Swatch's Nicolas Hayek

Over at Forbes, Preston Bottger writes about the genius of Swatch's Nicolas Hayek, who died this week. Bottger writes:

"He (Hayek) decided that the customer had to be sold on the idea of wearing a watch as a personal statement. If an astronaut wore an Omega watch, a consumer could identify with the adventure of walking on the moon by wearing the same watch. For Swiss watches, the message counted more than functionality."

Undoubtedly, Hayek began a transformation in many product categories. In a wide variety of industries, other companies began to position their products as "personal statements" of one kind or another. People began to recognize that many products could be positioned as much more than a set of tangible attributes and functionalities.

The question for you is: Does your product have the potential to be positioned as more than a collection of tangible characteristics and qualities? Can it be positioned to help people tell others something about their personality and values?