I wrote a while back about cost-cutting in the post ‘Profit vs Quality‘. It included the sorry tale of Threadless, the t-shirt manufacturer, that had ultimately had to give away 5000 shirts to prove to their previously loyal customers that they could actually make t-shirts properly. It was a sad thing.
Tom Fishburne over at the Marketoonist has absolutely nailed this concept in a cartoon recently. It’s reprinted here for your benefit.
What’s left when the product no longer resembles or contains any of the characteristics of its previous high cost self?
Certainly not customers.