Archive for the ‘Market Driven’ category

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Why mobile is much more than just the same content in a different format

February 9th, 2012

Mobile users have mobile problems and need different solutionsAs market driven products are all about resolving real (quantifiable) market problems so when I talk about mobile I am going to talk about mobile problems. However,  when we see what companies offer for mobile users it appears that they are not taking into consideration the new problems that mobile users face, it just seems to be all about a new format for the same content?.

Mobile offering cannot just be about format

When you go to a lot of websites today the great majority have a mobile offering and some, unfortunately, do not even have that. But what is this mobile offering? It is basically the exact same information presented in a different way, something easier on the eye and easier to navigate from a mobile device.

Ok, visual aspects are a problem with mobile devices and the change needed to come, however how many companies are really addressing the other real problems mobile users are having, or at least how many are asking their mobile users what problems they are having? Not many, at least nobody is has asked me:-(

Just give me what I want please, I am in a hurry!

Let’s think about it. If you are using a mobile device and you connect to an airport website what is the most likely problem you are going to have? You are going to want to know when the next arrivals or departures are, if it is a train company you want to know the arrivals and departures times for the nearest train station more than likely.

It is unlikely however that you want to know about the companies Mission, Vision and Values, something that you might be interested in reading when you connect from a desktop from your home when you have more time and leisure.

My problems define my preferences, mobile is not different

Companies use cookies to remember users preferences which is a way of understanding problems. For example I like marketing and tech information so when I go to Forbes.com I want them to bring me to the content I like. If the companies take into consideration my preferences I also want them to take into consideration my new mobile problems and respond to them, give me the option to get straight to the point as quickly as possible.

I am not sure if the problems that I presented above are real as I haven’t quantified or qualified then what I am sure of however is that the mobile user, taking into consideration location and the website in question, has generally got a distinct reason for engaging with websites to the desktop user.
What do you think? Are your needs the same when you are mobile as to when you are at home in front of the laptop? Can you think of any companies that are doing this well? Address the mobile users specific problems, I would love to see some good examples?
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Posted in Market Driven, Mobile

The buying process is seldom the selling process

February 2nd, 2012

Buying process is seldom the same as the selling processI am presently working on defining a buying process and as always when I am working on projects I like to write posts as they help to structure my ideas and put them to the test. To start with; a buying process is the process (series of steps / actions) that a buyer follows to purchase a product or service.

The general misunderstanding in most companies is that the sales process is the buying process. Unfortunately this is seldom the case. The selling process is how your sales teams sell the product (create interest (telemarketing e.g), do a demo (live e.g), negotiate price etc. However that does not mean that the sales process coincides with how YOUR customer actually buys the products (buying process) unless you have investigated it and mapped your sales process with the buying process. So your customers maybe do not like telemarketing and prefer to go to straight to your website, they prefer to try the product before seeing a demo etc.

Get to know your buying personas, the selection process is their’s!

What generally happens in the majority of companies is they create a sales process generally based around the experience of it’s sales force, sales directors, from the previous companies they worked in etc. In a lot of cases these sales process have very little to do with how YOUR customers actual buy the product.

To be able to understand the buying process you need to know who engages in the buying process, when they engage and how they engage. For example, you may have the economic persona, who runs the numbers; ROI etc and also a Technical persona who ensures the product is aligned with company policies, process etc and so on and so forth. You also need to identify the barriers they encounter in the various stages during the selection process.

Once you have that (and a lot of other) information quantified and qualified you need to then make sales actions to respond to the buying steps and create tools which enable the sales team to help the prospect in each step of HER / HIS selection process.

Another key to creating outside-in market driven products

Understanding the commercialization of products from a buying perspective before the sales perspective is key in creating market driven products as you are once again focusing on the problems being faced by your market (outside in focus), this time the problems your customers have in selecting the right product instead of the problems you have in selling the product to your customer (inside out thinking).

 

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Posted in Human behavior, Market Driven, Marketing

What is the brand, the company or the product name?

January 12th, 2012

Company product brandingI got a lot of feedback in regards to my post on the importance of categories in branding and why you need to create a new category if you really want to set yourself apart from the rest of the pack.The feedback I got was more to do about the basics of branding which I tried to explain in an earlier post. Most people understand that the company name is the brand but don’t understand that the actual product name is also a brand. So the brand is Apple, so too is iPad or iPhone, Gillette and Match 3 etc.

Angry birds; strong brand name but who is the company?

What is the brand name, the company or the product? The answer, both, the question is which do you want to push more? At a strategic level the company brand might be very strong and it might give additional klout to the product name or it might actual take away from the product brand. Long story short, any name is a brand, depending on the strenght of the name and how it is perceived in the market you might want to push the company brand or the product brand more or less. Case in point, Angry Birds. What is the company brand? Rovio Mobile! I actually had to look that up. Here the product brand is much stronger than the company, this is not the case for Apple and it’s products.
So in the case of Angry Birds, it’s logical that Rovio Mobile will push the product brand and not the company’s as the company name does not add value you to the product. Another good example of this is Venus, the women’s shaving product line. Who is the company behind the products? Gillette. However, the Gillette brand is very much associated with mens shaving products so strategically it was important NOT to push the company brand and only push the product brand, Venus.

Conclusion

So both the product and company names are brands. If you are commercializing a product you will always need to push the product brand but sometimes it is also important to leverage the company brand as it can add additional value and in some cases you may wish to hide the company brand as it may not add value or even hurt the product.

 

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Posted in Branding, Market Driven, Marketing