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Marketing Management Gladwell Style
Plain, spicy, extra chunky, how do you prefer your tomato sauce? People don't know what they want; they can't always explain what they want. For example, if you ask most Americans how they like their coffee, they will tell you they like a dark, rich, hearty roast. In actuality they like their coffee milky and weak. Malcolm Gladwell does a terrific job of illustrating the work of Dr. Howard Moscowitz wherein he defines horizontal segmentation. Howard's experiments have proven that their are no hieracrchies in consumer behavior. No good or bad, just different that suit different people. Gladwell uses the phrase democratized taste to describe Howard's findings. So there is no one way; Howard attemps to disprove universals, rules that govern the way businesses view consumers. In this quest we must have an understating of variability. Americans no longer want to know more about say cancer, but how is your cancer different than my cancer. By understanding variability and embracing diversity we can surely find delirious happiness, according to Gladwell.