I spent years on the road as a seminar speaker. I’d speak 3 – 5 times a week. And sometimes 2 or 3 times a day.
One of my tools of trade back then was a little lapel mic which ran off AAA batteries.
I always choose Duracell batteries because they promised a longer life.
You can see why a long-life battery was important to me, right?
And because long life was important to me, you’ll understand why I was willing to pay their higher price.
In fact, their USP compelled me to buy from them rather than their competitors.
Then their competitors started to sell ‘long life’ batteries too. They promised comparable performance for less money … and provided graphs and charts to prove it.
So (because I’m no fool!), I started to buy their batteries instead.
Somehow my change in buying behavior must have shown up on Duracell’s P&L and they decided to try and win my business back …
Because a couple of months later Duracell brought out a brand new and ‘improved’ battery.
They didn’t promise that this one would last any longer though.
Instead, this new battery had a little ‘gizmo’ on the side – it was a ‘power meter’ which told you how much life was left in the battery.
Now, knowing how much life was left in a battery was way more important to me than how long the battery would last.
So, I started buying Duracell batteries again.
Without even looking at the price!