The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can - By Gladwell, Malcolm Page 0,102

strategies for finding Mavens — Maven traps. Consider the experience of Lexus. In 1990, just after Lexus first introduced its line of luxury cars in the United States, the company realized that it had two minor problems with its LS400 line that required a recall. The situation was, by any measure, an awkward one. Lexus had decided, from the beginning, to build its reputation around quality workmanship and reliability. And now, within little more than a year of the brand’s launch, the company was being forced to admit to problems with its flagship. So Lexus decided to make a special effort. Most recalls are handled by making an announcement to the press and mailing a notification letter to owners. Lexus, instead, called each owner individually on the telephone the day the recall was announced. When the owners picked up their cars at the dealership after the work was completed, each car had been washed and the tank filled with gas. If an owner lived more than a hundred miles from a dealership, the dealer sent a mechanic to his or her home. In one instance, a technician flew from Los Angeles to Anchorage to make the necessary repairs.

Was it necessary to go to such lengths? You could argue that Lexus overreacted. The problems with the car were relatively minor. And the number of cars involved in the recall — so soon after Lexus had entered the marketplace — was small. Lexus would seem to have had many opportunities to correct the damage. The key fact, though, was not the number of people affected by the recall but the kind of people affected by the recall. Who, after all, are the people willing to take a chance and buy a brand new luxury model? Car Mavens. There may have been only a few thousand Lexus owners at that point, but they were car experts, people who take cars seriously, people who talk about cars, people whose friends ask them for advice about cars. Lexus realized that it had a captive audience of Mavens and that if they went the extra mile they could kick start a word of mouth epidemic about the quality of their customer service — and that’s just what happened. The company emerged from what could have been a disaster with a reputation for customer service that continues to this day. One automotive publication later called it “the perfect recall.”

This is the perfect Maven trap — using the recognition that sometimes a specific time or place or situation happens to bring together a perfect Maven audience. Here’s another example, one that a reader of The Tipping Point, Bill Hartigan, told me about in an e-mail. Hartigan was working for ITT Financial Services in the early 1970s, right at the moment when the entire industry was first being allowed to market the then unknown IRA (Individual Retirement Account). It was a market ITT ended up dominating. Why? Because they were the first to find a group of Mavens. As Hartigan writes:

The concept of giving your money to an institution until you were at least 59½ years old then seemed strange, and scary. But one interesting thing about those IRAs. Even until the mid 70s, tax ‘breaks’ were only for the wealthy. This was the exception. Knowing that was our key to success.

Target the wealthy? Nope. There are never many of them, they are too hard to see, and the benefits of IRAs probably would be of muted appeal. One potential target group stood out like a sore thumb, though. Teachers.

At the time (and to this day, unfortunately) this vital group of professionals was overworked and severely underpaid. No one ever sought the advice of a teacher when the topic was tax breaks and investing. But IRAs allowed teachers many similar benefits that heretofore had only been for the wealthy. It benefited them today and tomorrow.

As the great sportswriter Red Smith once wrote, “Fighters fight.”

And teachers? They teach.

They quickly caught on to the benefits of what IRAs had to offer them. Just as quickly, human nature took over. For the first time ever, they were able to talk to Johnny’s parents about how they handled their money.

Talk about grooming an entire market. Still the most brilliant marketing strategy that I have ever been involved with.

Is there a way of finding the Mavens in every market? I don’t know, although I am quite sure that there are readers who will use The Tipping Point as the inspiration to come up with