Consumers are Spoiled Rotten
What I want, When I want it, How I want it
That’s how to grow your business these days. Give people what they want when they want it and how they want it. This really isn’t a new thing in business, after all isn’t that the basis of fast food? The difference is this trend is moving to almost every element of life. The culture in business is changing from a world where we all attend meeting at the same place and time to one where decisions are made with people in different locations and contributions coming at different times of the day. Phone calls have been replaced by emails and text messages. This is all old news.
Business need to continue adapting to these changes. The success of iTunes music store is a prime example. Rather than purchasing an album full of music I don’t want just to get a single song I do, I can buy just the one song. Newspapers are feeling the strain as well. The challenge newspapers face is not the transfer to a digital medium, rather its the fact that people only want to see what they’re interested in. Why flip through 3/4 of the newspaper 
searching for the 1/4 of content I want to read. Look now to the video industry. Yes Tivo ushered in the ability to watch what I want when I want, oh and by the way skipping all those money making ads. Look further though and we see that stores like Blockbuster are suffering because it’s easier to go to my mailbox than a store. Its easier 
to stream Netflix movies than go to my mailbox. Look at Hulu, where its easier to watch an missed TV episode than try to record a rerun.
How will companies take advantage of selective satisfaction in the future? The magazine industry, led by Time, is looking to roll out a Hulu like online magazine distribution system. Cable companies are offering Video On Demand. Yet how do we deal with the money aspects of all this.
There are a couple of industries that still need to pick up on these new trends. The radio and advertising industries haven’t picked up on all this yet. Why isn’t there a RaDo for an 
audio version of TiVo. Advertising, too many times I’ve heard or seen and ad that actually peaked my interest but I had to act now to review more details. Why not allow me to have an option to review later. Let me click a button on a web page that adds the info to a folder I can review later, or hit a button on the radio to tag the ad as interesting so I can check it out when I have time.
The world is spoiled. Rather than force customers to work your way, how are you transforming your business to provide what they want, when they want and how they want.
