My first job out of college was designing speakers for the major car makers. I designed the speakers in the ’94 Ford Probe, the ’95 Acura Vigor, the ’95 Jeep Cherokee and the ’96 Civic. Our factory in NC churned out 70,000 low-cost car speakers every day.
One of my friends, who knew how much I loved $10,000 stereo systems, asked how I felt about designing a speaker that had to cost $3.78 and the price of every part was calculated to 1/100th of a penny.
“I love it. Anybody can make a $10,000 system sound awesome when they have megabucks and state-of-the-art components. It takes a genius to make a factory-installed car stereo sound great when the total budget for 4 speakers is 15 bucks.”
I really did love it. What I loved most was ‘re-defining the question.’ My design for the ’96 Honda Civic used 3 speakers instead of four: 2 4 inchers in the front + a beefy 2-channel 6×9 in the back instead of two smaller, thinner sounding speakers. It came in at $14.00, a full dollar of cost savings. It sounded excellent.
The guy at Honda rejected it because he thought 3 speakers was inferior to 4. I told him to market it as a superior system with a subwoofer. (And that’s exactly what it was.) He didn’t listen to me because I was an “engineer” not a “marketer.”
Even though it never saw the light of day, I’m still proud of that design. It had rich bass and great clarity because of the smaller front speakers. My fellow engineers at the office thought it sounded great. It had a USP.
The #1 thing that separates the men from the boys in anything is being able to make something BIG happen with limited resources. In online marketing it’s “Make ONE dollar.”
I have the same belief about spending your Google clicks as Chrysler has about Jeep Cherokee components. SHAVE PENNIES and INNOVATE.
If you love the challenge and creativity of innovating for less, then you’ll love our Bobsled Run. We take those initial pennies and clicks and turn them into traffic that pays. Once you “make ONE dollar”, you’re amazed at how fast it all scales up:
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About the Author
Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.
He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.