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toaster.jpgSeth Godin, comsistenly of the planet’s most interesting voices on marketing, asks who, exactly, would need the new BTB TEM500 (left) It will toast your muffin, poach your egg and heat your ham, simultaneously. Target’s website describes it as a “Back to Basics” product.
“It seems as though we’ve marketed ourselves into a corner,” Godin says, “where the only way to grow is to find increasingly narrow niches of decreasing utility.”
I’ve been wondering what in the world stores will do with this product and the tens of thousands of others that, sadly, have no need to exist. And I wonder why more companies aren’t thinking more about
products that save energy; help people to learn; and offer true utility.
Surely, marketers can do better.