Muscle Cars, Electric Cars and Customer Solutions
Jeremy Clarkson, legendary Top Gear Presenter, said about electric cars “They are just white goods, they're washing machines, they're microwave ovens. You can't review those, you can't enjoy them.”
He said on a previous episode that his favorite car wasn’t perfect, that it was perfect in it’s imperfections. Beautiful but flawed.
It reminded me of Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting after talking about his wife waking herself up farting in bed, “This girl you met, she isn't perfect either. But the question is: whether or not you're perfect for each other.”
Jeremy loved the car almost like people love each other. Why would anyone drive an Alfa Romeo unless they were in love?
As a digital enablement person, I hear something else in Jeremy’s thoughts.
When we are solving problems in digital, we pull back to a 3 step method
Who’s my customer?
What’s their problem I’m trying to solve?
What’s an exciting solution?
So, back to Jeremy and electric cars, what I hear is a misalignment between customer, their problem and the solution.
Jeremy was born in 1960 and came of age during the muscle car era. Jeremy turned 8 years old in the year Steve McQueen drove a thundering 1968 Ford Mustang GT in Bullitt.
The customer for muscle cars was younger people.
The problem was that older cars were expensive and heavy and they reflected the parents as a younger generation tried to rebel against the post-war era.
Muscle cars were the solution as they moved the more powerful engines to a lighter body style with sleek styling at a more affordable price point. They represented rebellion and youth.
The death of the muscle car was related to many of the reasons that the electric car has been growing.
Muscle cars were emissions heavy, dangerous, gas guzzlers. The Clean Air Act of the 1970, the oil crisis of 1973 and insurance prices on these vehicles all contributed to them falling out of fashion.
Electric cars are a solution for a different customer and problem.
Customers for electric cars are older and more affluent.
The problem is how to make cars more environmentally efficient.
The solution is the electric car which is being optimized for more long drive efficiency with their batteries.
Electric cars are efficient and functional. Muscle cars are noise and speed. (My dad loves telling a story about someone spinning their wheels so hard when he was in high school that a wheel fell off. That was muscle cars).
Misalignment between customer and problem will end up with solutions that aren’t accepted.
To summarize:
Muscle Car
Customer: Young
Problem: Wants to Have Fun and Look Cool
Solution: Loud Vrooms
Electric Car
Customer: Middle Age
Problem: Wants to be socially responsible
Solution: Whatever sound electric cars make
So, in short, it’s no wonder that Jeremy Clarkson, who fell in love with the muscle car as a child, doesn’t like electric vehicles.
Even though he’s an old man, he still loves the idea of having fun and looking cool. The solution to his problem is still loud vrooms.
There’s nothing wrong with electric cars, they’re just not made for him.
This Customer/Problem/Solution way of thinking through a problem is simple, yet effective.