My feeling is that if a customer is thinking about:
- how poorly their boots fit
- how cold they slept
- how wet they got
We missed a huge opportunity. And by “We” I mean shops, manufacturers and humanity in general.

Because, while that custy is nursing their blisters they’re:
1. Cursing the shop they bought the boots from.
2. Missing out on Life Changing Moments in the wilderness.

Small Picture.
Shops can help translate the customer belief that having the right gear will help them be more comfortable in the wild.

Big Picture.
Transformational Life Experiences tend to happen more frequently in wild places (IMHO). Locally, or Far Away.

In my experience, shops that work towards fulfilling both big/small picture custy needs are the most successful.

Regarding Disney, yeah, they’re not perfect. I still haven’t quite forgiven them for Pete’s Dragon, myself.

See you soon…

As far as Disney I feel they may be the only group that has gone beyond FOX with their Fauxumentary on September 11 which combined real footage with fiction so we keep to a few DVD’s. We did not have cable in the states and had no TV for the last 6 months we were there. Here TV is a tool to learn Italian but we seldom watch it. The only thing i would have wanted to watch was the Marcialonga and the coverage was live so I was skiing.

Disney does control the process better than most, but they are still outcome-oriented. Their desired outcome can maybe be stated as “100% happiness from 100% of our available customers, 100% of the time.” Euro-Disney notwithstanding, most of the time they deliver on this.

Google has the same goal, but they don’t control the process. They just do a good job of enticing their customers to seek the destination, and then providing pathways to get there, and buffets of options to choose from once you find your way.

Apple has a slightly different goal. They want to make technology so seamless that once you start using it you can’t imagine your life without it. Oh, and it’s cool, too. The product is just the vehicle for the experience, and a kick-ass accessory, too.

So if we say our goal is that we want to facilitate adventure, then we need to say something more than “buy this purple jacket,” or “use the same purple jacket that Joe Rad used on Rumdoodle.” Instead, we need to say,”Hey, you can have adventures close to home, every day, and this purple jacket will work as well there as it would on anything else you might want to do.”

We should say to our customers: “Want local adventure? Commit to riding your bike for all trips less than 2 miles away, 100% of the time regardless of the weather: it’s green, it’s good for you, it’s fun, it’s a challenge, and – by the way – this purple jacket works great for bicycle commuting.”

Personally, I think that the surge we experienced in the Outdoor Industry after the markets tanked last fall was due to the fact that a lot of people turned wants into needs. They used to say,”I’ve always wanted to climb Rumdoodle like Joe Rad, and that purple jacket would be just what I want for a trip like that, if ever I take it.” Last fall, that changed to,”I need a warm jacket so I can stand at the bus stop in all weather, and that purple jacket is the one – I’ll take it.”

Don’t get me wrong: I make my living by selling stuff, and most of my companies make esoteric and innovative things for the Nth degree consumer. Thank goodness that they also make headlamps, grocery bags, and fleece for everybody else, too.

We just need to ground our products into experiences and lifestyle images that are relevant to more people. We can do this without selling our soul – quite the contrary – and without cheapening our products. We just need to get more people thinking about how outdoor products can change their lives and their world, and get less people thinking about Product X and $XXX.00 price, at these – and only these – five locations.

Sigh – sorry – soapboxing again. Happy Valentine’s Day.

Disney is so effective at delivering an experience (and controlling every variable of it). Do your kids do those ‘roller coaster tycoon’ games yet? But they control every variable in the environment…our business is founded in ‘adventure’, which involves (by definition) unknown outcomes.

So controlling the unknown outcomes somehow…is that it?

Better have a drink and ponder.

Did you make up the Tibetan quote? If so, well done!

this is the killer quote at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experience_design

And copying Disney (Apple, Amazon, Google) hasn’t hurt anybody very much now, has it?

The next article is gonna talk about how we do this right? ;-)