Defining the Customer – Brandwagon

9 11 2009

One of my favorite strategy quotes is Michael Porter’s – “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”

It is easy to jump on what we perceive as good deals, or trends.  Take for example my old story about Patagonia after Sarah Palin stated Patagonia as one of her favorite brands.  Instead of jumping on the bandwagon of seemingly a guaranteed increase in sales, they choose to distance themselves from Sarah Palin with the following quote:

“Patagonia’s environmental mission greatly differs from Sarah Palin’s,” Patagonia rep Jen Rapp told the WSJ. “Just wearing the clothing of an environmental company does not necessarily make someone an environmentalist.”

Or when Pepsi comes knocking with a “great deal”…

  • How well do we know our customers?
  • Can we use this to our advantage and draw more people in by being selective in what we offer?
  • When Wal~Mart moves into town…do you change what you do, or let them eat up your profits?
  • How unique are you and what value does that create?
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Categories : Communication, Culture of Action, Customer Value, Environmental Scan

Business Modeling

30 06 2009

We spend a tremendous amount of resources on preparing financial models for the company.  Which is absolutely necessary, but we also need to model the operations as well.  For example, if we model the customer lifecycle we can begin to better understand each of the subprocesses within.

This leads to many different insights into the business:

  • Critical transition points within the process – target higher impact performance areas
  • Segment the customer by value – thus better alignment of product and services
  • Better communication of value to stakeholders
  • Enhanced sales negotiation

If we can build the formula around each of the key business processes, then we are providing more tools for the organization to use to focus resources and priorities.


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Categories : Analytics, Customer Value, Operational Performance Management, Process Improvement