"it is the situation rather than the customer"

Voltei a este artigo de 2007, "Finding the Right Job For Your Product" e, mais uma vez tive de concordar com: nunca é tarde para aprender, às vezes é demasiado cedo.

Não sei há quantos anos li este artigo pela primeira vez. Ontem, tinha de começar a trabalhar numa empresa por volta das 10h30 e resolvi aproveitar para dar uma caminhada matinal de 7 km onde aproveitei para o reler. Este trecho caiu bem dentro e ainda está aqui a ressoar:

"The problem with focusing on customer needs is that a customer finds herself needing different things at different times. [Moi ici: Recordei logo um projecto em curso em que os clientes só dão o trabalho à empresa em certas circunstâncias e optam por um concorrente quando estão sob outras circunstâncias] In contrast, the situation, or the job, is a simpler, more stable point of focus because it exists independently — disembodied, as it were — from the customer. [Moi ici: Para quem começa os projectos de estratégia à procura dos clientes-alvo, significa que na verdade estamos à procura dos JTBD-alvo] Although there may be a  correlation between customers with particular characteristics and the propensity to purchase particular products, it is the job that causes the purchase to occur.
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Another reason it is so important to understand the situation that precipitated purchase is that this yields insight not just into the functional dimensions of the job to be done but into the emotional factors as well: fear, fatigue or frustration; anxiety or anger; panic, pride or pain; and so on. Products don’t engender emotions. Situations do. Hence, to provide the set of functional, emotional and social experiences in purchase and use that are required to do the job completely, it is the situation rather than the customer that must be the fundamental unit of marketing analysis."

Quando estou apertado com o tempo, preciso de uma XXXX e não quero falhar na promessa que fiz ao cliente...

Quando preciso de ajuda para me ajudarem a criar uma XXXX e conseguir surpreender o cliente ...

Quando um cliente me vem visitar e precisamos de ajuda sobre um contratipo de uma XXXX para tomar uma decisão rápida ...
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Estou habituado a dizer que o cliente-alvo valoriza:

• rapidez;
• consultoria;
• disponibilidade

E na verdade, talvez seja mais correcto dizer que naquelas circunstâncias é o que o cliente valoriza. Talvez quando esteja sem pressão do tempo ou pretenda um trabalho corriqueiro o preço seja o seu factor preferido para a selecção.

E assim se faz Mongo

"In addition to meeting the perennial need for growth, marketers have been launching more brands in response to the fragmentation of traditional segments. Consider, for example, how customers are migrating out of the middle to the low and high ends of the market in cars, clothes, computers, retailing, and other industries. At the same time, while globalizing consumer tastes are creating segments in some markets that cut across geographies, growing ethnic diversity in other markets is exacerbating fragmentation as customers seek products with local flavor. Furthermore, it's increasingly feasible for marketers to develop and launch brands cost-effectively for fragmenting customer segments. Distribution costs and communication costs are falling, and manufacturing flexibility is on the rise."

Recordar "Polarização do mercado ou como David e Golias podem co-existir"

Trecho retirado de "Profiting from Polarization"

Curiosidade do dia

No tempo da PàF isto seria ridicularizado como não sendo assunto.

Plataformas cooperativas

"Blockchain, however, cleverly makes a trustworthy but ownerless database possible. “Which means you can have platforms that grow without central owners of that platform,” Ramge argues. All the data points that run an auction (the items, their photos, the bids, when they came in) that could all go into a blockchain located on thousands of users’ machines. Creators could build hundreds of different interfaces, all of which would use that same shared database."

Recordar a nossa previsão acerca das plataformas cooperativas.

Trecho retirado de "Can Blockchains Disrupt the Internet’s Monopolies?"

BTW, "A Second Internet, Coming Soon, Courtesy of the Blockchain"

"Study what customers do, not what they say"

Algo que aprendi nos últimos meses e que vem suplantar práticas que tenho seguido ao longo de anos:

"Study what customers do, not what they say.
Just because customers say they’ll buy or use something, doesn’t mean they actually will. Behavioral economists call the former stated preference and the latter revealed preference.
...
It’s a mistake to believe that customer satisfaction is the goal of innovation. It’s also a mistake to believe that customers know what they want — or that we should study customer “needs”. In fact, customers don’t know what they want or what they need.
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Innovators study switch’n, not bitch’nThe customers who offer the best data about what changes you should make to your product are those who you never hear about. Why? Because (a) they never became your customer in the first place or (b) they left you long ago.
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Innovation became a lot easier for me when I decided to focus on what customers do, instead of what they think they need or want."

Pensem bem naqueles inquéritos, presenciais ou escritos, que enviamos aos clientes para avaliar a sua satisfação.
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Trechos retirados de "Bitch’n Ain’t Switch’n — Don’t Be Fooled By What Customers Say They Want"

Market-driven ou market-driving (parte II)

Parte I.

"In the 1990s international incumbents such as Zara, started to erode Benetton’s market position. The rigidity of Benetton’s approach to distribution did not enable the company to rapidly match changing customer’s needs, a capability that was perfectly managed by competitors such as Zara and H&M, due to a total control of the retail-chain.
...
Benetton’s sales come from franchise operations. Zara and H&M, in contrast, own their shops, which make it easier to install unified systems that track global sales electronically’
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Fast-fashionThe market-driven orientation is implemented also through the fast fashion concept in the fashion industry. The fast fashion concept indicates how some European fashion retailers are adopting effective strategies for answering in real time to consumer fashion trends, revolutionizing the fashion industry. Fast fashion necessitates that companies own an increasing number of shops worldwide, so that through the information infrastructure they can connect the consumer demand with the upstream of design, procurement, production, and distribution. To be successful fast fashion companies require a fast and highly responsive supply-chain. Finally, fast fashion companies achieve short development cycles, rapid prototyping, small batches and variety so customers are offered the late trends in small amounts.
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Fast fashion is a strategy that has been developed to deal with constant changes in fashion trends. Fast fashion brands have created a system that is able to monitor and match consumer requirements and trends in real time. Many experts in the industry see Zara as the classic illustration of the fast fashion concept in operation
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Zara’s “fast fashion” is the emphasis of putting fashionable and affordable design concepts matching consumer demand onto the high street as quickly as possible.
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The company can get a new garment from design, through production and ultimately on the shelf in a mere ten to 15 days whereas the average lead-time for the fashion industry typically ran into several months. Zara’s business model tries to fulfil real time fashion retailing and not second-guessing what consumers’ needs are for next season, which may be six months away. As a result of Zara utilizing this ultraresponsive supply chain, 85 per cent of their entire product range obtains full ticket price, whereas the industry norm is between 60 and 70 per cent.
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Zara’s garments are produced in small amounts, so as not to be over exposed, if a particular item is a very poor seller. If a product is a poor seller, then it is removed after as little as two weeks. Roughly 10 per cent of stocks fall into this unsold category, in direct contrast to industry norms of between 17 and 20 per cent. Stock are seen as assets which are extremely perishable and that if they are sitting on shelves or racks in a warehouse, they are simply not making money for the organization.
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Another important strategy of Zara’s “fast fashion” philosophy is to frequently supply new items to retailers’ shops. These “fresher” product ranges stimulate shoppers into frequenting these stores on a more regular basis, on an average of 17 times a year. Through increased stock replenishment of new fashionable items, these stores are developing brand images for being cutting edge, trendy, and fashionable.
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The resulting increased consumer footfall in shops eliminates the need for large expenditure on advertising and promotion."

Fast-fashion o segredo por trás do retorno de tanta produção da ITV a Portugal. Não é só a Zara, é toda uma série de empresas que embora não sejam tão competitivas e grandes como a Zara seguem, à sua maneira, esta abordagem.

The Mid-market (parte II)

Parte I.

"Does all this activity mean the mid-market is finally disappearing, or can operators in this segment of the market evolve to survive? We ask the experts... [Moi ici: Segue-se a resposta de Michael Clark]
...
Unless it’s a premium or destination club, most consumers will categorise the remainder of gyms as much the same and, as consumer research continues to tell us, they will choose to the join the most convenient one for them. If they have a choice when it comes to convenience, with two or more clubs in similar striking distance, then price becomes more of a factor. This tilts the tables in favour of the budget operators.
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That said, big box mid-market clubs do have numerous offensive strategies available to them to counter the cost differential. One is to address the ongoing consumer frustration of having to pay for all the club’s services and facilities when they only use one or two areas. This can be achieved by breaking out popular formats – for example, some group exercise genres – into a boutique-style ‘club within a club’, with a separate pay as you go fee structure.
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Going forward, I feel it will be all about how mid-market operators can articulate their differentiation and how they can attract new markets using technology and other services. A good location alone won’t be enough to stop consumers comparing on price and choosing what they see as a cheaper like-for-like option."

Trechos retirados do número de Outubro da revista "Health Club Management"

Curiosidade do dia

"As the thinking goes, growth of gross domestic product (GDP), which measures the goods and services produced in an economy every year is essential to a country’s stability and prosperity.
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But some economists are now challenging that view, arguing that it makes more sense to focus on measures of well-being other than growth.
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Spence and others who agree with him aren’t saying that the economy should stop growing or even shrink (though there is a group of people who do believe that). What they are arguing is instead that it may be more healthy economically to accept a slower growth rate, but still a positive one, while prioritizing policies that address things like inequality and access to services. This idea is, admittedly, somewhat utopian, but giving it serious consideration can illuminate the shortcomings of the current growth-first approach.
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It’s not just that maximizing growth doesn’t necessarily help people, but also that rapid growth can itself come at a cost, such as when the pursuit of growth is used to push through policies that are expected increase the GDP but may have negative consequences for millions.[Moi ici: Como não esquecer a orgia despesista de 2009?]
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Indeed, GDP measures activity in the economy, but there’s no way to know whether that activity is actually good for society. Merely sitting in traffic can cause GDP to go up, since people need to buy all that gas, but it has no societal benefit whatsoever, and additionally has negative consequences, such as pollution and frustration, that don’t show up in GDP at all. The BP oil-rig explosion, which killed 11, and the subsequent spill, which leaked 3 million barrels of oil into the Gulf, actually lifted GDP, analysts said, because of the amount of money spent cleaning it up.[Moi ici: A janela partida de Bastiat revisitada]
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“Economists decided a long time ago that they can’t explain growth,” he told me. “Lots of people thought they knew what causes growth, but nobody actually does.”"[Moi ici: Esqueceram-se de perguntar ao primeiro-ministro de Portugal]

Sabem porque é que a economia não cresce? Porque o Costa não tem ido todas as semanas dar apoio pic.twitter.com/PTjbjcSMqc

— JoãoMiranda (@joaomiranda) November 5, 2016

Trechos retirados de "Does the Economy Really Need to Keep Growing Quite So Much?"

Para reflexão

"We used to have a few simple phases to existence: childhood, education, work, and retirement. Now, entirely new phases of adulthood have emerged.
...
As people age more healthily and work longer, the 50s and 60s will emerge as creative new decades of renewal, mobility and wisdom. Aging societies may not be the sad and boring future everyone fears. They may be an innovative and promising reinvention of human potential.
...
companies will want [Moi ici: Então, por que demoram tanto?] to integrate the consequences of much longer lives into all their products and services. There are huge new opportunities in analyzing and serving the needs of humans are discovering that life hold entirely new chapters. Moving away from quickly outdating stereotypes of aging, retirement, and recreation, to dynamic new images of re-creation and innovations in lifestyle choices is fertile territory. For example, the over-60s entrepreneur is the fastest-growing segment in the UK and people aged 55-64 started 23.4% of all new businesses in the U.S. in 2012, up from 14.3% in 1996."

Trechos retirados de "What Happens When Careers Last 20 Years Longer?"

Market-driven ou market-driving (parte I)

O artigo "From market-driving to market-driven - An analysis of Benetton’s strategy change and its implications for long-term performance" de Raffaele Filieri e publicado por Marketing Intelligence & Planning Vol. 33 No. 3, 2015 pp. 238-257, merece ser lido para quem quer perceber porque, para além da subida dos custos na Ásia, o reshoring está a ocorrer. O artigo leva também a pensar que as empresas de calçado portuguesas que operam como market-driven nos mercados de proximidade, terão de operar como market-driving quando querem exportar para a Ásia ou Estados Unidos.

"The double-dip recession, the growth of low cost retailers, and the capability to rapidly satisfy ever changing consumer fashion needs are three different but intertwined factors which are reshaping the map of competition in the fashion industry. Today’s fashion market place is highly competitive and companies need to constantly “refresh” product ranges within a store to adapt to volatile fashion trends. Market-driven companies such as Zara and H&M seem to master this capability to match customer requirements in real time by offering trendy items at affordable prices.
...
define market-driven management as the activity of “learning, understanding, and responding to stakeholder perceptions and behaviours within a given market structure”. Market driven refers to a business orientation that is based on understanding and reacting to the preferences and behaviours of customers within a given market structure through conducting market research and delivering incremental innovations. This orientation is strongly linked with the acquisition of information and knowledge about customers and competitors, which enable the firm to generate product innovation and to sustain a competitive advantage. The firms’ responsiveness to market needs depends on the propensity to act based on the knowledge acquired from the market
...
the market-driven orientation does not guarantee a sustainable competitive advantage
...
argued that the market-driven approach leaves the organization open to the tyranny of the served market in which managers see the world only through their current customers’ eyes. ... suggest that being market oriented detracts from innovation. To this regard, Christensen and Bower stated: “firms lose their position of industry leadership […] because they listen too carefully to their customers”. The common theme among the criticisms is that businesses pay a penalty for being market oriented. Likewise, while a strong market orientation is indicative of a propensity to innovate, it is not necessarily indicative of successful innovation. In order to induce changes in the behaviours of customers and competitors, simply being receptive to current market trends through market sensing abilities is not sufficient to sustain innovation.
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It has been suggested that in order to achieve a superior business performance, firms need to actively influence the market rather than being only ready to react to it. To shape the market, scholars have found that a market-driving orientation is better able than a market-driven orientation to gain a sustainable advantage by changing the structure or composition of a market and/or behaviours of its players.
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Innovation is a pre-requisite for creating customers and this is consistent with the “forward sensing” approach, in which market sensing is aimed to acquire state of the art knowledge which allows firms not only to be responsive but also to generate new concepts and ideas that alter the market structure. ... state that over time even successful market-driving firms change, as they should, into market-driven firms."

The Mid-market (parte I)

"Does all this activity mean the mid-market is finally disappearing, or can operators in this segment of the market evolve to survive? We ask the experts... [Moi ici: Segue-se a resposta de Ray Algar]
...
Mid-market clubs were very slow to respond when low-cost gyms entered the market and disrupted the status quo. Now, unless they can offer something more compelling, it will only be a matter of time before more of these generic health clubs start to close.
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In the last couple of years, we've seen a disproportionate number of mid-market independents close as membership stagnated, membership prices remained flat and insufficient funds were generated to reinvest into refreshing the experience.
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The low-cost and premium markets are both well defined, but historically the mid-market brands have deliberately been more generic. Neither one thing or the other.
...
The remaining legacy brands need to take stock and now jettison things which no longer serve them, or their members, and rediscover their core excellence. Similar offerings may be good enough when there's significant geographic distance between clubs, but can be disastrous as the distance between health clubs shortens.
...
Mid-market clubs need to become experts, and build a reputation, in an area they really care about."

Como não recuar a 2005 e ao primeiro artigo que li sobre o fim do middle-market com a polarização do mercado: The vanishing middle market,” The McKinsey Quarterly, 2005 Number 4.
 
Trechos retirados do número de Outubro da revista "Health Club Management"

Não é um "nice to have"

"Define What Your Strategy Is — And What It Isn’t.
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Good strategy is ultimately about choices: it is as much about what not to do, as what to do. Most organizations don’t lose their way due to a lack of ideas, but by frittering away their focus and attention among thousands of seemingly useful but ultimately draining pursuits. This comes from a lack of clarity around your reason for being in existence, and the inability to draw bold lines separating ‘what will keep us on track’ vs. ‘what will lead us astray’. Next time you help create a big idea, initiative or strategy, do your company a favour and write down what it is, and in even bigger letters, what it isn’t. This includes things that customers or the media may be clamouring for. The effort needed to say no to seemingly legitimate options enforces the strategic discipline of clarifying the unique value your organization brings to people and to the market."

Enquanto lia este trecho senti logo click das peças a encaixarem-se:

A importância de se concretizar o que não se é, para reduzir o perigo da deriva da opinião dos clientes que Alan Klement tão bem relacionou com as causas especiais de Deming e que referi em "Acerca da variabilidade dos clientes".
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Sistematizar o que não se é não é um mero "nice to have" é um verdadeiro must para nos guiar e evitar a deriva que desfoca e torra valor.

Curiosidade do dia

Mongo no ensino, também.

"He says he has been complaining to ministers for many years about skills shortages in engineering.
...
"We are taking matters into our own hands," said Sir James, who added that he wants the project to develop into a fully fledged Dyson University, with its own degree-awarding powers.
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Students will be paid a salary while studying and will not have to pay tuition fees - and Sir James says a key benefit will be that students will be working on "live projects" alongside mentors and research staff."

Trechos retirados de "Inventor Sir James Dyson sets up college to tackle skills shortage"

"next time you're imprisoned in a tower"

"people were faster and more creative when they tackled the problem on behalf of others rather than for themselves.
...
Polman and Emich build upon existing psychological research showing that when we think of situations or individuals that are distant – in space, time, or social connection – we think of them in the abstract. But when those things are close – near us physically, about to happen, or standing beside us – we think about them concretely.
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Over the years, social scientists have found that abstract thinking leads to greater creativity. That means that if we care about innovation we need to be more abstract and therefore more distant. But in our businesses and our lives, we often do the opposite. We intensify our focus rather than widen our view. We draw closer rather than step back.
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Think about that next time you're imprisoned in a tower. Actually, don't. Instead, have someone else think about it for you."

Trechos retirados "Daniel H Pink: employees are faster and more creative when solving other people's problems"

Para os registos

Li algures que o peso das exportações portuguesas no PIB representava pouco mais de 21% em 1985, ano anterior à adesão à CEE.
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Em 2008 as exportações representavam 31% do PIB.
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Ou seja, em 23 anos o peso das exportações no PIB cresceu cerca de 10 pontos percentuais.
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Agora, ao consultar o Boletim Económico do Banco de Portugal de Outubro último, verifico que o número em 2015 chegou aos 40,6%.
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Ou seja, em 7 anos o peso das exportações no PIB cresceu cerca de 10 pontos percentuais.
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Notável!!!
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Claro que aqueles 23 anos não deverão ter tido uma evolução linear, a primeira década do século XXI deve ter sido sempre a cair por causa do efeito China e da orgia do não-transaccionável.

"Strategy is Not a To Do List, It Drives a To Do List"

"“You stupid x?!x. These strategies are mutually exclusive. Executing both of them would put us out of business.  You don’t have a clue about what the purpose of marketing is because all you are doing is executing a series of tasks like they’re like a big To Do list. Without understanding why you’re doing them, you’re dangerous as the VP of Marketing, in fact you’re just a glorified head of marketing communications.”
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Strategy is Not a To Do List, It Drives a To Do List
...
Once I understood the strategy, the To Do list became clear. It allowed me to prioritize what I did, when I did it and instantly understand what would be mutually exclusive."

Por isso é que a última actividade na sequência é: o que vamos fazer na próxima segunda-feira?


Recordar "Strategy is not a to do list"

Trechos retirados de "Strategy is Not a To Do List"

As marcas da Amazon

"The bottom line for brands is they can no longer view Amazon as solely a channel and need to acknowledge them as a competitor.""

A loja como concorrente das marcas dos fabricantes. É o cúmulo!!! E as marcas dos fabricantes que se queixavam do aperto nas margens, de repente, ficam sem prateleiras!
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Em mercados comoditizados as marcas dos fabricantes concentram-se tanto no seu umbigo, na eficiência, que deixam de ser marcas para os consumidores.
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A memória recua a 2007, a leituras na estação do Carregado, e faz-me ir buscar:

"Manufacturer brands seem to be moving in the wrong direction. While industries with higher advertising intensity tend to have lower private label share, companies are increasingly diverting money away from advertising to promotions.
...
Diverting money from communicating with customers to retailer support is the beginning of a vicious cycle for manufacturer brands. As manufacturer brands spend less building their brands with end consumers, they lose brand equity with the ultimate arbiter in the marketplace. This increases the relative power of retailers and their negotiating power. As a result, manufacturer brands are subject to even greater concessions by retailers. In order to fund these concessions to retailers, manufacturer brands divert more money from consumer communications to retailers.
...
As reseller equity goes up, to maintain balance, manufacturer brands have to spend more rather than less money communicating with customers."

No limite, o dono da prateleira interroga-se: por que devo dar margem a outros quando posso colocar à venda um produto tão bom ou melhor?
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Amazon a caminho de tornar-se uma espécie de Decathlon ou IKEA.

Trecho inicial retirado de "Amazon’s private label brands are killing it"

Trechos retirados de "Private Label Strategy" 

Curiosidade do dia

"Para muitos especialistas, Portugal deve aproveitar para apostar em produtos onde já é muito  competitivo, nomeadamente, o vinho, o azeite e o queijo."

Uma pessoa fica logo elucidada acerca dos ditos "especialistas" quando:

• a economia de Portugal é resumida à agro-indústria;
• acham que somos competitivos no queijo (LOL);

Farto deste voluntarismo e desta ignorância.

Trecho retirado de "CETA. Uma lança para Portugal aumentar as vendas para o Canadá"

O mundo a mudar

Ontem ao final da tarde na minha caixa de correio electrónico caiu um convite para uma acção de demonstração:

Agora reparem no teor da demonstração:

"A KYAIA - Fortunato O. Frederico, Lda. implementou em consórcio com a FLOWMAT - Sistema Industriais, Lda., Silva & Ferreira Lda., Creative Systems, Lda., CEI - Companhia de Equipamentos Industriais, Lda, INESC TEC- Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores, Tecnologia e Ciência, FEUP - Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto e CTCP - Centro Tecnológico do Calçado de Portugal o projeto de I&D HSSF - High Speed Shoe Factory.
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Este projeto teve como objetivo conceber, desenvolver e implementar um novo modelo de fábrica de calçado para resposta ágil em 24 horas, orientado para a produção unitária par a par, capaz de responder sem stocks, às vendas pela internet, às pequenas encomendas e reposições de produtos em loja e ao fabrico rápido das amostras."

O mundo a mudar, as tentativas para ir encontrando resposta, respostas que por sua vez permitem mais mudança num bailado de co-evolução.

"It was just what the 20th century was about: mass production"

 Daqui "Сhristos Passas (Zaha Hadid Architects): It is interesting to work in Russia, but the approval process is complicated here" sublinho este trecho que parece retirado aqui do blogue:

"we do not have any ready-made solutions. We do not believe in mass produced architecture. We believe in mass customization, making everything unique, not making everything the same. Of course, the idea of repetition has something to do with the mode of production we had at the beginning of the 20th century, with machines that would repetitively do the same job, so that you got standard, high-quality products — but it was the same from one to the other. It was just what the 20th century was about: mass production — and if you wanted to have something individualized, you could change the colour, or, say, the buttons.
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Christos Passas: “We do not believe in mass produced architecture. We believe in mass customization, making everything unique, not making everything the same”
Nowadays, I think, the mode of production is changing. It is very important, because the machines we are using today for fabrication, for construction, are so agile that they can produce unique objects in every case."

Recordar:

• Magnitograd versus Mongo
• O século XX começou há  100 anos
• A marca do século XXI

Um tema que tem tudo a ver com "Budweiser's Battle for Beer Market Dominance Hinges on the U.S.":

"“Small brewers have been growing in market share since the late ’70s and early ’80s, but for a long time they were too tiny to pose any threat to the bigger brands,” he says. “Only in the past 10 years have they really made themselves known, with more than 20 percent of the market in dollar sales.” By volume, their share also is going up, with craft beers representing 12.2 percent of the U.S. market in 2015, he says, and they will likely hit a peak this year.
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Craft concoctions can do many things the big beers can’t, like offer greater variety, fuller flavor and snappier names (Pepperation H, Apocalypse Cow and Citra Ass Down) or humorous mottos appealing to locals and tourists, like Utah’s Polygamy Pale Ale (“Try one and you’ll want another, and another, and another...”). Watson says craft brewers also tend to be deeply involved with their communities and are highly philanthropic, bolstering brand loyalty in a way the monster beer makers cannot."