Let's take the case of personal genetic tests. One of the companies in this business is an enterprise called "23andMe" (www.23andme.com/). There was a story yesterday about 23andMe slashing the price of personal genetic testing from $999 to $399 (news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080909/ap_on_he_me...ic_testing_prices_1; that's some price cut!).

Here are some questions for which your answers -- and debate:

1. What's with this number "23" in the company's name? (Hint: It's an important number for us living things. A must read: Crick and Watson's The Double Helix.)

2. Do "personal genetic tests" represent a technology-intensive-product context? If yes, why yes? If no, why no?

3. What makes the "personal genetic test" context special -- and thus set it apart from P&G shampoos when it comes to marketing?

Cheers, Anirudh

23andMe -- in the true spirit of its Google co-founders Sergy Brin and his wife Anne Wojcicki -- encourages open sharing of DNA results. You can join a small or broad of a DNA community as you like.

Not sure whom to share with? Why not start with 23andMe founders Anne Wojcicki and Linda Avey? Both are ready and waiting to accept your invitation to share genomes at the Basic level. Still feel uncomfortable, then Read 23andMe and Google co-founder's blog about his own Parkinson's risk.

Or post your results on your blog! Example 1 Example 2

What's the point of all of this? And what does it have to do with marketing this high-tech product. 23andMe is engaging its customers to co-create the value of their product/service. The value proposition that makes 23andMe's marketing unique is that by inviting it's community of customer to share their data, the more valuable the network of information becomes for disease researchers... and ultimately their customers + communities. The value of 23andMe's service increases exponentially the more it can get users to opt-in to its sharing network "to achieve shared outcomes through loose voluntary associations". Wikinomics, pg. 17

What's the point of 23andMe co-founders sharing their highly personal genetic information? Quoting Wikinomics again, "For today's new Web companies, building trust is the alternative to controlling customers.... More and more companies are realizing that openess fosters trust, and that trust and community bring people back to the site (p.44)." And by creating networks that make returning to the 23andMe site a valuable experience for their customers, the company has a base to which to sell more services -- i.e. linking them to specialists on diseases they may have, sharing with them the latest in preventative health, linking otherwise hard-to-find donors, etc.