Thursday, March 25, 2010

Avoiding Mr. In-Between

Writing in The New Yorker, James Surowiecki on the danger of being in "the mushy middle":

These two strategies may look completely different, but they have one crucial thing in common: they don’t target the amorphous blob of consumers who make up the middle of the market. Paradoxically, ignoring these people has turned out to be a great way of getting lots of customers, because, in many businesses, high- and low-end producers are taking more and more of the market. In fashion, both H. & M. and Hermès have prospered during the recession. In the auto industry, luxury-car sales, though initially hurt by the downturn, are reemerging as one of the most profitable segments of the market, even as small cars like the Ford Focus are luring consumers into showrooms. And, in the computer business, the Taiwanese company Acer has become a dominant player by making cheap, reasonably good laptops—the reverse of Apple’s premium-price approach.

2 comments:

Mulki A said...

Nice Sir :)
This blog is very cool

Michael Wade said...

Mulki,

I'm glad you like it.

Michael