Re:Before Growth
by tim333 on Friday January 15, 2016 @08:27PM
(#10913703)
Slightly off topic but it seems Ford never said if he'd asked customers what they wanted, they'd have said faster horses.
In fact when he started experimenting trying to building cars in 1893 it was eight years after Benz had started producing his Motorwagens in Germany. If he'd asked his customers what they wanted they probably would have said a cheaper and better Benz which is kind of what he produced with the Model T fifteen years later.
The Model T was a great hit, costing about $22k in modern money, much less than his competition. He continued driving the price down and by 1916 it was about $7k in modern money and took 2/3 of the market. However in the 20s General Motors started offering more luxurious cars with deluxe features like a roof and it turned out customers were happy to pay a bit more for that. It wrong footed Ford and their share dropped to 15% by the time they reacted.
So he took the market by building what customers wanted at the time - a reasonably priced car and lost a lot by ignoring what they wanted later - a reasonably priced and comfortable car.
In fact when he started experimenting trying to building cars in 1893 it was eight years after Benz had started producing his Motorwagens in Germany. If he'd asked his customers what they wanted they probably would have said a cheaper and better Benz which is kind of what he produced with the Model T fifteen years later.
The Model T was a great hit, costing about $22k in modern money, much less than his competition. He continued driving the price down and by 1916 it was about $7k in modern money and took 2/3 of the market. However in the 20s General Motors started offering more luxurious cars with deluxe features like a roof and it turned out customers were happy to pay a bit more for that. It wrong footed Ford and their share dropped to 15% by the time they reacted.
So he took the market by building what customers wanted at the time - a reasonably priced car and lost a lot by ignoring what they wanted later - a reasonably priced and comfortable car.
https://hbr.org/2011/08/henry-ford-never-said-the-fast