WhyCustomerValuePropositionsReallyMatter.pdf

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VP_Harnessing_the_Truth.pdf

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Startup success can be engineered by following the process, which means it can be learned, which means it can be taught.- Eric Ries

The Lean Startup provides a scientific approach to creating and managing startups and get a desired product to customers' hands faster. The Lean Startup method teaches you how to drive a startup-how to steer, when to turn, and when to persevere-and grow a business with maximum acceleration. It is a principled approach to new product development.

Too many startups begin with an idea for a product that they think people want. They then spend months, sometimes years, perfecting that product without ever showing the product, even in a very rudimentary form, to the prospective customer. When they fail to reach broad uptake from customers, it is often because they never spoke to prospective customers and determined whether or not the product was interesting. When customers ultimately communicate, through their indifference, that they don't care about the idea, the startup fails.

The Lean Startup method teaches you how to drive a startup-how to steer, when to turn, and when to persevere-and grow a business with maximum acceleration.

Lean Startup Process Diagram + The Lean Startup Process - Diagram

Using the Lean Startup approach, companies can create order not chaos by providing tools to test a vision continuously.

Continuous Innovation + Continuous Innovation

By the time that product is ready to be distributed widely, it will already have established customers.

Eliminate Uncertainty

The lack of a tailored management process has led many a start-up or, as Ries terms them, "a human institution designed to create a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty", to abandon all process. They take a "just do it" approach that avoids all forms of management. But this is not the only option. Using the Lean Startup approach, companies can create order not chaos by providing tools to test a vision continuously. Lean isn't simply about spending less money. Lean isn't just about failing fast, failing cheap. It is about putting a process, a methodology around the development of a product.

Work Smarter not Harder

The Lean Startup methodology has as a premise that every startup is a grand experiment that attempts to answer a question. The question is not "Can this product be built?" Instead, the questions are "Should this product be built?" and "Can we build a sustainable business around this set of products and services?" This experiment is more than just theoretical inquiry; it is a first product. If it is successful, it allows a manager to get started with his or her campaign: enlisting early adopters, adding employees to each further experiment or iteration, and eventually starting to build a product. By the time that product is ready to be distributed widely, it will already have established customers. It will have solved real problems and offer detailed specifications for what needs to be built.

Develop An MVP

Learn When it is Time to Pivot + Learn When It Is Time To Pivot

A core component of Lean Startup methodology is the build-measure-learn feedback loop. The first step is figuring out the problem that needs to be solved and then developing a minimum viable product (MVP) to begin the process of learning as quickly as possible. Once the MVP is established, a startup can work on tuning the engine. This will involve measurement and learning and must include actionable metrics that can demonstrate cause and effect question.

The startup will also utilize an investigative development method called the "Five Whys"-asking simple questions to study and solve problems along the way. When this process of measuring and learning is done correctly, it will be clear that a company is either moving the drivers of the business model or not. If not, it is a sign that it is time to pivot or make a structural course correction to test a new fundamental hypothesis about the product, strategy and engine of growth.

Validated Learning

Progress in manufacturing is measured by the production of high quality goods. The unit of progress for Lean Startups is validated learning-a rigorous method for demonstrating progress when one is embedded in the soil of extreme uncertainty. Once entrepreneurs embrace validated learning, the development process can shrink substantially. When you focus on figuring the right thing to build-the thing customers want and will pay for-you need not spend months waiting for a product beta launch to change the company's direction. Instead, entrepreneurs can adapt their plans incrementally, inch by inch, minute by minute.

Progress in manufacturing is measured by the production of high quality goods. The unit of progress for Lean Startups is validated learning-a rigorous method for demonstrating progress when one is embedded in the soil of extreme uncertainty.

Principles

  1. Entrepreneurs
    Are Everywhere

    You don't have to work in a garage to be in a startup. Read More

  2. Entrepreneurship
    Is Management

    A startup is an institution, not just a product, so it requires management, a new kind of management specifically geared to its context. Read More

  3. Validated
    Learning

    Startups exist not to make stuff, make money, or serve customers. They exist to learn how to build a sustainable business. This learning can be validated scientifically, by running experiments that allow us to test each element of our vision. Read More

  4. Innovation
    Accounting

    To improve entrepreneurial outcomes, and to hold entrepreneurs accountable, we need to focus on the boring stuff: how to measure progress, how to setup milestones, how to prioritize work. This requires a new kind of accounting, specific to startups. Read More

  5. Build-Measure-Learn

    The fundamental activity of a startup is to turn ideas into products, measure how customers respond, and then learn whether to pivot or persevere. All successful startup processes should be geared to accelerate that feedback loop. Read More

출처: http://theleanstartup.com/principles

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Anything--even doing laundry--will help you dream up new ideas better than sitting in a meeting, says Debra Kaye, author of "Red Thread Thinking." A case study of the history of the single-use detergent pod.

Eleven men and women file into a conference room and take their places around a large table. Coffee cups and pastries are assembled in front of them. George, the leader, steps up to a large whiteboard and scrawls across the top “SOAP STORM SESSION 9/18/12.” “Okay, let’s begin,” he tells the group. “Let’s just start free-associating. What do we think of when we think clean laundry?” he asks. “To get the ball rolling, I’ll write a few words down,” he says and dashes off chore, piles, whites and brights, and fresh on the board. “What else?” he asks. Several people add a few more words: time-consuming, fold, bright, uncontaminated, pretty, nice, old-fashioned, and pleasant.

The meeting continues for about an hour, with more words and thoughts added. The plan was for the team to come up with a new idea for laundry detergent. When the meeting is over, the team members file back to their cubicles, word lists in hand, to ponder the outcome--but none of them ever produced any new insights into doing laundry that would lead to a new product. That’s because the group made the fatal error of trying to innovate by brainstorming around the idea of the central attribute of laundry--cleanliness. So while they came up with a pretty long list of words, none of the few concepts that came out of the meeting--“cleans in a shorter time,” “cleans without presoaking,” “brightens without fading”--was out-of-the-box spectacular.

This scenario takes place every day in office suites around the world. That’s an important point to remember, because companies everywhere are brainstorming the same things about clean laundry as my imaginary team. Everything about clean laundry likely has been thought of before. It turns out that a brainstorming session is a great place to load up on baked goods and caffeine, but it’s not so great for generating ideas. In fact, the team in my imaginary example would have come up with more original associations and innovative thoughts had they stayed home and sorted a sock drawer, taken a hike, relaxed in a bathtub, or done just about anything else autonomously--including a load of laundry.

The conventional wisdom that innovation can be institutionalized or done in a formal group is simply wrong. Part of what we know about the brain makes it clear why the best new ideas don’t emerge from formal brainstorming. First, the brain doesn’t make connections in a rigid atmosphere. There is too much pressure and too much influence from others in the group. The “free association” done in brainstorming sessions is often shackled by peer pressure and as a result generates obvious responses. In fact, psychologists have documented the predictability of free association.

You can see this clearly from the responses to “clean laundry” in my example. One association feeds off the next in an expected fashion. The leader does what leaders often do--inadvertently gets the upper hand by throwing out certain words that generate conventional results, thereby dominating and directing the “free” association of the group.

As I said earlier, the team should have been given the day off to do laundry. That’s pretty much what happened at Philadelphia-based Cot’n Wash Inc. Originally the company was a cotton mill that spun cotton and made sweaters. In the 1980s, the owner’s wife developed a gentle detergent that would wash the sweaters without yellowing or stretching. Flash forward about 30 years. Nina E. Swift, wife of the original owner’s son, Jonathan Propper, was doing laundry one day and realized that even though she loved Cot’n Wash, she disliked measuring and pouring liquid or powder from a jug or a box. Both were messy, and she used far more detergent than was recommended (measuring is imperfect and people err on the side of generous, she discovered).

This was a mega consumer insight. Was it just she who felt this way, or was it everyone? She talked to Jonathan, who thought she was on to something. So he brought the idea to his small company and created Dropps, a single-use package of detergent. One small package, similar to those used in dishwashing packets, washes a load of laundry--all you have to do is toss it in the wash and go. It solved a lot of problems--no more measuring, mess, or waste. The product also benefited the environment by using less water, plastic, and packaging. No phosphates or chlorine means it’s green.

“The technology actually existed for the dissolvable laundry detergent package,” says Dropps’s Remy Wildrick, who calls herself the pragmatic side of Propper’s creative mind. “And the patent happened to be owned by a person in Philadelphia, which was just a nice side note. We bought the technology from him and developed Dropps.” The product is sold online, at independent retailers, and at Target. Other larger manufacturers didn’t introduce their versions of the single-serving detergent pod until years later.

“What’s funny is that the technology was sitting there for quite a while, but none of the big guys were using it. They were sticking to the same old jugs and boxes--but in mid-2012 they all started coming out with uni-packages,” says Remy. Since Dropps is small, it can’t compete on volume sales with the big guys, but it can compete on the product’s green aspects and focus on the fact that it contains Cot’n Wash detergent, which has an almost cult-like fan base, especially among the environmentally conscious.

Fresh ideas come when your brain is relaxed and engaged in something other than the particular problem you’re embroiled in. In the Dropps situation, Jonathan Propper’s wife identified a problem, and he made a connection to a solution, a technology that existed for another application. This is the polar opposite of what happens in brainstorming sessions. Long showers, soaks in a tub, long walks, or doing chores are frequently when those “synapses” that find alternative solutions to a problem in new ways all hit together so that the big idea can spring.

Published as an excerpt from Red Thread Thinking: Weaving Together Connections for Brilliant Ideas and Profitable Innovation with permission from McGraw-Hill Professional.

--Debra Kaye is a trends consultant specializing in brand strategy. Follow her on Twitter at@DebraA_Kaye.

[Image: Flickr user Daniel Kulinski]


출처: http://www.fastcompany.com/3006322/why-innovation-brainstorming-doesnt-work?partner=newsletter

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Bring Your Strategic Planning Process to Life

Most entrepreneurs avoid writing a definitive business or strategic plan until they are forced to create one by a bank, investor or the SBA. These types of plans are more of a sales document than a true roadmap.  Others, treat strategic planning as a stand-alone exercise that is finished, filed and forgotten. These periodic planning events can cause as much harm as good.

Certainly, there are benefits to occasionally focusing on creating or updating your strategic and business plans. You uncover new information about your customers and competitors. You listen to new points of view that shape your thinking. You interview your key employees, gather market intelligence and analyze stakeholder survey results. The process culminates with “three days at the Radisson” where you and your key employees meet to brainstorm and decide on your company’s new direction. The end result is a beautifully bound document that is likely sitting on your credenza collecting dust.

These planning exercises usually create a temporary boost in morale for those who participate in the process and long-term resentment for those who are excluded. Participants like to feel part of the conversation. They become temporarily refreshed and re-energized. Those who are excluded, feel discounted, disconnected and disrespected.

Other flaws in a periodic planning process prevent you from enjoying long term benefits. Within just a few months, circumstances change, memories fade and strategic discipline gives way to old habits. The following are typical mistakes experienced by many organizations:

  • The plan is not communicated to rank and file employees who continue to lack strategic focus.
  • Key elements of the plan are not implemented.
  • Critical information was not identified and considered because too few employees were involved in the process.
  • Strategic Planning is an occasional exercise that does not become part of your organizational culture.

A better approach is to make strategic planning an ongoing, organic process that involves all of your employees. It is especially important to include frontline employees in your planning process. Frontline employees are the eyes and ears of your company. They speak to your customers. They negotiate with your vendors. They meet your competitors at trade shows. They work with your expensive equipment. They know what works and what is broken. Not including them in your strategic planning process denies your company the wisdom and insight of your most connected employees.

The following is a simple 5-step strategic planning process that is based on the tools and methods provided in the Breakthrough Book. Download your free copy now. Use the five steps to initiate a self-sustaining strategic planning process that engages frontline employees to fuel a continuous strategic improvement process:

  1. Complete the Employee SWOT Survey and Analysis Worksheet to identify areas of strength, weakness, opportunity and threats.
  2. Complete the Value Proposition Template to gather competitive intelligence and assess your company’s current competitive position.
  3. Complete the Business Model Map to create an aligned set of improvement objectives at your company, department, and process-team levels.
  4. Initiate the Communication Switchboard to engage employees in an ongoing, continuous strategic improvement cycle that is tied back to department, process and employee performance.
  5. Complete the CEO Scorecard to identify, prioritize and monitor implementation of  your company’s strategic plan and related improvement projects.

 Step One: Survey Your Employees

Your Company’s strategic planning process needs a starting point. It is often helpful to begin with a company-wide survey. Use the survey to identify all of the recurring problems, concerns, snafus, complaints, and inefficiencies that impact the growth, innovation, and customer satisfaction of your business. It is like a company-wide data-dump. In addition to operational issues, you should also identify the leadership, management and organizational issues that negatively impact your business.

A “Memo Template,” Employee Survey,” and “Analysis Worksheet”  are available for free download along with your free copy of theBreakthrough Book.

  • The “Memo Template” explains the purpose of the survey to your employees and provides instructions.  Customize it to serve the needs of your company.
  • The “Employee Survey Template” uses a familiar SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) format that asks your employees to identify opportunities for saving money, making money, operating more efficiently, resolving problems and growing sales.
  • The “Analysis Worksheet” helps you aggregate, categorize, prioritize and report survey responses.

Alternatively, you can use the same SWOT format suggested above to structure face-to-face employee interviews. Ask your employees what recurring customer complaints frustrate them?  What operational problems result in waste, inefficiency and avoidable expense? What cultural, leadership and employee issues create a drag on growth, quality and innovation?

When analyzing your list of issues, you will likely be surprised by the quantity and consistency of your employee’s ideas and suggestions. Notice that the value of the reported issues grows the closer you come to your front-lines. Also, notice which employees complete their survey thoughtfully and enthusiastically. These employees will likely lend significant support to your stealthy business transformation initiative. Conversely, you will need to carefully manage those who resist or complain.

Step Two: Assess Your Company’s Value Proposition

Your company’s value proposition defines the worthiness of your product offering from your customers’ point-of-view. Traditionally, a value proposition is a one dimensional document. It simply identifies the reasons your customers value your products and services enough to make a purchase. However, to truly define the value of your business, it must be presented in the context of your competitive marketplace.

For example, think about the last time you went to a restaurant. You considered the unique mix of benefits offered by all available competitors: You thought about the types of food they offer, their location, their level of service, cost, atmosphere, consistency, etc. All this information flashed through your mind as you made your decision.

It is the same for your prospective customers. They choose the competitor who they perceive as being their best option at that moment in time. Your challenge is to make sure your customer’s perception leads them to your door.

Comparing your company’s value proposition with its competitors opens your eyes to bigger possibilities. If you operate locally or regionally, you may also find it helpful to include successful companies outside your marketplace who are living your dream. Although you may not directly compete with these companies, they may offer a wealth of creative ideas that will help you make your own big dreams happen. For example, if you own a hotel you can compare your business with your favorite boutique hotel in South Beach or the South of France.

The Value Proposition Worksheet is designed to visually depict all points of product differentiation related to your company and selected competitor. It is like a taste-test that compares your company’s secret sauce with the best companies in your marketplace. Bon Apatite.

Setup your worksheet by identifying your company and competitors across column headings. Dedicate the first column to your company. Then record the names of your competitors, in order of importance, in the columns to the right of your company column. Use rows to indicate the attributes you want to compare.

A copy of the Value Proposition Worksheet is available as a free download along with your free copy of the Breakthrough Book.

Step Three: Prepare Your Company’s “Business Model Map”

A “Business Model Map” is an improvement over the traditional organizational chart.  It defines lines of responsibility instead of lines of authority. It also provides a visual representation of your company’s aligned strategic plan by presenting improvement objectives at the company, department and process levels.

A Business Model Map template is available as a free download along with your free copy of theBreakthrough Book.

Your Business Model Map is a powerful management tool. Use your Business Model Map to:

  • Review your company, department and process objectives and to make sure they are complementary and aligned.
  • Configure your business for maximum efficiency.
  • Identify operational gaps that need to be filled.
  • Help your employees understand how all the moving parts of your company work together and how they fit into the bigger picture.
  • Assign responsibility to frontline employees.
  • Communicate your company’s strategic plan.

Share your Business Model Map with your employees. Use it to engage them in an ongoing dialogue. Use it to gather their insights and to make better strategic decisions.

Step Four: Engage Your Employees to Create a Self-Sustaining Strategic Planning Process

Steps one to three above are a good way to jump start your strategic planning process. However, your ultimate goal is to engage your employees in a self-sustaining strategic planning process.

To bring your strategic planning process to life you need to create an ongoing tradition of open communication between employees, process teams an leaders. You need your employees to feel comfortable reporting their ideas, issues, concerns, suggestions, competitive intelligence and any other information that can help improve your company’s strategic position. Establishing a communication “switchboard” will help.

Ask employees to report their ideas, suggestions, customer complaints and other issues directly to the switchboard. The switchboard operator will then direct the issue to the appropriate process team. The operator will maintain a communication log that you and other managers can use to hold process teams accountable for resolving the reported issues. You can also use the log to credit employees with the ideas they contribute.

In a very small company, the “switchboard” can be a spiral notebook hanging next to your water cooler. In a larger company the “switchboard” can be maintained by a receptionist, executive assistant or quality manager.

The switchboard logbook should have the following column headings:

  • Open Date: The date the issue was first reported.
  • Close Date: The date the issue was resolved.
  • Reported By: The employee who reported the issue.
  • Assigned Process Team: The process manager responsible for resolving the issue.
  • Issue/Idea Description: A sound byte description of the issue .
  • Resolution: A sound byte explanation of the issues resolution.
  • Financial Impact: An estimate of the financial benefit of the resolved issue.

A copy of the Communication Switchboard Template is available as a free download along with your free copy of the Breakthrough Book.

Step Five: Use the CEO Scorecard to Create a One Page Strategic Plan

The CEO Scorecard is a one page strategic plan for your business. It is an easy-to-understand report that ties together key strategic information. It provides you with a high-level, 30,000 foot perspective of your business. It is designed to bring your strategic planning process to life by holding leaders and teams accountable for achieving measurable results.

A customizable CEO ScoreCard template is available as a free download along with your free copy of the Breakthrough Book.

The CEO Scorecard consists of the following sections:

  • Mission Statement
  • Vision Statement
  • Values Alignment/Leadership Scorecard
  • Strategic Themes
  • Process Improvement Recap
  • Improvement Projects Recap
  • Key Issues/Trends Recap

Use the Scorecard to structure weekly, monthly or quarterly accountability and/or coaching sessions.

Share Your Success Stories

As you begin to put the above Breakthrough Tools to use, please share your Success Story.  We would like to feature your company.

Follow us on Twitter @TheNinePercent and Like us on Facebookfacebook.com/SmallBusinessBreakthrough

Please let us know if you would like to start a Breakthrough Chapter in your community. (Breakthrough chapters are CEO peer groups that are usually hosted by a local Chamber of Commerce, Small Business Development Center or community center.)

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A value proposition is a statement that summarises the customer segments you are targeting, and how you are differentiated from your competitors. It should answer the question: “Why should I choose to buy this product or service, and why now?”. It’s a key element of developing a great marketing strategy. In this article, I’ll give you a template you can use in crafting your own value proposition.

A value proposition is also called a positioning statement. Accurately positioning your product in the mind of a prospective buyer is one of the most important apects of marketing your offering. Importantly, your value proposition needs to show not only why your product or service should be chosen, but why inaction by the buyer is to be avoided.

While it’s possible to use such a statement verbatim in your marketing communication, it’s more usually used within a company to achieve consensus on what the value proposition is, and then that proposition can be expressed in a variety of visual and textual ways.

Value Proposition Template

Here is a template that can be used to build a two-sentence value proposition. Try filling in the blanks in the template for your own product or service.

Value Proposition Template

A Light-Hearted Example

Although this is tongue-in-cheek, it demonstrates how the template can be used.

For a commuter who wants to eat breakfast on the train without mess, our Excello BrekkieBar product is a health food, which provides a completely nutritious and delicious breakfast that you can eat anywhere.

Unlike grain bars and breakfast cereals, BrekkieBar tastes like a full English cooked breakfast, but has no fat and no calories, and even the wrapper can be eaten, leaving no waste.

This is because of our unique combination of innovative use of genetically modified foods and bio-engineered plastic packaging, that we have already used to produce a leading product in this market – Excello BrandyMints – the all-in-one after-dinner treat.

The “So What?” Test

Try your value proposition out on colleagues, employees – and most importantly, existing and potential customers. If the response to your value proposition from a prospective buyer is “So What?”, you know that it’s not strong enough. Did it describe tangible or measurable benefits that are truly of concern to that consumer or business person?

To produce a concise, convincing value proposition is not a trivial exercise. When I do that with my clients, it’s based on analysis of their company, its products and services, their competitors, and the market they’re operating in. You’ll need to think deeply in order to produce something that’s compelling.

What’s your experience of developing a value proposition? Let us know in the comments.

About Matthew Goldsbrough

I help build stronger companies that are more focused, competitive, profitable and fun to be in. The people who hire me call me a marketing guru, mentor, trusted business advisor, and other nice things. I'm @goldsbrough on Twitter.


출처: http://www.goldsbrough.biz/value-proposition/

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If Apple is to maintain its momentum, Cook and team need to do what they did with the iPhone and iPad -- spawn entirely new markets.

CEO Tim Cook (Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET)

In a recent meeting with employees at Apple's headquarters, CEO Tim Cook reportedly addressed the steep drop in the company's stock price that came after Apple posted $54.5 billion in sales last quarter and $13.1 billion in profit -- both records. As reported by 9to5 Mac, Cook took a shot at the highly lucrative oil industry in his cheerleading efforts. "The only companies that report better quarters pump oil," Cook reportedly said. "I do not know about you all, but I do not want to work for those companies."

Predictably, creating and manufacturing the most beloved technology gadgets is viewed as more personally and professionally fulfilling by Silicon Valley than drilling, refining, and distributing the fuels that power the planet. An iPad is cool and innovative, whereas a gallon of gasoline is a polluting liquid gold one cannot live without.

Apple and ExxonMobil factory workers earning their livings. (Credit: Foxconn/ExxonMobil)

Apple and oil giants like ExxonMobil are in a rarefied club, generating enormous amounts of revenue and profit. After Apple's recent stock price drop, ExxonMobil replaced it as the most valued company, with a market capitalization of about $417 billion compared with Apple's $412 billion.

But as Cook likes to say, following in the footsteps of Steve Jobs, Apple has higher aspirations than just turning silicon, or oil, into profits.

"The most important thing to Apple is to make the best products in the world that enrich customers' lives. That's our high order bit," Cook said during the January 23 first-quarter earnings call. "That means that we aren't interested in revenue for revenue's sake. We can put the Apple brand on a lot of things and sell a lot more stuff, but that's not what we're here for. We want to make only the best products."

The question now is whether that make-the-best-products mission will translate into a strong stock performance anytime soon. Of course, making Wall Street happy is not only about making the best products. It's also a game of setting expectations and then exceeding them, something Apple had down to a science for many years.

That pattern could get a shot in the arm with some new products and updates, says Nomura Securities' Stuart Jeffrey. But that's unlikely to happen right away.

"To re-accelerate growth, Apple likely needs to launch new products, yet few seem likely before June," Jeffrey said in a note to investors last week. "iOS 7 could have the greatest impact, yet recent management changes suggest a major advance is unlikely in the near-term. A China Mobile deal could also boost the stock, yet the timing of this remains uncertain...This leaves only a $300 iPhone or a premium iPhone as likely catalysts."

(Credit: Apple quarterly reports)

For the near-term, Cook appears to be betting that the iPad, which was introduced three years ago, will fuel Apple's growth engine. In last week's earnings call, he described the iPad as the "mother of all opportunities" in reference to taking advantage of the shrinking PC market.

"On iPad in particular, we have the mother of all opportunities here, because the Windows market is much, much larger than the Mac market is," Cook said. "And I think it is clear that it's already cannibalizing some, and I think there's a tremendous amount of more opportunity there and as you know I've said for two or three years now that I believe the tablet market will be larger than the PC market at some point, and I still believe that. And you can see by the growth in tablets and the pressure on PCs that those lines are beginning to converge."

Cook noted that last quarter Apple fell short on fulfilling demand for the iPad Mini, but he expects to fix that problem this quarter. Apple sold 22.86 million iPads last quarter, up from 15.4 million in the same quarter of 2011. The company did not break out the number of iPad Minis sold, but it's clear that the smaller iPad is helping to drag Apple's overall iPad margins downward.

Expectations are that Apple will refresh the iPad family in the second half of the year, and sell more than 100 million iPads for the calendar year, driven in part by cannibalizing sales of Macs and Windows PCs. Since the iPad began shipping in April 2010, Apple has sold more than 121 million units.

But Apple is facing increased competition and margin pressure as the smartphone and tablet categories mature. In Singapore and Hong Kong, for example, iPad and iPhone market share have been falling over the last year as Android-based devices pick up momentum, according to StatCounter.

(Credit: StatCounter)

If Apple is to maintain its momentum, Cook and team need to replicate the unique successes of the iPhone and iPad, getting a head start on competitors by spawning new markets. Some speculate that an Apple TV solution will be the next "mother of all opportunities." PerhapsApple's version of Google Glass, or other kinds of wearable devices will keep Apple at the head of consumer adoption of emerging technologies. Cook invokes the cone of silence on Apple's future breakthroughs.

Regarding Apple TV, Cook said last week, "I have said in the past this is an area of intense interest for us, and it remains that. And I tend to believe that there's a lot we can contribute in this space, and so we continue to pull the string and see where it leads us. But I don't want to be more specific."

Cook can continue to pull the string, but it's uncertain whether he can produce the next big thing, another "mother of all opportunities," needed to maintain Apple's cool factor and superior margins. Ultimately, Cook's success as CEO will be judged on how well he does inventing the future rather than exploiting the past.

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“Find, Next Steve Jobs”

‘스티브 잡스(Steve Jobs)’. 과히 혁신의 또 다른 이름.

그가 떠나고 세계는 슬퍼했다. 누군가는 이제 혁신은 죽었다라고 말했고 누군가는 더 이상 희망은 없다고 말했다. 그가 떠난 이후 돌아본 세상은 항상 어제와 같았고 시간은 흘렀다. 혁신은 정말로 끝난 것인가에 대해 수많은 의문이 제기되었고 사과판이던 IT 업계가 휘청거리기 시작했다. 더 이상의 혁신은 없다는 주장과 한편으론 기우라는 의견이 맞서고 있지만 어쨌든 지금 우리 모두는 ‘제 2의 스티브 잡스’을 기다린다.

우리의 기대가 실현될 수 있을까?

모바일이 시대의 패러다임을 바꾸면서 수많은 신생벤처(스타트업)들이 생겨났다. 모바일과 IT업계뿐만 아니라 기존의 산업체들 역시 스타트업의 신선한 아이디어와 뛰어난 기술력에 관심을 가지면서 스타트업은 현재 글로벌 산업계의 가장 뜨거운 감자다. 패러다임의 변화 속에서 새로운 변화를 만들고 그 변화의 움직임이 거대한 시류를 만드는 것이 바로 스타트업이다. 우리가 제 2의 혁신체로 스타트업을 주목하는 이유는 여기에 있다.

Revolution, ‘beLAUNCH 2013’

이번 beLAUNCH 2013을 기대하는 이유는 바로 여기에 있다. 대한민국과 아시아를 넘어 전 세계 스타트업의 지상 최대 쇼케이스가 될 이번 beLAUNCH 2013은 오는 5월 개최를 앞두고 벌써 업계의 반응은 뜨겁다.

지난해 혁신적인 스타트업의 발굴과 성장을 돕기 위해 시작된 beLAUNCH가 올해 역시 ‘제 2의 스티브 잡스’를 찾아 나선다. 스타트업의 혁신의 씨앗을 혁명의 숲으로 키우는데 이번 beLAUNCH 2013은 전력을 다할 것으로 보인다.

초짜 스타트업들의 화려한 반란 ‘스타트업 배틀’과 미래 패러다임의 전시전 ‘스타트업 부스’는 스타트업들만이 가진 독특한 아이디어와 자유로운 생각의 숲이 될 것이다.

“나머지 인생을 설탕물이나 팔면서 보내고 싶습니까,

아니면 세상을 바꿔놓을 기회를 갖고 싶습니까?”

- 1980년 스티브 잡스,

당시 최고 마케팅 실력자였던 존 스컬리 펩시콜라 사장을 영입하기 한 말

‘제 2의 스티브 잡스’는 누가될 것인가? 스타트업, 미래의 혁신에 과감히 도전하라.


출처: http://www.besuccess.com/?p=30410

Posted by insightalive
,

Thursday, 16 October 2008


Synopsis

Topic: Powerful Value Propositions: How to Optimize this Critical Marketing Element – and Lift Your Results

Do you think your value proposition is powerful? Would your prospects agree?

Most of the time, when we ask companies about their value proposition, we hear a description of their business model. But that’s not what most customers care about.

Customers not only want to know “What’s in it for me?” but “Why buy from you?”

This is an area that even seasoned marketers have trouble with, because there is so much confusion about what makes a value proposition effective - including how to find one in the first place.

Because value propositions are so important to conversion, making a few small but crucial changes can have a big impact across all of your marketing efforts.

During our September 24, 2008 clinic, we examined why value propositions are so vital to results, presented several ways to significantly improve your value proposition, and reviewed three examples from our workshop participants who optimized their pages with a greater emphasis on these areas.



Value Proposition Problems That Hold Marketers Back:

Value propositions can be intimidating because they strive to combine small size — often 10 words or less — with a lot of substance. After all, those 10 words are supposed to convey the unique qualities of your company and/or products and services.

No wonder marketers tend to shy away from one of the strongest and lowest cost optimization strategies: re-crafting their value proposition.

Our research shows that most marketers have trouble with the following areas:

  • Company has not identified a value proposition
  • Company does not clearly express its value proposition
  • Company is not testing or measuring its value proposition

These three problems can feed on each other, creating a negative cycle that hurts ROI. In fact, the majority of the 487 marketers we polled during the web clinic said they struggled with all three issues (see poll results).

What is your biggest challenge?

Key point: To counter these issues, your optimization strategy must include a continuous process of identifying, testing, and expressing value propositions effectively.



Value Propositions: A Major Key to Conversion

What exactly is your value proposition? The primary reason a prospect should buy from you.

When we review the MarketingExperiments Conversion Sequence, it’s easy to see why getting your value proposition right should be a top priority.

MarketingExperiments Conversion Formula
The MarketingExperiments Conversion Sequence

Where C = Conversion, the other sequence elements refer to:

  • m – the match between the offer and visitor Motivation.
  • v – the clarity of the Value Proposition.
  • i – Incentives used to counter Friction.
  • f – the level of Friction in the sales process.
  • a – Anxiety caused by the process.

While Motivation has the highest coefficient in this formula, it also represents an external factor in the marketing cycle that is beyond your control. That makes the clarity of your Value Proposition the most important internal factor.

However, many marketers try to improve results by changing page elements like font colors and sizes, button shapes, images, incentives, and so on, when the first step should really be focusing on strengthening their value propositions.

Let’s look at a real example.

Example #1: Down & Feather Company

Original Homepage (Detail)

David Smith submitted his site’s homepage for our live optimization web clinic on PPC campaigns in May. He also attended our Landing Page Optimization Workshop in June and worked with our team on ideas for improving the site.

Can you find the value proposition in the original homepage below? Most clinic participants could not.

Down and Feather Company homepage

This is the original value proposition that David submitted for the clinic:

“We don’t harm the birds to acquire the down and we allow our customers the ability to have their pillow firmness adjusted for one year from the date of purchase for FREE. No one else in the industry provides such service. Pillows are very personal and difficult enough to select at a big box retailer much less over the Internet sight unseen. Quite simply the finest down bedding in the world.”

This example underscores the importance of identifying your true value proposition before trying to communicate it. The original homepage did not communicate the stated ideas adequately, much less emphasize them.

The truly unique features of David’s value proposition were buried in a long, complex sentence that probably was skipped over by most visitors. And the customized pillow policy (the true value proposition) was not expressed on the original homepage at all.

However, although the redesigned homepage is still a work in progress, it now puts the primary value proposition in the spotlight.

Redesigned Homepage (Detail)

Redesigned homepage

Key differences in how the value proposition is now expressed include:

  • The company’s real value proposition – its “Perfect Pillow Policy” – is now clearly articulated and showcased in a prominent banner on every page.
  • “Always Free Shipping” is emphasized (red, placed higher on page), while the credit card and BBB logos are gone from masthead.
  • Customer Care section in left navbar reiterates value points.

Comparison: Before and After

Original and redesigned homepage

While the redesigned page could benefit from further optimization, David confirms that adding and emphasizing the revised value proposition has been a significant factor in improving the site’s conversion rate.

Before we reveal those results, let’s review the essential characteristics of strong value propositions.



Characteristics of Strong Value Propositions

  • You must differentiate your offer from your competitors’ offers.
  • You may match a competitor on every dimension of value except one.
  • You need to excel in at least one element of value.
  • In this way you become the best choice for your optimum customer.
  • There is a difference between the value proposition for your company and your product. You must address both.

Crafting a value proposition requires substantial reflection on what is unique about your company and your products and services.

Challenge: If you had just 10 words to describe why people should buy from your company instead of another’s, what would you communicate?



Step One: Identifying an Effective Value Proposition

To rate the quality and uniqueness of value propositions, MarketingExperiments uses this 1-5 scale:

  1. Limited value to a small market. Extensive competition and/or few barriers to entry.
  2. Substantial value to a medium-sized market. Limited competition and/or significant barriers to entry.
  3. A product or service with strong product differentiation, but little competitive protection.
  4. A unique product or service that is highly valuable to a large market, and strong competitive protection and/or extensive barriers to entry. This may take the form of a registered patent or limited access to product components.
  5. A unique product or service that is highly valuable to a large market, and exclusive or near-exclusive control of essential product components. This may also include a registered patent.

If your value proposition does not rank as a 3 or better on the 1-5 scale, you should take a critical look at your core business to re-craft a value proposition that accurately reflects your capabilities.

Our team also developed a simple system for ranking value propositions to approximate the potential appeal of an offer:

Evaluating Value Propositions
Evaluation Chart
DesireExclusivity
0 - Anywhere Else0 - No interest
1 - Somewhere Else1 - Possible interest
2 - Nowhere Else2 - High interest
  1. Rank the ideal customer’s desire level for the offer.
  2. Rank the exclusivity of the offer.
  3. Multiply the two integers.
  4. If the total is less than 2, re-craft your offer.
Evaluating Value Propositions–Example (Before and After)
Evaluation Example

Evaluation Example



Step Two: Expressing Your Value Proposition

Having a powerful value proposition is not enough; it must be communicated effectively to achieve optimal results.

First, you need to refine your value proposition until you can articulate it in a single, instantly credible sentence.

When that is accomplished, you can optimize your pages to express and support the value proposition using congruence.

What is congruence? It refers to having every element of your page either state or support the value proposition

Let’s look at two other examples from workshop attendees to illustrate the concept of congruence:

Example #2: University of New England Original Landing Page (Detail)

Matt Celano also attended our Landing Page Optimization Workshop in June and worked with our team on ideas for revising this landing page.

Original homepage

Before showing the revised page, we asked clinic participants to identify the value proposition. Here are some of the more common responses:

  • “On-line degree?”
  • “Too much text on the page to find it.”
  • “Master’s programs”
  • “Concentration relevant to your classroom.”
Optimized Version (Detail)
Redesigned homepage

Key differences in how the value proposition is now expressed include:

  • Stronger intro copy. Descriptive subheads do a better job of expressing the value proposition.
  • Cleaner masthead image conveys end result of the degree, rather than features of the campus (not relevant for online coursework)
  • Prominent credibility indicators (US News rank and badge) support the value proposition.

Example #3: Co-BrandNews.com Original Landing Page (Detail)

Eric Stevenson submitted this page for our February web clinic. He later applied several of the recommendations from our optimization team.

Original homepage

Before showing the revised page, we asked clinic participants to identify the value proposition. Here are some of the more common responses:

  • “News your way.”
  • “Add Co-Brand and increase web traffic”
  • “Sign-up to add Co-Brand News to your website for free.”
  • “Give your website the personal attention it needs.”
Optimized Version (Detail)
Original homepage

Key differences in how the value proposition is now expressed include:

  • Cleaner copy throughout the page, starting with the standout headline
  • Subheads, bullet points, calls to action–all work together to support the value proposition
  • Testimonial addresses flexibility, customization–a key value point
  • Free offer emphasized

David, Matt and Eric all used congruence to revise their copy and design elements, and present a more direct message focused on the uniqueness and credibility of their value proposition.

As clinic attendees pointed out, some value propositions were already in there, but not fully expressed. Sometimes re-crafting a value proposition is simply a matter of reorganizing the information already expressed.



Step Three: Testing Your Value Proposition

However hard you work on expressing your value proposition, to know its true effectiveness you must test to see how it resonates with your ideal prospect.

Two methods to consider are micro-testing and radical redesign testing.

Micro-testing Your Value Proposition
To discover language that best expresses your value proposition, you can micro-test using PPC ads. In a sense, micro-testing is a preliminary test to determine whether your new value proposition is clearly identified and expressed. 
With micro-testing, you can explore whether your re-crafted value proposition merits a radical redesign of your pages or if you must re-engage with the processes of identification and expression.

Create 3-5 variations of PPC ads using your summary value proposition and measure the clickthrough rate of each ad. The ad with the highest clickthrough rate identifies the value proposition that’s most appealing to potential customers.

Example: Value proposition micro-test for an ISO Business:

Microtest

“Radical Redesign” Testing of Value Propositions

If your landing pages or sites have limited traffic, testing the application of your value proposition with congruence using single-factorial methods (A/B tests) can be time-consuming and cumbersome.

One way to counter this is by using radical redesign tests to achieve initial results quickly, and point out specific areas for additional tests.

The three landing page examples above from our workshops and clinics have all used a radical redesign (multivariable) testing strategy.

Due to the nature of these tests, it is impossible to isolate and attribute all gains or losses specifically to the value proposition alone. However, optimizing pages with a focus on congruence and effectively expressing a more powerful value proposition is a major factor, as indicated by the conversion sequence.

With that caveat in mind, let’s look at the results of the three pages that were optimized and tested using the radical redesign approach.

Results: Before and After

Original and redesigned homepage

The optimized version of this page increased conversion rate by 145%. (David Smith, Down & Feather Company)

Original and redesigned homepage

The optimized version of this page increased conversions by 300% and conversion rate by 81%. (Matt Celano, Compass Knowledge Group)

Original and redesigned homepage

The optimized version of this page increased conversions by 200% and conversion rate by 69%. (Eric Stevenson, Co-Brand News)

How These Tests Work Together

While micro-testing with PPC ads can help you find the language that best expresses your value proposition, radical redesign testing can help you optimize pages for congruence and achieve initial results quickly, while pointing to specific areas for additional testing.

In other words, these two tests can help you focus on using your value proposition to give customers the right support at the right time.


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Summary
Powerful Value Propositions
  • Your value proposition is the primary reason a prospect should buy from you.
  • Optimizing value propositions is a continual process that involves identifying, expressing, and testing/measuring.
  • To express your value proposition effectively, pay attention tocongruence.
  • Micro-testing with PPC ads can help you find the language that best expresses your value proposition.
  • Radical redesign tests can achieve initial results quickly, and identify areas for additional testing.

Notes

Related Marketing Experiments Reports

Literature Review

As part of our research, we have prepared a review of the best Internet resources on this topic. Rating System
These sites were rated for usefulness and clarity, but alas, the rating is purely subjective.
* = Decent | ** = Good | *** = Excellent | **** = Indispensable

About This Brief

 

Credits:

Managing Editor — Hunter Boyle

Copy Editor — Frank Green

Writer — Anna Jacobson

Contributor(s) — Flint McGlaughlin
Bob Kemper

Production — Mel Harris
Austin McCraw
Cliff Rainer
Amanda Mehlhoff


출처: http://www.marketingexperiments.com/improving-website-conversion/powerful-value-propositions.html

Posted by insightalive
,

page1image400

Value Proposition Worksheet

The two skills needed to leverage the power of a value proposition:
1. You need to be able to
identify an effective value proposition.

2. You need to be able to express an effective value proposition.

1. Identify your value proposition

Characteristics of an effective value proposition:

Value proposition is the primary reason why a prospect should buy from you.

This requires you to differentiate your offer from competitors.

   

Use a

1. 2.

3. 4.

5.

You may match a competitor on every dimension of value except one.
In
at least one element of value you need to excel.
In this way you become the
best choice for your optimum customer.
There is a difference between the value proposition for your
company and for your product. You must address both.

1-5 scale to rate the quality and uniqueness of your value proposition:

Limited value to a small market. Extensive competition and/or few barriers to entry.

Substantial value to a medium-sized market. Limited competition and/or significant barriers to entry.

Product or service with strong product differentiation, but little competitive protection.

Unique product or service that is highly valuable to a large market, and strong competitive protection and/or extensive barriers to entry. This may take the form of a registered patent or limited access to product components.

Unique product or service that is highly valuable to a large market, and exclusive or near- exclusive control of essential product components. May include a registered patent.

If your value proposition does not rank as a 3 or better on this scale, you should take a critical look at your core business.

Copyright ©2011 MECLABS Institute LLC MarketingExperiments.com

page2image720

Value Proposition Evaluation Matrix

Use this simple system to approximate the potential appeal of an offer:

1. Rank the ideal customer’s desire level for the offer 2. Rank the exclusivity of the offer
3. Multiply the two integers
4. If the total is less than 2, re-craft the offer

Value Proposition Worksheet

page2image7856 page2image8016 page2image8176 page2image8336 page2image8928 page2image9088 page2image10000

Desire

page2image10928 page2image11088 page2image11248 page2image11408 page2image11568 page2image11728 page2image11888 page2image12048 page2image12208 page2image12368 page2image12528 page2image12688 page2image12848 page2image13168 page2image13328 page2image13488 page2image13648 page2image13808 page2image13968 page2image14128 page2image14288 page2image14448 page2image14608 page2image14768 page2image15088 page2image15248 page2image15408 page2image15568 page2image15728 page2image15888 page2image16048 page2image16208 page2image16368 page2image16528 page2image16688 page2image16848

Rank

0

1

2

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0

page2image25488 page2image25648 page2image25808 page2image25968 page2image26128 page2image26288 page2image26448 page2image26608 page2image26768 page2image26928 page2image27088 page2image27248 page2image27408 page2image27568 page2image27728 page2image27888 page2image28048 page2image28208 page2image28528 page2image28688 page2image28848 page2image29008 page2image29328 page2image29648 page2image29808 page2image29968 page2image30128 page2image30288 page2image30448 page2image30608 page2image30768 page2image30928 page2image31088

1

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2

page2image38808 page2image39128
page2image40888

Desire

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Exclusivity

page2image44432
page2image45040

0 No interest

page2image46496 page2image46656 page2image46928

0 Anywhere else

page2image48224
page2image48824

1 Possible interest

page2image50112 page2image50384

1 Somewhere else

page2image51672
page2image52288 page2image52448

2 High interest

page2image53856 page2image54176 page2image54608

2 Nowhere else

page2image56072

2. Express your value proposition Principles for expressing a value proposition effectively:

  1. Ask yourself: “Why should my ideal prospect (the group you intend to serve) buy from me instead of a competitor?”

  2. Compare your answer with the claims of your main competitors.

  3. Refine your value proposition until you can articulate it in a single, instantly credible, sentence.

  4. If you had just 10 words with which to describe why people should buy from your company instead of someone else, what would you communicate?

Write out your value proposition:

_____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

Copyright ©2011 MECLABS Institute LLC MarketingExperiments.com



출처: http://www.marketingexperiments.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/MarketingExperiments-Value-Prop-Worksheet.pdf 

Posted by insightalive
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