Innovate Like Edison: Utility is Success by Sarah Miller Caldicott

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Recently, I've seen a number of plucky black-and-white tv ads from Sprint featuring CEO Dan Hesse. The campaign offers people the opportunity to come into any Sprint PCS store and learn how to use one of their smart phones. You can even take advantage of this offer - presumably - if you already have a Sprint phone.

Wow! Someone finally figure out that customers don't always intuitively know how to use key features of their smart phones, or PDA's! Too bad this golden idea probably comes too late for Sprint to claw back the market share it's lost in the past few years.

In 1878, Thomas Edison invented the carbon button microphone that became the first commercially successful telephone transmitter. And Sprint, 130 years later, is finally learning one of Edison's key lessons for successful marketing, taken from Edison innovation Competency #5: Super-value Creation.

Thomas Edison knew that he could only build a successful brand if his customers understood the "utility" of what they were buying. He said, "...utility is success." Edison realized that if a customer didn't understand how to use what he or she was purchasing from him, it would be much tougher to convince them to buy the Edison brand again in the future.

So, Edison came up with an ingenious solution. When launching his new phonograph in the 1880's, for example, he made sure that his in-store sales teams could also "instruct" buyers on how to use the phonograph. No one had ever experienced the phenomenon of recorded sound before...so prospects needed a lot of convincing that the "noises" coming from the machine were actually coming from Edison's cylindrical records...and not from some unholy source.

Thus, when a phonograph was delivered to a buyer's home, the "instructor" would bring in the newly purchased unit along with any cylindrical records purchased by the buyer. The phonograph was then placed in a prominent location in the buyer's home, after which he or she was thoroughly trained in how to use the phonograph, and change the records.

Edison's dedication to customer service and a customer's product knowledge became a hallmark of his offerings. Edison's ability to instruct customers on how to use an Edison phonograph, an Edison lamp (light bulb), or an Edison storage battery were all powerful generators for repeat purchase. His commitment to connect with customers this way kept Edison's name - and his attentive staff - in front of customers daily. Wouldn't you love it if your favorite brands did that, today?

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Sarah Miller Caldicott, Innovate Like Edison, business, Thomas Edison,books, Penguin Books