Escolher, escolher.

"Focused business models are most effective when they appeal to distinct market segments with clearly differentiated needs. So if your business currently serves multiple segments, it may be best to subdivide into focused units rather than try to apply one model."

Trecho retirado de "Four Paths to Business Model Innovation"

Para lá das médias, que só enganam

Um exemplo concreto do que aqui defendemos ano após ano:

• quem são os clientes-alvo?
• o que procuram e valorizam?
• o que oferecer a um cliente-alvo pode não ser o melhor para outro grupo.

"Mobile’s long-term trend is clear: data is rapidly increasing year over year.
...
Like Western Europe’s people in general, its mobile users are quite a diverse bunch.
...
the top quartile of Western European mobile users consume a full 75 percent of all mobile data with individual consumption 30 times that of the median and 60 times greater than the 95th percentile. Using averages for marketing purposes and to gain a broader understanding of the customer base can sometimes be misleading. These do not account for the complex underlying usage patterns.
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Moving beyond averages.
Both usage diversity and polarization necessitate a more nuanced approach to understanding mobile users for successful marketing, product development, service operations, and other key business functions.
...
While Traditionalists [Moi ici: Ver no artigo a caracterização de cada um destes segmentos] represent the largest segment by number, they account for only a small share of the data revenue opportunity. Entertainers and Practicals spend about 50 percent more per month than Traditionalists. Omnivores spend 80 percent more. Since value is distributed unequally, many mobile network operators (MNOs) that fail to adopt a sufficiently granular segmentation driven by data usage will not have optimally priced offerings.
...
Segment-driven products, pricing, and up-sellingGiven the imbalance in data usage and value among smartphone users, MNOs would be well advised to go beyond the traditional “SMS-voicedata” services portfolio and think much more specifically about how to develop offerings that speak directly and powerfully to members in a specific user segment."

Vale a pena ler com atenção "Averages lie: Using smart segmentation to find growth", para, depois, equacionar e fazer o paralelismo com o sector económico de cada um. Que tipo de segmentos podemos considerar? Quem podemos servir com vantagem para ambas as partes? O que oferecer?
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Por fim, recordar que a média é um gerador de fantasmas estatísticos.

Acerca da segmentação

Recordar "Acerca da diferenciação e do posicionamento" e a figura:

"therefore better than the industry or the strategic or any other similar group. The private market is a powerful tool for the strategist. The first step is to construct a picture of tomorrow’s offerings in the chosen part of the galaxy on the lines of Figure 4.4. The strategist will take great care to exclude from the list of competitors those members of the ‘industry’ that will not be significant substitutes for the offering being planned. More important, the strategist will include all those substitutes that may in fact compete, but do not count as part of the industry. They may well be a majority."

Talvez esta abordagem permita reduzir o tempo que demora a introduzir o tema da segmentação. Por vezes, é difícil fazer com que os gestores/empresários mergulhem mais profundamente e deixem de ver o seu negócio como, por exemplo, venda de produtos. E, passem para o outro lado... O que é que os clientes fazem com o produto? E todo o mercado usa o produto da mesma maneira? E todos os clientes procuram as mesmas coisas? Em vez de se apresentar como, por exemplo, fabricante de máquinas, porque não se apresentar como aquele que oferece/presta os serviços específicos e diferenciadores que as máquinas executam na vida dos clientes?
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Depois, talvez seja mais fácil entrar com:

Para perceber onde podemos ter melhores margens e onde teremos guerra de preços.
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Trechos retirados de "Creating Value Successful business strategies" de Shiv S. Mathur e Alfred Kenyon.

Que lições a sua empresa pode tirar?

Interessante este artigo "Passengers crash at Narita Airport to catch cheaper early flights".
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A quantidade de sacrifícios que os clientes estão dispostos a fazer pelo voo mais barato... que lições podemos tirar?

• quando o negócio é o preço, é mesmo o preço, não adianta tentar acrescentar mais atributos, há que concentrar a oferta no que é essencial;
• quantos clientes não estão dispostos a esses sacrifícios.

"Why Segmentation Matters" (parte II)

Parte I.

"If your sales representatives are providing these high cost services to all customers without regard for return on sales, (Moi ici: "Return on sales", a base para a construção de uma curva de Stobachoff. Já a fez para a sua empresa?) then you are losing money. To that end, segmentation could benefit by determining which customers value the programs and are willing to pay for your services and which ones believe these programs are less useful. (Moi ici: E a sua segmentação, em que bases é feita? Geografia? Come on!!!)
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Without a proper understanding of the segmented structure of the market, a pricing decision that is important and facing uncertainty may miss its mark. Understanding what makes your customers different from one another based on what they value is the required ingredient (Moi ici: O que é que eles valorizam e procuram? Qual o verdadeiro jo-to-be-done que está em causa?) for a successful needs-based segmentation that leads to more profitable pricing.
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When it comes to pricing, segments based on value will be more productive.
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Start with a good segmentation plan to identify customer value before thinking about setting price (Moi ici: Esta é para nós Paulo!))
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The goal of segmentation is to identify what matters most to your target segments. One of the first steps is identifying your target segments based on the segment clusters that the database presents.
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Establishing your segment offerings first before determining your price provides the sales force with the knowledge they need for a flexible and profitable negotiation.
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Emphasize the importance of adhering to your price fences to avoid adding free extras that increase the cost to serve and dilute the integrity of your price fences.
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To execute a value-based segmentation plan, tie it to a profitable sales strategy that distinguishes between profitable and unprofitable customers."

Onde competir?

"Wait a minute: The company that’s half as big makes twice as much? How can that be? You’ve already heard the answer: The smaller, more profitable company avoids going head-to-head with the likes of mighty Emerson and GE. It steers most of its investments into segments where (among other things) the giants don’t play. It segments its industry strategically, and puts more eggs into fewer, carefully chosen baskets. As a result, it has a much higher market share in its chosen segments. So yes, market share is good, but only when you get there strategically."

Trecho retirado de "Where Value Hides" de Stuart Jackson.

"Why Segmentation Matters" (parte I)

Foi já há alguns anos que, via Nirmalya Kumar, conheci o caso da Dow e da sua marca low-cost Xiameter.
Agora em "Why Segmentation Matters" de Linda Trevenen encontro mais alguns tópicos sobre o tema:

"In their segmentation of the market, they [Dow] learned that not all customers had the same set of needs. Some required more service than others, some valued innovation more than others, while others were trying to improve the profitability of their own businesses. They also learned that one segment no longer needed the added value of service, innovation, or a broad product assortment of the silicone products they purchased; instead they just wanted the best price.
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Dow had been treating all these customers the same, yet each of four identified segmentss required a different bundle of benefits. It became painfully evident to their managers that they were providing expensive services to some customers who did not even need them. Therein lies the most critical reason why segmentation matters in business - profits can be lost by treating all customers the same in terms of their pricing.
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customer heterogeneity supports the existence of demand-based segments from which firms can generate greater profit by shaping different offerings and prices for segments than by providing the same offering and price to the whole market.
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Instead of offering their products and services at the same prices to all customers, they created different offerings for the needs of the different segments."

E a sua empresa, que segmentação faz?

Continua.

Your job is not to make every possible customer happy

"Part of Customer Development is understanding which customers make sense for your business. The goal of listening to customers is not please every one of them. It’s to figure out which customer segment serve your needs—both short and long term.
...
My guess is that he is going to end up firing a bunch of his customers—and that is OK.
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Lessons Learned

• Getting out of the building is a great first step
• Listening to potential customers is even better
• Getting users to visit your site and try your product feels great
• Your job is not to make every possible customer happy
• Pick the customer segments and pricing tactics that drive your business model"

Trecho retirado de "Killing Your Start-up by Listening to Customers"

Sobre os escombros da Torre de Babel...

Por estes dias Rags Srinivasan anda especialmente recomendável. Mais uma interessante leitura em "All Things to All People Redux".
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Impossível não pensar nestas empresas cheias de dinheiro, cheias de consultores, cheias de gente formada nas melhores universidades e capazes de erros estratégicos de palmatória, mesmo ao nível de empresa-de-vão-de-escada. O exemplo de hoje impressionou-me sobremaneira:

"Remember Compaq? You may remember it as part of HP and the lengthy acquisition. Before things fell apart Compaq was a high flying PC maker that famously declared their vision as
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“Delivering all things to all customers”"

Depois, Rags vira-se para os dias de hoje e para a Amazon:

"Somehow the investors and analysts believe a single business can serve all customers and excel at it. Somehow they all believe all those disparate businesses will start paying off when the company turns on the profit switch.
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When a business plays in every possible field it has competition from every possible player out there. Fortunately for them the competition is coming only from bigger players they can keep their eyes on. And these players  do not have the same freedom with their investing community.
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Disruption comes not from bigger players but from many smaller players. Can they handle disruptions that erupt in every small corner? Will they start yielding smaller areas and suffer impact to their growth story or try to plough more to defend in every market?"

Acredito que a Amazon, ou melhor o seu modelo de negócio, terá futuro naquilo em que pode ser boa, uma excelente "vending machine" que conjuga preços baixos com o histórico das nossas preferências.
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Querer ir mais longe do que isso, é como construir uma Torre de Babel... sobre os seus escombros, futuros Golias concentrar-se-ão no negócio do preço e, inúmeros pequenos Davids construirão o Estranhistão com toda a sua diversidade.

"Get a solid understanding of who your core customers are"

"But let’s say you’re a small organization—a group of restaurants, say, or a retail chain with just a few locations. You don’t have anyone on staff with a statistics background, and you can’t afford to hire such a person. There’s one thing you can do to ensure that you make informed decisions and don’t let the numbers lead you astray: Get a solid understanding of who your core customers are, what their value is to the company, and what your objectives are. Learn which customers are profitable and which ones aren’t, and decide what you want to do to increase the profitability and number of good customers. Use that information as the center point of all your decisions.
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Will that cure your inattention blindness? Maybe not entirely, but if you can get a good understanding of what distinguishes a good customer from a bad one, and a sense of what makes your good customers tick, you’ll immediately cut half the noise out there. That will make it a lot easier to see the opportunities that are staring you in the face."

Trecho retirado de "Can You See the Opportunities Staring You in the Face?"

Por amor de Deus, segmente!!!

Outro texto de Rags Srinivasan e outro ditado usado frequentemente neste blogue:

"Volume is Vanity, Profit is Sanity"

Uma lição que recordo de Hermann Simon em "Manage for Profit, not for Market Share".
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Quando pensamos em valor e não em quota de mercado, deixamos de pensar em algo que vale cada vez menos e se tem de vender em cada vez maior quantidade, para podermos pensar contra a corrente. Recordar Christensen em "Sobre a paranóia da eficiência e do eficientismo".

"How many gurus and bloggers write – the single most important task for a business is to gain market share?
...
Making 10% gross margin on $640 motorcycle and making 40% gross margin on $20,000 premium motorcycle means businesses have to sell hundreds of millions of cheaper unit just to get the same profit selling premium units to 100,000 customers.Think about the cost of capital, distribution network, service network and all the other fixed costs needed to server hundred million customers.
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A business’ strategy is to decide which segment they want to serve and what customer job they want to position their product for. Because segmentation and positioning determines price and hence profit.
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The goal of business is not gain 100% market share but make profit in the most efficient and least capital intensive way. You do not have to serve every segment and every customer job."

Trecho retirado de "Those Who Know Segment and the Rest Chase Market Share"

"Don't try to compete on price with Walmart, or with China on cost"

Um ditado que aprendi há alguns anos e que é precioso para o mundo dos negócios é:

"Don't try to compete on price with Walmart, or with China on cost"

Muita gente, como o obsoleto Forum para a Competitividade, acredita que a única forma de competir é pelo preço/custo mais baixo. Assim, têm sempre a reacção instintiva de dizer que a receita passa por baixar salários, para reduzir custos.

"When it comes to price setting there are two kinds of companies – Price Setters and Price Takers. Apple is a Price Setter at the high end. Amazon is the undisputed Price Setter at the low end.
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Let me repeat my advice. Don’t bother. Don’t get into price war with Amazon. Walk away. You are not going to dismantle Amazon as Price Setter at low end. Instead focus on customer segmentation, product mix and differentiation."

No mercado dos bens transaccionáveis, há alguma empresa portuguesa com poder para ser Price Setter? (Se calhar ... no sector criminoso dos eucalipto-lovers)
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Já no mercado dos bens não transaccionáveis a coisa é diferente. Nesse caso, até acho que se devia fazer uma experiência, baixar o salário mínimo no distrito da Guarda, ou de Bragança e esperar para ver o resultado. OK, e também se podia experimentar subi-lo no de Lisboa.

Recordar "Uma beleza!!!" A solução para fugir ao rolo compressor da guerra que beneficia os Golias deste mundo.

Trecho retirado de "Walk Away, Don't play Chicken with Amazon"

Segmentação

"In the liquor industry, one of the only things hotter than Kentucky bourbon is super-expensive Kentucky bourbon."

Trecho retirado de "Bourbon Sells, and Pricey Bourbon Sells Even Better"

Hipóteses de segmentação

Diferentes hipóteses de segmentação:

"Value-based Segmentation: Which customers are most valuable?.
To maximize your profitability, you can use analytics to identify your best prospects for cross-sell and upsell offers.
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Vulnerability Segmentation: Which customers are most likely to leave?.
Customers can also be segmented in order to better prevent the loss of profitable customers to churn. As it is almost always more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep a current one, banks can benefit from a data-driven approach to retention."

Trecho retirado de "Segmentation matters more than ever"

"the biggest mistake that companies make is they fail to make choices"

"the biggest mistake that companies make is they fail to make choices"
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3 escolhas fundamentais:

• para quem trabalhar e para quem não trabalhar? (recordar a Lei de Gresham)
• que produtos e serviços oferecer e que produtos e serviços não oferecer?
• que ecossistema da procura desenvolver, como levar a oferta até aos clientes?

Claro que a primeira opção leva a equacionar:

• a segmentação dos clientes e a geografia da presença

A segunda opção leva a desenvolver:

• uma proposta de valor

A terceira opção leva a construir:

• um mosaico de actividades que se reforçam

Um exemplo interessante

Uma história, um exemplo interessante, que conjuga o job-to-be-done (o problema levantado pela necessidade, pelo serviço que o futebolista Capucho tinha), com o não-preço, com a inovação, com a segmentação para mercados de maior valor acrescentado (saúde e desporto), com a subcontratação canalizada para os segmentos de preço, com parcerias com universidades e centros técnicos, e com internacionalização.
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Em 2011 a empresa vendia 60% para o mercado interno. Em 2012 as vendas caíram 20%. Em 2013 as exportações representam 70% das vendas e a produção já está em contínuo.
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Interessante a linguagem da categorização e do job-to-be-done:

"Em carteira, há novos desenvolvimentos como os tubos de compressão para ajudar mulheres que tiveram cancro da mama. "O futuro, mais do que nas meias, está nos tubos de compressão", diz Gaspar Coutinho, a alargar a oferta dos pés e pernas aos braços. A pensar nos cotovelos dos tenistas, uma solução em estudo é a criação de mangas funcionais com compressão, prontas a tratar lesões durante treinos e provas."

Trecho retirado de "À medida do pé"

Preços e segmentação

Isto que se segue é precioso. Infelizmente pouca gente pensa assim!
O modelo do preço como o custo mais uma margem continua entranhado:

"The right place to start to set prices is to start with customers (Moi ici: Quem são os clientes-alvo?) and the reasons they buy the products. (Moi ici: Que experiências procuram e valorizam) Different customers – different reasons and you have customer segmentation. Another way to look at the reasons they buy a product as – “What jobs are different customers hiring a product for?”. That is customers have jobs to be done (needs to be filled) – they hire (which implies they can fire and switch to another) a product that best fills those needs.

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The needs could fall anywhere in the spectrum of perfectly utilitarian and perfectly emotional. But very few products get hired for purely utilitarian reasons and almost no product gets hired for purely emotional reasons. For the latter, the product should meet basic utilitarian threshold or given enough utilitarian reasons that will help rationalize the buying (hiring) decision."

Trecho retirado de "THE $100,000 PRODUCT’S CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION – PART 2"

O perfil dos primeiros clientes

Mesmo para uma não start-up, mesmo para uma PME faz todo o sentido seguir as indicações de "The Ideal Profile of an Early Adopter":

"To find people with the problem you’re solving, look for five simple criteria:
1.They have the problem,
2.They know they have the problem,
3.EITHER they are paying for a solution currently
4.OR they have hacked their own together,
5.AND they are still unsatisfied."

Segmentação com base no comportamento

"The idea that clusters of customers can be targeted based on certain similarities is nothing new. Typically, firms segment customers on the basis of demographics: age, gender, geographic location, and so forth. The problem with this is that demography is not destiny; people who share a demographic profile often don’t behave in the same way, don’t have the same needs, and won’t share the same perceptions of value.
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The upshot is that an entrepreneurial mindset calls for insight into the people in the target segment’s behavior rather than settling for the same old segments everyone else uses. Ideally, you not only discover a new segment, but can actually carve this segment out of conventional ones by resegmenting.
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Can you identify a significant subset of customers whose behavior and motivations are not well served by companies using conventional segmentation approaches? Finding them involves discovering two things: First, what is different about the needs of this subsegment that is reflected in behavioral differences, and second, how can you respond in such a way that your offering is more compelling than those of competitors?"

Trechos retirados de "The Entrepreneurial Mindset" de Rita McGrath e Ian MacMillan.

Quem são os clientes-alvo da sua empresa? Conhece-os?

"A Steinway grand piano can sell for well over $100,000. There are two types of buyers for the pianos, both of whom can be counted on in good times and bad.
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First, says Ursaner, the very rich. “He may have a private plane, he may have an estate. If he has an estate, he may very well have, or desire to have, a Steinway piano in his home.”
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Then there are professional musicians. Ursaner says the company sells 2,500 pianos, globally, a year. And it’s looking to expand, especially into places like in China."

Quem são os clientes-alvo da sua empresa? Conhece-os?
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Trecho retirado de "Baby, it's grand: The piano business"