A prospect recently asked, “What is the difference between strategy and value proposition work?” Since “strategy” is used to describe everything from how to stop a 2-year old’s tantrum to how to grow a Fortune 500 business, the question is best posed differently: “What is the role of the value proposition in a company’s strategy work?” A value proposition articulates: a promise of value being delivered to a defined target market, where value is the tangible and intangible benefits less the price the target pays to receive them; why this promise is to be believed; and, the offering that gives rise to the benefits. A value proposition should be defined and regularly reviewed at every level where you also develop a strategy. Remembering to do so will make you a better strategist. At the customer level, great sales reps know how to pitch…
Can Business Model Innovation Help Curb Obesity?
I watched Food, Inc. over the holiday weekend, a documentary about US food companies whose products fill grocery store shelves and bins and supply our numerous restaurant chains. I’m a pragmatic independent, so I’m able to see through the one-sided nature of the filmmaker’s criticisms of food companies. But there’s significant merit in the film as well. The filmmakers argue that the application of factory methods to our food system in the last two decades – with its relentless drive to reduce costs – has stripped food of its nutritional value and safety. The catalyst to the change was the emergence of super-sized buyers the likes of McDonalds and Walmart. Even if you are not a McDonalds or Walmart customer, your food choices are being driven by their demands on suppliers. One net result, the film claims, is that we are a far…
Is “Great to Good” the new business model strategy?
In using “Great to Good” in my title, I am quoting from new product development consultant Monica Wingate, of Fountainhead Brand Consulting, whose recent Evolve NPD Blog post summarizes key insights that she gained from the 2010 Market Research Summit held at University of Wisconsin, Madison’s A.C. Neilson Center for Marketing Research. I advise reading her post to learn how research methods will change in today’s challenging economy. The conference insight giving rise to Wingate’s Great to Good reference is that “Companies will embrace the ‘new normal’ by focusing on taking out less important features and lowering the price rather than adding value and cost into products.” If this is branded consumer goods companies’ core strategy for the “new normal,” they are stepping into commoditization’s quicksand. Why do I use the word quicksand in talking about commoditization? Because that is how commoditization happens…