tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5461010492997967211.post4845319337646836890..comments2023-08-21T04:21:39.084-05:00Comments on Planninga from Nanninga: A Strategic Planning Blog: Strategic Planning Analogy #340: The Box vs. The ContentsGerald Nanningahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10102230443942149045noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5461010492997967211.post-79458289493234142762010-07-23T19:52:01.214-05:002010-07-23T19:52:01.214-05:00This short/full length sermon metaphor reminds me ...This short/full length sermon metaphor reminds me of the milk/meat metaphor which also happen to have a scriptural origin - milk relates to basic insight or teaching, and meat to the deeper insights or teaching.<br /><br />Gerald – to your point – I guess followers of your blog are mature readers and so you give them meaty messages or full length blogs as opposed to the milk or short basic messages that are common elsewhere. The next question is who defines short blogs as "milk" and long blog as "meat". I am not trying to define it here either. Rather, "milk or meat" is generally used to indicate the relative nature of insights or discussion. The meatier the insight – it needs more explanation in terms of metaphors, analogy and stories to get the message across - and so Gerald’s blog end up being larger in size.<br /><br />To Ali annani’s point – I can perhaps speak for myself as well – While I definitely think about my readers – like Gerald - I also sometimes get carried away with my thoughts and so they end up being bigger.<br /><br />At the end – it does not matter whether it is short (milky) or long (meaty) – the answer I guess is balanced moderation – as long the blog gives us value –add insights, I don’t mind whether it is small (milk) or big (meat).<br /><br />Regards,<br />CharlesCharles Prabakarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15714461775981814360noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5461010492997967211.post-88508880307132541052010-07-23T19:03:19.036-05:002010-07-23T19:03:19.036-05:00Gerald – Yet another great post! You bring up an i...Gerald – Yet another great post! You bring up an important - yet often overlooked aspect of marketing – the experience based mindset (long lasting functional experience, brand equity, emotional equity etc.). For example, we all have heard this definition from Theodore Levitt, "consumers don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!” I am sure the same definition applies to all consumer goods – as consumers rent those goods for a job to be done – and I would perhaps even go one more step - and say - consumers are renting the product for not “just the average job to be done” – but rather – for the “best experience filled job” to be done. <br /><br />What does that mean from marketing standpoint? For example – while increasing the market share for a product - say - smoothies/milk shake. The conventional wisdom will ask us to slice the market segment by product—and then segment it further by profiling the demographic characteristics of those consumers who frequently bought smoothies/milk shakes- their volume, dollar spent and finally we might invite few sample consumers to do a product testing - whether it needs to be thicker, more cheaper, or flavorful etc. While all of this tactics are all very much valid and a place to do -the problem with this approach is that it is very product/quantitative analytics focused and does not take in to account the qualitative/experience dimension. The better approach is – on top of the conventional segmentation approach – we also must do consumers behavior analysis and solve for the following: when or what day part they consume it? Why or what experience moments they want to fulfill (taste, flavor, H&W, nourishment etc)? What experience moments we have missed? Where do they consume it (at home, on road or driving etc)? And few more…<br /><br />As it turns out – solving for this qualitative experience dimension will help us to come up smoothie/milk shake experience in three key experience dimensions – Relevance, Access and Value. Relevance part will address the taste, nourishment etc - whereas the Access part will help us to come up with different packaging (as it happened in your cat story) or channel options (may be moving product closer to consumption etc) as part of this holistic experience equation. Value dimension - on the other hand will help us to come up with multiple brand strategies very much like how P&G came up with Tide in different value propositions (basic and regular.<br /><br />To get to this experience dimension mindset – in my opinion, companies can consider doing the following -<br /><br />• First and foremost - Change the product mindset to “job to be done” mindset and then to “best experience based job to be done” mindset as you have alluded.<br />• Transform the static product portfolios to experience portfolios.<br />• Explore ways to sell static products as dynamic service and/or experience enabled bundles – very similar to the emerging “product as service” concept that is popular in some industries.<br /><br />By understanding this best experience based job to be done mindset in social, functional, and emotional dimensions – marketers can be rest assured that they would gain share – not just in their like-by-like competitors (i.e. smoothie/milkshake) – but also in the adjacent experience categories (say like breakfast) – that might be fulfilled by other products like coffee, bananas, doughnuts, and bagels etc. which again reinforces my earlier experience portfolio point. The key lesson here is that experience based Job-defined market segments are generally much larger and longer lasting than product category-defined markets. A great lesson for Marketers indeed!<br /><br />Sorry my comment went little longer this time - as this is one of my favorite and passionate topics. As always – you have done a wonderful job in coming up with yet other high impact topic. Keep it going Gerald…<br /><br />Regards,<br />CharlesCharles Prabakarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15714461775981814360noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5461010492997967211.post-52080055484553207012010-07-23T18:12:20.315-05:002010-07-23T18:12:20.315-05:00Ali,
I'm a firm believer that if I'm goin...Ali,<br /><br />I'm a firm believer that if I'm going to try to get someone to read something as long as my blog (which is huge in size relative to Twitter or most other blog entries), I should make it worth taking the time to read.<br /><br />Therefore, I try to make it both entertaining and practical--including both theory and examples to bring it to life. That makes it a fruitful use of the reader's time.<br /><br />I know of a famous pastor who used to complain about other pasters who preached short little sermon-ettes. He said that seronettes are for Christian-ettes. He said that he wanted his congregation to be a full-fledged Christians, so he preached full-length sermons.<br /><br />I feel the same and do not want Strategic Planner-ettes, so I don't do blog-ettes.Gerald Nanningahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10102230443942149045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5461010492997967211.post-91027950534077146142010-07-23T07:39:21.069-05:002010-07-23T07:39:21.069-05:00Gerald,
I want to ask you a question, if you may. ...Gerald,<br />I want to ask you a question, if you may. When you write these thorough posts do you think of your customer (the reader). Or, does it come by naturally. Your posts are customer-oriented and I wonder how much deliberate effort you make to make them so?ali ananihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17948497521950629086noreply@blogger.com