Smartguns: The product without a market

While the media markets smartguns, here’s a little secret they’re not telling you. People afraid of guns don’t buy smart guns, regular guns, or any guns. My own sister won’t let my brother-in-law own any weapons, and he served in the IDF. Now I’m not telling you that people like Bloomberg and Sarah Brady don’t own guns, they do, they even have licenses to carry them. But they don’t fear guns, they fear gun owners. The Giffords have purchased AR-15’s themselves, they have shot all kinds of guns. They just don’t want you to do the same. In fact, some anti-gun organizations have come out against smart guns because the last thing they want is more people owning guns.

The only reason to buy a smart gun would be being so scared of your gun being against you, stolen, or used by your kid to shoot himself or a friend. Yet if you had that fear, why own any guns in the first place? I know a guy who gave up his guns as soon as he had kids, so imagine convincing a non-gun owner, someone who may be afraid of guns, to give guns a chance. It would be like asking a couch potato to buy a $3,000 treadmill, the kind you find at the gyms. It’s true that a lot of exercise equipment is sold based on hope, but that hope may be worth $400, maybe $700, but certainly not $3,000, not unless you’re some fitness fanatic with money to burn. Even yuppies and shopaholics are more likely to buy something they love, than something that scares them. Even new gun owners first buy a simple gun, then they start dealing with more complicated weaponry.

One of the oldest techniques in marketing is the Unique Selling Proposition, the idea is finding something that makes your product unique and completely different from everyone else’s. A self-cleaning gun would be a huge USP if it’s ever invented, so was the first self-cleaning oven, but the proposition of the smart gun is something like: “all other guns are dangerous, this one is safe.” Yet we know that gun accidents can happen with the smart gun. If you’re wearing the RFID wrist and keep your finger on the trigger, that gun might fire. Maybe some people could use a gun that tells them, “Warning! You’re pointing that gun at an unsafe direction” or “Danger! Your finger is on the trigger” yet that gun would be useless for self-defense. You’re basically advertising your location to the bad guy. A gun like that might get rented at the range, but it would depend on the cost, for the value of an object is a combination of function and cost. A used Toyota Prius with 50,000 miles for $14,000 is a great value if you’re looking to save on gas. A new Toyota Prius for $30,000 may or may not be a great value, and a Tesla for $60,000 is only limited to rich environmentalists more interested in making a point than people hurt by high gas prices.

Selling smart guns is like selling tobacco to people who hate the smell of cigarette smoke or selling electronic cigarettes to someone who doesn’t smoke regular cigarettes and wants to quit. The smart gun doesn’t offer any real benefits, it doesn’t improve your marksmanship, it’s not easier to clean, it’s doesn’t shoot faster, they rarely come in calibers we want like 9mm or 44 and instead are offered in .22. The media compares a smart gun maker like Armatix to Steve Jobs, yet where would Jobs be if the iPhone didn’t come with Siri and all its other cool features? Design sells, but function matters. Those of us who love Apple products aren’t just paying for design, we like not having to deal with Windows 8 and all those crazy boxes.

The smart gun is a product without a market, whose biggest defenders are the people that don’t want you having a gun in the first place. I’m sure every gun maker in the country envies the millions of dollars in free publicity Armatix has gotten. Yet contrary to popular perception, advertising and publicity can’t sell the unsellable. Even infomercials need to feature an attractive price to convince people to dial that 1-800 number. What appeal can smart guns make? “For just $200 a month for 10 months, you can own the totally-smart gun?”. “Are you afraid of guns? Then fear no more with Armatix.” “Parents, don’t let your kids shoot themselves. Get a smart gun.” See what I mean? Fear marketing works when your product solves the fear, not when what you sell is what people fear.

Those who are too scared to get a real gun won’t be buying smart guns, those who love real guns won’t be getting smart guns, our military, police, private bodyguards and secret service, aren’t getting smart guns. So how does Armatix stays in business is beyond me, I challenge them to invent a product we actually want.