It's the Experience, Stupid

A recent article on the Business Week site, titled "Experience Is the Product," brings up a topic that can never be flogged enough. Yes, it's a long article (3 screens) but a quick read . . . and yes, some of the products it mentions are really old (like a Kodak camera from the turn of the last century).

Four words sum it all up: It's the experience, stupid. Let me repeat: The only thing that customers care about is the product experience. The niftiest packaging, the glitziest commercial, the slickest features, the best pricing won't make a best-seller of a product that's difficult, inconvenient, or downright unsafe to use.

The article brought me back to some of the experiences I've had, as a customer, with favorite and not-so-favorite products. I love my iPod, for instance, but disliked the tedious process of unpacking it, hunting for every little component in the nooks and crannies, and ending up with a mountain of packaging stuff. Another Apple thought: will the company hit a speed bump if iPhone buyers don't like the quality of the AT&T network they'll have to use?

Why can't all companies put their "customer hats" on and remember that the product experience is the only thing that counts?