Steve Jobs, an Apple founder, was legendary for stimulating demand. He worked without surveys or focus groups. He was a genius, peerless in his generation. He saw an unborn future many years ago. He was an icon, who changed his world. He developed a good design paradigm of working at the #perception of customers, beyond their needs and expectations. He found glory, and Apple triumphed with iPod, iPhone, iPad and more.
The Perception Demand Construct is a product evolution strategy where you work on things which are not really evident to be in demand. Yet you go ahead to create that product, being confident that you can stimulate demand for it.
Ordinary companies work to meet the Needs of customers. Great companies work to meet the Expectations. Disruptive and generation-shaping companies transform customers by creating new bases of competition, where they turn customers into FANs, triggering perception demand and stimulating new market categories or sectors.
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Products like iPhone and Indomie Noodles work at the level of Perception; both are revolutionary and evolutionary with fandoms in their respective markets. Pursue #fandom through market innovation. Until you can reach that mountaintop of Perception Demand, your leverageable factors cannot compound at scale. I share some components to explain the N.E.P of the thesis.
| Needs | Customers know what they want and look for them in the market. Many companies pursue to serve those frictions which are evidently known. For example, a customer wants electricity in Enugu Nigeria and an electricity company offers that via coal. |
| Expectations | Customers’ needs have been met but they expect a new dimension of service. Consider an environmental activist who is being served with coal power in his house in Enugu Nigeria. Yes, even though the needs have been met, the customer will still be expecting to power the house with renewable energy source like solar or wind. Any day a company offers solar solution in that locality, at competitive pricing, that customer will possibly sign-up, disconnecting from the coal solution. |
| Perceptions | The customer has never imagined or ever thought of this demand domain. The customer never conceived of the possibility or existence of this friction. However, the day, the customers see the product, the customers move in droves because the product clearly met their needs, exceeded their expectations and took them into a new domain by fixing their frictions. Most times, focus groups and surveys cannot capture perception demand because until the users have the products in their hands, they cannot make sense of the value. See my Harvard article in next section of this class note on how Verizon missed Apple iPhone, and Steve Jobs’ lack of interests on market study. The legend had posited that even customers do not know what they want! But when you give them the “next big thing”, they come to party. So, for him, the plan was to go into that esoteric level of creativity to stimulate latent needs only few like him could decipher, and turn the consumers and customers into fans. Greatness comes via stimulating and serving Perception Demand. On the pyramid, it sits on top because only few can get there. |
Source: Tekedia Mini-MBA classnote
Response to a comment: Indomie invented sharp sharp (timely) fairly nutritious meal, saving you from the typical 40-120 minutes required to prepare a typical African food. Fofo requires at least 3 hours and you need more energy to prepare the food than the energy the food will give you upon consumption! With mortar and pestle pounding the fofo, you need energy to prepare that. Indomie has cut those off. That saves mothers time.
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How about enthroning the Perception Demand Construct in political leadership? It is not restricted to products and services introduced to the markets. So when next those living in the past talk about mundane things like ‘structures’ and corrupt-infested politicking, remind them of the new disruptive construct.
Just like the iPhone Indomie, you do not need to understand everything until it hits you, the new movement has already found its Northstar.
It’s now a question of bringing those living in the past to the present, and then preparing for the new order.
Give your education a meaning.