You may remember my earlier post on “Productization” where I discussed an academic article I co-wrote on productizing experiences: “standardizing them and turning them into a ‘product-like’ offering, even though they fully remain engaging and memorable experiences – just not as engaging or memorable.”
Productization is an intriguing strategy for many, but is not the same as commoditization, which means your offerings are increasingly purchased on the basis of price & convenience, which is done pretty much by definition for commodities. But productization can certainly lead to commoditization, as I pointed out:
It’s when companies productize their experiences to save money without a commensurate lowering in price that they commoditize themselves. Think of it as the experiential equivalent of “shrinkflation”. (I’m looking at you, Starbucks!)”
I added that parenthetical aside because I was already working on another article on Starbucks with my lead author in the first piece, Louis-Étienne Dubois. We had both noticed how one of the key exemplars of the Experience Economy was making so many decisions that lessened the experience in its “third places”, harmed its perceived authenticity, and devalued its brand.
Starbucks is commoditizing itself
We published the piece on the Harvard Business Review website last week as “How Starbucks Devalued Its Own Brand”, which not only discusses what Starbucks is doing wrong, but where it should go from here to recover. (And after we finished writing it, Starbucks’ self-commoditization continued apace with the offer of value meals, for goodness sake. Sure, let's make ourselves more like McDonald's! That's what we need. . . .)
While it has nothing to do with transformations per se, it is worth a read for anyone in the experience business (hence this bonus post in a US holiday week). Moreover, it is worth thinking about and ensuring that your own places, your own transformative experiences, do not repeat the same mistakes.
Joe Pine
© 2024 B. Joseph Pine II