Clash of Strategies

Marketing strategy has traditionally looked at external, internal, and competitive forces as conditions from which a strategy arises. In the resultant competitive tug-of-war, market share becomes the battleground. In this view of strategy, if one wins, another loses; this is the hallmark of a zero-sum system.

The limitations of such an approach are obvious. At the very least, there appears to be no challenge to the underlying strategic assumptions. The rules of the game are established, known, and practiced. Another approach asks these questions: why barge in and barrel over when you can go around to bigger rewards? What happens if one allows the rules of the game to be challenged? Who sets limitations, anyway?

What if, instead of a zero-sum rule set, there was a way to increase, invent, or create new market spaces? What if, instead of slugging it out over the same customers, there was a way to create hordes of new customers from the vast number of current non-users?

Strategy formulation needs to consider the possibilities of a new way of looking at game theory, starting with the rules of the game and continuing all the way through value creation and value bigger spoils?

Gemba and the VOC

Gemba is a Japanese word used in quality circles to describe where the work is performed. Gemba translates to "the place where the truth can be found." The concept can be, and should be, applied to the practice of marketing in the discovery of the voice-of-the-customer (VOC).

Going to the "customer's gemba" means making a visit to the customer's location to observe the use of a product or the consumption of a service. Visiting the customer's gemba is an act of discovery. The objective is to obtain a deep understanding of the customer's interaction with the the product or service. Marketing cannot be done from an office or behind a desk.

These essential questions help acquire a deeper customer understanding:
1. What benefit or desired outcome is the customer really buying?
2. How do they use the product or service.
(Describe or map the use process.)
3. When do they use it? How do they know when to use it?
(What is the trigger?)
4. Where do they use it?
(Where else can they use it?)
5. What else do they use with it?
(Look for upstream and downstream complementary products or services to improve customer satisfaction.)
6. How do they dispose of the product or end the use of the service?