Comoditização de uma experiência

Ontem li "How Starbucks Devalued Its Own Brand":

"Starbucks is in trouble again. In its last quarterly-earnings report, it announced disappointing results, including a 4% drop in same-store sales (11% in China, its second-biggest market). After that announcement, its stock plunged. (It is still well below its 12-month high.) And its founder and three-time CEO Howard Schultz once again fired off a missive on LinkedIn pleading with Starbucks' current leaders to rediscover and embrace the company's core purpose, its reason for existence.

Schultz's open letter, which followed another he issued in February, largely echoes the growing sentiments of many long-time customers: Going to Starbucks isn't what it used to be, and the brand itself isn't what it used to mean. The fundamental problem: Starbucks has been commoditizing itself."

Empresa tem sucesso inicial com uma proposta de valor única. Depois, a doença anglo-saxónica entra em jogo e começa a espiral que a atrai para a eficiência pura e dura e a magia inicial desaparece. Não esquecer o velho banco e a lição dos nabateus.

Como é que a Starbucks se comoditizou:

• Ao dar prioridade à eficiência operacional e ao aumento do volume de vendas, a Starbucks começou a parecer-se mais com um serviço genérico de café do que com um lugar único e acolhedor. Esta mudança resultou na perda da essência de ser o "third place" (um local além da casa e do trabalho onde as pessoas se podiam reunir e relaxar) que Howard Schultz havia idealizado.
• A automatização e a padronização dos processos reduziram o elemento humano e a personalização que diferenciavam a Starbucks dos outros estabelecimentos.
• Ao tentar atender tanto os clientes que buscavam conveniência rápida quanto aqueles que queriam uma experiência mais profunda e envolvente, a Starbucks acabou comprometendo a qualidade da experiência para ambos os grupos. 

Reduziram a qualidade da experiência em loja:

• As cadeiras confortáveis foram substituídas por cadeiras de madeira dura, incentivando os clientes a saírem rapidamente.
• Tornou-se difícil para os clientes encontrarem tomadas para carregar os seus dispositivos, reduzindo o tempo que passavam nas lojas. 
• Pedidos impressos substituíram a escrita manual nos copos, removendo o toque pessoal e as mensagens amigáveis que os baristas costumavam escrever.

Aumentou o foco na conveniência e no volume:

• O programa de fidelidade passou a focar mais o valor monetário das compras do que a experiência proporcionada.
• A introdução de drive-throughs e pedidos móveis aumentou as vendas, mas diminuiu a experiência no local, causando uma divisão da atenção dos baristas e criando um ambiente mais impessoal.

Mudança na atmosfera:

• O aroma característico de café fresco foi substituído por pacotes selados prontos para uso, diminuindo a experiência sensorial.
• Em certos locais, todas as cadeiras foram removidas para foco nos pedidos móveis, eliminando a possibilidade de socialização e relaxamento no local.

 Tensões internas e condições de trabalho:

• A Starbucks deixou de aparecer nas listas de melhores lugares para trabalhar, com funcionários vocalizando cada vez mais insatisfações sobre as suas condições de trabalho e a ênfase excessiva em métricas de vendas em detrimento da qualidade da interacção com os clientes.

Como dar a volta à situação?

"Recapturing the authenticity of the brand means doing away with the assembly-line feel of today's Starbucks, letting employees once again be key actors in the experience. The liveliness that comes with baristas shouting orders and the human connections they make are precisely what gave these places a neighborhood coffee shop feel — even if that meant an occasional odd misspelling on your cup or an unwarranted extra pump of syrup. Such "mistakes" made the Starbucks experience authentically human. Re-enriching jobs that have become routinized and empowering employees to stage meaningful experiences might also go a long way in improving their sentiment toward the company."

Big data e experiência dos clientes

A propósito de "Customer Experience in the Age of AI":

"brands can win by tapping a deep store of customer information to transform and personalize user experiences. From the pre-internet dawn of segment-of-one marketing to the customer journey of the digital era, personalized customer experiences have unequivocally become the basis for competitive advantage. Personalization now goes far beyond getting customers’ names right in advertising pitches, having complete data at the ready when someone calls customer service, or tailoring a web landing page with customer-relevant offers. It is the design target for every physical and virtual touch-point, and it is increasingly powered by AI.

...

We are now at the point where competitive advantage will derive from the ability to capture, analyze, and utilize personalized customer data at scale and from the use of AI to understand, shape, customize, and optimize the customer journey."

Recordei o que li em "The Data Detective" de Tim Harford:

"The algorithms that analyze big data are trained using found data that can be subtly biased.

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One thing is certain. If algorithms are shown a skewed sample of the world, they will reach a skewed conclusion.

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There are some overtly racist and sexist people out there—look around—but in general what we count and what we fail to count is often the result of an unexamined choice, of subtle biases and hidden assumptions that we haven’t realized are leading us astray.

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Big found datasets can seem comprehensive, and may be enormously useful, but “N = All” is often a seductive illusion: it’s easy to make unwarranted assumptions that we have everything that matters. We must always ask who and what is missing. And this is only one reason to approach big data with caution. Big data represents a huge and underscrutinized change in the way statistics are being collected, and that is where our journey to make the world add up will take us next."

"Inflation and the ‘Experience Economy’"

"Inflation tends to be understood as higher prices resulting either from increased costs—global supply-chain issues and hard-to-find workers—or from increased demand, such as pent-up purchases, as well as easy monetary policy from the Federal Reserve and blowout spending from Congress. But there’s another significant factor at play: Price increases also arise from growth in the perceived value of economic offerings.

...

Consumer values have shifted greatly over the years, most notably from goods and services to experiences. As I first argued on these pages in 1997 with my business partner, Jim Gilmore, experiences are a distinct economic offering, as different from services as services are from goods.

Fundamentally, experiences offer time well spent. People value the time they spend in experiences, resulting in a memory (and, so often these days, a trail of social media posts).

...

Unfortunately, the government still classifies experiences as services. The latter, however, merely provides time well saved. The disparity in value is too profound between, say, going to a dry cleaner and a concert, between having your oil changed and changing your physique at a gym, between home delivery of goods and the spending the day with your family at a theme park.

...

That’s why Walt Disney World outpaced measured inflation by so great a rate—because consumers value its experience more than the average market-basket good and are willing to pay much more for it relative to other offerings. This same effect is true for the myriad experiences that make up today’s “Experience Economy.”

Consumers also value their time more highly than they used to. They want goods and services to be commodities—bought at the lowest possible price and greatest possible convenience—so they can spend their hard-earned money and their harder-earned time on experiences they value more highly."

Trechos retirados de "Inflation and the ‘Experience Economy’"

Progressão da economia das experiências em tempos de confinamento

Em Maio de 2020 escrevi o postal "El coronavirus actúa como acelerador de cambios que ya estaban en marcha".

Uma das tendências que este blogue regista há vários anos é a da progressão da economia das experiências.

Esta entrevista com Joe Pine, sobre a progressão da economia das experiências em tempos de confinamento, é muito interessante.

Gostei sobretudo da progressão dos jogos de detectives. Pessoas que podem estar em diversos locais geograficamente fazem parte de equipa que através do Zoom procura resolver um mistério dentro de uma janela temporal.

"One of Pine’s favourite experiences during lockdown, he tells me, was by theatre and experience makers, Swamp Motel, who put on a hugely popular immersive online detective game called Plymouth Point. “You interact live with people to try and figure out what’s going on; it was a great experience,” he says. “That company has actually hired more people over the past year because what they’re doing is so successful.”

As the physical experience sector opens up, many of the lessons learned during the lockdowns will enable them to provide a better offer than before, says Pine. Here he sets out some of the biggest trends he’s seeing and what companies need to do to survive and thrive during the years ahead.

“One of the signs that the Experience Economy is very healthy is that whenever a place does open up to whatever capacity it can – guess what? It fills up to that limited capacity,” he says. “People will never stop wanting exciting and meaningful experiences.”"

De reter também a abordagem híbrida a quatro níveis. 

Produtividade é muito mais do que organização

“Comparando agora Portugal com a EU-14, o deficit de produtividade aumenta à medida que os produtos ou serviços são menos básicos e é mais possível fugir ao trabalho manual através da organização. [Moi ici: Come on, é muito mais do que organização. O erro é comparar produtividades e pensar que estamos a comparar numeradores iguais e, portanto, que as diferenças decorrem de denominadores diferentes. Um erro crasso!!!] 

Por exemplo nos metais básicos a produtividade portuguesa é 74% da dinamarquesa. Mas já nos produtos fabricados de metais é 40%. [Moi ici: Quando comparamos produtos básicos, comparamos produtos suficientemente parecidos. Aqui a questão da organização, da diferença no denominador, explicará parte da diferença. Contudo, nos produtos fabricados isso já não é suficiente porque sendo os produtos diferentes, o numerador é bem diferente] 

Face à Áustria, nos metais básicos a nossa produtividade é 50% e de apenas 33% nos produtos metálicos fabricados. As percentagens repetem-se face a outros países: EUA, 42% e 31%; ou Suécia, 54% e 37%, respectivamente.

Como se repetem em outras indústrias. Por exemplo na indústria farmacêutica (onde além dos genéricos e subcontratação de fabricação de químicos, há os medicamentos de marca) a produtividade de Israel é 2,6 vezes a nossa e a da Irlanda 7,5 vezes (já corrigida para retirar o efeito das multinacionais que usam a Irlanda apenas por razes fiscais).

Ou seja, à medida que os sectores são menos intensivos em trabalho (onde os ganhos de produtividade são mais difíceis) e mais intensivos em know-how, a produtividade portuguesa "derrapa" crescentemente face à Europeia.”

Primeiro, dois exemplos da metalomecânica, a Vipp dinamarquesa e a Marlin Steel americana. Exemplos que ilustram o que está em causa com casos concretos. Como escrevi em 2006:

"Na semana passada, ao procurar explicar o conceito de produtividade a um grupo de operários, um deles saiu-se com este exemplo: "O que está a dizer é que se pegarmos num metro quadrado de chapa e o utilizarmos para fazer um guarda-lamas de uma motorizada, teremos mais rendimento do que se o utilizarmos para fazer pás, ou enxadas." Eloquente!!!"

Segundo, alguns postais que ajudam a explicar estas diferenças de produtividade:

• Quando o sol se levanta será bom que corras (Junho de 2006)

Podemos vender trigo, ou vender farinha, ou vender bolos, ou organizar festas de aniversário com palhaços e tudo. Subindo na escala de valor, aumentamos a produtividade.

• Pregarás o Evangelho do Valor (Março de 2006)

 Aumenta-se muito mais a margem com o aumento de 1% no preço do que a reduzir 1% o custo fixo ou o custo variável.

Como é que se aumentam os preços sem perder clientes? Subindo na escala de valor, trabalhando na willingness to pay (WTP) dos clientes. O erro é trabalharmos para o output da nossa organização em vez de trabalhar para o outcome do cliente.(Abril de 2020)

• A originação de valor (parte I) (Outubro de 2008)

A típica empresa portuguesa está no estágio da extracção de valor. O mais básico de todos.

• Produtividade é muito mais do que organização, recordar aos engenheiros "Actualizem o documento por favor." (Março de 2009)

Trecho retirado de "Qual o antónimo de Luxemburgo?" publicado no semanário Vida Económica de 16 de Julho de 2021.

O retorno dos independentes

“If we see our products as books and what we compete on price, we lose. If we see our product as an experience, of which books are one piece, then we can compete.”

"Raffaelli distills the resurgence of the indies down to three main points: Community, Curation, and Convening.
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Community: As longtime community stalwarts, bookstores have been at the vanguard of the “buy local” movement, pioneering events such as Small-Business Saturday, and making their customers feel virtuous about spending money in their own neighborhoods. “It’s almost like a social movement,” says Raffaelli, who says indie bookstores are “anchors of authenticity in an ever-increasing digital and disconnected world.” The notion goes beyond a bond with customers to include other important community actors, such as schools, chambers of commerce, and civic organizations, reinforcing the social fabric and engendering a strong sense of customer and community loyalty.
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Curation: Despite the increasing sophistication of online algorithms, online platforms have been unable to replicate the knowledge and passion of indie bookstore employees, says Raffaelli. “Many booksellers are voracious readers and serve as trusted guides who can point their customers to new genres or up-and-coming authors they might not have encountered,” he says. “Customers leave the store excited and then want to come back.” By contrast, he says, Amazon’s reputation as “the everything store” can sometimes work against it, overwhelming consumers with too many options and an impersonal experience.
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Convening: Indie bookstores are increasingly serving as points for convening, expanding beyond author events to host book groups, children’s story hours, birthday parties, music events, knitting circles, culinary demonstrations, and other events. Several stores Raffaelli visited reported staging over 500 events a year. “Bookstores have always been a place where people could convene and have a conversation about the issues of the day,” he says, adding that bookstore owners are increasingly seeing their competition not as Barnes & Noble, but as Netflix and other entertainment apps that tie people to their couches. “Retailers who succeed are able to create a unique experience that consumers see as time well-spent. [Moi ici: Nunca esqueço de Pine e a sua relaação entre experiência e "time weel spent"] Not only do such events get people into the store—the number one goal of every retailer—but events open the door for readers to connect with other bibliophiles, creating more demand for their products.
Ironically, in their efforts to build community, bookstores have increasingly embraced the online world as a tool to extend their reach. “Bookstores have become sophisticated at building a social media presence,” Raffaelli says. “Many owners have hired online specialists to extend the conversation outside the four walls of the bookstore itself.”

Interessante esta ferramenta de avaliação das lojas:

 Fontes:

• Lessons for Retailers from the Rebirth of Indie Bookstores
• Reinventing Retail: The Novel Resurgence of Independent Bookstores

"the power of small gestures"

“In an era of cutthroat competition, deep-seated cynicism, and the digital disruption of everything, who wants to make big bets on the power of small gestures? Not very many organizations, it seems,
...
Work increasingly isn’t, or isn’t only, a matter of producing things, but of supplying your energies, physical and emotional, in the service of others. It isn’t what you make, but how your display of feelings makes others feel.
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I’m convinced that “emotional labor” will become a more important job of companies that win big in the future, and that’s a phenomenon that makes me smile.
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Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?”; “Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?”; “Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?
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Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?”

Trechos retirados de “Simply Brilliant: How Great Organizations Do Ordinary Things in Extraordinary Ways” de  William C. Taylor.

"It is about passion, emotion, identity"

“Stop Trying to Be the Best; Strive to Be the Only
The most successful organizations are no longer the ones that offer the best deals. They’re the ones that champion the most original ideas, and do things other organizations can’t or won’t do.
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The first rule of strategy is that how you think shapes how you compete.
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Thirty years after the concept of the value proposition was invented, we live in a world where customers can choose from more options and alternatives than they’ve ever had, where rivals are more numerous and capable than they’ve ever been. In this world, success is no longer just about price, performance, features—delivering tangible and rational economic value that responds to what customers need. It is about passion, emotion, identity—sharing a richly defined values proposition that revisits basic questions about what customers can expect and what organizations can deliver. The most successful organizations aren’t the ones with the most cutting-edge technology or the most radical business plans. They’re the ones that champion the most compelling ideas, craft the most memorable experiences, attract the most fervent customers, and recruit the most loyal allies. That is, the organizations that position themselves as an alluring alternative to a predictable (albeit efficient) status quo.
“Most companies aren’t dysfunctional, they’re dull,”
...
That doesn’t mean they’re not innovating, it’s that everyone is chasing the same things, and what qualifies as ‘standard performance’ is always moving up. Success has to evolve to be sustainable. This is not just about strategy, by the way, this is about behavior. You can call a company boring and people don’t get offended. But you tell the individuals in that company that they are behaving in ways that are boring, and things get uncomfortable.”
Translation: Companies that manage to rise above the pack and stand alone, that win big in fiercely competitive times, are those that create a one-of-a-kind presence and deliver a one-of-a-kind performance that is not just a little better than what other companies do. They do things that other organizations can’t or won’t do.”

Trechos retirados de “Simply Brilliant: How Great Organizations Do Ordinary Things in Extraordinary Ways” de William C. Taylor.

Felicidade, sucesso e experiências

Há dias comecei o postal "O problema da pieguice" com:

"Quanto mais piegas, menos optimistas.
Quanto menos optimistas, menos ..." [Moi ici: Menos sucesso financeiro]

Ontem comecei a ler o livro "Time and How to Spend It" de James Wallman onnde encontrei:

"Most of us assume that success leads to happiness. We tend to think that once we get the dream job, home or partner, life will feel clicked into place. So, based on this, you should focus on your IQ and your EQ and then you’ll be successful and happy.
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But what psychologists like Lyubomirsky and Achor have now found flips this idea on its head. They have discovered that people who, in the scientific jargon, have ‘emotional health’ or display ‘positive affect’ – that is, people who you and I would just say are happy – are more likely to succeed.Let me shine a light on why that’s so interesting. This new research shows that if you want success, you should first aim to be happy.
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if you want to be happy, you should spend more of your focus and money on experiences.
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if you want to have a successful life, you should focus on experiences."

"Moments that shape our life"

Em menos de uma semana li “The Power of Moments” de Chip e Dan Heath.

Um excelente livro que recomendo a quem quer trabalhar o mundo das experiências.

“Defining moments shape our lives, but we don’t have to wait for them to happen. We can be the authors of them. What if a teacher could design a lesson that students were still reflecting on years later? What if a manager knew exactly how to turn an employee’s moment of failure into a moment of growth? What if you had a better sense of how to create lasting memories for your kids?
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When people assess an experience, they tend to forget or ignore its length—a phenomenon called “duration neglect.” Instead, they seem to rate the experience based on two key moments: (1) the best or worst moment, known as the “peak”; and (2) the ending. Psychologists call it the “peak-end rule.
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What’s indisputable is that when we assess our experiences, we don’t average our minute-by-minute sensations. Rather, we tend to remember flagship moments: the peaks, the pits, and the transitions.
This is a critical lesson for anyone in service businesses—from restaurants to medical clinics to call centers to spas—where success hinges on the customer experience.
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to please customers, you need not obsess over every detail."

Que acaba assim:

“Once you realize how important moments can be, it’s easy to spot opportunities to shape them.
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That’s how we imagine you using the ideas in this book. Target a specific moment and then challenge yourself: How can I elevate it? Spark insight? Boost the sense of connection? ”

"There’s nine times more to gain by elevating positive customers than by eliminating negative ones"

Há anos aprendi uma grande lição com Youngme Moon no seu brilhante livro "Different". Relatei essa lição no postal "Now, something completely different... para nos deixar a pensar".

Ontem, durante uma caminhada matinal li:

“Research suggests that when customers contact you because they’ve had problems with your product or service, you should focus on defense—that is, you should focus on efficiency and not try to “delight” them.)
.
“Studies have consistently shown that reliability, dependability, and competence meet customer expectations,” said service expert Leonard Berry, a professor at Texas A&M University. “To exceed customer expectations and create a memorable experience, you need the behavioral and interpersonal parts of the service. You need the element of pleasant surprise. And that comes when human beings interact.” Here’s the surprise, though: Most service executives are ignoring the research about meeting versus exceeding expectations.
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The customer experience researchers at Forrester, a leading research and advisory firm, conduct an annual survey of more than 120,000 customers about their most recent experience with companies from a wide range of industries: banks, hotels, automakers, PC manufacturers, and more. One question in a recent survey—“The US Customer Experience Index (CX Index), 2016”—asked how the customers felt about that experience. They rated their emotions on a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 reflected a very bad feeling and 7 a very good one.
...
If you were a service executive, what would you do with the results of this survey question? You probably wouldn’t focus on the 7s; they love you, they’re happy. But given that everyone else—from the 1s to the 6s—has room for improvement, who gets the attention? Would you try to fix problems for the 1s, the people you’ve made miserable? Or would you try to delight the 6s to nudge them up to a 7? In an ideal world, you’d do everything at once—finding ways to vault everyone up to a 7. In our world, though, you face trade-offs of time and attention. So which customers would you focus on?
Let’s simplify the decision a bit. Say you had to choose between two plans. Plan A would magically eliminate all your unhappy customers (the 1s, 2s, and 3s), boosting them up to a 4:

And Plan B would instantly vault all your neutral-to-positive customers up to a 7:

Which would you choose?We’ve presented this scenario to dozens of executives who focus on the consumer experience, including leaders from well-regarded brands such as Porsche, Disney, Vanguard, Southwest Airlines, and Intuit, and asked them which plan better described the way their company allocated its time and resources. They estimated, on average, that their companies spent 80% of their resources trying to improve the experience of seriously unhappy customers.

That seems reasonable at first glance—they’re trying to eliminate the worst customer problems. But as a strategic investment, it’s madness.
Here’s why. Forrester’s researchers have built models of the financial value of a customer. They know from survey responses, for instance, that an airline customer who gives a 7 (very positive) rating will spend about $2,200 on air travel over the next year. A customer giving a 4 rating, on the other hand, will spend only $800. The equivalent figures for the package shipping industry are $57 and $24.
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In other words, the happiest people in any industry tend to spend more, so moving a 4 to a 7 generates more additional spending than moving a 1 to a 4. Furthermore, there are dramatically more people in the “feeling positive” 4–6 zone than in the “feeling negative” 1–3 zone. So, with Plan B, you’re creating more financial value per person and reaching more people at the same time.
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As a result, choosing between Plan A and Plan B is not a close call. Here’s the astonishing finding from the Forrester data: If you Elevate the Positives (Plan B), you’ll earn about 9 times more revenue than if you Eliminate the Negatives (Plan A). (8.8 times, to be precise.) Yet most executives are pursuing Plan A.
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To be clear, we’re not recommending that leaders abandon their efforts to fix big problems. Rather, they should reallocate their attention. There’s nine times more to gain by elevating positive customers than by eliminating negative ones.
And that process of elevation—of moving customers to 7—is not about filling pits or paving potholes. To create fans, you need the remarkable, and that requires peaks. Peaks don’t emerge naturally. They must be built”

Trechos retirados de “The Power of Moments” de Chip e Dan Heath.

"Turn disappointment into delight"

Primeiro a leitura desta carta "An open letter to Aer Lingus on the occasion of their quite dreadful service." de onde retiro, a título de exemplo:

"I was unfortunate enough to be on your delayed flight EI937 from Heathrow to Belfast City on 19/7/19, so am writing to complain about the delay itself, the way you made the delay worse, and the way you treated your passengers.
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Your flight was scheduled to leave at 19:20. When the boards in the airport showed that it was delayed till (if I recall correctly) 22:40, I went to find some Aer Lingus staff to ask for vouchers for food and drink. Since you are obliged to provide your passengers with food and drink during this delay, of course I should not have to go searching for them: you should be making an announcement over the PA and seeking out your passengers to provide them with what you are legally obliged to. But no.
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I should not but apparently do need to explain to you that the purpose of providing food and drink to your passengers is to make a bad experience — a severely delayed flight — somewhat less bad. Forcing your passengers to stand in a queue for hours in order to earn the privilege of asking for vouchers makes the bad experience worse. That is the opposite of compensation."

Recordo um texto re-lido esta semana, "Why Is Customer Service So Bad? Because It’s Profitable." e recomendo a leitura deste outro artigo lido esta semana "The Magic That Makes Customer Experiences Stick":

"2. Turn disappointment into delight. If your company is going to value the outliers, it must be ready to transform negative experiences into positives,
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By resolving a problem that he didn’t cause, the night manager delivered an experience that was remembered for years. When employees are taught to be in tune with the customer’s emotions, they can notice changes in emotional state and respond quickly. As their alacrity accelerates the shift from disappointment to delight, the intervention creates a sudden contrast that makes experiences sticky.
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By turning disappointment into delight, companies can create emotionally memorable experiences and win customers who will sing their praises."

"people do not buy products but meanings"

"… people do not buy products but meanings. People use things for profound emotional, psychological and sociocultural reasons as well as utilitarian ones.
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That perspective marks a clear path to innovation management. If people use products or objects due to emotional, psychological and sociocultural motivations, among other reasons, then companies have to look beyond features and performance and embrace the true meanings given to products by users.
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As clear as it is, this path isn’t easy to walk. Meanings are not something we can control or plan for without realizing what their true source is:
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Meanings result from cultural context, social environment, habits, norms and associations.
Meanings can’t be inspired or created without including these subtle contexts."

Trechos retirados de "People don't buy products. People buy meanings"

"There is a shift from “commoditization” to “personalization”

"Experience has emerged as the new basis for exchange. Schmitt (1999, p. 53) opined that “companies have moved away from traditional “features-and-benefits” marketing towards creating experiences for their customers”.
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This approach is based on the foundation that a consumer lives by consuming experiences offered by products, services, events or a series of multisensory interactions between customers and organizations at every touchpoint in pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase situations.
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There is a shift from “commoditization” to “personalization” – personalized co-created consumption experiences. The customer value is derived during the entire consumption process as “internal and subjective responses” through co-creation experiences. The organizations act as resource integrators to facilitate experience creation by providing experience environment.
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Interaction is central to experience creation. ... consumer responses (approach or avoidance) are determined by interaction between stimulus (organizational or environmental) and organism (consumers – emotional state of pleasure, arousal and dominance). Holbrook and Hirschman brought experiential perspective and described consumption experience as “a phenomenon directed towards the pursuit of fantasies, feelings, and fun”. They further commented that “the consumer behaviour is the fascinating and endlessly complex result of a multifaceted interaction between organism and environment”. Addressing the dimensions of customer value, Holbrook explained that “Value is an interactive relativistic preference experience”. ...  “All experiences are ‘consumption experiences’ and that these consumption experiences constitute most of what we do during our waking and even our non-waking lives”
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“The traditional system is become obsolete [...] In the emergent economy, competition will centre on personalized co-creation experiences resulting in value that is truly unique to each individual”. They emphasized on customer value derived from purposeful and meaningful personalized interaction between customer and organization. ... “The customer is always a co-creator of value. Value creation is interactional” and “Value is always uniquely and phenomenologically determined by the beneficiary. Value is idiosyncratic, experiential, contextual and meaning laden”. ... “Commercial experiences need to be considered as a product offering to avoid commoditization and price competition”.

Trechos retirados de "Customer experience – a review and research agenda", Journal of Service Theory and Practice, Vol. 27 Issue: 3, pp.642-662, de Rajnish Jain, Jayesh Aagja, Shilpa Bagdare, (2017)

Compras em segunda-mão

Tantas coisas ...

Há tempos numa empresa prestadora de serviços à indústria perguntavam-me como se explicaria o abaixamento na actividade das PMEs, as suas clientes.

Falámos da economia das experiências, falámos do efeito Norte de África, Turquia e Leste da Europa, ... nunca me passou pela cabeça este factor:

• Thanks, Marie Kondo! The resale market is becoming bigger than fast fashion

"The 2019 thredUp Resale Report, in conjunction with GlobalData, analyzed the trends and drivers pushing this revitalized sector. Researchers found that 56 million women bought secondhand products in 2018, an increase of 12 million new secondhand shoppers from the year prior. And they’re not done yet: 51% of resale shoppers plan to spend even more on thrift in the next five years.
...
ThredUp reports that increased growth can be credited to millennials and gen-Z, who adopt secondhand items 2.5 times faster than the average consumer. This is partially because they prefer to wear the latest styles, meaning last season’s fads get quickly deposited through the thrift cycle. According to the report, it’s why secondhand, rental, and subscription are the top three fastest-growing retail categories.
...

• As consumers partake in the resale market, they now own 28 fewer items, on average, than two years ago.

• The resale market grew 21 times faster than apparel retail over the past three years.

• 72% of secondhand shoppers shifted spend away from traditional retailers to buy more used items.

• The secondhand clothing industry is expected to grow 1.5 times the size of fast fashion within 10 years.

• One-third of consumers polled by ThredUp said they would spend more with their favorite retailers if those retailers also sold secondhand apparel."

• Fast-fashion retailers like Zara and H&M have a new threat: the $24 billion used clothes market

"selling projects rather than products" (parte III)

Parte I e parte II.

Como são as coisas... não há coincidências, todos os acasos são significativos.

Ontem à tarde, estive numa reunião de exploração estratégica numa empresa num sector tradicional da economia.

Empresa desenvolveu um produto a pedido dum cliente-fabricante. Entretanto, esse cliente chegou junto da marca e resolveu declinar o convite para produzir.

Marca, com produto na gama média-alta, resolveu avançar com a produção em Itália. Empresa resolveu fazer algo que nunca tinha feito antes, entrou em contacto com a marca, apresentou-se e ofereceu-se para continuar a fornecer a produção.

A internet ajudou-os a resolver o problema da distância (engraçado que antes da reunião ouvi este texto, "The Problem For Small-Town Banks: Technology Has Redefined Community" e, durante a reunião recordei "O fim da barreira geográfica")

Ou seja, a empresa está a considerar entrar no mundo da venda de projectos, em vez da venda de produtos, ou de soluções.

Também ando a pensar na relação da venda de projectos com o último nível desta cadeia:

Ainda a batota

"The problem, experts say, is that a lot of companies don’t set clear objectives for the experiences they create. “You have to figure out what people need,” said Sarah Hall, co-founder and partner of experiential marketing firm Harley & Company. “Then you have to decide if you want to create a deep emotional connection or push them towards a transaction.”
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Many brands run into trouble by mimicking competitors’ strategies instead of figuring out which experiences make the most sense — and sales — for them. A café is only worth operating if its regulars are also purchasing margin-driving products. A successful restaurant won’t save a struggling department store chain unless diners hit the shoe floor afterwards. An in-store panel discussion will only create goodwill if the mission of the panel meets the mission of the brand.
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“It's about questioning and redesigning every aspect of how the store works and how it sells what it sells,” said retail industry futurist Doug Stephens. “It's an intensive process that begins by breaking down the entire customer journey into its smallest micro-moments and then, within each of those moments, designing experiences that are surprising, unique, personalised, engaging and, most importantly, repeatable.”[Moi ici: E recuar a 2008 e ao primeiro e ao segundo texto sobre a batota]
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Remaking the in-store experience often means a significant (and expensive) overhaul.
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Experts underscore that good experiences are only worthwhile if they are accompanied by good products."

Trechos retirados de "The Pitfalls of Investing in Experiential Retail"

Ainda mais temas para o futuro do retalho e da produção

Parte I e parte II.

"The decline of Payless can be attributed partly to broader trends in the market. The brand’s stores were largely located in malls, and there has a general decrease in the amount of foot traffic at large shopping centers over the last few years.
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But there’s also an important shift happening in consumer behavior. People are moving away from poorly made, inexpensive fashion items. For decades fast fashion, epitomized by brands like H&M and Forever21, churned out cheap, fashionable clothes that customers could wear a few times before chucking out. But as I’ve reported before, many fast fashion brands are now on the decline.
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Payless was the shoe equivalent of fast fashion. The brand was not known for the quality or durability of its product, but competed largely on price. As a result, customers could buy whatever boot or heel was in season, and expect to throw it away months later. Consumers appear to be tired of this approach, partly because it is so environmentally unsound. While Payless has spiraled downwards, a flock of brands making high-quality, eco-friendly, durable shoes like M.Gemi, Allbirds, and Rothy’s have been thriving."

O impacte desta evolução no retalho, nas marcas, na produção, nos materiais e design - pense nisso!

Trecho retirado de "What the Payless bloodbath says about the death of fast fashion"

Mais temas para o futuro do retalho

Parte I.

"Payless ShoeSource this week filed for Chapter 11 protection and said it would be closing all 2,500 store locations across North America as well as its e-commerce operations. With over 16,000 jobs lost, it is one of the largest retailer liquidation to date, according to the Wall Street Journal.
...
 we need see these closings as a sign of change and heed the lessons wisely, because what "killed" all three [Moi ici: Payless, Toys R Us e a Sears] is not just Amazon or the internet, but a new business paradigm."

Ontem vi este video sobre o Revolut e N26 e é o mesmo fenómeno: "a new business paradigm". Ter especial atenção às palavras do economista Vinay Pranjivam e os trechos que se seguem, retirados de “Unlocking the Customer Value Chain” de Thales S. Teixeira.

Ontem de manhã li estes trechos:

"The Concept of Decoupling
...
Wondering precisely how disruptors were unsettling small parts of incumbents’ businesses, I turned to a basic framework that my colleagues and I teach our students: the customer’s value chain, or CVC. A CVC is composed of the discrete steps a typical customer follows in order to select, buy, and consume a product or service. CVCs vary according to the specifics of a business, industry, or product.

Traditionally, consumers completed all these activities with the same company in a joint or coupled manner.
...
What I realized, as I thought about these examples, was that disruptors had posed a threat by breaking the links between some of the stages of the CVC and then “stealing” one or a few stages for themselves to fulfill.”

Trechos iniciais retirados de "Valuable Lessons Learned From the Closing of Payless Shoes"

Quem aproveitará?

Perspectiva interessante, o online pode estar a dar cabo das vendas nos centros comerciais norte-americanos e a promover o seu encerramento em larga escala (a densidade de centros comerciais norte-americanos é muito superior à na Europa)

Por outro lado, a economia das experiências está a promover o renascimento das lojas de rua:

"Algunos analistas de mercado lo denominan como «el renacer del comercio tradicional en los Estados Unidos». Con esta definición explican la sorprendente revitalización que está experimentando en los últimos años el comercio minorista en los Estados Unidos. Según un estudio de Credit Suisse, entre el 20 y el 25 por ciento de los grandes centros comerciales de EE. UU. cerrará en los próximos años, lo que supondrá la desaparición de entre 240 y 300 de los cerca de 1.200 existentes. Por el contario, según el banco suizo de inversión, EE. UU. experimentará un nuevo resurgir de las tiendas de proximidad."

O que faz pensar é o remate final do artigo:

"Esta renovada eclosión del retails a pie de calle supone una gran oportunidad para el sector del calzado, especialmente para aquel, como el español, que destaca por su excelente relación calidad-precio y por su diseño. Las pequeñas zapaterías que ahora están apareciendo en cada rincón de las ciudades estadounidenses necesitan diferenciarse de las grandes plataformas de distribución de zapatos mediante la selección de un muestrario original, diferente y con valor añadido. En este sentido, el calzado nacional puede ser un gran aliado de estas zapaterías de proximidad." 

Em que "prateleiras", em que feiras, em que espaços, estas pequenas sapatarias de rua vão abastecer-se com o seu portefolio de sapatos?

Quem aproveitará para trabalhar com elas na co-criação da sua oferta? E estas pequenas sapatarias frequentarão as mesmas feiras que as cadeias de sapatarias?

Trechos retirados de "El renacer del comercio minorista en los Estados Unidos, una oportunidad para el calzado español", artigo enviado pelo amigo Rui Moreira.