Three Contentious Marketing Topics
- Pitfalls of New Technologies
- Quests for Customer Satisfaction
- The Favourite Weak Strategy: Line Extension
Pitfalls of New Technology
New technologies often must cross the abyss from to : i.e. they must create the markets into which they wish to sell their amazing new products.
The Market Creation Strategy is Complex
No matter what their advantages, new high-tech products require an extraordinary mixture of business strategies to bridge the gap between facts/reality () and expedient conventionality ():
● [#20]
● [#21]
● [#22]
● [#19]
● [#16]
● [#18]
● [#17]
● [#15]
PLUS
● several of the lower-level strategies as well.
The Usual Result
- There can be a long, agonizing, and seemingly hopeless period before a new idea becomes a commercially-successful product. Two phases can be identified:
Phase 1: between product conception and reaching the market; &
Phase 2: between reaching the market and commercial success.
- High costs in R&D and in educating customers are unavoidable. The secret is market timing, i.e. enter when the market is about to explode. But
- Recognize that the market evolves via TALC (Technology Adoption Life Cycle): customers are initially Enthusiasts, then Visionaries, then Pragmatists in specific niches wanting total solutions, and finally Conservatives, for whom cost is everything. More…
Quests for Customer Satisfaction
At the heart of any business strategy are satisfied customers willing to pay for the company’s products and services. The average enterprise loses 10%-20% of its customers each year and many others, while still loyal, restrict purchasing due to dissatisfaction.
Many strategies are claimed to target «customer satisfaction». Alternative terms like ‘customer delight’ and ‘customer intimacy’ are unsatisfactory. As with any general term, these may apply at all levels. In practice,
- Delight often seems to refer to values in the operational culture at .
- Intimacy strategies often refer vaguely to a category of customer that is a matter of market-definition at (and far from the normal meaning of ‘intimacy’).
What must be grasped is that customers are focused upon as a group at , and as individuals at .
The Complete Satisfaction Strategy
Research suggests that companies providing complete satisfaction do far better than those whose customers are merely satisfied. However, completeness is a substantial and costly challenge.
It depends primarily on:
● [#12],
● [#10],
● [#14]
● [#11]
properly supported by sensible:
● [#8],
● [#9]
● [#6] .
The Favourite Weak Strategy: Line Extension
Power-centric leaders are tempted to equate line extension with product development and innovation. This is based on the conviction that it is possible to leverage the success of the company’s name or existing brands by applying them to other products.
This popular and expedient strategy regularly fails; it tends to weaken the original leading line through blurring customer perceptions and by cannibalising its market share.
Conclusion: There is never a short cut to great success: truly new products require their own complete and discrete developmental and marketing process, including a unique brand name.
-
Next section: Government interventions in the economy.
-
Other Applications:
► Developing a commercial ethos
► Supporting business and markets
► How big organizations must harness staff
► Developing a career
► Cooperating for results
Originally posted: July 2009