The Commoditized Customer

Maybe it's not our products that are getting commoditized. Maybe it's the customer. Consider this great quote about customer commoditization in May's HBR: When has a product category been commoditized? Most managers and business scholars will tell you it’s when competing products are indistinguishable in terms of tangible features and capabilities. But our research shows that commoditization is as much a psychological state as a physical one. A commoditized market is one in which buyers display rampant skepticism, routinized behaviors, minimal expectations, and a strong preference for swift and effortless transactions regardless of product differentiation. It's an important insight because, as marketers, our impulse is to try and product innovate and communicate our way out of the commodity trap. But, if customers have become convinced that the available choices are all OK and that any differences between products don't really matter, our efforts may be in vain. We may just end up adding to the noise that the customer is trying to avoid and not shifting opinion in any meaningful way.