Commodities vs. Treats

Hugh over at GapingVoid has a great post up today about commoditization of products and how the special becomes less special the more widely available it is:

Rosé tastes a lot better in the South of France than it does in London, no matter how much you’re paying....

People like treats. They are indifferent to commodities, even when the quality in the latter is high. Your downfall begins the minute people no longer have to wait in line in order to get your product, the minute they no longer perceive it as a treat.

It's an interesting point, and one that I think has some validity, but in a world where scarcity of distribution is becoming increasingly ... scarce, that's like saying that music is a commodity because you no longer have to wait in line at midnight for the cd release of your favorite artist.

At the macro level, music, and creative content is certainly purchased as a commodity, but the relationship the customers have with that product is anything but a commodity no matter how many people have a copy of that music.

There's probably a tendency to look at that and say "well, that's a creative product" and they would be right, and that, I think is where a business and a market loses it's "treat" status.

It's difficult to build a large business that has a creative and authentic product. The larger you get, the more people between the founding principles and fundamental reasons you started making your business, and your customer. When your meetings are more about how much you're going to make in the next round of stock splits and less face to face time with the customers who love (or by now, don't love) your product, the less your product or service is a treat.

At the same time, there's a lot of entrepreneurs who build something new just for the sake of doing something new, or for the sake of creating something from nothing. Not necessarily because of a burning passion for the product, but a passion for "seeing if it can be done."

I think those passions, if they are articulated and shared in an accessible way, can be held onto and kept alive within a business for a very long time.