This week’s selection is “Hit Makers: How to Succeed in an Age of Distraction” by Derek Thompson.
Being creative is one thing, but being successful with one’s creations is another. What might seem to be a wonderful thing for you may not be for others. Or worse, maybe you’re the only person that resonates with the creation.
As we all work with 3D printing, we are frequently faced with creative situations. Many 3D printer operators wish to produce commercial items with their 3D printers, but are not sure where to start.
Some may simply acquire free 3D models to print and sell, but more sophisticated operators will design their own 3D models for profit.
But will they profit? That all depends on the profitability of the item, and that’s a very elusive property.
It’s not as simple as believing the buyers will appear because the product has “all the required features”. While that may attract a few buyers, the real money occurs when a product becomes truly popular.
That’s what this book is about: how to make an idea, creation or product popular. While today is the best point in history to create products given the breadth of creation tools and worldwide connectivity, that has also made the landscape extremely competitive. There are so many possible things to see, do and use that most people are constantly overwhelmed.
Thompson proposes ways to overcome some of those barriers through ingenious design, and you’ll quickly notice they are not technical. A product that does what it’s supposed to do is the ante to get into the game. True popularity comes with other, more social aspects. Products must resonate with the customer.
While focused on pop culture, many of the same concepts could be applied to the creation of products. Thompson first focuses on how popularity works in the mind of individuals, and then how popularity works within the market as a whole. This is done by exploring a large number of example scenarios that have really occurred in recent years.
If you’re looking for your product or service to gain an edge, this could be a good book to learn some new tricks.
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Via Amazon
