By the time you read this the holiday season should be in full swing and filled with constant reminders about why you should buy this or that from one company or another. You are probably getting flooded with visual, audible, print and electronic media, all trying to win your favor (and your credit card number) before the shopping frenzy is over for another year. It’s a bigger deal than you might think since a lot of retail business may do 50% or more of their business during the last few weeks of the year, virtually making or breaking them.

In the utility industry, about the closest we come to that kind of market intensity is perhaps during the first quarter or so when there seems to be a conference, trade show or other industry event practically every week – or sometimes more than one a week – until late March or early April. And, although it still pales in comparison to the Thanksgiving-Christmas retail run up, there is at least one glaring similarity between these otherwise unrelated periods. That is, they both exhibit behavior characterized by sellers going to extraordinary lengths to impress potential buyers – and how successfully they do it has a huge impact on their future well being.

Sure, we all complain about how commercial it has all become, but don’t think for a minute that you aren’t being influenced by all the hoopla; you are. Believe me, even if it’s only to become more resolute about what you don’t want, don’t like or refuse to become a part of, you ARE being influenced in one way or another. Right now, however, someone out there is saying, “Oh yeah, well not me!” (And they really believe it too!) Over the years, I’ve had quite a few fellow engineers tell me that they are – and I quote: “…way too smart to be influenced by all of that Madison Avenue hype.” Too smart, eh? Well, it’s true that a lot of consumerism is about being savvy, but definitely not all of it. A big chunk has more to do with being human than it does with your cranial capacity. (The last time I checked, no one was claiming to be either too human or not human enough!) Because we are human, certain things appeal to us, sometimes without our even realizing it. Here’s a quick example of this interesting human phenomenon…

The other night we decided we would have pizza for a weekly dinner outing with some friends at a new place that had just recently opened. Being of Italian descent and having had a pizza restaurant in our family for most of my childhood, I’m pretty particular when it comes to pizza. But no one I knew had ever been to this place, so I really had no idea what to expect. Besides that, it was located across from a shopping center in a dingy little strip mall with mostly service outlets and other fairly nondescript businesses. So, why did I go there? I’ll get to that in a minute.

First, I want to tell you that this joint has the best pizza in New Orleans, hands down. Besides that, the place is squeaky clean; the salads are crisp and fresh; the service is prompt and courteous; and the prices are very reasonable. We had a great dinner and everyone agreed that we would go back there again soon and often. But you’re probably dying to know by now what got us there in the first place, right? Very simple: their sign. As we were leaving the mall one evening a week earlier we noticed that one end of the otherwise tired, mostly run down, little shopping center across the street had a bright and colorful new look.

Indeed, you would have to be blind to miss the visually appealing red, green, purple and yellow neon sign proclaiming their arrival. Despite feeling a little foolish to be sucked in by a sign, that’s why we went there – the first time, that is. But that sign spoke volumes about the place: Clean. Crisp. New. Bright. Quality. Why quality, you might wonder? Because the sign was bigger, brighter and way more expensive than it needed to be just to make us aware it was there. I figured (rightly or wrongly) that anyone who would put that much into their sign would almost certainly have a plan to deliver on all that sign seemed to promise!

In any case, we’ve been back several times already and told a lot of our friends about it too. Last night, we were there again and soon struck up a conversation with the folks at the table next to us, who were pondering what to order. We told them the pizza was fantastic, which seemed to give them the confidence they needed to go ahead and order. As we were waiting for our food to arrive, we made small talk (which these days always involves discussing how everyone managed in Katrina!), and eventually the conversation came around to why they chose this particular place.

Finally, somewhat sheepishly, they admitted that it was – you guessed it – the sign! We laughed about how we had both been seduced by this glass, gas and electric creation that was so appealing we just couldn’t resist seeing if the promise would be delivered. At that point I looked around and couldn’t help but wonder how many other guests were there for the same reason. Now, I’ll attempt to put this all in context for you (if you haven’t already figured it out).

Wouldn’t you hate to miss out on attracting a key customer’s attention because your booth wasn’t as appealing or perhaps your ad wasn’t as inviting as your competitor’s? Wouldn’t you be disappointed to find out that the substation equipment you just spent a fortune on and waited a year to get could have been supplied by someone else faster and cheaper and with a better performance result if only you’d known about them? Wouldn’t it be a shame if you and/or your colleagues never found out that there was a better way to communicate work orders to the field and track them in real time because you/they decided that there’s never anything new at a trade show that might be worth checking out? I could go on, but you I think get the picture.

Sure, it’s easy to sit back and do your Christmas shopping at a few familiar sites on the Web or make a call to your favorite catalog store (hey, how about fruitcakes for everyone?!). And, it’s just as easy to assume that no one will ever build a better mousetrap and that there’s nothing new or innovative that you won’t find out about from your current inner circle of suppliers. Well, you know what they say about ASSUME: it makes an ASS out of U and ME.

New and different isn’t always better or cheaper… and bigger, brighter and fancier don’t always lead to quality or value, but how will you know if you sequester yourself in a cocoon of familiarity? So, the next time you see an intriguing advertisement or have an opportunity to attend a conference, don’t limit your horizons by focusing all of your attention on preserving the status quo. Who knows… maybe it’s a sign.

Happy Holidays, y’all,

- Mike

PS Should your travels happen to bring you to the New Orleans area this holiday season or in the new year, send me an email, and I’ll be happy to clue you in on this place – the pizza is truly awesome!

Behind the Byline
Mike Marullo has been active in the automation, controls and instrumentation field for more than 35 years and is a widely published author of numerous technical articles, industry directories and market research reports. An independent consultant since 1984, he is President and Director of Research & Consulting for InfoNetrix LLC, a New Orleans-based market intelligence firm focused on Utility Automation and IT markets. Inquiries or comments about this column may be directed to Mike at MAM@InfoNetrix.com.
©2006 Jaguar Media, Inc. & Michael A. Marullo. All rights reserved.