Very often, for the creators of these solutions, their value is intrinsic, evident and in the light of day. Unfortunately, many of these, once launched, encounter very little commercial success , compared to others that instead seem to have the code of success written into their DNA.
The question is: how can you design and communicate new solutions to be a commercial success? How can you decode the factors that will determine the success of a new product, service or solution?
Derek Thompson tried to give the answer in his book Creating Success , in which he tells the story ( and the theory ) of one of the least known but most influential names of the last century, Raymond Loewy .
A life dedicated to Design
Raymond Lowey was born in Paris in 1893. After serving his country in World War I, he moved to New York, attracted by the promise of the new world. From the moment he arrived, he was struck by how American society was completely devoted to practicality and industry and how the concept of “beauty” was neglected.
But things were changing: Lowey in fact arrived in the States in 1919, in the years in which the mantra of production efficiency was showing its limits in the sale and marketing of products. The market was looking for new, innovative products, the foundations of "planned obsolescence" and "convincing the market to buy novelties" were being laid.
Lowey became one of America's most important designers, revolutionizing previously traditional markets such as rail transport, automotive, aviation and even cigarettes by designing the iconic Lucky Strike packet that we all have in mind.
The Mayan Principle
His intuition was to understand that people's taste was subject to two contrasting forces: on the one hand, the love for the new, for what we do not know, and on the other, our propensity towards familiarity. According to studies, this perennial war could have almost ancestral origins: if we know an animal, it means that it has not yet eaten us, but at the same time, what is new has always exerted an enormous fascination on us. A recent study on the copy of online and offline advertising campaigns showed that the most used word was "NEW".
The challenge is to create “ familiar innovations ” by creating products and services that fit into this dichotomy. Lowey called it MAYA: Most Advanced Yet Acceptable.
A product that is too familiar is seen as banal or already known, one that is too innovative is not understood. It is no coincidence that many of the most disruptive theories in various scientific fields have found little response among contemporaries but have then been exalted by subsequent generations who have come into contact with them since university.
Thompson's book provides dozens and dozens of examples of how many of the most important technological successes in music, cinema and many other sectors of our time are inexorably subject to this law. It is a process that is present everywhere, but that occurs at an unconscious level and is therefore often difficult to codify.
But how can we use MAYA law today to sell and communicate B2B solutions?
The MAYA Law in Action
Understanding this law and applying it in our daily work as “communicators” is not at all france whatsapp number data 5 million simple; it is not simple because it forces us to place ourselves from a point of view external to our own, the gaze of the other.
Let's try to see some concrete applications:
Align the level of innovation and communication strategy – the first thing we need to take into account is the actual level of novelty that we are launching on the market: the higher this level is, the more familiar and evident the communication must be . On the contrary, if the degree of novelty is low, we can exploit more daring and innovative communication methods.
To sell something familiar, make it surprising. To sell something surprising, make it familiar.
Focus on the effects you generate – Working with many tech companies, I often hear the solutions described by those who designed them. Often the attention is focused on the complexity of the infrastructure and the elegance of the underlying algorithm. These aspects very often struggle to attract the attention of people who tend to be more interested in themselves and the impact that the solution could have on their daily lives. Technology can be fascinating but for most people it becomes interesting only when it is related to the actual impacts on life. Focus on the results you generate and not on the process and tools you use to achieve it, talk about innovation by describing how it will change their routine.
