Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don't

Rate this book
A Fresh and Important New Way to Understand Why We Buy

Why did the RAZR ultimately ruin Motorola? Why does Wal-Mart dominate rural and suburban areas but falter in large cities? Why did Starbucks stumble just when it seemed unstoppable?

The answer lies in the ever-present tension between fidelity (the quality of a consumer’s experience) and convenience (the ease of getting and paying for a product). In Trade-Off, Kevin Maney shows how these conflicting forces determine the success, or failure, of new products and services in the marketplace. He shows that almost every decision we make as consumers involves a trade-off between fidelity and convenience–between the products we love and the products we need. Rock stars sell out concerts because the experience is high in fidelity-–it can’t be replicated in any other way, and because of that, we are willing to suffer inconvenience for the experience. In contrast, a downloaded MP3 of a song is low in fidelity, but consumers buy music online because it’s superconvenient. Products that are at one extreme or the other–those that are high in fidelity or high in convenience–-tend to be successful. The things that fall into the middle-–products or services that have moderate fidelity and convenience-–fail to win an enthusiastic audience. Using examples from Amazon and Disney to People Express and the invention of the ATM, Maney demonstrates that the most successful companies skew their offerings to either one extreme or the other-–fidelity or convenience-–in shaping products and building brands.

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

30 people are currently reading
949 people want to read

About the author

Kevin Maney

25 books15 followers

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
79 (26%)
4 stars
111 (36%)
3 stars
88 (29%)
2 stars
20 (6%)
1 star
4 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
Profile Image for Ammar Naaimi.
Author 5 books75 followers
July 9, 2022
3.5*

This book offers an interesting and intuitive framework to understand what "value" is made of. Some goods are valuable because of the experience they deliver, while others are valuable because of their convenience. This is similar to a "quality-cost" tradeoff but on a more comprehensive level.

One of the things I really appreciated is the author willingness to provide many, many real-world examples of companies providing fidelity and convenience to consumers.

The writing style was straightfoward, focused on getting the point across in a clear and business-like manner.

All in all, this book is recommended for people who wonder why some products take off and some don't.
Profile Image for Julie.
449 reviews20 followers
February 21, 2010
The basic premise of this book is that companies (and individuals and whatever) can shoot for a product with high fidelity, or high convenience. Or high fidelity, with a touch of convenience. Or high convenience, with a touch of fidelity. But they shouldn't shoot for both high fidelity and high convenience, or they're chasing a mirage. And they'll fail.

And that's it. Complete with a little graph.

And he repeats the graph several times. And he repeats himself several times.

I did find it interesting, and he did give a lot of examples that both clarified his point and were interesting little historical snippets of business.

I think he has a very good point. I agree with him. Maybe that's why the book seemed to go on and on. Was he trying to convince me when I was already convinced?

I'm not sure how I can apply this to writing. I guess I was already aiming for high fidelity. Because high convenience would be fanfic -- available in 5 seconds with the right Google search, free, and you're already familiar with the characters and world. What could be more convenient? Yet I don't know as there's much of a market for an illuminated manuscript of my writing either.

Well, anyway, that's the trade-off. Fidelity. Convenience.
Profile Image for Seth.
55 reviews
December 20, 2016
Well written book describing "the fidelity swap" which is a tool for guiding product decisions based on trading off between high fidelity experiences and convenience. He provides good examples to demonstrate his concept and goes into how this concept applies to marketplace strategy. Worth reading if you're involved in shaping products.
Author 6 books9 followers
July 17, 2010
The subtitle of this book is "The Ever-Present Tension Between Quality and Convenience," and technology reporter Maney makes a case for why you can't really have both.

He actually prefers the term "fidelity" to quality, mostly because his definition of fidelity includes elements of popularity and consumer self-identification that are not intrinsic to quality. He also includes cost as an essential factor in convenience. His definitions seem a little loose at time, loose enough that they might be able to explain anything without offering too much insight. But he has a lot of practical examples of major products (iPhones, Kindles, Wal-Mart's ill-fated foray into fashion retailing, the RAZR phone, Coach bags, Starbucks coffee, and many more) that have risen or fallen based on how they approached quality, convenience, and exclusivity. You could do a lot worse than to evaluate new products or features by discussing how they impact fidelity or convenience, and whether or not that impact is in line with the rest of the brand.
410 reviews3 followers
June 10, 2017
This book really nicely articulated a concept that we all inherently grasp and use over and over in our daily lives - the trade-off between convenience and quality (my translation of what the author calls fidelity). It nicely helps explain how a lot of our decisions are made and how it impacts the success or failure of different businesses.

The book is a bit dated at this point and doesn't account for some of the more recent developments in technology and the business world, but it's no less applicable for it. I also appreciated the wide range of anecdotes and real life examples that were provided.
1 review
August 31, 2020
An excellent book for newbies who work in large companies. The book is based on the basic principle, according to which the company's products should be either loved or necessary, or, as the author puts it, high precision or high convenience. I have already heard this concept at several trainings that I recently attended. It's just that I recently won the jackpot playing arising phoenix slot free and now I'm going to start my own company. Therefore, I definitely advise you to read...
Profile Image for Courtney.
4 reviews
January 19, 2021
“The ever present tension between quality and convenience.”

Stated directly on the cover - this book can be dwelled down to this one sentence. As a business, person or technology, you need to focus on one thing. Fidelity or convenience. That’s it. Easy to grasp and hard to forget.

Although the core of the book is succinct and very repetitive, I still found the examples and research to back the claim quite interesting. From Starbucks and Walmart to Linux and Teledesic, Kevin Maney found a way to keep me interested and did well with really hammering home the lesson from this book.
83 reviews2 followers
April 8, 2023
Una idea muy sencilla pero que funciona, en mi opinión , a la perfección. Un potente modelo mental desde el que examinar cualquier propuesta de valor.
Este quizás sea uno de esos libros que podía caber en un solo capítulo (o página), sin embargo he disfrutado leyendo todas y cada una de las páginas del libro. A través de distintos ejemplos y enfoques el autor te ayuda a comprender las sutilezas de su planteamiento y consigue que acabes la lectura con una nueva - o perfeccionada - herramienta bajo el brazo.
Profile Image for Dixit Nagpal.
198 reviews1 follower
December 30, 2017
This has given a definitely new angle to look at everything around you and not just limted to business product and services.
i would say it surely enhances your view when considering something be it business idea, product , personal job or anything else for that matter.
the smartness lies in your intelligence to apply this method. Also i would say this well supported by examples wherever needed and can be read quickly. Great book to enhance perspective.
Profile Image for Jason Braatz.
Author 1 book57 followers
January 1, 2020
The central thesis the author has is that there is one naked balance to a consumer product: convenience versus fidelity. Whilst he does draw an interesting argument for this idea, I reject that it's true on the basis of:

1. Only looking at well-known consumer products, which the author does, eliminates 2/3rds of the economy. There are business-to-business products and services, and a whole sector being done that focuses either on grants or on government spending. In other words, he ignores most of the economy to come up with an economic principle. Bad, bad, bad.

2. He switches the terms to mean different things depending on where he is in the story of relating success to be based on fidelity versus convenience.

Additionally, pricing theory is quite complex and the author boils it down to a few lines. As of yet, in 2020 (this book was written > 10 years ago), the behavioral economists and classical economists do not agree - or at least have a bridging formula within the value curve - of this principle.

More simply, is charging 2x for a Mac Pro versus a Dell equivalent a function of Apple picking fidelity and Dell picking convenience for their product? Yet Apple's domain is a quick-to-buy system (Dell is usually custom-built to order) along with ease of use, higher end video hardware, etc. Is it a function of behavior, wherein you could argue that Apple leverages it's huge brand to be able to charge more (that is an example of Apple picking convenience).

This is an undercharged, oversimplified view of consumer goods (read: Confessions of the Pricing Man: How Price Affects Everything for a better understanding of this interplay). Additionally, advertising is not dovetailed as an additive (Ogilvy on Advertising). These suggest a broad list of counter-arguments to the author's thesis.

The book is breezy, fun to read, but from both personal experience as well as from other digests on the topic, the author's thesis is plainly wrong and it's too oversimplified for it to be useful even if, anecdotally, some of his examples fit his definition.
Profile Image for Tim.
24 reviews7 followers
September 7, 2010
Kevin Maney’s Trade-off is about the constant exchange of fidelity and convenience. The concept Maney lays out is insightful when loosely applied, but doesn’t hold up under a lot of scrutiny. Maney argues that the trade off between convenience, price + availability, and fidelity, aura+identity+experience, is a zero-sum trade. You can’t have more convenience without getting less fidelity and vice versa. Maney warns against chasing something he calls the fidelity mirage, which is both high fidelity and high convenience, but both are measured relative to the nearest competitor , which means achieving the fidelity mirage only adjusts the baseline for comparison. Google seems to be high fidelity and high convenience. It’s free, it’s on every internet enabled computer and my phone, while at the same time being much higher fidelity than other search engines. Is Google a fidelity mirage, or is there a flaw in how fidelity and convenience are being measured?

Possibly, I’m being too critical. Trade-off provides a useful framework for how to position a product or a brand, some clues into the long-term viability of a company, and even a little enlightenment into experiences and products around us.

Kevin Maney’s writing style is neat and clear. He does a great job of explaining a complex topic in a way that doesn’t make it seem overwhelming. Overall this a good book and well worth my time, but I don’t think it’s my first recommendation to anyone.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
620 reviews48 followers
June 28, 2010
Insightful comparison of quality versus convenience

Technology journalist Kevin Maney coined the term “fidelity swap” to describe the choice consumers make between “convenience” and “fidelity,” which is the quality of the experience that a product or service provides. People make such trade-offs many times every day. To illustrate, consider whether you would rather watch the Yankees play live at Yankee Stadium or see the game from the comfort of your home? Would you rather enjoy the experience of browsing the aisles of your local bookstore or have the convenience of ordering books online? Products or services that lie on either extreme of the fidelity versus convenience continuum are most successful, while those that offer neither high quality nor extreme ease of use fall into the “fidelity belly,” where they are doomed to mediocrity unless they can swim out. In his engaging book, Maney expertly uses numerous colorful case studies to explain the fidelity swap paradigm and lucidly demonstrates how to adopt it as a corporate strategy. getAbstract recommends his work to businesspeople contemplating issues of price versus prestige, availability versus exclusivity, and what works in the market, what doesn’t and why.
Profile Image for Mckinley.
9,950 reviews83 followers
July 6, 2015
The thesis is that there are sweet spots for companies and their products which can be graphed onto a convergence of fidelity (total experience of a thing) and convenience to explain why they 'take-off' or fail. Bottom line is about selling, consumption and pushing product. More a case study than explanation of why. Conclusion points to Jim Collin's Good to Great book and his hedgehog concept; which makes in not a conclusion but more content (!). Not sure Maney know how to wrap up this trip down product-memory lane. Don't think he answered the embedded question in the title.

That said I had fun reading this in part because the examples are dated. It was amusing to read about companies - which have "made-it" and which are no longer the up and coming thing. It got a bit redundant and I felt beaten with a dead horse at times. However the engaged writing and overall topic kept me going.

Note: chapter about higher education, not new but still an issue - high fidelity and high cost, prestige of uni, vs. online low cost.
79 reviews
February 23, 2016
I found Trade-Off to be both simple and complex. I am unable to say it is an enjoyable read (like The Experience Economy by Pine & Gilmore) but it isn't a complete drag either. What I found was the analysis was consistent and well reasoned. I am not a fan of anecdotal evidence as the premise for business strategy, yet the author was able to weave his thoughts consistently throughout the chapters.

The theme is simple. Business decisions face a consistent trade-off between convenience (think 7-11) and quality (think custom or high end like Ritz Carlton or Starbucks). When a business strategy moves towards a strategy of mediocre convenience and customization - the strategy tends to fail.

I think that business strategists, advisors, and entrepreneurs will benefit from reading Trade-Off, yet I won't predict life-changing results from the material. Although a thinking reader will look to apply the themes to their business strategy and look for ways to improve their placement and ultimately profitability.

This is a valuable read, just not life-changing.
Profile Image for Bebe (Sarah) Brechner.
399 reviews20 followers
August 14, 2012
Very interesting and well written book, although the perspective, in some cases, is dated (2009). Still, very worthwhile and fascinating especially for insights that were yet to be fulfilled at that time. For instance, this was before Apple came out with the iPad, which changed the market for e-readers and e-books. The author questioned whether Apple can continue with only the iPod and its computers. And he questioned Amazon's Kindle, as it had yet to take off. He cited Kodak's possible turnaround. It sunk this year. Oh, how things change in a couple of years!

His thesis that businesses usually are either about quality (fidelity) or convenience rings true. And his idea that a business cannot usually handle both at the same time is illustrated with some great examples (such as Starbucks). Recommended.
4 reviews1 follower
June 1, 2012
I read this a couple of years ago and used the convenience - fidelity concepts to change to course of our company. We were clearly pursuing the fidelity mirage and instead moved to a convenience model. I love books that give me an "aha" that I can immediately apply to my business or my life. This is one of them. The forward is written by Jim Collins. Interestingly enough, his book, "Good to Great" is another of those that led me to make very effective changes in our business model.
I gave away my copy of Trade-Off and went to the public library today to get a copy so that I could review those concepts. We are making some changes and I want to be certain that they are consistent with the model.
2 reviews
June 6, 2016
In the market of products there is always a core-competency which firms bank upon. The product strategy revolves around either making the product for the masses and making it convenient to use (ACCORD principle) or make it the best in what it is supposed to do (Design). The book explains this principle well taking into account the examples of iPhone (Design focus), iPod (Convenience focus) and Starbucks (Design focus). While Starbucks also tried to achieve the Convenience factor for their service which back-fired big time and they had to deal with business re-focusing back on purely design.
The framework in the book would help you understand that focus is important for a product, it should be either Convenience or Design. Cannot have both as that could lead to product failure.
Profile Image for Kater Cheek.
Author 37 books286 followers
January 25, 2010
This book was very well written, and got its point across succinctly. It's basically about how every business has to negotiate along the fidelity (quality, status) and convenience (ease of use, cheapness) axis, and that those who try to do both or do neither won't take off. He draws from examples as varied as Starbucks (high fidelity, which started to falter in 2007 when it tried to become too convenient and oversaturated the world with franchises) to Segway (less convenient than walking and without the fidelity of a car).
I'd say this book is useful for anyone involved in making or marketing a product. Even writers. It only has one point to make, but it does it well.
Profile Image for John.
504 reviews12 followers
May 10, 2010
The book isn't really about a trade-off, it's about how products/ ideas need to focus on either fidelity or convenience. An interesting idea and a lot of case studies that are fit into the argument. While I didn't agree with every example used and thought some of the arguments were too reductive, I do find the general idea of the book interesting and agree that we like to buy luxury (fidelity) or needed (convenience). Also very interested in the author's discussion of newspapers and the Amazon Kindle.
125 reviews2 followers
August 26, 2020
Will this so-so fidelity(authors' substitute word for quality) and highly inconvenient(all books are inconvenient, cause you have to read them!!) book survive the test of the time in the race to one of the greatest books ever....or ,in high probabilities, will it be stuck in the fidelity belly.
.. What the author States throughout the book.. Is mostly common sense corroborated by a lot of examples... Interestingly he tries to do the same for his book.. But in the last chapter it is too late!
.. A quick read on history not much for the future.
Profile Image for Jenny.
298 reviews15 followers
February 20, 2010
I thought this was an interesting idea, but the book itself was very repetitive. I probably could have read only a few chapters and still gotten the essential points of it - the only added benefit of reading the entire book was looking at all the different examples (which mostly involved technology innovations like i-phones and cameras). The entire concept is explained in the first chapter, and it did not develop much further from that.

Profile Image for Zach Olsen.
Author 4 books16 followers
September 11, 2010
A simple concept for understanding business strategy. Everyone already gets the concept of this book but he puts it in terms that make it very simple to understand and makes you think, yes, that is how business strategy works. So simple, the book repeats itself a lot and tries hard to make itself longer than it probably needs to be. Still, I'm glad I read it.
Profile Image for Becca.
34 reviews9 followers
December 9, 2009
Great book! A "simple" concept that is very difficult to apply to business -- fidelity vs. convenience. This book was full of examples of the fidelity vs. convenience balance in real business scenarios. It was well written - a quick, but very informative read. This was one of my favorite business books and I would highly recommend it.
Profile Image for Tim Kadlec.
Author 11 books47 followers
November 19, 2009
Maney does a good job of supporting the concept in this book - to be successful in business you need to decide whether you are high fidelity or high convenience, and you cannot be both. It certainly gets you thinking, and he poses a lot of really good questions to be asking yourself as you grow a business, or develop a product.
Profile Image for Randa Ahmed.
30 reviews2 followers
July 15, 2015
I highly recommend this book to anyone into business, it's very well written and organized, simple and to the point .though it was written in 2009. This book will make you see the bigger picture more clearly and how consumers respond to quality and convenience and he gave examples of all sort of possibilities in each chapter from the best to worst and how to create a strategy.
Profile Image for Theodore Kinni.
Author 11 books37 followers
January 20, 2016
It's a lot of words to articulate a simple, but important point: companies succeed by becoming very good at providing customers either a high-fidelity (or high-quality) experience OR a highly convenient experience. If they don't pursue one or the other, they're in trouble. The most controversial idea here is that they can't and shouldn't pursue both.
Profile Image for Brad Davis.
6 reviews6 followers
April 18, 2010
Amazing book that both makes perfect sense, and makes you think about business strategy. This book is a business class in a book. I would suggest this book for anyone starting a new company or trying to reinvent a current one.
Profile Image for Betsy Lightfoot.
25 reviews3 followers
September 29, 2010
Very interesting book about why some things catch on, others don't, why some things are popular for a while, and then vanish.

My husband and I read it a couple months ago, and still reference fidelity and/or convenience when describing something, and why it's popular (or not).
Profile Image for Doug.
327 reviews6 followers
July 8, 2011
Not great, but he's not totally wrong about seeing the consumer world through the lens of fidelity-convenience trade-off. However, he uses his thesis to "explain" some phenomena, like Wal-mart's success, that I've heard explained in other, less stretching ways.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.