Novelty Vs. Familiarity

Why do people like new yet familiar products?

Derek Thompson noted that “people like new things if it is just like old things”. His talk is refreshing — people look for signs of familiarity while trying to adapt to new changes. He gave many examples to support his point. For example, if you are trawling the Savanna of Africa, you see a plant or animal that you recognise, then it is a good sign that the plant and animal have not killed you yet”.

Furthermore, Derek substantiated his point by referencing the work of Raymond Loewy. Derek stressed that companies should develop products with MAYA (Most Advanced Yet Acceptable) in mind.

The idea of MAYA is to make the products/services you are selling to be familiar but also surprising to buyers. Put another way, make the products/services surprising yet familiar. But how? Derek didn’t cover this in his talk but perhaps reading Derek’s book Hit Makers: How Things Become Popular might tell us more?

In essence, I learned that the keywords to entice buyers for my products/services aren’t the words “buy”, “now”, “risk free”, or “warranty”. The keyword is “new”. But it must be balanced between new and familiarity resulting in the outcome of MAYA (Most Advanced Yet Acceptable)— selling the new yet familiar is what people can accept.

P.S. I can relate to Derek’s talk. His talk is kind of similar to the idea of Don’t Make Me Think for UI design. In additional, I can think of similar marketing terms that appeal e.g. “incremental innovations”.