THE STORY
Here in the
Perhaps when I was a child…in the middle of the night…some mad scientist switched my taste buds with the taste buds of someone from
THE ANALOGY
What is normal? As we saw in the story, what is normal in food taste tends to depend on where you were raised. Normal cravings in one place are seen as quite odd in other places.
But it doesn't end with just location. Look at the usage of new media by age. What a twenty-something thinks is normal usage of new media would seem abnormal to many older people, and vice versa.
And stand out of the way when many people of opposing political viewpoints start to argue. Each sees their viewpoint as "normal" and reasonable. They find the opposition to be odd at best, and insane or dangerous at worst.
Even things as mundane as brushing teeth can challenge the concept of normality. Proctor and Gamble tried to determine the normal teeth brushing routing routine, so that they could design the ideal tooth paste. They found no normal. Some wet the toothbrush before putting on the paste, some wet the toothbrush after putting on the paste, some don't wet the toothbrush at all. And that's just the beginning of the tooth brushing routine. Once the toothbrush enters the mouth, even more variety in behavior occurs.
We live in a highly fragmented world. There are so many different lifestyles, attitudes and ways of everyday living. And the trend appears towards even more fragmentation.
At some point, even the notion of there being a "normal" seems quaint and old-fashioned. We are told to "celebrate diversity" and see those who propose conformity to a norm as "narrow-minded."
As a business, this poses some strategic challenges. How do you create a business strategy in a "post-normal" world—a place where the idea of normal ceases to exist?
THE PRINCIPLE
Business strategies are executed out in the marketplace. If the marketplace is diverse enough to make normalcy obsolete, then strategic choice—how to win in that marketplace—becomes less obvious. The good news is that in a diverse marketplace, there is not just a single best way to win. If someone has already locked up a solid position in the market, it doesn't mean that you've lost your chance. With all that diversity, you are more likely to find a different strategic path where you can also win.
The bad news is that fragmentation decreases the size of any behavior segment, so that when you win your audience, it may be too small to support your infrastructure. Economies of scale are harder to obtain (although the digital world often tends to reach scale sooner than the physical world).
Listed below are five generic approaches for trying to reach a post-normal world. As we will see, some approaches are better suited for this world than others.
1. Fight for Average
In order to maximize scale, one can aim for offering a single solution targeted to satisfy the average within the diversity. In other words, if diversity scatters behavior randomly in all directions, the single position which is closest to each individual would be the position in the middle—average features, average prices, average performance, and so on.
In a world without normal, this can be the most dangerous position to take. There is no longer the large bulk at the center of a tall, bell-shaped curve. The dispersion of people is more equalized, putting fewer people close to the center.
Average at everything means you are the best at nothing. Trying to please everyone a little bit rarely works, because you are not competing against others who are also striving for average. You are competing against hoards of specialists. Although none of the specialists have broad appeal (and may actually be hated by more people than your average approach), for each demand group one of these specialists will be preferred over your average approach.
As a result, an average approach may never come in last, but it will never come in first. The average of black and white is gray. If you offer gray, you appeal neither to the whites (you are too dark) nor the blacks (you are too light). Middle of the road products and retailers have been losing out to specialists for years. We talked about this in greater detail in a prior blog.
2. Do it All
If trying to cover everyone with a single go-to-market strategy targeted at average is wrong, then how about the opposite? There are two ways to do this. The first is to try to be the absolute best at everything in a single offering—the perfect product. The second is to offer a near infinite assortment of offers, each targeted at a different fragment.
Lucky you if you can pull off the single perfect product. It is extremely difficult to do because there are usually trade-offs which make this impossible. Adding more features creates complexity, which fights against simplicity. It is nearly impossible to best at all and be best at price. In addition, there probably is no consensus anymore on what "best" really means. Some may think the best design is contemporary while others may think traditional design is best. For some, bigger is better…for others, smaller is better. Best is no longer an absolute term in a post-normal world.
The reality is that if you are going to get a product out in the marketplace at a reasonable price, you have to make trade-offs. You cannot afford to do it all at the level of perfection. Customers are willing to make trade-offs to get what they want at a price they can afford. They will migrate to firms who offer their ideal trade-off. If you do not trade-off as well, you may be priced out of the market.
But then, to create a near infinite amount of trade-off offerings (one for each fragment) has its own set of problems. First, you may not get enough scale for any one of those offerings to create a profit. Second, you can create brand confusion. It's hard for a brand to be known as best at everything. If all these products come out under the same brand, it can confuse a customer as to what the brand really stands for. In addition, customers will not believe that a single brand can be good at producing that many varieties of trade-offs. Generalists are not usually viewed as powerful a brand as specialists.
So "Do it all" is difficult pull off in a post-normal world as well.
3. Cluster Portfolio
If trying to please everyone with one product (as average or as best) doesn't work, and trying to please everyone with near infinite products doesn't work, how about something in between? This would be to create a portfolio of a manageable number of offerings which are best or average for large sub-sectors (clusters) of the marketplace. This tends to be the approach taken by people like Proctor and Gamble. They have great technological expertise in paper/absorbency. How do you exploit your full potential with that competency?
With toilet paper, the Charmin brand uses four sub-brands to cover the bigger niches: Ultra Strong, Ultra Soft, Basic (price) and Plus (with lotion). With paper towels, there are three basic niches for the Bounty Brand: Extra Soft, Regular (thick and stylish), and basic (cost). With diapers, Luvs stands for price and Pampers stands for good parenting.
The trick is to find the sweet spot between covering more fragments without diluting the brand. If you can find that sweet spot, you may be able to get the best of both worlds—economy of scale plus specialized trade-offs.
4. Laser Focus
One strategic option reasonably well suited to the post-normal world is the laser focus. Choose a relatively large niche in the marketplace and own it better than anyone else. Specialize in understanding the niche and meeting its unique needs. Essentially forget about all the other diversity. Aldi isn't trying to please everybody, nor is Whole Foods. Each has found its own niche in the grocery marketplace and is exaggerating its offering to the tradeoffs most desired by that niche. They don't care that others may hate their offering and never patronize them.
Although the world may no longer have a normal, there is usually an agreed upon normal within the niche. In fact, it is their version of normal which tends to define that niche. Play to that normal (ignoring the rest), and you can win, provided the niche is large enough.
5. Enable Personalization
Rather than specializing in the final product for every fragment, how about providing the means so that every fragment can create their own? A good example is Zazzle.com. At Zazzle you can get the ideal t-shirt just for you. They have an enormous number of customizing options. And if you do not like any of them, you can create your own individual customized look and they will make it for you. There are tons of firms like this who will customize clothing, food and other everyday needs to your individual tastes.
In this web 2.0 world it is easier to work with the customer, allowing them to customize and personalize their own unique solution. Your solution is no longer the end product. Your solution is to be the enabler that allows each fragment to find or build their own unique end product.
SUMMARY
In a post-normal world, a one-size-fits-all strategy is out of place. It is better to either narrow your strategy to a single niche, pick a small cluster of niches, or enable the fragmented world to create their own unique solution.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Next time someone accuses you of being abnormal, just say thank you. In a post-normal world, that is a complement.
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