quarta-feira, junho 11, 2025

Ter a coragem de escolher um lado


Há anos escrevi aqui no blog a série:
Agora em "Better, simpler strategy : a value-based guide to exceptional performance" de Felix Oberholzer-Gee encontramos:
"Some of the smaller firms succeed by creating customer delight that does not reflect scale. Others find success by giving preference to one of the groups on the platform. Serving a small set of customers can also lead to stellar performance.
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One reason that Etsy and Handmade can live side by side is that their platforms favor different groups. Amazon is squarely in the customer's corner. Every feature of its business is designed with customers in mind. By contrast, Etsy was set up to support artisans and serve the craft movement. This difference in orientation manifests itself in many ways. Etsy charges sellers lower fees and releases their payments immediately, while Amazon holds on to seller funds. Etsy has a long history of supporting the maker movement, engaging in extensive seller education and community support.
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Platforms serve multiple groups of customers, and while many create value for all groups, some choices betray the organization's primary orientation. A travel site that sorts hotels by profit margin primarily serves the lodging industry. A site that sorts by customer reviews has the opposite orientation. The distinction between buyer-focused and seller-dominated platforms is particularly stark in B2B. At one extreme, procurement platforms serve buyers by creating efficiencies in purchasing. At the other end of the spectrum, seller-oriented platforms often resemble business directories.
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If yours is a small company staring at a large platform, it is always worth asking whether you might be able to create meaningful differentiation by focusing on the WTP of the group that is less favored by your competitor.
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The key insight here is that every large platform serves many different types of customers. The attraction between the types varies, however, and building a smaller platform for individuals who greatly value one another is a promising strategy.
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"Focus on a limited set of customers" is not the most intuitive advice if you are trying to build a business that will benefit from network effects. It is nevertheless good advice. By serving a select group of users who benefit most from being connected to one another, you might be able to compete with much bigger platforms."

A obsessão com escala e dominância obscurece uma verdade mais subtil, mas estratégica: nem todos os mercados são de "winner-takes-all". Como mostra Felix Oberholzer-Gee, há espaço para plataformas pequenas e bem-sucedidas que escolhem servir melhor quem os gigantes deixam para segundo plano.

O segredo? Ter a coragem de escolher um lado — o lado menos favorecido — e aumentar o valor percebido por esse grupo. Não se trata de vencer pela força, mas de criar afinidade, identidade e uma proposta que ressoe de forma mais intensa com menos gente. Estratégia, aqui, é foco, não ubiquidade. É preferência, não presença. E isso, por si só, já é uma vantagem competitiva. 

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