'Trade-Off' by Kevin Maney: What determines a product's success?

— -- Would Big Macs sell as well if they cost twice as much and took twice as long to buy?

Would Tiffany's jewelry be as coveted if it cost half as much and was sold at Target?

Intuitively not, and the explanation lies in what author and technology journalist Kevin Maney calls the trade-off between fidelity and convenience.

Fidelity, Maney writes in his new book, Trade-Off, is all about being loved, although not necessarily needed. It's a mixture of a product's or service's quality, aura and identity. Tiffany's jewelry is high fidelity, as are iPhones, concert tickets and first-class airline seats that lie flat.

Convenience, meanwhile, boils down to a product or service being needed. Is it readily available? Easy to use? Affordable? Maney throws Wal-Mart, microwave ovens, 7-Eleven and inexpensive home computers into the convenience category.

While such things might be needed by a lot of people, Maney writes, they're not usually loved any more than toilet paper or dish detergent is loved. And these products don't need to be loved to succeed, he says.

Most winning products land either at the top of the fidelity axis (for example, the iPhone was an instant success despite its high price tag and limited availability) or atop the convenience axis (super retailer Wal-Mart makes shopping easier and cheaper).

But problems set in when a company gets greedy and aims for both fidelity and convenience, Maney says. Take Starbucks. What started as a high-fidelity coffee experience became watered down by the chain's rapid expansion, which dissipated its unique and special aura.

Furthermore, Maney writes, Starbucks couldn't achieve genuine convenience, despite its ubiquity, because its prices were too high and lines too long.

Now, with recent news that the company is rebranding a handful of remodeled stores with the name of their neighborhood instead of the name Starbucks, Maney says CEO Howard Schultz is playing right into the trade-off concept.