Moonshot

Moonshot! describes why now is the best time ever to build a business and how you can harness technology to create an experience customers will love by seeing the possibilities of the future before others do.

Here’s how I bought my last TV (which was six years ago, btw, I don’t own one any more): I went into the local electronics store, looked at a few models live and how much I liked the color, design, etc. After I found one that I liked, I took out my smartphone and googled the model name. I saw a price range on a comparison site, looked at the tag of the TV in the store, and instantly realized that there was a difference of at least 10%. I went home, browsed around some more and ordered it online for 25% less than it cost in the store.

Whether you like it or not, that’s just how consumption works today. Nobody in their right mind wouldn’t use this power of all the product information, pricing ranges and online reviews they could ever need, especially when all you have to do is to reach into your pocket.

We go, we look, we compare, we browse…and we buy where it’s cheapest (usually Amazon).

Even back in the 60s, David Ogilvy said “the consumer isn’t a moron,” and it’s just gotten truer since then.

For example, if you sell swimming goggles, telling every customer, who enters your store, that you sell “the cheapest goggles around” is useless – they can verify (or falsify) that information within seconds.

However, if you use the same data to your advantage, for example by finding your customer’s Facebook likes and sending them an ad for a coupon for a specific pair of goggles they’ve showed interest in, then you respect their power and preferences, which changes everything.

Another mega-trend that changes consumer behavior in a big way is the sharing economy. Especially people from the millennial generation (like me), care a lot more about having the lifestyle certain products allow than actually owning them. For example, being able to go from A to B quickly and independently used to mean you have to own a car. Now you can use public transport or a car-sharing service like Uber in a lot of places and have the exact same benefits, without the hassles that come with owning a car, like insurance, maintenance, parking, etc. This trend is happening because of two things: Millennials know that they’re the first generation that’ll likely have worse job prospects than their parents. Young people are overwhelmed by the consumption culture and less prone to it. On the other hand, middle class consumption is on the…