In actual combat, product operators often face the problems of high unit price and low frequency. The basic products of the old products have been in operation for many years, and it is urgent to find new growth points; The original product line is complicated and bloated, and there is room for disassembly, sales and operation. The author first introduces the definition of complementary products, and then expects to give some inspiration to product operators through seven cases of complementary products. Definition of complementary products Complementary products refer to goods that are consumed together in a certain proportion. For example, glasses and glasses, substitutes and supplements are a pair of relative concepts, so how do substitutes and supplements affect the price and demand each other? Let's look at the following two demand curves: Suppose the price and demand of Xiaomi mobile phone are shown in Figure D 1. If the price of Huawei mobile phone drops sharply, many users will think that since they are all domestic mobile phones, replacing Xiaomi mobile phone with Huawei mobile phone can greatly reduce the purchase cost. Why not? Therefore, even if the price of Xiaomi mobile phone remains unchanged, the demand will drop. This causes the curve D 1 to move to D2 in parallel. Assume that the price and demand of air purifier filter element are shown in D 1. If the retailer promotes the air purifier host through price reduction, some users who originally did not intend to buy the air purifier host will buy the air purifier host with a bargain-hunting mentality. In this way, users who buy the air purifier host are likely to buy some air purifier filters by the way. Therefore, even if the filter element of the air purifier has not changed, the price reduction of the main engine of the air purifier still increases the sales volume of the filter element of the air purifier, resulting in a parallel shift of the demand curve from D 1 to D2. In terms of product strategy, the so-called complementary effect is to improve users' views on the theme-based products, and the expected effect can often be achieved by promoting the theme-based products. Then product operators must understand the corresponding relationship between basic products and supplementary products. Carefully identify supplementary products that are important to the basic product. The essence of product strategy relationship between basic products and supplementary products depends largely on users' views and consumers' cognition. Generally speaking, basic products and supplementary products are interrelated. It is often a glory and a loss. They influence each other and jointly determine the market image of this product portfolio and the overall cognition of users. The complementary effect will change with the change of market demand, and will produce different synergistic effects in different industrial cycles and different industrial structures. See the following successful cases of complementary effects. Case 1: Splitting Strategy of Razor and Blade 100 Years ago, the founder of Gillette Company, Kim Gillette, found that if a set of products consisting of a tool holder and multiple blades were sold in the traditional way, the overall price was too high for customers to bear, which led to poor sales. So Kim Gillette tried to sell this suit separately. Moreover, the elegant and durable Gillette tool holder is priced at a very low price. Moreover, the price of 55 cents is much lower than the cost of Gillette's tool rest of 2.5 dollars, but the initial investment in purchasing the tool rest is relatively low. Then users will be more and more widely accepted. Therefore, the number of users of Gillette razors has increased significantly, and we can all respond immediately to the user who uses Gillette razors, and he must constantly change Gillette blades. Then Geely can raise the price of Gillette blades and sell them at a cost of only 65,438+0 cents to 5 cents. Then the continuous income from the blade not only makes up for the loss of the initial sales of the tool holder, but also obviously improves the overall profit. In fact, more importantly, this pricing strategy of splitting the product matrix has helped Gillette monopolize the razor market for a long time. After Gillette shaver, this pricing model of Gillette shaver was later studied and applied by many companies. We found that this product portfolio can be divided into a basic product and a supplementary product. Moreover, this supplementary product is consumables and the time for subsequent continuous service. Whether it is printers and ink cartridges, optical cameras and films, game machines and corresponding game software, elevator and elevator maintenance services, software and software upgrade services, water purifiers and water treatment services. Many products have been successful under this pricing model. This pricing model, also known as the "razor and blade strategy" in the market, sells the basic products at the cost price, or even at a price far below the cost, in order to urge users to buy more supplementary products with higher profits in the future. Once the basic product drives the supplementary product, that is to say, a single razor drives the blade, the profit will roll in, and the blade can become the main profit source of the company. The key is that the blade not only needs to be reused, but also is difficult to be replaced by other companies' products because of patent problems. Case 2: green mountain coffee Company, a coffee company that sells capsules, is a company that develops razor and blade strategies. Green mountain coffee company was established in the United States 198 1. 1993 is listed on Nasdaq. If Starbucks sells feelings. Green Mountain sells cups. The founder of green mountain coffee has a famous saying: Why make a pot of coffee at a time? I only drink one glass at a time. This idea prompted them to invent an important product: K-cup capsule K-cup, which only makes one cup of coffee at a time. The so-called k cup is also called coffee capsule. Is a unique patent in green mountain coffee. A container that looks like a paper cup has a smaller paper cup-shaped osmotic device inside, which can only permeate liquid. It can greatly retain the aroma of coffee and is favored by people. To match this K-cup capsule, green mountain coffee Company developed a special Kriging coffee machine. Put K capsules into this coffee machine, and a cup of fragrant coffee will appear in front of you in one minute. And there is no need to grind coffee beans, weigh and clean them. There is no residue at the bottom of the cup, just make one cup at a time. The Krieger coffee machine produced by Green Mountain is about $0/00 per set/kloc, which is the cost price, and even has a slight loss. However, once consumers spend $ 100 on a Krieger coffee machine, they will keep buying K cups of coffee capsules. green mountain coffee has applied for a number of patents related to K cups of coffee capsules, which are open to all beverage manufacturers. Allow other coffee, tea, hot cocoa and other beverage suppliers. To produce such K-cup capsules, and use them in Krieger coffee machine in Green Mountain. These companies only need to pay royalties of 6 cents per cup to Green Mountain Company. In fact, even the famous Starbucks has introduced such Starbucks coffee capsules. After consumers buy the coffee machine in Green Mountain at a low price. You will not only buy its original K-cup coffee capsules, but also buy K-cup capsules in the form of tea and hot cocoa from other beverage manufacturers, and even Starbucks K-cup capsules. The synergistic effect of this complementary product operation mode is that American families and offices consume almost 3 million K capsules every day. Green mountain coffee has further developed the product strategy of razors and blades. In fact, a so-called razor can be compatible with more types of so-called blades. It is the Krieger coffee machine specially made by it, which can be compatible with different types of K-cup capsules from different beverage manufacturers, occupy more market space, and then charge other K-cup capsules through patent authorization, which is the so-called product strategy of lying down to make money. Case 3: Reverse innovation and application of complementary strategies: Apple Ipod and iTunes Apple iPod and iTunes are business cases that maximize complementary effects. Apple introduced the ipod at 200 1. Almost every product operator remembers Jobs' famous advertisement at this famous press conference: "Put 1000 songs in your pocket!" . So far, the aftertaste is extremely refreshing. In fact, the early mp3 players could only store one hour of music, while the first generation Ipod could store 1000 songs. But what really pushes the iPod to the top is the supporting product behind it, namely iTunes. Although most competitors can compete with iPod products through hard work, when Apple's iTunes went online, other competitors found themselves at a great disadvantage. Apple has itunes desktop software that synchronizes ipod and computer, and iTunes store that can download genuine music cheaply, especially this iTunes store. He was the first legal website to pay for and download every song. Users only need to pay 99 cents for each song. These songs come from five major record companies and thousands of independent musicians. Each song costs 99 cents, 70 cents is distributed to the record company that owns the copyright of the song, and 20 cents is distributed to the credit card issuer that handles the payment. Although Apple is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the website and other indirect expenses. But each song has only about 9 cents left. Although you can't directly profit from iTunes, iTunes has quickly become an extremely effective supplement to support the basic product of Ipod. Within three days of launching iTunes music download service, computer users downloaded 1 10,000 copies of iTunes desktop software. And pay more than 1 ten thousand songs. As a consumer, I definitely like to choose freely among many songs and then download them online in time. And the price is so low. You can get your favorite song for only 99 cents. ITunes has become the largest music store in the world. After the launch of iTunes, it had an extremely amazing impact on the sales of iPods. Before the launch of iTunes, Apple sold an average of 1 1.3 million iPods every quarter. After the launch of iTunes, the quarterly sales of iPods soared to 733,000 units. The Ipod finally occupied 70% of the mp3 market in the United States, and Apple really embarked on the explosive growth road of hacker level. In essence, the complementary effect created by Jobs is a business model that is contrary to the traditional razor blade strategy, that is, to promote the sales of razors by selling cheap blades. The key point is that the blades of other people's homes and songs of five major record companies are sold here. After users choose and download a favorite music, it only costs $0.99, but what about pulling their own razors? An iPod product costs at least $399, and products at each price point are often $50 to 100 higher than competitors, but its market share is as high as 70%. Case 4: Low frequency breakthrough complementary product strategy: IKEA and IKEA restaurant are the largest furniture suppliers in the world, with 654.38 billion customers coming every year. When you mention IKEA, you will not only think of the simple and natural furniture in Nordic style, but also unconsciously think of IKEA restaurants and their food stores outside the checkout area. Users who have been to IKEA restaurants have an impression. Ikea's beef balls and ice cream are the treasures of the town store. Meatballs are a special food in Sweden, but IKEA has developed a variety of products such as vegetable meatballs and chicken meatballs for consumers in different regions, so that today's consumers prefer to call them IKEA meatballs rather than Swedish meatballs. The reason why ice cream has become a marketing tool for a restaurant. The key is the cheapest ice cream on the market, which costs only one yuan on weekdays and two yuan on weekends. In essence, IKEA is not blindly opening restaurants without making money. There is a generalized complementary effect between IKEA restaurant and IKEA furniture. We all have this understanding. Furniture cities are usually located far from the city center for the simple reason that the rent is cheap, and IKEA is no exception. For example, Shanghai Beicai, because of the low rent, IKEA can have a wider range of furniture and provide free parking, but it is far from the city center. The surrounding facilities are definitely not perfect. On the other hand, it takes a lot of time to buy furniture, so people are likely to have the feeling of buying furniture on an empty stomach. The founder of IKEA put forward at the beginning of doing business: Hungry can't make a good business, and IKEA restaurant meets the needs of users at this specific time and place. And the furniture consumption frequency is low. How can we attract customers to visit IKEA more frequently? In the eyes of users, IKEA restaurant has still become an influential chain restaurant, and with the addition of food monopoly stores, about one-third of customers come to IKEA for dinner and visit IKEA by the way. Careful customers will also find that the design of IKEA users' moving line is very distinctive. Generally speaking, users will be guided through a shopping route of IKEA from the parking lot and then arrive at the IKEA restaurant! In this walking process, users will be unconsciously attracted by the goods along the way, stop to appreciate and choose IKEA furniture, and their shopping desire and willingness to pay will naturally form. Starting from the needs of users, IKEA skillfully links furniture and catering that seem to have no direct dependence. This product strategy of driving the original low-frequency furniture business with high-frequency catering business is the complementary effect, which is reflected in the fact that IKEA restaurants and food stores not only solve the discomfort of customers buying furniture hungry, but also provide value-added experience and attract customers to patronize frequently. Through high-frequency consumption such as catering to drive relatively low-frequency furniture consumption, we seem to find the so-called counter-example of doing nothing from IKEA. Sometimes the more distinctive and attractive the sideline, the more successful the main business related to it. Case 5: Low-priced traffic and high-priced value-added: Alibaba's basic services and value-added services all know that everyone can open a shop at the beginning without paying. But when Taobao has today's data volume, it not only charges service fees for the technical classification of basic products, but also develops more value-added product charging modules, such as Taobao training, diamond exhibition, banner advertisement, Ali mom advertisement, word of mouth and so on. So it is no exaggeration to say that Alibaba's start is also a classic masterpiece of razor and blade applications. On the one hand, Alibaba's basic products attract merchants to settle in for free, which has hit competitor ebay and accumulated its own traffic pool. When users and customers reach a certain amount, they begin to sell the value-added product matrix. Case 6: Split bloated products: In the restaurants in the air, we often realize that in the highly competitive aviation industry, aviation catering service is an auxiliary function, so it is generally in a weak position in the overall operation of airlines. In the past, we often complained about the unpalatable air meals and didn't explain why, but in the past year, we found that many improvements in air catering have become a common phenomenon. For example, Sichuan Airlines' Laoganma, brown sugar steamed buns and baked potatoes are very popular. Xiamen Airlines orders food online, and even economy class has almost ten kinds of special meals to choose online in advance, while Hainan Airlines specially provides yellow and hot sauce, which fully shows the local characteristics of Hainan Airlines. Over the past year, we have often seen friends waiting at the airport posting photos of shredded Chinese cabbage noodles, spicy meat noodles and China Eastern Airlines noodles in the WeChat circle of friends. Further analysis of aviation catering. Through communication with senior professionals, you will find that flight catering is actually extremely complicated. The complexity of aviation catering is reflected in the following aspects: first, time is limited, because food is not easy to be preserved within 24 hours, which requires an efficient cold chain logistics system; Secondly, the requirements for food hygiene and safety on the plane are more stringent, even harsh; Once again, we have to face the uncertainty of demand, because the passengers on every flight are uncertain. Then after secondary processing, cold chain processing, and several twists and turns, the taste will inevitably be affected. On the other hand, with the improvement of living standards, users' taste buds are becoming more and more critical. Passengers' awareness of the demand for air catering is changing, and the general quality catering can no longer meet the needs of passengers. In fact, compared with the basic services of flights, whether it is catering or baggage service. In fact, it is a supplementary service that adopts bundled sales, and this bundled sales can actually be split, that is to say, the supplementary service of aviation catering can be lifted, so the next step is to choose two completely different changes. On the one hand, due to the complexity of airline catering, it is often complained, just like some foreign airlines learn to cancel catering service and give up bundled sales. The other side is taking it. It is to improve the quality of air catering, and then enhance the overall experience of air travel services to strengthen bundled sales. On the other hand, more and more online celebrity food on the plane is also the pressure and crisis that airline catering companies see abandoned. Case 7: Artificial intelligence was born from complementary products. Artificial intelligence has three cores: algorithm+data+computing power. On the one hand, companies and individuals who are good at algorithms often have both machine vision and machine hearing. On the other hand, companies and individuals who are good at vertical business analysis and have countermeasures for weak links in their own business often do not have algorithms and data. Thirdly, companies that make computing power chips should be low in the vertical field. Based on the above characteristics of artificial intelligence products, artificial intelligence products often start from a point. For example, Google started from TPU+TF, which is a free product and establishes a user pool. Amazon uses MXNET as an open source framework, allowing users to join their own artificial intelligence camp at the lowest cost, and then sell Echo smart speakers and AWS services. For more details about artificial intelligence scenarios and methods to help products, please refer to the author's new book AI Empowerment: AI Redefines Product Managers or our starting point classic plan http://996.pm/MeANw Thinking. In order to realize the complementarity and cooperation of products, we can learn from Gillette's company to split the products with high total price into one high and one low, and the low-priced products will drive sales and drive high-priced products. We can also learn from the coffee capsule company to prove that the basic product drives a value-added product. Similarly, Alibaba will open low-priced or even free shops and gather traffic pools. You can also learn from IKEA's use of high-frequency catering to drive low-frequency furniture sales. You can also take apart the product module optimization of aviation catering and sell it. It is still difficult to realize the complementary effect of product strategy. There is almost a wonderful product story behind the successful application of complementary effect.