Viva a batota!!!

Foi deste postal "A apologia da batota (parte III)" que me lembrei, quando li este artigo "Discovering New Points of Differentiation" de Ian C. MacMillan e Rita Gunther McGrath, publicado pela HBR em Julho de 1997.
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"Most profitable strategies are built on differentiation: offering customers something they value that competitors don't have. But most companies, in seeking to differentiate themselves, focus their energy only on their products or services. In fact, a company has the opportunity to differentiate itself at every point where it comes in contact with its customers (Moi ici: Recordo-me de um tal Carlsson da SAS e da sua mensagem sobre os momentos da verdade) - from the moment customers realize that they need a product or service to the time when they no longer want it and decide to dispose of it. We believe that if companies open up their creative thinking to their customers' entire experience with a product or service - what we call the consumption chain – they can uncover opportunities to position their offerings in ways that they, and their competitors, would never have thought possible.
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the first step toward strategic differentiation is to map your customer's entire experience with your product or service. We recommend that companies perform this exercise for each important customer segment.
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identifying, for each major market segment, all the steps through which customers pass from the time they first become aware of your product (Moi ici: Eu ainda recuo mais, quando é que o cliente sente a necessidade de algo que pode ser colmatado pela nossa plataforma de service? Onde é que ele vai procurar informação? A quem a vai solicitar?) to the time when they finally have to dispose of it or discontinue using it.
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How do people hecome aware of their need for your product or service?
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How do consumers find your offering?
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How do consumers make their final selections?
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How do customers order and purchase your product or service?
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How is your product or service delivered?
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What happens when your product or service is delivered?
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How is your product installed?
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How is your product or service paid for?
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How is your product stored?
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How is your product moved around?
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What is the customer really using your product for?
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What do customers need help with when they use your product?
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What about returns or exchanges?
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How is your product repaired or serviced?
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What happens when your product is disposed of or no longer used?
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Although mapping the consumption chain is a useful tool in itself, the strategic value of our approach lies in the next step: analyzing your customer's experience. The objective is to gain insight into the customer
by appreciating the context within which each step of the consumption chain unfolds.
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What? What are customers doing at each point in the consumption chain
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Where? Where are your customers when they are at this point in the consumption chain?
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Who? Who else is with the customer at any given link in the chain?
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When? When-at what time of day or night, on what day of the week, at what time of the year-are your customers at any given link in the chain?
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How? How are your customers' needs being addressed?"

O artigo é um verdadeiro manual sobre como começar a pensar em alternativas para fazer batota.