed to help business strategists move a company "from one that sells ordinary goods and services toward one that delivers extraordinary experiences," the book will certainly change the way you look at the things you buy and sell. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Diana LaSalle is founder of Fusion Group, a Chicago-based experience consulting firm. Prior to Fusion Group, LaSalle owned the Dymar Agency, an advertising firm specializing in niche and affinity marketing. Terry A. Britton is a principal of Fusion Group and former Chief Technical Officer at dcVAST, Inc., a web integration company.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press (December 4, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157851746X
• ISBN-13: 978-1578517466
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #280,784 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #91 in Books > Business & Investing > Marketing & Sales > Marketing > Product Management

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Holograph of Value, June 10, 2003

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Priceless: Turning Ordinary Products into Extraordinary Experiences (Hardcover)

MasterCard commercials effectively dramatize a distinction between the cost and the value of human experience. In essence, this is what LaSalle and Britton have in mind when explaining in their brilliant book how to turn ?ordinary products into extraordinary experiences? for consumers. They organize their material within two separate but related sections: in the first, they examine the interaction of customers, value, and experience; in the second, they explain how almost any company can prosper in what James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II characterize as ?the experience economy,? in their book so entitled. But HOW? By offering a product or service which, according to LaSalle and Britton, fills a consumer?s need for freedom, adventure, and a sense of well-being. My own rather extensive background includes market research on what consumers value most. Those surveyed ranked ?feeling appreciated,? ETDBW (i.e. easy to do business with), and enjoying the experience were ranked highest. Those responses are consistent with what LaSalle and Britton have learned. What astonishes me (and perhaps them as well) is that only recently has the importance of sensory experience been recognized, relative to purchase decisions and to consumer perceptions of those from whom their purchases are made.

Bernd Schmitt and Alex Simonson?s Experiential Marketing: How to Get Customers to Sense, Feel,, Think, Act, and Relate to Your Company and Brands was first published in 1999. In it, they examine a number of different companies (e.g. Nokia, Procter & Gamble, Apple Computer, Volkswagen, Siemens, Martha Stewart Living, and SONY) which demonstrate the fundamental principles of what they call ?experiential marketing.? They were praised as pioneer thinkers (which I certainly do not dispute) when, in Part Two of their book, they focus on what they call Strategic Experiential Modules (SEMs), each of which has its own distinct structures and principles which must be understood by each manager. SEMs include sensory experiences (SENSE), affective experiences (FEEL), creative cognitive experiences (THINK), physical experiences and entire lifestyles (ACT), and social-identity experiences (RELATE). Schmitt and examine each, explaining how to achieve the effective integration of all four.

LaSalle and Britton share my high regard for Gilmore and Pine as well as for Schmitt and Simonson (among others) but break critically important new ground in Priceless by providing a cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effective system by which almost any company can increase and enhance the appeal of almost any product or service. More specifically, LaSalle and Britton identify and then explain a series of interdependent components throughout Chapters 1-6 which comprise what they call the ?Priceless Roadmap.? By the end of their book, they have enabled their reader to understand the relationship between value and experience (including emotional as well as sensory experience) by showing the link between them and customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and (most preferable of all) customer evangelism. They trace the series of events which a customer experiences during the consumption process. Most important of all, with precision and clarity, they demonstrate how a company can deliver value through experience by focusing on three key attributes: product, service, and environment.

It would be a mistake to assume that this book was written primarily (if not exclusively) for marketing executives. Every value, principle, strategy, and tactic which LaSalle and Britton examine is directly relevant, for example, to increasing and enhancing the appeal of any workplace and to strengthening relationships between and among those within it. I also think this book will be of substantial value to senior-level executives as they embark on mid-range and long-term planning (i.e. up to 36 months at the most) because organizations as well as consumer products and services, and indeed individuals, can achieve greatness only if guided and informed by a ?Priceless Roadmap? in one form or another.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone in business should read this book, January 9, 2004

By 

A Sanders (Georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Priceless: Turning Ordinary Products into Extraordinary Experiences (Hardcover)

Everyone talks about experience, but few have been able to explain how to create customer experiences that make a difference to the bottom line. LaSalle and Britton have solved the mystery. The secret, according to them is well defined and communicated value surrounded by exceptional experiences. They make their case with clearly explained and supported theory and then follow it up with elegant frameworks to both determine value and identify and score each customer experience. Unlike many business books, it's easy to see how what they present can actually work in the real world.

If I were to find fault with the book, I'd have to say there is a marked lack of negative examples and sometimes failure is a powerful teacher. It is also a puzzle to me why it is promoted as a marketing book when it clearly has strategic value far beyond marketing. Regardless of these minor flaws, I think Priceless has value for all areas of business, and to quote Donald O. Clifton, Chairman of Gallup International from the book jacket "Ours will not only be a more productive world, but also a better one for those who take these tools to heart and apply them. I wish everyone would read Priceless." I agree.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Valuable but just not Priceless., January 4, 2003

By 

Dr. David Arelette (Yarrambat, Victoria Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Priceless: Turning Ordinary Products into Extraordinary Experiences (Hardcover)

Any book that can provide you with one insight is worth whatever the author wants in exhange - and that is in part the core value of this book.

The authors formalise the need to reduce the Why people purchase a product down to the core value the buyer perceives - the first or second given reason is often not the case and the reality is often more about personal irrationality (who needs a Porsche yet they sell the annual production at full price) rather than reasons that can be easily tabulated. Too much marketing is written about these top level issues and miss what this book identifies.

However, while many of their examples appear relevant to the point they are making, they focus on the good fit between the idea (easy to install new computer) and that these were (for the moment) winning ideas, and leave the exploration of the lower level value out of their analysis, the one thing they stress in the best part (the first two) chapters of the book.

One very good item is where they provide details of their personal contact details to encourage feedback - you do not see that often enough. Another is telling about failures with all the details, some consultants tell you the names of their successes but talk about the failures (and then only of others) in only the general.

I would suggest you puchase this book - it is not the definitive platform (that say Porter's Competitive Advantage is) about creating value; it does raise and examine relevant issues in creating value, particularly for service industries.