Change Needs a Champion

Here in California, it’s hard to go out for a drive and not see multiple Toyota Priuses on the road. It’s the car that 92% of owners would buy again and the car that’s collectively saved owners over 200 million gallons of gas to date.¹ Don’t buy into the hype? The numbers speak for themselves. Last year, Toyota sold over 107,000² Priuses in the US alone – and compared to the 116,000³ autos Volvo sold across its entire line, that says a lot. There’s something eerily iPod-esque about the Prius. Like the success patterns of many hit products, the Prius has exhibited a coming-of-age narrative characterized by uncertainty, challenge, and triumph – a story that follows the same basic structure of the superhero adventures I grew up reading and watching.

We frogs frequently debate what it takes to “move the needle” and make a difference in the market. Before we know it, we’re several weeks into a project, our walls covered by a seizure-inducing mix of multi-colored Post-it notes, each scribbled with its own idea. From this apparent chaos emerges the DNA of a product, defined not simply by what it does or how it does it, but by what it stands for. To move the needle, we need to create a product that champions change. We need to create a hero.

If you’ve watched Tim Kring’s "Heroes" on NBC, you’ll know the development of the characters is more interesting than the action sequences. The same applies to business. We love to watch the development of the underdog, the regular rendered spectacular – in both our fictional stories and our real lives. The superhero always encounters resistance, precisely because they are different. So, too, do new business ideas. But overcoming resistance is an American pastime. By creating a hero product – one that stands for more than itself – we give the public something to watch, to believe in, and to cheer for. Beyond acquiring customers, we create a broader audience that is anxious to see what comes next. Metaphorically speaking, we want our products to grow in status from local champion to recognized hero.

The Prius is a Hero While the Competition Faltered

By definition, a hero is an honest figure who possesses admirable qualities or abilities that we don’t have, would like to have, and would like to associate ourselves with. True heroes are made, not born, by prevailing over some flaw in their being, rising up to defend a cause and drive positive change in society. The heroic journey of the Prius is that, even though it is a slow car that is not particularly beautiful, it allows people to express themselves in a way that other cars have not. They can showcase their environmental consciousness – whether they’re actually environmentalists, they simply want to save gas (and money), or because they want to pimp the latest technology. It encourages this self-expression and satisfies consumers’ individual desires, while at the same time serving a greater, moral imperative: championing the green movement. It is this harmony between specific user wants and broader social needs that has led the Prius to success – and this harmony which Toyota’s competitor, Honda, seemingly failed to make the most of.

In hindsight, it could have been Honda with the Prius’ exceptional positioning, particularly given that Honda’s Insight entered the US market a half year earlier than the first release of the Prius in August of 2000. While there were technical differences between the two vehicles that contributed to Toyota’s hybrid leadership, both vehicles were in demand beyond supply.

I blame Honda’s poor performance on the fundamental difference between the two companies’ approaches to the market. Honda used the Insight as a technological proof-of-concept, then failed to support it after gaining recognition. With only two seats and limited cargo space, the Insight was clearly an environmental enthusiast’s toy. It was never designed for the broader market, because it was too impractical for use as a replacement primary vehicle. As if that wasn’t enough of a buzz killer, the technology was ported over to the Civic line of cars three years later, abandoning the Insight altogether.