Prestige vs condition: The owner-choosing product
The original article by Morinosuke Kawaguchi appeared on February 17, 2009 in DIME magazine:
“目玉おやじとアトムにみるハイテク機器の進化論“
Our traditional understanding of an electrical gadget is that it meets its functional requirements in order to “serve”, empower and/or gives prestige to its owner. Product cycles are driven by the pattern of newly added functions and status.
But Morinosuke Kawaguchi sees other ways to create prestigious products. He explains this concept with the example of the horse (you may read it as a metaphor for “vehicle”) Kokuogo from the story Fist of the North Star (北斗の拳). This horse is owner-empowering: it is giant, smart and very powerful. However, this horse is far from being a sidekick. It carefully chooses its owner and over the course of the story serves the “evil” as well as the “good” guy. Riding this horse marks a premium achievement. The rider’s goal is thus for this horse to choose him over others.
Kokuogo stands for a product not being a servant at all. It recognizes the present condition of a potential owner and decides if he is eligible. So prestige is not generated by ownership, usually achieved through a certain amount of money proportional to the prestige.
Kawaguchi is already advising top tier Japanese electronics companies on this in order to create a whole new value set in owning and dealing with products. Through creating an air of “distinctiveness” that emanates from the product, the owner will behave in a certain way to become eligible.
There are hints for this kind of product design in e.g. the Japanese money saving boxes by Bandai designed for young girls. Depending on how diligent the girl is in saving money, the “boy” in the money box is either pleasant or chastising the girl up. In the worst case, the boy may even disappear from the money box altogether.
