Juan VillalobosBy Juan Villalobos ||
As Avaya’s Marketing Manager for the Caribbean and Bermuda, I travel every week to visit our partners and customers. And in every airport, the same scene takes place. At the luggage area, passengers try to identify their suitcase among the dozens of black and grey suitcases that look exactly the same. After all, who hasn’t accidentally taken the wrong bag, or failed to find theirs because somebody else took it by mistake?
Every now and then I see a suitcase of a very bright color, easily recognized by its owner, who, tired of searching among black bags, decided to invest in a new one. But many times I also see the typical black suitcase with something that sets it apart, such as a sticker or a red bow, turning it unique to its owner. In both cases, the passenger quickly finds his or her bag and is out in a matter of minutes, avoiding the long lines that form once everybody is leaving.
Differentiation is vital to any company, but taking advantage of existing situations in order to create that differentiation it the simplest way of generating quick adoption.
In Avaya we focus on the needs of our customers and this defines the technologies we develop. Our goal is to be different, but at the same time, to keep in mind the business reality of companies.
We recently announced the availability of Avaya Flare Communicator for iPad. Originally, Avaya designed Avaya Flare, a tablet for communication and mobile business collaboration that integrated audio and video. The product received industry awards for its functionality and innovation. It stood out, like the suitcase in the bright colors. But iPad is the preferred tablet by business executives and according to Frost & Sullivan, it will reach 17 million business users in 2012. So we understood that the best approach was to provide our clients with the Avaya Flare Communicator experience on their iPad. Now we give them two options: a new brightly colored suitcase, or their black suitcase with a distinctive element that makes it different.
On my next trip to the Caribbean, for our Avaya Evolution Jamaica on March 1st http://bit.ly/EvoJama, I know I won’t have an issue identifying my own suitcase.
By: Juan Villalobos (@juanvillalobosj) Marketing Manager Caribbean & Bermuda | Avaya
