This is a compilation and expansion of several earlier posts. I’m laying this out for consumer electronics specifically, but people have suggested this model works for any consumer products. I haven’t thought it through for other categories (like cars, clothes, etc.) but if you think it works elsewhere, I am happy.

Consumers perceive your technology products in one of three categories:

1. A Commodity: Most products fall into this category.
2. A Special Product: These are rare exceptions — devices that rise above the crowd and separate themselves from the pack.
3. Singular Products: Today, only Apple products are Singular. The iPhone. The iPad. The iPod. But competition is coming.

Here is how it looks visually:

Some assumptions:

• Most technology on the mainstream market today is functionally excellent. It must be to make it there.
• These categories have nothing to do with how good your product is.
• Rather, they’re an organization of consumers’ perceptions of how good your product is.
• Consumers’ perceptions are influenced by the effectiveness of your marketing.
• Therefore, your products’ perception category (PC), is a reflection of how good (or bad) your marketing is.

Let’s break down the three categories:

Commodities

Most products, nine in ten I’d argue, fall here. Unfortunately, most technology on the consumer market is perceived as similar to the competition. So, this category includes most HDTVs, most cameras, most wireless phones, etc. These are not bad devices, but they’re not perceived to be special either. Manufacturers can certainly generate good sales and profits with these devices. Just look at Samsung, or Panasonic, or, lately, Sony. Most of their products fall here.

Commodities on the mainstream market really only have one factor on which to compete: price. That’s it. If these devices are priced equal to or higher than the competition, they will likely not sell particularly well. If you’re perceived to be like everybody else, a commodity, price is the only thing that matters. It’s a terrible place to be, but it’s why nearly all consumer electronics are perceived to be commodities. And why nearly all of you reading this must compete on price.

Special Products

About nine percent of all consumer electronics are perceived as Special by consumers.

These devices have broken away from the pack. They are known by name to consumers. They’ve heard about these products on the news — broadcast news not blogs or message boards — or from their friends, or from colleagues. Special products have features consumers know about. Special products have attained a level of trust from consumers that commodities don’t enjoy. Consumers aspire to use the products in this category. They’re intrigued by these devices and make efforts to attain them.

For example, the Blackberry smart phone falls into the Special category. It’s known by name, most people know what a Blackberry is and does. Most people know the Blackberry is dependable, if not super sexy. People trust the Blackberry. They know it’ll hold up to the wear and tear of hard work and travel use. Further, there are many alternatives that Blackberry users can turn to, but they do not. The Blackberry has not let them down. The Blackberry is Special.

Nokia smart phones, on the other hand, are not in the Special category. They are commodities. Most consumers couldn’t name a Nokia smart phone. Most people don’t know what Symbian is, or what it does.

The Nintendo Wii: a Special product. People know it. People know people who love it. Consumers know exactly what it does. They know it’s easy to use. They’ve seen TV segments about nursing home residents holding bowling tournaments on the Wii. You won’t hear from anybody who owns a Nintendo Wii that doesn’t speak positively about it.

The Xbox 360, on the other hand, is a Commodity. People may have heard of it, but they know a lot more about the Nintendo Wii than they do about the Xbox 360. Most mainstream consumers couldn’t tell you one thing that makes the Xbox special, but they can immediately tell you what’s special about the Wii.

Singular Products

Only one percent of consumer electronics products are perceived as Singular.

Singular products are cultural phenomenons. They prevail in social conversation, and are constantly in the mainstream media. Singular products have evangelists, or consumers whose intense loyalty for the device — and the company making it — borders on religious. Evangelists will tell anyone who will listen how wonderful this product is. Special products, which I detailed yesterday, are known by name and features, but do not enjoy evangelist consumers.

Because only one company in electronics currently has evangelists — Apple — I can only think of three products that fall into the Singular category:

1. The iPhone
2. The iPod
3. The Mac (desktop and notebook)

The iPad, a few weeks into its life, is also in the Singular category.

Singular products define not only a category, but a time period. Years from now, in technology terms, our time will be recalled as the iPhone era.

Strive for Singular status. Define your era.

The Relationship between Consumer Evangelists and Singular Products

A lot of people reading this know me for my process for creating consumer electronics evangelists. The step-by-step system is detailed here. And this is the visual.

Here is what that technology marketing process looks like superimposed with the Consumer Perception Categories detailed in this post:

This is how the three categories align with the steps you need to take to create evangelists.

So, companies that have good products, pricing and distribution — all of which are challenging to attain — they are perceived to have Commodities. It’s hard work to attain even Commodity status!

But manufacturers who have excellent language, messaging, and communication platforms can attain Special Product status.

And, finally, only companies that have Consumer Evangelists have Singular Products. It’s not the other way around: Singular Products do not create Evangelists. Evangelists can only be created by attaining the steps in the model above, from left to right, in order. And only after Evangelists are attained can your products begin to be perceived as Singular by consumers.