This is Shantan’s third post on strat.in . His earlier two posts have been extremely well received – Leader v/s thought leader; Federer at French open . He has now joined Strat. In team now, after contacting us from the Write a Post section.

In 2005, in my final year of undergrad, I embarked on an entrepreneurial venture with two of my college buddies. We were not too successful. It lasted a brief time. But some of the marketing and business lessons learned there…have stayed on.

One of them is what i call the SLAP theory!

I coined this acronym back then in 2005, when one of my cousins read about my work and called me up to learn more about what i was doing.

I tried to explain to her what our software application would do. Her next question to me was “So how will you make money? Will you start selling it now?” I instinctively replied to her a couple of lines which then went onto a long conversation, and finally got embossed in my head forever (and perhaps her head too!!) I told her that the software application we were building was not yet fully ready. It was just a prototype. She asked me what i meant when I said “ready” considering that so many students and folks had seen the product in our demo at the exhibition. I replied that, “ready” meant that when someone sees your product, they should readily purchase it.
They should see it, get interested. look at it and then immediately purchase it. There shouldn’t be any room for doubt in the minds of the customer.

Over the phone, I reiterated the words to her…See, Look, And Purchase………and hit upon the acronym SLAP. And I delivered the trademark killer marketing punch of my one-liners (one of my other favorite hobbies) by saying “when you build a product, it should SLAP the market!”

ooohhhhhhh!!!

That was like gold standard for my cousin. She liked the line.

And i was still wondering how i came up with SLAP!

Over the last few years, I have internalized this theory into the way i look at products, or contribute to building them. This cousin of mine keeps reminding me of it now and then…”so did you SLAP the market now????” hehe….

What exactly is SLAP theory?

Build a product..well not necessarily a product. it could even be a project..a service……it could be a book. it could be a TV show.It could be a music album. It could be anything that any of us do..But when we do it….it should be of such high quality that it just SLAPs the market away!!!

Customers should SEE the product or service:

This is important. Many great ideas don’t succeed because they are not branded well. They dont catch the eye of the customer. They just get launched. And keep groping in the darkness with a miserly market share. A great example would be Microsoft’s Zune player. They created some buzz but that was because it was Microsoft. I am not too sure if customers would have been able to spot the player if it was not Microsoft’s. Well there are better examples..there is a dollar store here in the USA where you get granola bars for just 25 cents. They are awesome quality and very good for health. But u know what? they are stacked up in one of the remotest corners of the store. No-one can possibly see them. Thats why when I showed some friends during lunch, they were like “oh gosh!! how come you spotted that”.

Customers should be LOOK at the product/service:

There are two clauses here: One, customers should be compelled to pick up the product and look at it. Ever been to Crossword, the book store? There are so many variety of books there. But I hardly get compelled to pick up the books though i know they are good ones. Well perhaps its a personal taste. Even in retail stores….there are some really exciting stuff out there. but somehow…I just don’t have the patience to check it out.

The other clause is: customers should be able to actually look at the product. This brings into scope the need for usability and convenience. Customers can be put off if they don’t “get it” when they are looking at your product and trying to understand it. Look at the ipod. There is just no way you “can’t” get it. You have to! Its so easy and convenient to use. User experience and convenience is such an important aspect. Windows Vista lost this battle….but Win7 promises to be a class apart.

If you have customers, seeing ur product, and then picking it up to look at it, you better make sure that they “get it” in the first 5 seconds of them picking up your product.

It could be any product: retail foods, groceries, electronics, books. software, cars…u name it. Not just a product..it could also be a service: choosing ur local bank, paying telephone bills, a new identification system being implemented in the office….every service needs to get a buy-in from you, the customer. You are the king!

AND
Nobel laureates in literature call this a conjunction. And is important to the look and feel of the SLAP theory. You have got to pat me on the back for this!

Customers just HAVE TO PURCHASE it now:

When your product catches the eye of the customer, and then engages him into exploring it, you better hit the nail and get him/her to buy it! Many times I check out a product and then after marvelling it for a while I keep it back on the shelf saying “Great stuff!” and go to the next shelf. Or we end up saying “hmmm..looks awesome..should buy this soon” and keep the product back where it was! Gosh! The product lost the battle there!!!!

To explain this better, take the classic case of the ipod and all of Apple’s products that came out after that. When people saw the ipod, they just couldnt resist it. This explains why the iPhone 3GS hit a sale of 1 million in just 10 days of its launch! People cant resist it. they just want it! Build a product or service like that, and you ll make millions!!

Another aspect of this is the pricing itself. If the price is way too high, then even the most loyal customer might not buy your product. Reason: he just doesnt have the money!! So the price should be competitive. good enough to make your margins. but equally good enough to get your customers to buying it…..buying it immediately!!!!

So the next time you have a great idea to create something, make sure you “SLAP the market!!!!”

Shantan

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