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Superconsumers

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Member Reviews

Eddie defines Superconsumers as the most passionate customers who can have a significant impact on a company’s bottomline.

He explains why the “heart over minds” principle is the secret to pricing power and super consumers can help identify this.

This knowledge helps companies make better and more cost-effective decisions.

The usefulness of superconsumers in figuring out how to deliver unmet benefits and taking a step further to charge a fair price while exceeding delivery costs.

He further provides 8 major levels for creating a new market category (Benefit, Brand, Experience, Price, Manufacturing, Distribution, Marketing and Profit).

He culls practical examples of brands that have leveraged on their super consumers (American Girl, Keurig and Generac amongst others) and the lessons readers can learn.

He provides an approach (FUEL) to Find, Understand, Engage with and Lean into superconsumers.

I particularly like the seemingly random correlations that he demonstrates using data.

For example, in analysing data, he finds that Generator buyers are more likely to have more life insurance than they need; and those with more life insurance than they need are much more likely to be super consumers of vitamins!

Favourite quote: “Consumers don’t buy products, they hire brands for a job to be done.”

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I am really sorry since I was not sble to downloa the title. Things are getting overwhelming these days since it is the start of the year.

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It is no surprise to any of us to realise that there always exists a certain set of customers or consumers for our products or services who are emotional and vocal about our products and services and hence drive significant amount of business for us.

What this book does is to define these customers and help us find a way to use their passion and creativity for the product category to drive significant growth - in revenues, profitability and innovation.

THis is a must read book if you are in the consumer business and a great book nonetheless to read if you want to find growth in any of your businesses.

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Thanks to Harvard Business Review Press and Netgallery, I got the advanced reader copy of this book. I would like to applaud the prompt revert of HBR Press when my e copy of the book wasnt opening properly and they were swift in providing the fresh version within hours.

If one has attended Business School, he/she will be aware of Pareto Principle which states that about 80% of the sales of a product come from 20% of the consumers. Eddie Yoon’s Superconsumers is based on this concept that that not only there exists a type of consumer “superconsumer” which purchases certain products in bulk but they are deeply in love for the category and maybe a particular brand in that category.

This is a refreshing book laden with numerous case studies which highlight how companies tap into their pool of superconsumers to increase the sales. While the number of case studies mentioned in this book is decent, what I felt was that these studies just touched the tip of the iceberg. Some of the case studies could have been dealt in bit more detail. Maybe that’s why this is a fast paced and short book. Nevertheless the book gives a good introduction to why it is important to recognize superconsumers and how to tap into this segment.

The book was helpful in demonstrating how one can follow the superconsumers to get idea about product improvisation, packing, positioning, etc. One useful piece of insight for me was how these superconsumers can help to understand how your product can be used. While the manufacturer of the product may have thought of a primary usage, these superconsumers help in understanding how consumers can also use the product in a different way. This can help in new positioning which can be a game changing strategy for the company. Not only this, the vitamin example’s insight was useful to me in understanding that if you study people who purchase vitamins could actually be buying them as kind of a health insurance. This could be a big insight for insurance companies who can also target these vitamin consumers to expand their customer base.

After reading the book, i feel that The strategy of Superconsumers should be one of the strategies for the companies and maybe not the whole focus. It would have been great if the case studies didn’t use fake names as I feel people will be able to connect more with what the author is saying. There were times I felt that just to prove a point, the author has made up an example and a fake name.

Overall a good book with useful insights. If you have studied business course, this will give a different perspective of why it is important to pay attention to super consumers. If you are new to business, this will open your mind and may give you a new strategy to work upon.

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Everybody wants growth and profit for their business, especially from loyal and devoted customers who may be your best advocates to give all that free marketing and extra eventual sales in addition to their own, frequent purchases. Superconsumers, in other words, and this book seeks to show how to attract this magical customer group, which can exist for every possible product or service category in every country – even for white socks!

The author says that whilst superconsumers are small in number (maybe 10% of a consumer group) they can generate up to one-third of sales and 70% of profits! Superconsumers are also very vocal about your products and its brand. Getting to know what makes superconsumers enthused and developing ways to transform regular consumers into superconsumers is this book’s aim, and the author mixes research, theory and practical advice to great effect. Maybe he is trying to work his magic on book reviewers too!

It does not and cannot guarantee success. The hard work and developing that great product or service falls to you and your company alone. Yet there is a credible, informative and engaging text to help inspire and motivate you during this quest.

The book is low on hype and high on information, even if some of it seemed hard to believe, such as up to one-third of office-supply consumers can be superconsumers for paperclips, pens and Post-It notes! You can be sure that if this reviewer sold office products, he’d be looking to tap into this market of stationery nerds and obsessives with the latest in shiny products! The author shares anonymous data about previous assignments, showing how marketing and sales modifications led to drastic increases in sales and profitability in different sectors, along with the drop in sales when a client failed to heed the same advice. Inspirational and amazing on many levels.

This can be a book worthy of consideration, before your business rivals discover it! Even if you don’t have a business, it is fascinating an engaging reading nonetheless.

Superconsumers, written by Eddie Yoon and published by Harvard Business Review Press. ISBN 9781633692077. YYYYY

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