the allegro: a product-feature parable

Product features make a differenceSimon Carter, One Three Fourwww.onethreefour.co.uk

The Golf and the Allegro

A parable with a moral

A parable with a moral Product features make a difference

The story…

The Golf 1974Sold an average of 760,000 cars for 33 years (over 25 million).

A focus on the product features that customers wanted, including...

The Golf 1974Sold an average of 760,000 cars for 33 years (over 25 million).

A focus on the product features that customers wanted, including...A hatchback.

The Allegro 1973Sold 640,000 cars in ten years.

The Allegro 1973Sold 640,000 cars in ten years.

A focus on low cost-of production,little effort on product features...

The Allegro 1973Sold 640,000 cars in ten years.

A focus on low cost-of production,little effort on product features...And no hatchback. The hatchback was rejected as a pointless expense.

The Allegro 1973Sold 640,000 cars in ten years.

A focus on low cost-of production,little effort on product features...And no hatchback. The hatchback was rejected as a pointless expense.Even though there was evidence that cars with hatchbacks sold well.

Impact ofproduct features:

Impact ofproduct features:

With hatchback = Success

Impact ofproduct features:

With hatchback = Success

No hatchback = An also-ran

The moral: Product features make a difference

But what kind of product-features do clients want?

Usually, firms don’t know because they haven’t asked**Or they asked the wrong people the wrong questions in the wrong way.

Consider the effort you

put into producing the firm’s know-how updates……Then compare it to the

effort spent finding out what clients value.

The Sun

(Effort on producing client updates)

The Earth

(Effort spent on

understanding client needs)

Th

And the Sun is much, much bigger than the Earth…

One final thought

Glitzy rebranding and repackaging is no substitute for the right product features…

A repackaged Allegro with go-faster stripes is still…

A repackaged Allegro with go-faster stripes is still… …an Allegro.

Thank you To find out more about client-focused product features, go to:www.onethreefour.co.uk/ideas