Customers at a local supermarket October 19 2007: Consumers, if left alone, can tend to be conservative. They will continue purchasing available products and services in the same format for years on end without complaining or asking for improvement. It can be said that consumers do not know what they want until you show it to them. A few years ago if you had stopped a person at random on the street and asked them what an IPO was, they would have given you a blank look.

Today, the same experiment would not only receive a response, but might lead to a discussion on the pros and cons of investing in an IPO. One would think that your average Kenyan has been trading in stocks for decades. Herein lies a strategy to take over market leadership in categories where a strong market leader has dominated for years. Consumers in such a market tend to be content with what they have as it has never failed them and is delivering the satisfaction they require.

Competitors who try to take on the market leader by introducing a similar offering find it difficult to convince consumers, because the consumers have no real need to move. It is this type of competitor who sees the consumers to be conservative, while in actual fact they simply have not been exposed to new thinking. As opposed to producing a me-too product and expecting consumers to shift, one should try to evolve the consumers mindset, thereby changing their expectations.

When Apple introduced the iPod they changed consumers expectations of what a portable music device was supposed to be. The Sony Walkman and Discman, though immensely popular in their days, suddenly looked outdated. The consumer had evolved overnight. In a bid to recover their lost glory Sony recently announced that they are soon to release a new generation Walkman.