Edison on Innovation: 102 Lessons in Creativity for Business and Beyond

6.3. Lesson 50: Educate the Customer

The earliest versions of the Edison phonograph were mechanically simple, but they required a certain degree of skill to operate. Edison understood that successfully marketing the phonograph would call for educating customers, in effect endowing them with the skill required to operate the phonograph and derive satisfaction from it. Fortunately, he was able to turn to an existing model to formulate an approach to his program of customer enlightenment. Such consumer devices as typewriters and sewing machines were sold by canvassers who obtained orders, which were then delivered by a functionary typically called an "inspector," whose job it was to install or set up the machine and then provide the user with personalized ...