Lean Marketing House » Lean Marketing

The End of Best in Market

admin — Fri, 18 May 2012 03:50:00 +0000

Best in Market has really become a myth in today’s world. These companies that believe this are typically product focused and determine their position by the amount of features and benefits that they have over the competition. Many times market share is not a consideration. It is also believed that continuous improvement on processes, people and product will maintain that “Best in Market” position.

The competitive advantage in the “Best in Market” approach is dead wrong. Trying to outsell your competition based on these principles will at best (no pun attended) lead to only short term wins in profitability and in market share. These gains will diminish relatively quickly as competitors respond with their own improvements and innovations.

The slide show below demonstrates the new world and how the view from the SD-Logic (The Service-Dominant Logic of Marketing by Stephen Vargo and Robert Lusch) perspective may very well be the user centric approach required. The truth is that SD-Logic thinking has struggled moving out of academia. However, it is reviving itself thanks to the thinking of many in the Service Design arena. I go one step further in the presentation stating that SD-Logic needs a process such as Lean Thinking to put it into practice.

The End of Best in Market

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Inspiration for this presentation came from: The End of Teaching As We know it

Insight into the Customer Experience through Theater

admin — Tue, 15 May 2012 02:32:00 +0000

At Work•Play•Experience Adam St. John (aka Adam Lawrence) turns good services into memorable service experiences that start people talking. Adam says, “Your customers will feel better served, will appreciate the value of your work, and will be more loyal to your company. And they will have great service stories to share with the world.” In the Business901 podcast this week, Adam and I discusses the theatrical aspect of service design and how theater can play a vital role in developing your customer experience.

An written excerpt from the podcast is located here: The Show Business side of Service Design.

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Download Podcast: Click and choose options: Download Here or go to the Business901 iTunes Store.

Adam is a professional comedian, business consultant and writer with a background in psychology and the automotive industry. For years he has been using expertise gained in the world of theatre and film to help companies influence their customers.

Preview of Presentation at the LSS12 Conference

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 22:18:00 +0000

This is a preview of my presentation at the Lean software and Systems Conference in Boston, MA. The Lean Software and Systems Consortium is bringing three premiere events to one centralized location to facilitate the next wave of ideas in methods, process and organization for software & systems engineering development. Boston is the premiere place to be for those innovating in the Lean community.

Preview of Presentation at the Lean Software and Systems Conference

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The Lean Software and Systems Conference emphasizes Lean concepts representing the next wave of ideas in methods, process and organization for software and systems engineering. It brings together an international community of practitioners, consultants, thought leaders and authors to cross-pollinate ideas and foster a sense of community for those promoting better economic and sociological outcomes in their workplace.

Three Events, One Venue – 3-Day Conference, Lean Camp & Lean Tutorials
Lean Software & Systems Conference 2012 (LSSC12) May 13-18, 2012, in Boston, MA

Lean Marketing Game from the Inside-Out.

admin — Tue, 08 May 2012 03:11:00 +0000

Seldom will you hear me utilize the phrase from the Inside-Out. In fact, after discussing Visioning in most workshops I pass out some (play) guns and ask to be shot if they hear those words at any time the rest of the day. However, there is a time and place to view sales and marketing from the inside-out. It is when you have never used an outside-in strategy before and at a loss on how to determine the customers decision making process.

The slideshow below walks you step by step through building a journey map from the inside – out. I shutter thinking this way!

Lean Marketing Game from the Inside-Out

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You may also want to consider viewing the original Lean Marketing Game presentation.

Lean Marketers concentrate on SOAR vs. SWOT

admin — Sat, 05 May 2012 14:32:00 +0000

How many resources do you have? Should you be using them on your weaknesses or your strength? In a recent post Looking for a Game Changer, Start Underperforming!, I discussed not looking for areas of deficiencies and improvement but to expand on the areas we do well in. You cannot be everything to everyone and so you have to limit your resources. So why not use them on what you do well?

In the typical SWOT Analysis (SWOT analysis examines the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of different strategies), I believe most of us have a tendency to focus on our weaknesses and threats more than our strengths. Just doing the math SWOT/WT, we spend 50% of out time doing just that.

In the Appreciative Inquiry field, there has been a movement to use a SOAR (Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, Results) analysis in lieu of SWOT. SOAR is a great method to use for expanding on the positive areas of an organization. It normally is much easier to gain buy-in from stakeholders with this approach versus others.

In the book The Thin Book of SOAR; Building Strengths-Based Strategy, the authors state:

People tend to look for problems and focus on weaknesses and threats before searching for possibilities. For example, one participant of a SWOT process described this tendency as follows: "Having used SWOT analysis for the previous fifteen years, I had experienced that it could be draining as people often got stuck in the weaknesses and threats conversations. The analysis became a descending spiral of energy." Or, as another described his experience of a planning process deeply rooted in a SWOT analysis, "[the SWOT approach] gave us a plan, but took our spirit. From our experience, drained energy and loss of spirit can negatively impact momentum and achieving results.

In SOAR, we focus on our strengths and opportunities, so that we can align and expand them until they lessen or manage our weaknesses and threats. Weaknesses and threats are not ignored. They are refrained and given the appropriate focus within the Opportunities and Results conversation. Ultimately, it becomes a question of balance. Why not spend as much time or more on what you do well and how7 you can do more of that? What gives you more energy to take action? What gives you confidence to set a stretch goal?

When I engage with a customer, I find the initial sequence of steps used to create a Lean Marketing System must ensure we carefully think through what outcomes we want to create, what supports and barriers we need to plan for, and who we have to involve within your organization to guarantee success. Our starting point looks like this:

(Definition) What are you presently doing and how do your clients and organization feel about them?
(Discovery) What is your present value proposition for retaining customers? What is your present value proposition for acquiring customers?
(Dream)What are your targets? How will we measure success?
(Design) Do you understand your customer’s decision making process? For each product/market segment?
(Destiny) What’s your investment strategy – not only in media, but in time and events?

The SOAR framework is the beginning step in the Defining stage and is a natural lead in to the others.

Strengths: Internal to organization; What is our core
Opportunities: External to organization; What might be
Aspirations: Internal to organization; What should be
Results : External to organization; What will be

The first steps of any Lean process is identify value and create a current state. When working on the demand side of the equation, why should we identify the process through Non-Value Activities defined as waste (Weaknesses and Threats) versus the Value Added activities of SOAR?

Value Chain Thinking is not Rocket Science

admin — Fri, 04 May 2012 02:35:00 +0000

However, The majority of businesses struggle to apply it and when they do they often fail. There are some simple tips that senior managers should consider before taking the plunge – don’t try and do it alone (collaboration means sharing the journey – where to go and how to get there), don’t try to do it with everyone (pick your partners) and don’t give up when the first effort fails (trust needs to be earned over time and change rarely happens overnight).

From the University of Kent:

He makes it sound simple. However, if you took these four factors and rate your company where would you stand?

I find most companies force these issues rather than leaving a natural flow of information occur. The world around us is changing at a raid rate and most companies struggle adapting to it effectively. Is it due to that tired out organizational structure that was developed in the last century?