The Birth of the Sony Walkman

One of the most successful product launches in history required thinking from many different disciplines

The visionary CEO said, “Make a device that’s small enough to fit in my pocket, but which will allow me to play a full-length opera.”

The engineers, who were the best in the world, not only built this device (the Sony Walkman), but also managed to give it the ability to record.

But, wondered the economics guys, will it increase the cost of the device, and is the increase worth it? They did the analysis and found that the ability to record increased the cost by just a few pounds, and the cost seemed justified.

But, the CEO, Akio Morita, asked them to remove the record button.

This defies all engineering and economic logic. But the psychology-logic turns out to be more important. Morita felt that the ability to record will confuse customers. Should I use it for dictation? Should I record my LPs into cassettes? McDonald’s removed spoons and forks from their restaurants to make sure customers knew how to eat a hamburger, and in the same way by reducing functionality, the Walkman made its intended use clear. You can use it for fewer things, but that increases the chances of customer behavior change.

Source: @david_perrell on Twitter
Liked this story? The book Alchemy by Rory Sutherland has many more such fascinating stories.

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