A velha batota

"Because almost every single business - especially retail, product ones with a physical location - compete on price. They’re under extreme pressure, and often use discounting as a way to drive demand.
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But discounting is a race to the bottom.
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Instead, they should be selling the experience.
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Because there are basically two reasons why people hire service professionals:
1. Technical Skills or Know-How
2. Customer Experience Dealing with You
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Selling services is more difficult than products because you’re selling something intangible and invisible.
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And to be honest, most clients aren’t qualified to properly differentiate between the technical skills of two more or competitors. (IF they were, then they probably wouldn’t need your help in the first place.) It’s not because they’re dumb or naive. It’s just not their area of expertise.
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So people typically buy services if they know, like, and trust you. Of course you need to be competent, demonstrate expertise and can hopefully accomplish what you say. But people still largely buy based on the experience in dealing with you, and not because of the specific features you provide."

Trechos retirados de "How to "Sell the Experience" & Escape Pricing Pressure"

Batota, "experience economy" e co-criação.

A batota está em grande:

"Businesses that used to just sell products are courting customers with classes, entertainment, and social experiences.
...
Consumers are increasingly responding to blended retail and entertainment experiences,
...
“Millennials in particular are responding well to these enhanced shopping and recreational experiences. Businesses looking to engage these customers should consider crafting a hands-on shopping experience with a consultant or expert in the field,”"

Batota, "experience economy" e co-criação.
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Trechos retirados de "How to Sell Experiences"

"making sense of value creation and co-creation" (parte X)

Parte I, parte II, parte III, parte IV,  parte V, parte VI, parte VII, parte VIII e parte IX.
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Aproveito para incluir nesta série uma ligação para este texto "Are You Really Listening to Your Customers?", com dois bons exemplos da interacção. Uma em que não existe, fez-me lembrar a minha experiência com a Caetano em Aveiro e, outra onde ela existe e é palpável.

"making sense of value creation and co-creation" (parte IX)

Parte I, parte II, parte III, parte IV,  parte V, parte VI, parte VII e parte VIII

Há bocado no Twitter, li esta mensagem:

"Uma amiga saiu da da aula de hidroginástica , chega ao cacifo encontrando-o arrombado e totalmente vazio. Staff nem toalha extra oferece..."

Associei logo a situação a um bom exemplo, para incluir nesta série de postais. Empresas que se concentram na eficiência e, por isso minimizam a área "Joint Sphere":

Com isso, perdem oportunidades atrás de oportunidades para marcarem a vida dos seus clientes com experiências positivas.
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Um cliente acaba de descobrir que foi assaltado, está numa situação emocional frágil... a empresa, em vez de tomar partido da situação, com um serviço de minimização dos estragos, com um serviço de "salvação da situação", comporta-se como se não fosse nada com ela.
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Mandei a seguinte mensagem ao autor:

"Vou usar este tweet como incógnito no blogue. É o low-cost"

E a cena ainda piorou mais ainda, por mensagem directa o autor do tweet tornou a história ainda mais picante. Identificou o nome da organização... uma que tenta passar uma imagem de distinção e superioridade face à concorrência.

"making sense of value creation and co-creation" (parte VIII)

Parte I, parte II, parte III, parte IV,  parte V, parte VI e parte VII.
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Reparem bem na figura:

O truque é aquela "Joint Sphere" da figura.
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O que é que a sua empresa faz para alargar, esticar, inflacionar a área daquela "Joint Sphere" da figura.
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Empresas muito eficientes, com atendedores automáticos, com call centers subcontratados, com funcionários de loja low-cost, e low-empowerment, e low-motivation, e low-knowledge, apostam em tornar a "Joint Sphere" o mais pequena possível e até mesmo inexistente como no Grab & Go.
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Os batoteiros pelo contrário, sacrificam a eficiência a uma cada vez maior interacção na "Joint Sphere".
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Eu gosto de batoteiros.

Começar pelo fim

Começar pelo fim, começar pelos resultados desejados e recuar até ao que é preciso fazer.
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Apostar na comunicação, não acreditar que ela acontece por difusão, ela tem de ser realmente executada.

"How do you get employees to behave in ways that differentiate your brand to the people that matter most to your business: customer prospects, clients, partners, colleagues, and recruits?
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Too many companies are still trying to create thick manuals that lay out every possible scenario and a corresponding brand-appropriate response — an “if they do this, you do that” kind of approach. Very reactive.
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With the world a messy place filled with unexpected situations, it’s just not possible to anticipate everything.  (I’d argue it’s not even desirable.) So if you can’t script every interaction, what are some ways to drive a consistent customer experience from a diverse range of employees across an even more varied range of interactions? ... You have to work from the outcomes back. And the best way to do that is to work back and from a single question: What do you want them to say after they walk away?"

Trecho retirado de "Tell Your Team What Customers Should Say About Them"

A co-criação de valor, para fugir do showrooming

Uma tese interessante, "The Co-Creation of Value - An empirical study of value creation in physical bookstores". Como é que, apesar da ameaça da venda online de livros, algumas livrarias clássicas, livrarias físicas, conseguem fazer a diferença e continuar a crescer?
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Conclusões:

"The investigated booksellers are working with all of the three interaction facilitators; servicescape, shopping event as well as employee competence to create interaction in store that thereafter through relating, communicating and knowing increase the customer perceived value.
The success behind the booksellers is based on their niche and personal approach that is thoroughly implemented in their offerings, which will create a community feeling. The personal relationship with the customers gives a structural support for the communication that in the end increase the knowledge. However, the knowledge renewal was more vital for the employees in order to provide personal service."

Implicações:

"Brick-and-mortar stores should fully acknowledge the importance of
interacting with customers, by implementing servicescape, shopping event and employee competence with a personal touch. It is important to be as physical as possible and use the store as a social meeting place. The store should create a unique atmosphere, where like-minded customers socialize. The employee competence is vital for the brick-and-mortar stores in order to provide personal service."

A lição retirada destas livrarias pode ser generalizada, para vários sectores que sofrem a ameaça do comércio online, apostar na batota.

Mais importante que o preço e o produto

Um texto que reflecte uma preocupação constante neste blogue e na minha actuação nas PMEs, "Could This Be More Important Than Price And Product?":

"what could ultimately be more important than price and product as it relates to the ultimate purchase decision by a consumer: customer service.
...
It cannot be overstated just how vital and paramount customer service is to the overall customer experience. How can it be given the customer-centric world we now live in?"

"On Experiences as Economic Offerings" (parte III)

Parte I e parte II.
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Terminei a leitura da tese "On Experiences as Economic Offerings" de Susanne H. G. Poulsson e, recomendo o seu estudo a quem quiser desenvolver o marketing de serviços, sobretudo em sectores não transaccionáveis. Por exemplo, promover um parque de campismo, um ginásio, um evento desportivo ou musical, uma feira ou uma festa religiosa.

"On Experiences as Economic Offerings" (parte II)

Parte I.
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Mais um trecho acerca da batota, do desenho deliberado da experiência que queremos que os clientes vivenciem:

"Experience offerings arrange for particular items and activities to be
displayed and unfolded at given times and in a given order. The content needs to be staged and structured to have direction and to make the most of the time and the activities that take place. Events should not unfold at random, but rather in a structured manner as to optimize the experience. Experiential value – although it can occasionally be created by random, or by the subject’s purely internal efforts, should in a commercial context rather be a well thought out endeavor: A deliberate effort by an organization to optimize stimuli – objects, activities, facilities – to provide an experience for a consumer. Someone needs to have thought through and asked, “what is a good way to do this?” What makes this content and activity fun and interesting? It involves the “what content to present?” and “how to present it?” questions. The principles of dramaturgy may be used to structure stimuli, content and activities to optimize the coming about of a worthwhile experience.
A dramatic structure can be used to intensify and enrich an experience offering. It can give direction and order to events taking place, by constructing them into a meaningful sequence.
It can be used as a way of giving a good introduction – to build in suspense and dramatic turns into an activity as it plays out, to give characters and roles to play for employees and guests, to arrange for conflict, challenges to overcome and clear goals to reach. Done skillfully this can very well build a strong frame and backbone for the offering, developing a suitable rhythm and escalation to increase the offering’s overall value."

Trecho retirado de "On Experiences as Economic Offerings" de Susanne H. G. Poulsson. 

"On Experiences as Economic Offerings" (parte I)

Muito haverá a escrever sobre esta tese "On Experiences as Economic Offerings" de Susanne H. G. Poulsson. Contudo, começo hoje por um pormenor que é um clássico deste blogue, a batota!!!

"every product has a connected consumption event – meaning that the consumer will experience or feel something when they use/consume the product. This consumption event, and the experience had during it, may be hardly noticeable, (as when using a printer) or highly noticeable and significant for the product’s overall value, (as in the case of the thrills had during a bungee jump). In experience offerings the consumption event is of utter importance because experiential offerings’ value rests with the richness and intensity of the consumption event.
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Csikszentmihalyi’s take on flow is that: “While such events may happen spontaneously, it is much more likely that flow will result from a structured activity”. Furthermore, he states that: “Activities that provide enjoyment are often those that have been designed for this very purpose. Games, sports, and artistic and literary forms were developed over the centuries for the specific purpose of enriching life with enjoyable experiences.“
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The creation of experiential value in a commercial setting is not about a random meeting in the woods. It’s a transaction where the provider needs to be prepared to provide the right elements so that the consumer can step inside, react and act. The more thoroughly and thoughtfully designed and prepared the experience offering is, the more the consumer will be made to feel that events unfold effortlessly.
Within these settings, what strings can the experience provider pull? What are the elements consumers appear to find essential for gaining value and meaning out of an experience offering? What stimulates and tickles these consumers’ brains as well as their bodies? What are the “pleasure buttons”? What can the provider do to stage and design an offering that has a high probability of triggering experiential value in the consumer? What are the vital dimensions that matter and are the most fundamental when we look across and beyond each particular context to identify the triggers that are involved in co-creating experiential value?"

E acha que isto não se aplica aos produtos que a sua empresa produz? Em "Value creation processes and value outcomes in marketing theory: Strangers or siblings?", referido aqui, pode ler-se:

"adding hedonic aspects to utilitarian base products was more effective than adding utilitarian aspects to hedonically oriented products and suggested that the hedonic image of a product may be diluted because of utilitarian additions."

Oferecer experiências, batoteiros ao ataque

Ando a ler esta tese "On Experiences as Economic Offerings".
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A ideia inicial era ler a tese em modo rápido e focar a atenção num ponto ou outro. Contudo, rapidamente fui conquistado e optei por uma leitura lenta. Estes trechos remetem para uns números curiosos:

"The rise of affluence is one important factor for the ongoing transformation towards an increasingly more experientially oriented economy.
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This rise of affluence combined with social and cultural changes has influenced what type of products, economic offerings, are being produced and consumed.
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Recently there has been a growing understanding of the economy as becoming increasingly dematerialized. In western economies 2/3 of the economy is made up of intangible products.
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The other major shift, then, is the move towards experientially orientated consumption. Due to the widespread growth in prosperity combined with falling prices on such necessities as food and clothing, consumers have increasingly been able to afford to change their priorities on what they buy. Experiential consumption is a result of a new market arising due to the large number of consumers who now are able and willing to put money on the table when wanting to have fun and feel good.
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Spending on luxuries and experiential consumption is currently calculated to constitute about 40% of the economy. It is expected to continue its strong growth and should reach the 50% mark by the year 2020.
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From 1958 to 2007 the average yearly spending for a Norwegian household increased threefold. The spending for such necessities as food and clothing has fallen sharply. An average household is today spending 11% on food compared to 40% in 1958. Likewise, 5% is used on clothes and shoes, and that is less than half of what was spent on such items in 1958."

Conciliar isto com, encontrado em poucos minutos no Twitter, sem procurar:

• "The Sports-Related Jobs With The Strongest Growth"
• "Hermès eleva un 8% sus ventas en el primer semestre por el buen ritmo de EEUU y China"

Estou a escrever isto (ontem) em frente a um espaço em Braga que pelos vistos, cobrando 250€ por cabeça, teve o mês de Agosto cheio a proporcionar férias criativas a crianças de férias com pais presos ao trabalho.

.

Por outro lado, isto só me leva a crer que o que está por trás de coisas como esta:

• "People Think Experiences Bring Happiness, Still Opt for Things"

É falta de aposta na batota ou, na linguagem de Poulsson, a autora da tese, falhas de execução:

• na comunicação das Promessas;
• no esclarecimento das Premissas;
• no desenho e execução do Processo; e
• no desenho e execução dos Gatilhos.

E voltamos à batota...

"The big shift, you see, is that while stores are ceasing to be vital for the distribution of products they are becoming more profoundly crucial for the distribution of experiences.  The store allows the consumer to engage the brand, its products and its culture in a visceral and emotional way that simply cannot be replicated online. Therefore, as more and more sales are attributed to mobile, social and online channels, the store’s strategic importance has to shift to delivering more powerful, galvanizing experiences that forge love and loyalty. In short, the store is becoming a media experience!  And if executed properly, I would argue that the physical store experience is most powerful form of media a brand has at its disposal.
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Don’t Down-size the Store. Right-size the Experience.
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In short, the era of the store as the primary distribution channel is rapidly coming to an end.  The era of the store as media is upon us."

Trechos retirados de "The Future Of Retail: Experiences Per Square Foot"

Recordar "Acerca da batota".

Por todo o lado sintomas da mudança do mundo em que vivemos

Por todo o lado sintomas da mudança do mundo em que vivemos:

• "Shoppers Are Fleeing Physical Stores"

"U.S. retailers are facing a steep and persistent drop in store traffic, which is weighing on sales and prompting chains to slow store openings as shoppers make more of their purchases online.
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Aside from a small uptick in April, shopper visits have fallen by 5% or more from a year earlier in every month for the past two years,
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Growth in store counts at the 100 largest retailers by revenue has slowed to less than 3% from more than 12% three years ago, according to Moody's."

• Mais números e excelentes gráficos sobre a evolução do retalho aqui e aqui
• "What Business Schools Don’t Get About MOOCs" 
• "China desbancará a Estados Unidos como el mayor mercado de moda del mundo en 2017"
• "Bangladesh intensifica las protestas en el textil: 1.500 trabajadores en huelga de hambre"
• "Negocios de Verano: ‘pop-up stores’, tiendas con fecha de caducidad para seducir al turista"

Por cá tudo se justifica com a troika e a austeridade (por exemplo, "A asfixia financeira dos jornais pode custar cara a Portugal"). No entanto, até que ponto o digital está a introduzir ruído na análise destes números "Portugal com segunda maior queda mensal nas vendas a retalho".

O futuro do retalho passa pela batota

"“You’re not going to win the selection process with Amazon today,” he said. “You’re not going to make it up on price or convenience anymore. You truly have to be honest with yourself about how you’re going to play that game with Amazon.”"

Trecho retirado de "Churchill Club retail panel says Amazon can be beaten — maybe"

Acerca da batota

Ler este artigo "Make Customers Want to Buy Offline" é voltar a 2008 e à batota. Recordar "A Apologia da Batota":

• Parte I
• Parte II e
• Parte III

E já lá vão 146 postais com esse marcador.
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E o que diz o artigo?
Desenhar experiências, não confiar no acaso:

"Design your retail setting to be a showroom for your empathic experts even more than for the products you sell."

Desenhar soluções, complementos:

"This means designing your store to serve as a source for solutions, both now and in the future. Again, heightening your staff’s expertise helps immensely. So does offering customers a complete ecosystem of secondary products, rather than simply hanging some earbuds and cases within easy reach. Design with an eye to the outcome the customer is seeking, whether that’s more reliable transportation, more exciting entertainment, or higher productivity. Deliver a system of products and services that works with their primary purchase to provide those outcomes, and they’ll reward you for it, rather than try to reconstruct it all for themselves online." 

 Desenhar comunidades, outra alternativa.
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A batota que gera a experiência sentida:

"One fundamental point deserves to be underscored, because it informs all three of these design imperatives: shopping is emotional. The internet offers many functional advantages: selection is endless and endlessly searchable, prices are excellent, and there’s none of the hassle of going to the store. Most purchases, though, aren’t purely functional, and a well-designed shopping experience works with that by heightening the positive emotions and countering the negative ones.
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More than just satisfying emotional needs, shopping is part of how we form identity. The decisions we make about how we will spend our money are part of how we present ourselves to the world. Offer customers an experience that deepens their sense of identity and reflects positively on it, and you’ll earn the higher margin you’re asking them to pay."

E a sua empresa, mesmo não estando no retalho, faz batota, desenha experiências? Ou pensa que é tudo folha de cálculo?

Plataformas de interacção

Nada que não tenha sido abordado e previsto aqui há muito tempo "Compras online vão continuar a crescer apesar da importância das lojas"
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E qual o papel das lojas tradicionais?
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Como podem sobreviver?
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Um trecho retirado de "The Power of Co-Creation" começa a levantar o véu:

"retail stores can be more than places that sell products; they can become engagement platforms"

Recordar o exemplo da Retrosaria:

• Um mundo co-...
• Mongo em Portugal

Continua.

Acerca da concorrência imperfeita

"If we had a nickel for every executive who appeared on CNBC and blamed his or her company’s inability to grow on a weakness in the market, we’d be richer than Croesus. Of course, there’s a reason this explanation for uninspiring performance is so common: It’s readily available. At any given time, roughly half of all industries are growing below the level of GDP. And it’s only natural to blame something external for one’s problems. [Moi ici: Como podem ler, o comportamento não é típico de português, é típico de humano]
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The trouble is, a weak market isn’t a valid excuse. Plenty of companies that achieve above-average shareholder returns compete in average or below-average industries. [Moi ici: O tal fenómeno da distribuição das produtividades e rentabilidades que leva a que haja mais heterogeneidade dentro de um sector de actividade do que entre sectores de actividade entre si]
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There are always some companies that find a formula for growth and success in industries that aren’t doing anything special - that are just bumping along with the economy, or underperforming it. If you’re an executive in one of these industries, it’s your job to ignore the excuses and figure out how to join the ranks of overachievers.
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Between 2003 and 2013, for instance, 30 percent of companies with top-quartile shareholder returns (our proxy for success) were in industries growing at or below the rate of GDP. [Moi ici: Notável]
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[Moi ici: Primeiro o pântano para onde nos leva a concorrência perfeita] Equilibrium is the state that exists when a set of companies with fundamentally similar offerings compete within a market, getting similar returns and amassing market shares within a few points of one another. Not to put too fine a point on it, but equilibrium isn’t all that interesting.
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[Moi ici: Agora entra a promoção descarada da concorrência imperfeita] Disequilibrium is much more dynamic. The companies that create the conditions for it generally don’t follow a template, but discover a particular advantage they can use to tilt the market in their direction and keep it that way. [Moi ici: "to tilt the market in their direction and keep it that way" eheheh, quantas teses poderiam ser escritas, pelos bem-pensantes contra esta frase!!!! No entanto, é esta a nossa vida, é este o tema mais sexy com que trabalhamos com as PMEs, co-construir, co-desenhar situações de monopólio informal, de batota pura, de retornos e margens mais acima] These enterprises often become a source of fascination (and envy) among competitors because they offer proof that in business, true advantage can be created and sustained for years, or even for decades, when companies are especially shrewd—no matter the overall state of the industry.
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Executives who want to create disequilibrium should begin by asking themselves a few questions:

• What do we do that’s unique, that customers value?

• Can our competitors match this capability we have?

• Are there any coming technological or regulatory shifts that could transform our market, and if so, do we have a well-thought-out plan for addressing them?

...
You can make those better returns come to you by figuring out where you have an advantage, or might gain one, in terms of cost, service, selection, or a disruptive new product." 

Trechos retirados de "Growing When Your Industry Doesn’t"

Meter código nisso com batota misturada

Via André Cruz tive acesso a "Kinematix encomenda "faixas" a campeões ingleses de râguebi".
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Um texto que nos remete para:

• A série "É meter código nisso!";
• A série ""the Internet on crystal meth" e Mongo";
• A interacção entre fornecedor e cliente;
• A venda consultiva e os consultores compra;
• A evolução do retalho físico e a aposta na batota

E, numa vertente muito pessoal, ele também sabe que eu preciso deste serviço, para minimizar as lesões geradas pelo calçado inadequado e incorrecta postura de corrida.

""este é o único equipamento que permite obter informação dentro do sapato".  
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"Hoje o calçado desportivo é muito técnico ou segmentado e isto permite, numa questão de minutos, comparar vários pares de sapatos e ter um resultado muito visual sobre quais são os mais equilibrados, por exemplo, para a sua forma de correr", explicou."

Promoção da concorrência imperfeita

Ando actualmente na fase de diagnóstico estratégico de mais um projecto. O grande objectivo do projecto passa por aumentar as margens, para isso, é preciso aumentar os preços.
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Tarefa difícil quando o pistoleiro tem sempre o dedo no gatilho dos descontos.
Tarefa difícil quando o pistoleiro não visita sistematicamente os potenciais clientes e prescritores, corre para apresentar contratipos a pedido.
Tarefa difícil quando o produto não é suficientemente diferente.
Tarefa difícil quando não é claro quem são os clientes-alvo e prescritores adequados.

"Your competitors sell at a lower price. It’s tough to win when your competitors are willing to give away what they should be selling. But there is nothing you can do about your competitors.
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If this is your struggle, one or more of the following four reasons is the root cause of your losses.
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1. You Don’t BelieveThis is the first–and most pernicious–reason you have trouble selling at a higher price than your competitors. If you don’t believe in your heart–and with every fiber of your being–that you are creating more value than any alternative, then you won’t be able to capture more value. If you don’t believe you are worth more, than no one else is going to believe it either. And they are right not to.
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2. You Are Selling From Behind...
Instead of calling on their dream clients, that are reactive, sitting by waiting for someone to reach out to invite them to an RFP.
Selling from behind eliminates the ability for you to create value during the buyer’s journey. You are too late in the process.
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3. You Can’t Justify Your Higher Price...
If you want your dream client to perceive the value, help them by sharing what makes you different and how it makes a difference. Then give them the logic, language, and evidence to defend that value.
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4. You Aren’t Selling to Your Dream ClientsThere are some prospects with systemic challenges to paying for value. In some cases, what you do doesn’t create enough value. In other cases, your prospect’s low margin prevents them from making the necessary investments in their own business. And there are some who have a mindset that only accepts lowest price as the greatest value. These are not your dream clients.If you want to capture value, you have to sell to people who perceive that value. This is why it is critical that you invest your time and energy on the right targets."

Mas já existe um núcleo do que poderá ser a real diferenciação futura, mãos à obra, para fazer batota, para tornar a concorrência imperfeita.

Trechos retirados de "Why You Are Struggling With Price"