How To Become An Industry Game Changer

An industry game changer challenges the status quo and then defies it.  A successful industry game changer will create a new market structure – how business is conducted in that industry.  And an industry game changer faces high risk, but realizes that the rewards are HUGE!  Let’s look at how YOU can become an industry game changer.  So first, who’s done this before?  Who has challenged the status quo and won?

Industry game changer examples

Amazon.com

Jeff Bezos became in industry game changer by founding what is now the largest internet-based retailer in the US…Amazon.  He started with an idea to change the status quo in retail.  He decided to sell books online for cheap.  New market structure established!

He strategically named his company after the largest river in the world.  As Jeff Bezos put it, the Amazon is an exotic and different place.  Seth Godin refers to this type of thinking as Edgecrafting in his book Free Prize Inside.

Uber app

Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp challenged the status quo and won back in 2009.  They each became an industry game changer after creating the Uber app.

In the taxi cab market structure, cabs are hailed with a waive or summoned with a phone call.  It usually takes an hour or more for them to arrive, when summoned by calling them.  Then, taxi drivers get paid at the destination.

Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp challenged this entire structure successfully, with Uber.  Using a simple app, you can drive for Uber or get a ride and it’s all handled online.  Drivers arrive quickly since tracking is used to find drivers near by.  Location-tracking, payments, safety, and ratings are all dealt with in this online app.  Simplicity and elegance!

Ford Motor Company

Henry Ford became an industry game changer in 1913 when he revolutionized the manufacturing process.  Before his “assembly line production“, cars were hand-made, one at a time.  He realized the process was too expensive.  That approach only catered to the rich.

How can you create a product cheaply, so the masses can afford it?  Mass production!  Henry Ford challenged the status quo in such a profound way that it became one of the most important concepts in industrial history.  Although it is now largely automated, assembly line production hasn’t changed in concept.  It’s used by almost all companies around the world.

McDonald’s

Founder Ray Krock, an industry game changer in his own right, was quoted “I put the hamburger on the assembly line.”  Like with Henry Ford’s Model-T, Ray Krock produced a consistent, inexpensive hamburger that customers could receive very quickly.  He then replicated his business model nationally, and then globally.  Even today, McDonald’s is the largest global fast food chain.

How can YOU become an industry game changer?

Compete with the status quo

The object here is to compete with the status quo instead of your competition.  When challenge your competition, you must convince your customers to pick you over your them.  Sometimes they buy nothing at all.

Present a new and exciting way to do business in your industry.  Provide convenience or value in the market structure rather than with a special product.  Your competitors will be blind-sided by changes in the status quo.  Their infrastructure is based on it.  Be an industry game changer and make them trip!

Use triggers which can shift a paradigm

Cause an epiphany in your customer.  That is an instant awareness which changes the way they see things.  It changes their perspective.  Instant clarity!  Let’s take a look at some triggers which can help make this happen.

Emotional triggers

Tap into the strongest emotion of your customer and reverse it.  Making them happy isn’t enough.  Their fear of change will prevent them from embracing your concept.

Your target audience has emotional connections to the status quo.  What are they?  Use a focus group and present them with an example of the existing market structure.  Have them go through the motions.  Then, record and evaluate their behaviors and feelings.

Show how revolutionary and evident your idea is.  It should be obvious.  Reveal the happiness or relief they’ll get from it.  This may have a viral effect making you an instant industry game changer!

Logical triggers

Show your customers why plan B is better than plan A.  Demonstrate the advantage of  your new market structure.  With Uber, the product is common.  Pay for a ride from here to there.  There’s an appeal to how Uber is structured.  Uber caused a change in perception with an online market structure which provides convenience.  Now it’s time for you to start thinking like an industry game changer!

Present the differentiation, and then the proof of concept.  Then, include your well crafted positioning statement and tagline.  Check out Effective Marketing Strategies to see detailed insights about how you can create a positioning statement.

Social triggers

Influence makes a difference when becoming an industry game changer.  It affects the opinions, behaviors and emotions of your target audience.  Social influence causes conformity and it persuades.

As an industry game changer, cause your customers to internalize and believe in your concept.  There are many types of social influences you can utilize as an industry game changer.  I’ll present two:

• Minority influence causes the majority to accept a behavior by presenting a proof of concept.  This is where innovation comes from.
• Majority influence is the conformity to the behaviors of others in that majority.

To conclude

Take some time to evaluate what makes up the status quo of your industry.  Then imagine ways to change it.  Simplify it.  Re-invent it.  Come up with a new and exciting way to do business in your industry.  Then utilize the triggers like tools.  Creatively implement them in order to cause a paradigm shift with your target audience.  You too can be an industry game changer!

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How To Become An Industry Game Changer

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