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               ‘Harbinger customers’ are really good at picking out things that fail — and in the product marketing business, they can be a kiss of death. by Zachary Crockett.
              </span>
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                <a style="color: #ffffff !important; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 100%; text-decoration: none !important;">
                 The Hustle
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                Issue #193
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                 <img alt="The Hustle, Sunday, January 23, 2022" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Fheader_10.gif/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1nBcFG:UtRPG_dmfIufSkcFjWZlAVMgamfztWwNLw-oQpLTW_c" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; display: block;" width="600"/>
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                Sunday, January 23, 2022
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            <h2 style="font-size: 30px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 120%; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 25px;">
             <strong>
              The customers who repeatedly buy doomed products
             </strong>
            </h2>
            <p style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 120%; padding-bottom: 10px; font-style: italic; color: #737373; margin: 0;">
             ‘Harbinger customers’ are really good at picking out things that fail — and in the product marketing business, they can be a kiss of death.
            </p>
            <p style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 120%; padding-bottom: 24px; margin: 0;">
             <strong>
              BY
              <a style="color: #D62829; text-decoration: underline !important; text-transform: uppercase;">
               Zachary Crockett
              </a>
             </strong>
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             There’s an age-old piece of wisdom in product marketing:
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             <em>
              <strong>
               Positive feedback = a sign of success
              </strong>
             </em>
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             In most cases, this is true.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Companies love so-called
             <a style="color: #121212; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              high-value customers
             </a>
             , or
             <a style="color: #121212; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              brand evangelists
             </a>
             — folks who buy products repeatedly, leave glowing reviews online, and tell everyone they know to do the same.
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="Apple evangelist" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Fbackgroundeva.gif/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1nBcFG:UtRPG_dmfIufSkcFjWZlAVMgamfztWwNLw-oQpLTW_c" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             These consumers are precious gems in the corporate world. At a typical company, it’s likely that:
            </p>
            <ul style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 12px; margin: 0;">
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              <a style="color: #121212; text-decoration: underline !important;">
               80%
              </a>
              of revenue is generated by just
              <strong>
               20%
              </strong>
              of customers
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              The top
              <a style="color: #121212; text-decoration: underline !important;">
               10%
              </a>
              spend
              <strong>
               ~3x
              </strong>
              more than the average customer
             </li>
            </ul>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             But it turns out that not
             <em>
              every
             </em>
             customer who voraciously buys new products is good for business.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             In recent years, research has suggested that a certain fraction of consumers are particularly skilled at picking out products that are destined to fail, or get discontinued.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             They’re called
             <strong>
              harbingers of failure
             </strong>
             , or
             <strong>
              harbinger customers
             </strong>
             .
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="Crystal Pepsi" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Ffinal_size-harbinger.jpeg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1nBcFG:UtRPG_dmfIufSkcFjWZlAVMgamfztWwNLw-oQpLTW_c" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             In 2015, a team of researchers at Northwestern and MIT
             <a style="color: #121212; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              analyzed
             </a>
             6 years’ worth of transaction data from 130k customers at a large national retail chain.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             They found that
             <strong>
              ~25%
             </strong>
             of customers consistently buy products that end up flopping within 3 years. Think esteemed artifacts like:
            </p>
            <ul style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 12px; margin: 0;">
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Crystal Pepsi
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Watermelon Oreos
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Frito-Lay Lemonade
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Coors Rocky Mountain Sparkling Water
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Colgate Kitchen Entrees
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Cheetos Lip Balm
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Jimmy Dean Chocolate Chip Pancake-Wrapped Sausage
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Clairol's Touch Of Yogurt Shampoo
             </li>
            </ul>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             When companies forecast the success of their products, their projections are usually based on an initial window of sales. High sales numbers are seen as a beacon of future success.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             But harbinger customers throw a wrench in this model:
             <strong>
              The more they buy a product, the more likely it is to fail.
             </strong>
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="harbinger customers' effect on product success" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Fharbingerchart-final.jpeg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1nBcFG:UtRPG_dmfIufSkcFjWZlAVMgamfztWwNLw-oQpLTW_c" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Harbinger customers are a distant relative of 2 other types of consumers:
            </p>
            <ol style="font-size: 16px;">
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              <a style="color: #121212; text-decoration: underline !important;">
               <strong>
                Preference minorities
               </strong>
              </a>
              : Customers with niche or unusual tastes.
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              <a style="color: #121212; text-decoration: underline !important;">
               <strong>
                Lead users
               </strong>
              </a>
              : Customers who have specific needs and are dissatisfied with mass-market products.
             </li>
            </ol>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             While lead users tend to identify breakthrough products early on before they hit, harbinger customers seem to have a unique talent for picking epic failures.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             They’re sort of like
             <em>
              anti
             </em>
             -influencers.
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="sharing Crystal Pepsi" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Fmlady.jpeg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1nBcFG:UtRPG_dmfIufSkcFjWZlAVMgamfztWwNLw-oQpLTW_c" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Harbinger customers’ purchases are also systemic. Those who buy failures are more likely to buy failures in different categories:
            </p>
            <ul style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 12px; margin: 0;">
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              A consumer of
              <strong>
               Harley-Davidson Cologne
              </strong>
              (a flop) would be more likely to indulge in
              <strong>
               Colgate Kitchen Entrees
              </strong>
              (swing and miss).
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              A consumer of
              <strong>
               Hershey’s Chocolate Scented Pencils
              </strong>
              (disaster) would be more likely to buy
              <strong>
               Cheetos Lip Balm
              </strong>
              (epic fail).
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              A consumer of
              <strong>
               Diet Crystal Pepsi
              </strong>
              (swiftly discontinued) would also be more likely to purchase
              <strong>
               Watermelon Oreos
              </strong>
              (not a winning concept).
             </li>
            </ul>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="failed produc" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Fdreamsbackground.gif/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1nBcFG:UtRPG_dmfIufSkcFjWZlAVMgamfztWwNLw-oQpLTW_c" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             So, who are these mysterious prophets of floppery?
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Unfortunately, current scientific research is pretty limited on this front. We
             <em>
              do
             </em>
             know that harbingers’ shopping habits differ from their normcore peers in several ways. They’re more likely to:
            </p>
            <ul style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 12px; margin: 0;">
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Purchase
              <strong>
               less expensive items
              </strong>
              ($3.70 vs. $4.20/item on average)
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Be
              <strong>
               early adopters
              </strong>
              of new products
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Forego writing
              <strong>
               product reviews
              </strong>
             </li>
            </ul>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             On a demographic level, harbingers also skew slightly older, less urban, and have a lower household income and home value than non-harbingers who shop at the same store.
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="demographics of harbinger customers" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Fdemogs.jpeg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1nBcFG:UtRPG_dmfIufSkcFjWZlAVMgamfztWwNLw-oQpLTW_c" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Now, here’s where things get a bit weird.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Subsequent
             <a style="color: #121212; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              research
             </a>
             has shown that these fail-prone consumers tend to cluster in “
             <strong>
              harbinger ZIP codes
             </strong>
             ” — entire geographical swaths that share the same niche purchase preferences.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             When they move away from one harbinger ZIP code, they tend to end up in another harbinger ZIP code.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             And if they move to a
             <em>
              non-harbinger
             </em>
             ZIP code — an area where consumers have popular, mainstream tastes — their propensity to purchase flops doesn’t change. This suggests that harbinger purchasing behavior has more to with geography than social influence.
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="harbinger map" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Fmapfinal.jpeg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1nBcFG:UtRPG_dmfIufSkcFjWZlAVMgamfztWwNLw-oQpLTW_c" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Even more surprisingly, harbingers’ tendency to pick failures doesn’t stop with
             <a style="color: #121212; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              consumer packaged goods
             </a>
             .
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             People in harbinger ZIP codes are also more likely to:
            </p>
            <ul style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 12px; margin: 0;">
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Purchase less popular
              <strong>
               clothing
              </strong>
              items
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Purchase
              <strong>
               houses
              </strong>
              in ZIP codes that appreciate less in value
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              Support losing
              <strong>
               politicians
              </strong>
             </li>
            </ul>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             One possible explanation for this is that harbinger customers tend to have
             <strong>
              niche
             </strong>
             tastes that are often at odds with the mainstream.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Compared to non-harbinger customers, harbinger customers are
             <strong>
              9%
             </strong>
             more likely to buy
             <em>
              niche products
             </em>
             (items that make up 1% of total unit sales) and
             <strong>
              12%
             </strong>
             more likely to buy
             <em>
              very niche products
             </em>
             (&lt;0.1%).
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="% more likely to buy niche items" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Ftaste_for_niches.jpeg/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1nBcFG:UtRPG_dmfIufSkcFjWZlAVMgamfztWwNLw-oQpLTW_c" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Whether they’re attracted to unconventional flavors of packaged foods (which tend to get discontinued) or unusual-looking
             <a style="color: #121212; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              McMansions
             </a>
             (which increase less in value than more run-of-the-mill abodes), their niche purchasing choices forecast non-desirable outcomes.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             But the evolution of the modern marketplace may paint a brighter future for harbinger customers.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             To date, harbinger customers have only been studied through the lens of sales at mass brick-and-mortar retailers, which have to dedicate a finite amount of shelf space to products that appeal to the widest possible demographic.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Some harbingers might find a more suitable purchasing environment on the internet, where the rise of ecommerce and targeted advertising has led to an
             <a style="color: #121212; text-decoration: underline !important;">
              explosion in niche offerings
             </a>
             .
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="rise of niche consumption" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Fcomputergif.gif/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1nBcFG:UtRPG_dmfIufSkcFjWZlAVMgamfztWwNLw-oQpLTW_c" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             While we know harbingers exist, current research still leaves many inquires unanswered — chiefly, what motivates these customers’ purchasing decisions?
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             We (very unscientifically) tried to shed a little light on this question by surveying readers of
             <em>
              The Hustle
             </em>
             . Of 400+ respondents,
             <strong>
              ~32%
             </strong>
             identified as harbingers — not far off from the percentage that research has suggested.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Our harbinger readers reported buying all sorts of discontinued products, from Microsoft Zunes to Chobani apple cucumber yogurt smoothies.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Among their rationale for buying these wares:
            </p>
            <ul style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 12px; margin: 0;">
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              <strong>
               Price sensitivity
              </strong>
              : “I only buy things that are steeply discounted. Usually, those things are products that are tanking.”
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              <strong>
               Other products didn’t meet their needs
              </strong>
              : “Unfortunately, my tastes do not seem to be [similar] to those of the general public.”
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              <strong>
               Desire to try new offerings
              </strong>
              : “I just really like to try weird things, like purple-colored Heinz EZ Squirt ketchup.”
             </li>
             <li style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 0 0 0 15px; padding: 0px;">
              <strong>
               Others in the community were buying them
              </strong>
              : “Everyone in my town used to eat Colgate dinner entrees. It wasn’t until I later moved that I realized that was kind of strange.”
             </li>
            </ul>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td align="center" style="text-align: center;">
            <img alt="failed products" src="https://inboxflows.com/_/image/https%253A%252F%252Fmedia.sailthru.com%252Fcomposer%252Fimages%252Fsailthru-prod-6ks%252Fproducts.png/?inbox_flows_img_sig=eyJwYXRoIjoiaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZtZWRpYS5zYWlsdCJ9:1nBcFG:UtRPG_dmfIufSkcFjWZlAVMgamfztWwNLw-oQpLTW_c" style="width: 100%; max-width: 600px; height: auto; padding-top: 10px;" width="600"/>
            <p align="left" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #5f696c; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; text-align: left; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 5px 20px;">
             Zachary Crockett / The Hustle
            </p>
           </td>
          </tr>
          <tr>
           <td class="h2020 ignore-defaults" style="padding: 0px 10px;">
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             While harbingers suggest that not all fervent customers are good for business, that doesn’t mean corporate America should attempt to ferret them out and ignore them.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             Just as brand evangelists teach us what works, harbingers can teach us what
             <em>
              doesn’t
             </em>
             work.
            </p>
            <p style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 140%; margin: 5px 0px 10px;">
             And sometimes, in business, that’s just as important.
            </p>
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2 years, 11 months ago - news@thehustle.co
If these customer buy your product, it might be doomed
‘Harbinger customers’ are really good at picking out things that fail — and in the product market...
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