“Engage the end user in the design process. [Don’t] just ask him what he needs, but ask him how he thinks it can be achieved.”

– Amos Winter

Image credit: The MIT SPECTRUM

Have you met Amos Winter? I haven’t – yet. But I want to.

Why? Because Amos Winter is an important man. No, he’s not a Silicon Valley titan or a retail magnate or VC. Amos is important because he cared deeply about a group of people who couldn’t care for themselves. In fact, Amos is important because he applied his own gifts, network and resources to solve a problem that is below the water mark for most of us. He’s one of my new heroes and I want to tell you about him.

A need – and a solution

Have you ever tried to ride a city cruiser bike off-road? I have, and I can tell you that it doesn’t take long before a wheel turns off-kilter and I end up with a face full of dirt. The tires are simply too bald to grip the rough terrain, and there are no gears to help me move through grassy areas. If city bike tires can’t negotiate unpaved ground, how can standard wheelchair tires – which are similarly smooth and gearless – do it? Short answer – they can’t. And if you’re wheelchair-bound and living in a developing area, you can’t leave your house without being an inconvenience to yourself and others.

Amos Winter and his colleagues at MIT saw the need for a wheelchair that could fulfill the needs of the millions – approximately 40 million, that is – living in rural and developing areas without access to wheelchair-friendly streets, elevators, personal vehicles, and public transportation. So in 2005, they began developing a wheelchair that relied heavily on the same technology as a mountain bike.

This wheelchair, called the Leveraged Freedom Chair, allows its owners to move over rough and uneven ground using arm-powered levers – instead of directly turning the wheels with their hands – with hand placement on the levers adjusting the torque as gear shifts would on a mountain bike. The Leveraged Freedom Chair also uses mountain bike tires. In short, Winter created a new technology based on two old technologies which allowed him to solve a problem for an as yet untouched facet of the wheelchair market.

But what does this have to do with consulting the end user about product design? Well, Winter wasn’t the first to think of applying mountain bike technology to wheelchair design. For example, Renegade All-Terrain Wheelchairs use essentially the same basic design as Winter’s Leveraged Freedom Chair. However, Renegade’s wheelchair, and others like them, are much more expensive and difficult to repair for someone living in a rural developing area where parts can break down easily, and are hard to replace cheaply. Winter needed to find a way to design a product that fit his clients’ needs. More specifically, Winter (and why I love this story) focused on a market that had a need – but limited ability to pay for that need to be met.

In his TED Talk (also at the bottom of this post), Winter mentions extensive research done in Tanzania with wheelchair users to discover exactly what they were lacking with their current hospital-grade wheelchairs, and what they needed in a chair that worked for them. He found that they needed a product that would “cost less than $200…travel approximately 5km/day on varied terrain, and be locally repairable.” It also had to be “small enough, and maneuverable enough to use inside.” While these constraints seem limiting, they actually allowed Winter and his team to push their creativity forward into innovation.

So how does this relate to your business?

First of all, you’ve got to engage the consumer by asking for feedback.

• What product do they need that isn’t readily available in their context?
• Is there something about the current product that makes it difficult to use?
• How do they think it could be improved?

If the consumer is engaged from the product’s inception, they’ll be more receptive to its commercialization.

Second, as I said in my book, Value Prop, use customer feedback to create a truly differentiated product: “simply saying your product is different is not the same as being different in a way that is meaningful to your target audience.” Amos Winter’s Leveraged Freedom Chair is truly differentiated in its market, because he listened to the needs of his target end users and developed a product that uniquely fit their financial and geographical needs.

Winter tells us that “this product works well because we were effectively able to combine rigorous engineering science and analysis with user-centered design focused on the social and usage and economic factors important to wheelchair users in the developing countries.” Remember, in order to create and market a product efficiently, you must always keep the end-consumer in mind, and as directly involved as possible.

(End Note: Yes, I know Steve Jobs didn’t do focus groups and he knew best. And… that doesn’t work so well for most of us. A healthy balance between vision and market testing is a good thing, and Winter showed that balance in his approach.)

Amos Winter’s TED Talk

The post Amos Winter: Engaging the Consumer in the Design Process appeared first on Jose Palomino's Strategic Propositions Blog.

Original Post: Microsoft’s Outlook Takes Aim at Google’s Gmail
By Michael Lietdke | February 19, 2013

“Microsoft is so confident it has the Internet’s best email service that it is about to spend at least $30 million to send its message across the U.S.  To welcome new users, Microsoft is financing what it believes to be the biggest marketing blitz in the history of email. Outlook.com will be featured in ads running on primetime TV, radio stations, websites, billboards and buses. Microsoft expects to spend somewhere between $30 million to $90 million on the Outlook campaign, which will run for at least three months.when it unveiled Gmail nearly nine years ago.  The Outlook ads will overlap with an anti-Gmail marketing campaign that Microsoft launched earlier this month.”

Alright, here’s the thing.  Microsoft has some great things to offer for sure, and their technology is getting better.  But what is the value for anyone to switch over from Gmail?  So much of the world is already immersed in the world of Gmail — from the e-mail to Google Docs to Google Reader to dozens of other Google Apps.  Unless there is a clear value proposition for a customer to switch from Gmail to Outlook, they won’t do it.  And as far as I can tell, I don’t see one. Humans are stuck in their ways — no amount of money spent on advertising will change this fact.

Microsoft: You haven’t given me a reason to switch, and so I’m sticking with Gmail.

What do you think?  Would you switch over from Gmail to Outlook?

Do you think they have a value proposition?

Further Reading:

• The Windows Phone, Part One: What’s the Point?
• The Windows Phone, Part Two: A New Hope

The post Microsoft: What’s Your Value Prop? appeared first on Jose Palomino's Strategic Propositions Blog.

Original Post: Sorry Left AND Right, No Job Requires a College Degree
By John Tammy | February 10, 2013

“What job requires a college degree? The truth is no job does…Whether the ambition is to become an investment banker or a Starbucks barista, the dirty little secret is that nothing learned during the four (or five) fun-filled years on idyllic campuses has anything to do with either form of employment. That four years of English Lit or finance courses wouldn’t be required to work behind the counter at Grumpy’s is obvious, but it’s also the case that what’s learned in those finance classes is not necessary if your desire is to thrive at Goldman Sachs.”

This is very true, although I know most big businesses won’t even glance at your resume without either a college degree or a recommendation from an insider.  Even certain Starbucks in the area won’t ask you in for an interview if you haven’t been to college.  This is how competitive the job market is right now: to be a barista, you must have a degree.  So what are the chances of getting in at a place like Goldman Sachs?

Entrepreneurs and CEOs of startups are the ones that tend to be willing to “go out on a limb” and hire the less experienced, but it doesn’t change the fact that for most of our culture, that little piece of paper goes a long way.  What would it take to change the culture?

Do you only hire people with college degrees?  Why or why not?

The post College Degree: Is It a Hiring Requirement? appeared first on Jose Palomino's Strategic Propositions Blog.

Original Post: A New York Mom Outsmarts Coke And Pepsi With A Cool Marketing Idea
By Avi Dan | February 11, 2013

“Cameron, a former advertising executive, decided to bring her branding skills to bear and tried serving water in a “cute little container.” This time her approach stuck. The kids thought that the new container was cool. And that’s how Rose Cameron stumbled on an idea that the big soft drink companies missed altogether: a healthy drink that kids would adopt as cool. The kids pretty much made all the creative decisions, which gave the brand its authenticity. Now, her little water company has grown from five unpaid interns to 30 full-time employees with national distribution.”

What a great story to remind us that the true entrepreneurial spirit is not dead!  Here comes a smart branding idea — a simple-yet-smart branding idea — straight from “the mouths of babes,” as they say.  This mother got her target market (you know… her kids) to tell her exactly what would make them drink water: a “cool” container.  How is it that the bigger brands couldn’t decipher this tactic any sooner?

Sometimes it takes someone on the front lines with personal investment because their determination is so strong.  And her mission is “about helping kids stay healthy,” not turning a profit (although I’m sure the profit is an added bonus!).

What other entrepreneurial stories have you heard recently that have inspired you?

The post Outsmarting the Big Brands: An Entrepreneurial Mom & Her Kids appeared first on Jose Palomino's Strategic Propositions Blog.

If you missed Jose being interviewed on the B2B Marketing Radio Show that’s OK because you can listen to the recording on this post.

After you listen to the interview, please share it with your social media followers so they too can learn how smart B2B organizations are engaging with their targeted audiences – and why they are generating a stronger ROI as a result.

The post Jose Interviewed on B2B Marketing Insider’s Radio appeared first on Jose Palomino's Strategic Propositions Blog.

Original Post: B2B is the New B2C
By Tim Moran | February 1, 2013

“I couldn’t help but notice the parallels between consumer expectations in B2C and B2B business models. That got me thinking about why consumers now expect businesses to deliver the same types of relevant, engaging, connected experiences that they receive when they interact with consumer-oriented companies.

The answer is simple: People are people.

It’s time for B2B and enterprise marketers to rethink the ways in which they engage their target audiences. The winning recipe: Measure everything, give customers and prospects the information they seek, and listen to what they are telling you via social and customer-support channels to continually improve the engagement and buying life cycles.”

I have been thinking a lot about this recently in relation to an article I developed about becoming the Downton Abbey of B2B.  As the article says, “People are people.”  They are increasingly relational.  B2B companies have to take a page from the B2C book.  But I also believe that B2B companies have an advantage because usually the sales process is more about face-to-face contact.  Instead of a person walking into a Macy’s to (possibly) have a one-time encounter with the salesperson behind the counter, my customers interact with me or one of my employees multiple times over the course of the year.  Once their purchase our offering, we aren’t out of the picture — we continue to walk beside them as they utilize what we have to offer.  So I would argue that B2B companies have the potential to be MORE relational than B2C, and that should definitely come across in marketing efforts.

The post Message for B2B: “People Are People” appeared first on Jose Palomino's Strategic Propositions Blog.

You know what market you’re competing in, but do you have a clear sense as to the “maturity” of that market?

In order to accurately price you offering, you must determine to what degree your specific customer market is mature and well developed.

Image credit: krissen on Flickr

A general rule-of-thumb for identifying whether or not your product/offering is in an established market is if the market is over five years old. However, this is not the only indicator. Other indicators are slow growth in regards to new customers or products.

D.W. Block Associates, LLC, is an agribusiness strategy and management consulting firm serving the agricultural sector. On their website, they write, “Most of us have noticed that the seed business has fewer customers, more competition and more consolidation. Those are signs of a mature market.”

Maturity Matters

Maturity occurs when a majority of prospects that could buy your product or service have already bought your offering or something like it. For example, if I’m selling CRM software, that’s very mature in the high end—very large companies all have CRM. D.W. Associates also notes that,

“a mature market has noticeable price sensitivity. Most of us have already seen that firsthand. As our products’ differential advantages become slimmer, and customers fewer, there is a tendency to “get the business” by lowering the price.”

This is why it is essential to know whether or not you are in a mature market. If you are, then your pricing must be competitive—and the market (customers) know they have the edge. This is basic economics and Porter’s Five Forces cover this as well. Having said that, it is not at all uncommon for vendors in a maturing market to be the last to know! Anyway, if you are not, then you have a little more leeway in terms of where you might set your price.

In other words, the more established the market, the lower and less varied the prices tend to be.  Although you may be able to command a premium relative to your competitors in the market, your premium will shrink. That is to say, while you may get more for your “seeds” than others do, it will be a marginal premium in a mature market. This is also where you may choose to be a premium supplier to a sub-set of the market. For example, Apple’s Macbooks are premium priced laptops—sold to people who see themselves as “premium laptop” buyers.

Ask Yourself About the Competition

As you consider if your chosen market is well developed or developing, ask yourself about the established players—i.e., your competitors—in that market.

• How many are your direct competitors, and who are they?
• How many are stealth competitors, and who are they?
• What are their price positions, and why?
• Who is your market is charging premium price? Are they succeeding?

More Than Competition

It’s important to note that in some high tech markets, the market may be less than five years old and still developing. For example, if you’re selling social media monitoring software, that’s a fairly new category—it’s not yet mature. There may be some competitors, but the mere presence of competitors does not in and of itself mean maturity. In this instance, there is simply not enough competition to have set a firm pricing expectation. If you’re competing in a market similar to this one, you have more wiggle room in terms of pricing—whether that pricing is commodity-like or premium.

However, another related category—smartphones—is fairly new yet is maturing quickly. Since this is the case, the overall pricing capability to get premium pricing for a smartphone is constrained. In relative terms, you might be on the upper end of the premium (iPhone), but if you’re introducing a new product, you’re not the leader and cannot easily charge a premium price.

Looking at the tablet market as an example, this category is not yet mature (although it is rapidly getting there). It is most accurate to say that the specific market for tablets—or for tablet e-readers—is in the process of maturing. It’s not completely mature as, say, laptops, but it is developing. Apple is currently selling at premium for their tablet—the iPad—at $500+, and Amazon’s basic Kindle is selling at the lower end of the market at $79. This means that there is still a lot of room for companies wanting to sell in the midrange, such as Amazon’s Kindle Fire or Barnes & Noble’s Nook.

So before you plunge in head-first into the pricing game, remember to ask yourself about the maturity of your market.

• Have you ever considered the maturity of your market before pricing your offerings?
• What are some other indicators of a mature category?

(Please note that this is a “sneak preview” of Price Framing—our Pricing Methodology which will be published in a forthcoming white paper.)

The post Pricing from the Customer’s POV: Is the Market Mature? appeared first on Jose Palomino's Strategic Propositions Blog.

Original Post: Misunderstanding The Common Man
By Keith Richman | February 1, 2013

“The reality is that perhaps men aren’t so simple or as easily categorized as they used to be. This messaging transition is under way because the stereotypes of macho men, skirt chasers, and doofus dads don’t work anymore–on TV shows, as well as in ads. Advertisers clinging to these old male archetypes are traveling down the wrong path when marketing to men, especially when the men happen to be dads.  So clearly the role of the modern man is shifting, as is his perception of himself. But have most marketers changed their tactics? I believe we are still in the early days of seeing updated portrayals start to emerge. In our survey, about 30 percent of respondents said they are less likely to see portrayals in the media (most notably on TV) of good guys trying to do the right thing.”

The article does a good job highlighting brands that are handling the shift well (i.e. Old Spice) and brands that are not (i.e. Huggies).  It’s about time that consumer marketing has begun to recognize this fact because it’s been shifting this way for years now.  The quicker that brands get on board, the better.  I wonder how it is that so many brands still remain out-of-touch, thinking that people are still in the same spot as they were 20 years ago.  My question is: who are they hiring?  Aren’t there any young people stepping into the marketing team on these big brands?  Are their voices being heard at all?

Also, who is running their social media?  If anyone is actually listening to the conversations (and not just sending status updates about promotions and sales), then it would be a little more obvious how their target market thinks.

The post Marketing to the “New” Man appeared first on Jose Palomino's Strategic Propositions Blog.

On February 17, 2013, Downton Abbey‘s season 3 finale aired on PBS.  8 million Americans tuned in expectantly to witness the ongoing saga between Matthew and Mary, Bates and Anna, the Dowager Countess and whomever dared to ruffle her feathers.  In fact, just say one sentence about Downton Abbey at a party or on Twitter, and you will see just how enthusiastic fans are of the show.  It’s obvious: we not only love Downton Abbey, but we are (extreme) advocates for it.

Although we can’t all have a Maggie Smith on our team to woo people into becoming our fans with snarky one-liners, we all should be striving for brand advocacy from our customers.

We all want our customers to become our advocates, but what does it take to get there?

Take It from a Rock Star

A few months ago, Mark Collier wrote a poignant post comparing Coke’s efforts to create brand advocates to the efforts of various rock stars.  His ultimate conclusion:  Coke’s goal is to get their customers to tell stories for the company, whereas rock stars just like to focus their energy on appreciating their fans (and then the fans tell the story anyway).  Take a minute to read what he has to say:

“The first thing that pops into most brand’s minds when it comes to their advocates is ‘How can we leverage this connection to result in a sale?’  The first thing that pops into most rock stars’ minds when it comes to their fans is ‘How can I show them that I appreciate them?’”

Collier then goes on to strike at the heart of the issue: “Rock stars have an emotional relationship with their fans, while most brands have a transactional relationship with their customers.”

Admittedly, it’s easier for TV programs and rock stars to garner an avid and outspoken following than a business.  In fact, you might be reading this and thinking, “I’m a business — there’s no way I’m going to get my customers as emotionally connected to my brand as they would be to Doctor Who.”

And yet this is what you want, and ultimately what you need.  In case you missed it, let me reiterate: your goal is to create an emotional relationship with your customers that goes beyond mere transactions.

Before you stop reading, let’s look at a few businesses who are doing just that — and then we’ll talk about how B2B companies have the advantage in building emotional connections between their brand and their customers.

Starbucks: Changing Customer Behavior

If you are or know of a devoted Starbucks customer, you know that they go out of their way to get their Starbucks coffee.  Whether that means making Starbucks coffee at home, stopping at a local shop during their morning commute, or scheduling meetings at various Starbucks locations, for loyal customers, Starbucks has become a part of their routine.

And that’s what you want.  You want your customers to go out of their way to use your brand, and you want to be part of their routine.  In the book Brand Rituals, Zain Raj talks about how, “The stages of enriched brand experiences move from current consumer behavior to a magnified interest, to modified attitudes and ultimately to a new behavior. The mindfulness that aligns with each of these stages is a customer transaction, attraction, connection, and bond, respectively.”

Zappos: Exceeding Customer Expectations

Every company wants good customer service, but what type of customer service builds a relationship with the customer?  The type that anticipates their wants, meets them, and then exceeds them.

Take Zappos, for example.  If you’re buying shoes online, your worst fear is they won’t fit right and you’ll have to go through the hassle of returning them.  Realizing this fear (and that it would keep potential customers away, especially if they have or hear of one negative experience), they offer the following: 1) A free return label with your purchase (so there’s no extra expense to you); and 2) A 365-day return policy (so you can mull over that purchase for a long while or take your precious time getting to the post office).  By enacting this policy, Zappos exceeded customer expectations.

Having trouble thinking of a way to do this?  The first step is dialog: ask your customers, and then take their answers and make tangible changes.  Whitney Wood, managing partner of the Phelon Group, told Inc. Magazine:

“If you handle it right, the dialog between you and your customers can become the lifeline of your business. To establish and maintain a healthy flow, customer feedback must result in change your customers can see. Change is the most powerful currency to reward vocal and consultative customers.”

Apple: Closing the Back Door

I think we can safely say that Apple users define the word fan; they are indeed fanatical about Apple products.  Some have even used the term, “Apple cult” to describe the way Apple users feel about their Macbooks/iPads/iPhones.  Say anything negative about Apple products, and you will see just how emotionally connected Apple users are to the company.

So how did they do it?  It’s not easy to boil it down to just one thing, but overall, Apple “closed the back door,” so to speak.  They created a top-notch product that was user-friendly and marketed it as “cool” so that users became hooked.  Those that are part of the Apple cult don’t want to leave because they have no reason to do so.  Apple has closed the back door.

Howard Tullman wrote about “closing the back door” for Inc. Magazine.  He says, “The winning game is to own your customers for life. To do that, you need to anticipate, meet, and try to exceed their needs and their expectations.  Your job is to monitor your customers’ progress and jump in at the appropriate juncture to make the next connection and the next sale.”

In a tech world previously dominated by Microsoft, Apple met the needs of consumers, and then exceeded them.  They have won their customers for life.

Your Advantage as a B2B

How do you change customer behavior, exceed customer expectations, and close the back door in a B2B marketplace?

The first step is coming up with a coherent and actionable value proposition.  If you know exactly why and how your product adds value to your customers’ lives, and if that value is communicated throughout all aspects of your business. then you are in a good place.  This is true for all companies — B2C or B2B.

The second step is where you have the advantage as a B2B company: knowing your customers as individuals.  “We live in a culture where knowing your customers one by one as individuals is more important than ever before,” a researcher with the BRS Group told Inc. Magazine.  Depending on the size of your company, there are various ways of achieving this goal, but I would recommend that this become your focus in the upcoming years.  Whether it’s a matter of assigning sales reps to make a huge push towards showing appreciation to the customer or you personally reaching out to every customer, make sure you have a plan for, as my good friend Ed Wallace says, “building relationships that will last.”

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, it’s vitally important that B2B companies become THE company for their category.  And if you’re working towards creating emotional bonds between your customers and your company, then you are well on your way to becoming the Downton Abbey of your market.

• What other companies are building relationships between their customers and company?
• What companies are trying to build relationships, but are not succeeding?
• What would you recommend for companies attempting to establish an emotional connection between their brand and customers?

The post Brand Advocacy: How to Become the Downton Abbey of Brands appeared first on Jose Palomino's Strategic Propositions Blog.

Original Post: How to Beat Your Competition by Innovating in Ways They Can’t Copy
By Kaihan Krippendorff | February 5, 2013

“Urban Outfitters keeps winning because it was built by two people who … “knew nothing about the retailing business” when they started. The naiveté of the company’s founders … freed them to make counterintuitive decisions that traditional retailers still resist copying today.  For example, Urban Outfitters hires artists, rather than analytical business people, to manage its stores. Because it hires people with strong aesthetic sensibilities, the company can give them unusual freedom in how they shape the interiors of the stores … Traditional clothing retailers won’t give their managers such freedom, because they hire analytical business school students, not quirky design and art school graduates.”

This isn’t just a problem that’s limited to retail.  A lot of businesses shy away from thinking — and by that, I mean hiring — outside of the box.  If your major wasn’t business-related, if you don’t have any internships, if you’re changing careers — then it doesn’t matter what you’d add to the business; you’ll be a hard sell.  There’s some wisdom in that, but as an entrepreneur, I’ve hired a lot of people without business experience, and they have provided vital, fresh insight — as well as top-notch skills.

There’s another problem attached to this as well.  Let’s say, as a manager, you DO hire outside the box — then are you keeping that employee boxed in to a certain role?  I love working in and around startups because generally you can’t afford to keep an employee just inside one role.  If you allow even just a little flexibility between positions — if you see that an employee might fit better in another department, even for a time — you’re more apt to keep your business fresh and keep your employees happy.

The post Hiring Outside the Box appeared first on Jose Palomino's Strategic Propositions Blog.

Original Post: Should the boss play favorites?  Some say yes.
By A. Pawlawski | January 28, 2013

One new study finds that workers feel better about themselves, are more willing to go above and beyond and are less likely to break the rules when they feel they are receiving preferential treatment from their manager.

This is a great article that debates the bonuses to “playing favorites” in the office.  I highly recommend you read it, and then let me know what you think.

I think it’s definitely important to have high standards and recognize those who meet (or exceed) such standards.  It’s also important to be able to encourage all employees to reach that goal.  If you are knowingly “favoriting” one employee over the other, you ought to temper how you treat said employee in relation to other employees.  Just as showing favoritism might help one employee, it might do more harm to the other employees.

I always try to find out the things each employee does really well and emphasize those before suggesting how they might improve in other areas.  There’s definitely a way to offer constructive feedback and say, “Hey, you’re doing such and such really well, and I’d love it if you could also do ____.”  Remind the employee that you are asking for such high because you know they can attain it.

Do you show favoritism in the office, or have you seen it in the past?  How has it helped or harmed the workplace?

The post Favoritism: A Good Thing? appeared first on Jose Palomino's Strategic Propositions Blog.

Original Post: Mobile Wallet: What’s your value prop?
By Steven Gurley | January 23, 2013

“Truth be told, today’s payment-centric wallets neither offer an ecosystem nor offer digital asset management. Most, in fact, provide little to no discernable value to the consumer at all.  Most payment-centric wallet providers actually recognize this and are forced to promote less tangible benefits such as the promise of greater security and ease of replacement in the event of a wallet’s loss. Unfortunately, this is not a value proposition that would entice most consumers to change their habits and behaviors. In my experience, consumers generally don’t like change and they especially don’t embrace change for the sake of addressing a potentially negative experience that they feel, rationally or not, is in their power to avoid.

A good idea is worthless if there’s no clear value proposition attached to it.  Before going to market — even if the market is ripe for the taking — every customer has to ask what their product offers the customers.  One way to do this is to simply ask themselves: Would I change my habits with the product I’m offering?  Because that’s really at the heart of it — just like you said.  Customers are set in their ways — humans are set in their ways — and won’t change unless there’s a real incentive for doing so.

The post What would make YOU change your habits? appeared first on Jose Palomino's Strategic Propositions Blog.

My company is called Value Prop Interactive.  My book is called Value Prop.  I figured there are enough new readers and subscribers to this blog to revisit the question:

What is a “Value Prop?”

A Value Prop – or value proposition – is a “platform” that first, defines what a product or service does – and for whom. From this platform, you can then effectively communicate your offering and coordinate efforts to reach your target market and achieve your revenue and market-share targets. Nice big goals. Very doable, if you’re building on the right base, or right “value prop”.

Image credit: P Shanks on Flickr

On a more simple level, having a value prop is about knowing how and what my offering can add or contribute to my best customer.

A value prop is more than a set of promises that helps prospective customers understand what, why, and how an offering meets their needs.  While fundamental, these pieces are only a starting point.  It’s also how you communicate, who you communicate with, and why the message is or should be important to whom you’re communicating it to.

It’s not just a tag line; it’s not just brand.  Ultimately, it is the bottom line of how a company creates and communicates their value.

What must you do first before you work on your value prop?

First and foremost, start with the truth.  By this I mean, be as “cold” or analytical as you can.  Do a simple SWOT analysis, and ask someone outside your organization to help you with it – someone who’ll tell you the truth.  This can be a formal process, or as simple as asking people you trust for feedback (Hey, why not? — Ask your mom!).  Stick with the truth, and don’t get into spin – this is critical so that you avoid the “lipstick on a pig” syndrome.

Be objective!  Ask hard questions like, “Which competitors sound most like us?”  Ask your employees.  Ask your clients.  If you want to know if you’ve really answered all of your client’s needs, ask yourself:  “Would I buy it?” Of course, most companies don’t start with complete ignorance about their target market, having a certain amount of domain knowledge.  So, who do you know who can shed some light on what you’re planning to do?

Regardless of industry or nearness to your particular project, out of a group of say 30 people, a handful could shed light on a problem in a new way that completely moves your offering to the next level.  There’s a common phenomenon in this kind of planning:  nearsightedness!  You have to open your eyes and see the incredible value of resources around you:  people in the office next to you, customers who can help you, old contacts, and previous classmates — you could benefit from their input in unforeseen ways.  It doesn’t have to be a formal research project with a big budget.

People become enamored with their own ideas, and this infatuation can become an Achilles’ heel — and often, entrepreneurs are simply afraid of the truth.  They have gathered “a few good men,” a hundred grand in start-up cash, a yearning to forge ahead – and little desire to hear anything to the contrary of their grand idea.  The point of enlisting external feedback (and a lot of it!) is that the process and input enables you to sharpen your position much more precisely.

• How have you sharpened your value prop?
• What methods would you suggest in doing so, and what methods would you caution against?

The post Defining “Value Prop,” and How to Sharpen Yours appeared first on Jose Palomino's Strategic Propositions Blog.

Original Post: The Rise of the Unbrand
By Mitch Joel | January 31, 2013

“While the Internet has brought with it many media disruptions, it has also created a truly global marketplace for fine artists… Suddenly, through online marketplaces like eBay and Etsy, individual artists have a global audience and are able to sell their creations to anybody and everybody who takes the time to discover them. In these instances, it has also become common for artists to work directly with their customers to deliver both the perfect size and look for their homes and offices.”

This is a really thoughtful piece.  I guess I have been so long engrossed in the “branding” environment, that I hadn’t even stopped to consider the “Rise of the Unbrand,” which is truly changing the way people produce and buy.

There are two other thoughts that come to mind in regards to the rise that weren’t addressed in the article.  Besides eBay and Etsy, Pinterest is also providing these artists a lot of foothold.  If your product gets pinned on a board, and then repinned over and over (which usually happens), then you’ve got instant, grassroots marketing — at no cost to you.  Word-of-mouth is extremely powerful for the artist in this digital age.

Another reason for the rise of the unbrand (which was touched on briefly): knowing who is making your product.  Even going beyond customization, today’s customers (especially the Millennials) are increasingly concerned about WHO is making their products and in WHAT environment.  American Apparel is huge because the products are “Made in America,” where employees are paid decent wages and work in good conditions.  If you can go on Etsy to buy something, you know you are supporting an artisan — whether that person is in the United States or Thailand.  This is a huge advantage for the “unbrand.”

The post Forget Branding: Unbranding Is In appeared first on Jose Palomino's Strategic Propositions Blog.

Original Post: 3 Keys to Great Customer Relationships
By Geoffrey James | January 31, 2013

“Relationships are emotional rather than intellectual. Therefore, rather than treating customer relationships as business agreements, approach them as an interaction between your emotions and those of the customer.”

In this post, James provides us excellent points for connecting with your customers by developing emotional skills.  I especially appreciate #1 — “Self Awareness” — because that’s not often talked about when striving for customer relations.  Not only does it help you stay grounded in the humanity of the customers, but it also humanizes you — making you more trustworthy and the customer more at-ease.

One more I would suggest: “Maintaining Contact.”  If you’re at a hotline center and you receive a call that needs resolution, call back even before there is resolution.  So many customer service places promise things but then don’t deliver.  If you call back consistently to let the customer know of any updates (or even lack-thereof), they will feel cared for — especially in knowing they have not been forgotten.

I ran a two-part series on customer service last week — check it out here.

The post Note to Customer Service: Emotions Needed appeared first on Jose Palomino's Strategic Propositions Blog.