One of the most famous races in history doesn’t include any runners. No bicycles or boats, not even a barouche. Oh, and it almost ended the world.
I’m talking, of course, about the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union that started in 1947 and resulted with them pointing around 40 000 nuclear missiles at each other by the 70’s.
40 000 nuclear missiles?!
That’s A LOT. How many do you need to obliterate a continent – 10? 100? 1000? Surely 1000 would do it?
Why did they need 20 000 each?
Because once anyone starts, everyone else has to play the game too or face obliteration.
An arms race is when countries improve their military to gain political superiority over one another. Something similar happens in business.
Customers have finite resources. If they’re eating pizza at Donatello’s tonight, then they’re also not eating sushi at Akiko.
If one car manufacturer improves quality to gain a market advantage, other car manufacturers must follow suit.
And just like improvements in product quality and service levels sparked an arms race in business, so too will experiences.
If Donatello’s steals customers from Akiko with a quiz night, then Akiko needs to respond with, say, a sake and sushi pairing experience.
Regardless of your industry, once your competitors starts layering experience into the customer journey, you only have two choices:
- create great experiences yourself, or
- become a commodity fighting for customers who just want the cheapest one.
It won’t be instant, but it will be inevitable, so perhaps it’s something to start thinking about.