Musings of a Marketing Maven

Wenger, manufacturer of the venerable Swiss Army knife, now sells a 3-pound multifunction “knife” with 87 tools and over 100 uses. No doubt intended for price-insensitive gadget collectors, it carries a hefty price tag of $1200. It reminds me of the current generation of smart phones.

Like a smart phone it affords way more functions than most people need, and suffers from too much complexity as a result.

The performance of each individual function is probably mediocre, compared to a dedicated function tool — like the embedded cameras in smart phones compared to digital cameras. Or emailing or surfing the Net from a smart phone compared to browsing or emailing from a notebook computer.

In any case you won’t find me carrying one of these devices!