Anticipate the book

Seven Signs of Media Fragmentation

March 16, 2012 in Customer Behavior, Demand Generation

The various media have become so fragmented that product developers might not know how to reach their target consumers. Here are seven examples of how once-predictable media have broadened their horizons.

Digital Video Recorders. These recorders allow consumers to fast-forward through advertisements.
Television by convenience. Internet television, PDA applications, and DVDs have all made it easier for consumers to watch what they want when they want.
Internet radio. Consumers can create their own music stations, making their tastes difficult to pinpoint.
Fee-based radio. Your customers may be listening to commercial-free radio, making it difficult to catch their attention.
Social networking. Face-to-face interaction is being replaced with online networking and messaging.
Real-time news updates. Your customers may find it more convenient to have headlines sent immediately to their cell phones than wait for tomorrow’s newspaper.
Blog posts. Some wonder why they would spend money on a magazine subscription when the same information is available on internet blogs.

Technological innovation has fragmented the media and has made it difficult to get the attention of target consumers. Product developers must learn to adapt in order to discover where those ideal customers are focusing their mindshare.

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Two Things You Need to Know about Creating Value

March 13, 2012 in Critical Success Factors, Customer Behavior, Demand Generation, Differentiation

By one estimate, three out of ten products fail because of poor value proposition. In other words, 30 percent of products don’t provide consumers with enough value.

Three out of ten might not sound like much, but for the product developers behind those products, it is a crushing defeat. Understanding what “value” means to their target consumers might have saved their products.

Customers measure value based largely on two things: price and benefit.

PRICE is the amount a consumer is asked to spend on a company’s product. A product must live up to its price. To claim value at any price point, a company must make a customer find enough worth in its product.

BENEFIT is the “worth” that the consumer must associate with your product. Your customer must be able to justify paying a product’s asking price, and this justification is determined by the product’s perceived usefulness and benefit.

To create VALUE for your target customers, you must strike a balance between the price of your products and the benefits they will provide. Find this balance and avoid a product failure!

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Trying to Catch Up in a Changing Market

March 6, 2012 in Competition, Customer Behavior, Demand Generation, Differentiation, Processes

Because of fragmented segments and increased digitization, category lifecycles are getting smaller. This could affect your business for the following reasons:

• Your customers are looking for the latest and greatest thing.

• Your product development could always be trying to catch up.

• Your products could enter the market too late, meaning your innovations have missed the boat before they even had a chance to take off.

The best way to maximize returns in a market that currently moves and changes at the speed of the internet is to enter the market early. Enhancing product development efficiency and getting your products in front of consumers before your competitors will gain your company a huge competitive advantage.

The key to increased profits and maximum returns is to set the market rather than chase it and watch it dwindle away. Adapting to fragmented segments and product digitization could make the difference between a large profit or a huge loss.

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