What "Preventive Dentistry" Means to Me
When I returned to my parents' home for the Obon holiday, I found a nostalgic book on the bookshelf.
"How to Sell a 100-Yen Cola for 1,000 Yen"
It's a book I read 7 or 8 years ago when I was a teacher. I didn't understand marketing at all back then, but I remember reading it with interest because it was in a story format.
Reading it again this time, I felt differently about it in a way that surprised me.
Now that I have started personal development and am creating my own services, there was a story that particularly resonated with me.
That is the question,
"What is preventive dentistry to me?"
.
Railway companies were in the "railway business"
One of the episodes that left an impression in the book was about American railway companies.
The railway companies thought of their business as the "railway business."
So, even when people started using cars and airplanes, they ended up thinking,
"We are a railway company, so it has nothing to do with us."
But that wasn't actually true.
What they were doing was a "transportation business that moves people and goods."
If they had thought that way from the beginning,
Are cars a competitor?
How do we compete with airplanes?
Are there other means of transportation?
They might have been able to think that way.
It was a story about how the difference in perspective—not "what are we making," but
"what kind of value are we providing"
—makes a huge difference.
Xylitol gum sold "preventive dentistry"
Another thing that left an impression was the story of Xylitol gum.
The gum market at the time was a red ocean with fierce competition over flavor and breath care.
In the midst of that, Xylitol gum tried to create a completely different market.
That was the concept of
"preventive dentistry".
Instead of treating cavities after they occur, prevent them so they don't happen.
They tried to spread that value to the world.
However, there was initially opposition from dentists as well.
"If we prevent cavities, the number of patients will decrease."
That was the thinking.
So they went a step further and changed the very role of dentists.
Dentists are not
"places to fix cavities"
but
"places to maintain healthy teeth."
Once this idea spread, the customers for dentists became not just people with cavities, but everyone who wanted to maintain healthy teeth.
Just by changing how value is perceived, the market itself changes.
It was a very interesting story.
Product thinking and market thinking
In the book, the terms
Product thinking (product-out)
Market thinking (market-in)
also appear.
Product thinking is the idea that
"if you make a good product, it will sell."
On the other hand, market thinking is the perspective of
"what value does the market or customer really want?"
It's not a question of which is correct.
However, I felt that market thinking looks at things from a higher perspective.
What is "preventive dentistry" to me?
I currently work as an engineer.
I am involved in multiple services at my company, and I continue to do personal development.
For each app,
"Zukizuki Forecast" wants to help people troubled by low atmospheric pressure
"Mediple" wants to help people who want to make meditation a habit
"Thinkple" wants to help you build a habit of taking notes
I can explain the value of each one like that.
However, if asked,
"What kind of value does Maeda as a person want to provide to the world?"
I still cannot fully answer.
Even if I can explain the functions of individual apps, I have yet to find the words to summarize them from a higher perspective.
What I am vaguely thinking about right now is,
"I want to support habit-building so that people can move in a better direction."
That is it.
Although I haven't fully articulated it yet, I feel that the apps I create have commonalities little by little.
I want to find "what preventive dentistry means to me"
Rereading this book this time, the thing that made me think the most was the question,
"What is preventive dentistry to me?"
A railway company's "transportation business."
A dentist's "maintaining healthy teeth."
If I look at myself from such a higher perspective, I might see a different landscape than before.
I haven't found the answer yet.
But by continuing to hold this question, I feel that both the services I create and my own direction will gradually become visible.
Finally
This blog is