By most accounts, the “killer app” was born in 1979. Two software engineers, inspired by a classroom session one of them had attended at Harvard Business School, began assembling a small computer program that could visually represent a large number of interdependent calculations in a simple set of tables and columns. That program, which they called Visicalc, was the first electronic spreadsheet.
Visicalc did more than offer consumers an easier method to do their taxes at home. It gave them a reason to invest in the purchase of a home computer. When Visicalc landed, it put the recently released Apple II on the map in a way that few products had done before or accomplished since. Only when commercialized email arrived in the 1990s did a single application inspire more people to buy a computer.
Tech marketers still point to Visicalc as the gold standard for killer apps. A killer app is the Model T. The incandescent light bulb. The atomic bomb. It’s the single innovation that powerfully opens the floodgates for entire industries and ways of life. And today, it’s still the Holy Grail for many people.
But the age of the killer app is fading away. And if you’re busy trying to figure out how to market for the next wave of innovation, you need a different way of thinking about technology marketing.
I read a tongue-in-cheek article a number of years ago, pointing into the not-too-distant future and proclaiming the eventual death of the killer app. Soon, the author argued, waves of technical innovation would no longer be driven by the single big, end-all-be-all product fated to usher in a revolution. Instead, the science of the small would reign. As global communication became more powerful, comprehensive and complex, specialization and personalization would be the key to everything.
The age of the killer app, he predicted, would give way to the age of the killer doodad.
In contrast to its over-engineered, broadly scoped Killer App cousin, the killer doodad would instead focus on a single, very specific task and do it exceptionally well. The killer doodad would embrace simplicity. Rather than attempting to solve all problems for all people, it would instead be primarily designed to accomplish tasks in cooperation with other killer doodads. It would distribute innovation rather than centralize it, and in the process would transform social paradigms rather than merely inspire new spending patterns. Rather than be the focus of attention, it would be nearly invisible – and yet, utterly invaluable and indispensible. As such, it would sell itself.
It’s not hard now to see that the age of the killer doodad has arrived. In the healthcare industry, just to cite one example, communication technology is rapidly evolving to fill every imaginable niche and need, each focused on a single goal: to provide a single highly effective tool to empower a doctor or nurse to accomplish a single very specific task. Nurses today carry ruggedized, waterproof wireless digital devices that give them instant access to patient alerts and records. Doctors, meanwhile, are using mobile tablets and next generation wireless networks to engage in collaborative patient care on a scale unimaginable ten years ago. High definition video teleconferencing systems are now – cost-effectively – allowing medical professionals to extend quality care into remote and rural areas that lack nearby access to state-of-the-art facilities. Not one of these innovations has single-handedly transformed healthcare as we know it. There is no single revolutionary killer app among them.
Together, taken as a whole, they’re changing everything about how medical care is provided today.
As technology companies continue to move away from “killer app” thinking and towards the differentiated world of specialized, pinpoint solutions, we marketers who cater to technology manufacturers likewise have to shift our tactics. Marketing the killer app is all about promotion, even exaggeration. It’s aspirational. And often, it overpromises.
As popular as Visicalc was, it still lacked many features that users demanded, and that are considered standard with any spreadsheet today. For a more recent example, take a good look at the reception greeting Apple’s Siri application for the iPhone – already now the subject of criticism stating that its “beta” functionality fails to live up to the standards promised in Apple’s TV ads. Marketing the killer app is tricky, and can often be risky. And rarely does it lead to a strong second act. In real life, it’s hard to live up to the promise of catharsis.
So in contrast, how should the “killer doodad” marketer approach the job?
- Clarify the problem rather than trying to solve it. As the old joke goes: if you only have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Stop hammering wood screws and calling them nails. Instead, place your communication focus on clarifying and illuminating the problem at hand, and then demonstrate the value that your tool offers in ultimately solving it. Let your customer arrive at the solution naturally, and find their own motivation for picking up the tool and getting to work. Just make sure they have all the facts, clear and straight. Facilitate, don’t dominate.
- Simplify the message as much as possible, but no more than that. Don’t flood your customer with bullet points, facts, positions, considerations, questions and statistics. Instead, identify the one most pertinent point and drive that one point home hard, while keeping the rest of your ammunition on hand for when the prospect approaches you for more details. Cut the jargon, streamline your use of language and go right after the emotional and motivational core of the issue. The primary value of your killer doodad is its simplicity and effectiveness. Don’t ruin that with an overcomplicated message.
- Don’t overvalue the Call To Action (CTA). This is where I commit traditional marketing heresy. In classic sales jargon, a CTA is the final pitch in the bottom of the ninth that settles the game. It’s the last promise, the command given to the prospect to go forth and buy that great product today, right now, don’t wait. And while it is important to give the prospect a clear signal regarding the next logical step in their problem-solving process, that is all that a good CTA should strive for: to be a clear sign, pointing forward to a positive outcome. Don’t place undue emphasis on the last pitch, when you should have been avoiding a tie in the ninth all along.
And finally..
Build great tools. The smoothest, slickest, most powerful advertising is never going to be able to compensate for a lousy product. That’s the problem with killer apps – they lend themselves to high expectations, and often can’t live up to them. The well-designed killer doodad, on the other hand, often speaks for itself. Effective communication is woven directly into the design.
When you bring a great product to the table, you also make our job much easier. And a lot more fun.
Is your company creating killer doodads, or holding out for the killer app? From the many, come the great sea changes of 21st century technological innovation – and from the elegant simplicity of specialized, niche tools, entire industries are being transformed today. However, only with the right type of communication can those products take root in today’s business minds.
How are you marketing in the age of the killer doodad?
