I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Cool Hunting, and saw two posts interestingly juxtaposed. The first was on the new Rolls-Royce Wraith, a car with a $285,000+ price tag and every creature comfort one can imagine. Talk about traveling in style, this car has it all!
The second was on a new bicycle seat, called the MORGAW®, with built-in shock absorbers for the rider’s comfort. I’m not sure what it costs, but it’s nowhere near the price of the Wraith.
While the products are miles apart in price and complexity, they both meet two essential consumer needs – mobility and comfort. While mobility is arguably the greater need (we all need to get somewhere), comfort is the real selling point of the products. This is a consumer need that's being recognized as more and more important by new product developers. It perhaps is correlated to the fact that we are becoming increasingly design-savvy consumers. A quick casual poll of BuzzBack staffers reveals a tendency toward comfort-centricity when asked to name favorite products - OXO gadgets, Bose Noise Cancelling headphones, My Pillow... How far we've evolved from our cave dwelling ancestors when products that increased your survival likelihood, rather than comfort level would probably have topped the list.