Audience as Capital – Page 5

I ordered a USB-C to USB-A braided cable, and it arrived today. I picked Anker despite it costing a little more than twice as much as the equivalent AmazonBasics cable because it – Anker – has a reputation for good quality products.

I wasn’t prepared for just how good.

The cable comes in a small suede pouch that not only has a velro loop to keep the cable in place but also a tiny magnet stitched within to keep the pouch shut:

The packaging itself makes multiple references to customer support, encouraging you to get in touch with them if you have a problem. The tiny card has ‘Happy?’ and ‘Not Happy’ halves.

The pouch has made sure that this cable is always going to be the one I toss into my bag among other USB-C ➝ USB A cables. And when it comes to buying future cables, there’s a good chance I’m going to spring for the one that encourages me and makes it easy to contact it there’s ever a problem.

More broadly, the whole package is a powerful example of signalling of value. It’s a commodity market – we’re talking cables here. But the message I receive loud and clear is that this is a company that cares about quality and stands behind it, that anything I buy from it will be long-lasting and won’t harm my devices.

The cable costs Anker more to make than the other cheaper cables do. And by adding just a little extra to those costs through the pouch and the paper card, the company’s able to set itself far apart from the alternatives, potentially charging a much higher markup than its competitors while also building loyalty.

After all, it’s a cable today; it’ll be other higher-priced products tomorrow.

Matt Mullenweg of WordPress stated in a simple blog post about the blogging platform’s 17th anniversary

The main feedback we got at the time was that the blogging software market was saturated and there wasn’t room or need for anything new.

but that

WordPress did have a philosophy, an active blog, a license that protected the freedom of its users and developers, a love of typography, a belief that code is poetry, fantastic support forums and mailing lists and IRC, and firm sense that building software is more fun when you do it together as a community.

There are niches, even large markets, where customers will pick the provider whose voice and values they identify with even in a crowded cost-conscious marketplace. It may, in many cases, the only company that even has a voice. In some cases that voice may express itself in the product so that it doesnt match your workflow as a customer, and that’s OK. Make a different choice. But when it does, it makes for a great relationship with the product/service. Evernote used to be that sort of company. Apple still is, even though it’s a dominant giant, no longer the perennial underdog. And WordPress is too.