Customer Benefits - Identification

In August 1997, Sony introduced the Mavica digital camera. In some respects, the new camera appeared inferior to competitive digital cameras that cost less and offered sharper pictures.

But the Mavica offered one benefit that other cameras did not. It stored pictures on floppy disks, which simplified the process of getting digital pictures out of the camera and into the customers computers.

In 1998 Mavica sales accounted for 1.1 million of the 12.2 million point and shoot cameras sold in the United States. One Sony executive explained Mavica's success in very simple terms - "When it comes to pictures, people like it easy and quick".

In fact consumers complained that existing digital cameras were hard to use, but until the Mavica came along, these complaints had fallen on deaf ears. The reason was that other digital camera manufacturers were focused on picture clarity. An executive at one of the companies later admitted that no one foresaw "the Sony Mavica taking off as it did.... because we were all concentrating on the resolution".

The Mavica story illustrates the way executives can become so focused on one benefit that they forget about other benefits that matter to customers. To prevent this from happening, marketers need to begin their analysis of decision making by answering two simple questions:

1. What benefits matter - or might matter - to potential customers.

2. How are these benefits related to each other?

Now, will the same questions matter in the current situation wherein the smart phones have taken over Digital cameras?

Yes! "When it comes to pictures, people like it easy and quick"

Source: Strategic Marketing Management, Mark E Parry

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