Transterrestrial Musings  


Amazon Honor System Click Here to Pay

Space
Alan Boyle (MSNBC)
Space Politics (Jeff Foust)
Space Transport News (Clark Lindsey)
NASA Watch
NASA Space Flight
Hobby Space
A Voyage To Arcturus (Jay Manifold)
Dispatches From The Final Frontier (Michael Belfiore)
Personal Spaceflight (Jeff Foust)
Mars Blog
The Flame Trench (Florida Today)
Space Cynic
Rocket Forge (Michael Mealing)
COTS Watch (Michael Mealing)
Curmudgeon's Corner (Mark Whittington)
Selenian Boondocks
Tales of the Heliosphere
Out Of The Cradle
Space For Commerce (Brian Dunbar)
True Anomaly
Kevin Parkin
The Speculist (Phil Bowermaster)
Spacecraft (Chris Hall)
Space Pragmatism (Dan Schrimpsher)
Eternal Golden Braid (Fred Kiesche)
Carried Away (Dan Schmelzer)
Laughing Wolf (C. Blake Powers)
Chair Force Engineer (Air Force Procurement)
Spacearium
Saturn Follies
JesusPhreaks (Scott Bell)
Journoblogs
The Ombudsgod
Cut On The Bias (Susanna Cornett)
Joanne Jacobs


Site designed by


Powered by
Movable Type
Biting Commentary about Infinity, and Beyond!

« First Book Review Of "New Moon Rising" | Main | History »

Reflections on Mike Mealling's RTTM summary

Over at RocketForge Mike Mealling has his RTTM trip report up. One line stands out, regarding changing perceptions: "What does work is creating value for a customer from their point of view and then slowly educating them through direct interaction with the product over time. But it requires the customer to have already made a decision to buy."

This is an excellent point. Only after the purchase decision is made (which may be in a metaphorical sense) can you expect the customer to be sufficiently engaged to stick with a line of argument that may fly directly in the face of things they "know" to be true. As always, it's not what people know that's an obstacle to understanding, it's what they know that ain't so. Once you have buy in (either literally or in the sense of getting seriously interested) there is a possibility of getting people to change their view. It's not just physical products that have this dynamic, it's ideas too. In fact, I'd argue that in the case of a physical product it's the idea associated with the product that's important, not the product itself.

Unfortunately people tend to be very committed to their beliefs, usually without regard to how well supported they are. Everyone likes to be told stuff they already believe to be true. It takes active effort and a commitment to truth before comfort to actively seek out opposing ideas and to take them seriously. Unfortunately very few people choose that path.

Applications to RLV development, politics and anything else is left as an exercise for the reader. Bonus points for figuring out how to get the initial buy in to RLV development needed to start the process of changing perceptions. Hint: begins with "Sub," ends with "Orbital" :-)

Posted by Andrew Case at July 19, 2004 12:08 PM
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.transterrestrial.com/mt-diagnostics.cgi/2687

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference this post from Transterrestrial Musings.
Comments

> In fact, I'd argue that in the case of a physical
> product it's the idea associated with the product
> that's important, not the product itself.

Very much so. But its not just the "idea", but the "experience" of the entire purchase. Starbucks doesn't sell coffee. Anyone can do that. Starbucks is a reliable and complete experience regardless of what you buy.

You also have to through Maslow's Pyramid of Needs in here in order to understand how people segment thoughts around space.

Posted by Michael Mealling at July 19, 2004 12:41 PM


Post a comment
Name:


Email Address:


URL:


Comments: