What SaaS Companies Can Learn From The Wine Industry
Pre Scriptum: Iāve stated before that because one S in SaaS stands for service, letās move our attention to what services businesses ā their mistakes and their lessons.
A lot of people have coffee every day. They prefer having it in a mug. Having it in a glass would feelā¦ weird? Different? It wouldnāt be a proper fit.
We, as humans, have advanced. Weāve developed a lot of glasses. Glasses for water, wine glasses, champagne glasses and so on. For wine, theyāre even different given red or white wine. Connoisseurs will note that there are glasses for full-bodied red, light-bodied red, rose, sparkling (not champagne! got to be careful not to discriminate) and light-bodied white wine.
Iām not one but even for me, I can slightly tell the difference between the red, white and sparkling wine glass.
And then thereās tea. There are full tea sets with all their cups and plates and so on. You wonāt pour tea into a wine glass. You could, for utilitarian value but hey, once weāre past that point, we can be choosy.
We can get so choosy to the point where we wonāt actually have that drink if itās not in the right recipient ā at least people do. We can skip a beverage because of the square peg in a round hole problem.
Iāve had it once. I was liking my energy drink and as much as it sounds very weird, I only did so because of the packaging. Why? Once I poured it into a mulled wine glass (just for the sake of it), it ātastedā like some cough syrup I was probably having in my childhood.
Did it taste different? Science and common sense say no. Something inside of me said yes.
The experience was different. Ever since then, Iāve never had energy drinks. I didnāt cast a spell upon me that I would never ever touch them but I simply didnāt feel like. Just because it was poured into a glass and I havenāt had it out of the can.
Whatās your point?
My point is this: after a certain threshold of utilitarian value, people can get picky. Thatās not the case if thereās no competition ā they can choose what you do or nothing at all. And if youāre in that position, you better start widening the gap between your company and the next contender, whenever they might emerge.
But thatās something Iām not stating for the first time.
My other point is this: the internet reduced the costs of entry for a lot of things. Social mediaās cost of entry versus TV or radio. An online shop vs a brick and mortar. Thousands of examples.
Because of that, weāre heading towards a society that will have more and more niches for more and more refined audiences. If before we had āsolutions for carsā, weāll eventually have āsolutions for 1962 to 1970 Jaguar E-Type female ownersā ā so thereās a community thatās filtered by: gender, car make and model and year of production. My idea is that itās pretty filtered.
Before, there was not enough āspaceā for this kind of filtering to happen. Now, there is. Solution can be a blog or a car parts shop.
As a consequence, and hereās my idea in a sentence),
Weāre dividing more and more into smaller assemblies/tribes. The more we do that, the more weāll differentiate by personality.
As voice becomes more and more integrated into our society, yes, companies will have voices ā and then it will be easier for us to grasp the concept of personality.
Shopify is providing e-commerce solutions for business people. Itās a āwhat you see is what you getā solution. Bigcartel is making it clear from the first second that itās for the āartists and makersā. Their most expensive e-commerce solution is capped at 300 items ā does that mean that you have to prove youāre one of the two to use it? No. And not all Bigcartel clients are artists.
Thatās Bigcartelās personality and they do that in order to connect to the personality of the artist. And by speaking so strongly to these people, somehow it happens that non-artists use Bigcartel as well.
Are you still serving āeveryoneā? Is your product āfor everyoneā? Chances are, if youāre reading this, then no.
Youāve gone past the hurdle of āI want my product to be bought/utilised by everyoneā. Letās double down on that ā personality.
About Ch Daniel
I run chagency, an experiences design agency that specialises on helping tech CEOs reduce user churn. We believe experiences are not only the reason why users choose not to leave but also what generates word of mouth. Weāre building a credo around this belief.
If Iāve brought you any kind of value, follow me and get in touch here: LinkedIn | Twitter | Email
Iāve also created an infinitely-valuable app for sneaker/fashion enthusiasts called Legit Check that impacted hundreds of thousands over millions of times ā check it out at chdaniel.com/app
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