Shovels. The bicycle of the mind is selling people on something they want. The iPhone, aside from being a technological leap over other phones in the market, allowed people to feel better than others by the simple act of ownership. Everything in their repertoire revolves around selling more shovels. Remember the app store rush? What fueled it? The opportunity to make an app and get rich.
I'm inclined to agree with you. I don't think IKEA sells shovels. At least, not in the way Apple does. BMW is more of a middle ground between the two.
I think what we're looking at is selling experiences?
You can sell shovels and bundle experience with them - I think it's pretty straightforward to view Apple from that perspective.
But home furnishings are just purely experiences. Clothing seems to fall into the same experience category.
So maybe it's a sort of trifecta. Middlemen, Shovels, and experience.
When I buy a television there's going to be a middleman - a retailer - who probably can provide some pro/con to the experience category. But what's driving me is the experience that the TV will afford. Same with IKEA.
When I buy a Macbook Pro I'm looking for a device that can help me edit code and video in ways that I enjoy, so the shovel factor is important to me.
If I'm going to buy a luxury car like a BMW then there's the shovel-factor of having reliable transportation, but the premium price comes from experience.
Utility, middle-men, and experience. The extra category of experience seems to fill in the gaps.
