The Easiest Way Into a Consumer’s Pockets

There’s a story about Nestle venturing into the Japanese market, with its Nescafe brand, around the 1950s.

At the time, Japanese people were not familiar with the taste of coffee, so Nestle decided to promote coffee-tasting yogurts for kids, so they would develop a taste for coffee. Apparently it worked, although Nestle had to wait a few years for these kids to grow up.

Apple took a similar approach during the 1990s and into the new millenium, when the company donated or highly discounted computers for elementary, middle and high schools, which resulted in daily usage of their computers by grade-school students. As these students aged into adulthood, an entire generation of Apple customers was born. 

This is to say, the easiest way into a consumer’s pockets (or in Kado’s case her purse or his wallet) and is by plugging into their lifestyle through easy-to-use and intuitive products.

When a product is better than what people already have, and simpler or easier to use, adoption rates are expedited. For example, look at how instant messaging replaced text messaging and SMS, and how touchscreens supplanted dial pads (remember those?).

Real intuitiveness is also very hard to produce, which makes touchscreen technology all the more impressive. Today’s kids as young as 2 years old know how to swipe and scroll. The Internet is filled with parents showing clips of their kids trying to swipe their finger over the TV screen, hoping the channel will change.

Bottom line: When a product is easier to use than what people had before, and better fits into their lifestyle, these people will be more interested in using it — so long as it is simple and intuitive enough for people to use.

About the Author

Itay Hasid is the CEO of Kado, which makes the technology behind the world’s thinnest chargers. Be the first to get a Kado >>