4.4 Dynamic Tension Between Midas and Hermes Spawns Atlas

From the producer’s perspective, the idea is to get the creative juices flowing and use the top and bottom of the demand curve to generate new ideas for products and services by drawing on both extravagant and frugal engineering approaches to develop Atlas products. The mass-appeal or mainstream products in the middle are called Atlas products. Atlas was a Greek mythological figure that supported the weight of the heavens on his shoulders. Atlas products support the broad-based customer segment in the middle that requires products that have standard features and also have slightly differentiated features to meet the demand of monopolistic competition. The point is to create dynamic tension between the two ends of the demand curve, anchored by extravagantly engineered and designed Midas products and frugally engineered and designed Hermes products. The result of this dynamic tension is an Atlas product.Dynamic Tension was an exercise approach developed by Charles Atlas, but it also works here. This is a product with attractive features and with an attractive contribution margin. The result is also a robust process for continually inventing and reinventing the products and services to stave off the competition and establish a strong foundation for survival.