Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Market size and product lifecycle

As a human I am often in my old and often traditional ways of thinking. As a marketer that relates to the classic of marketing segmentation, targeting and positioning. When we think segmentation we think in terms of Demographics - Income levels, Household sizes, Head of household, etc.

With new innovations several products overlap and strive to satisfy a common ‘want’ yet satisfying a unique ‘desire’. Personally I own three different models of iPods, two cell phones and much more. Today we have many more devices and versions of devices in our homes than people and pets combined. It is evident that as we leap frog generations of innovation (functional use or the need the product satisfies) our wants don’t necessarily follow a repeatable relationship to the demographic attributes. It is time for newer attributes that capture these ethereal characteristics of brands –
Behaviors/Attitudes – Need states, Occasions, etc.
Psychographics – Lifestyle, Likes & Dislikes, etc

Emerging markets like China and India are a perfect example that have demonstrated how the size of a middle is not a direct translation of a market opportunity. Habits and rituals influence market size, product life cycles and adoption into the culture.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Data choke!

In every role I have ever held I have noticed one specific ingredient – CHAOS! There is always more data than I need, most times less specific and irrelevant to the immediate question.

In today’s day and age of super segmented data channels there is an always increasing need for visualization there is a constant need for dashboards. These very same dashboards are the source of knowledge and confusion, which really are two sides of the same coin. The data clog in organizations, their hiring practices and role, responsibility and expectations are what drive organizations north and south.

  • The single most important responsibility I have had and least recognized stems from this exact clog caused by excessive data. This noble responsibility has been the creation of structure in a chaos of data, information and knowledge.
  • The second least recognized is the difference between fact and truth. Fact is simply data driven and truth is contextual.
  • The third misunderstood data point relates to the difference between depth and breath of experience. Sadly neither depth nor breath can be directly related to ones ability to influence. The organization in identifying inflection points in a business and/or enable innovation through cross pollination of ideas.