The Sharper Image: Creating Better Desires

The Sharper Image maintains frequent communication with customers via phone, mail, e-mail and occasional surveys, as well as real-time monitoring of sales, all of which can give the company a near-instant reading on the degree of a product’s success. Sometimes, customers will write, lamenting that such-and-such an item doesn’t have this or that feature, whereupon the change can be made within weeks or, at most, months, and once in a while on the fly if it’s coming off the production line. With products sourced outside the company, such changes could take years. The Sharper Image adheres to Joan Throckmorton’s dictum: “Properly treated, the customer will continue to tell us reliably not only what to sell, but when to sell, how much to sell, the best offer to use.”