Apple's segmentation strategy, and the folly of conventional wisdom. There is a myth, more of a meme actually, about the ‘inevitability’ of commoditization.
It is a view of the world that sees things linearly, in terms of singularities, and the so-called “one right path.” In this realm, where commoditization is God, horizontal orientation (versus vertical integration) rules the roost. How else to define consumers, not in flesh and blood terms, not as spirits that aspire to specific outcomes, but rather, as a composite set of loosely-coupled attributes. This mindset is compelling because it is simple and familiar, but it also leads to blind obsequiousness. Historical edifices are held as indelible fact. There is one small fly in the ointment to this ethos, however, and its name is Apple. Apple’s gaudy performance relative to its industry peers The following inconvenient facts must be an affront to the horizontal, commoditized, open, market share zealots.
How can you not confuse the tail with the dog, with that kind of framing? The folly of conventional wisdom. 5 Ways Your Business Can Beat Its Competitive Bullies. It has been a fascinating week, with seven talks in three days in four cities throughout California.
At each stop, as I walked participants through the Outthinker Process, what stuck out for me most--beyond marveling at Red Bull’s unique U.S. headquarters, which is constructed around a giant skateboarding ramp--was how differently the executives from billion-dollar companies and those of entrepreneurial startups saw the world. Davids and Goliaths naturally operate by different playbooks. If you can understand how these playbooks differ, you can better your chances of winning, no matter what size you are. If you are small and want to take down a bigger player, you want to understand how they think. And if you are big, being attacked from below, you want to understand how the entrepreneurs might use your size against you. The Bully’s Playbook Follow the path of any great company and you will see their strategies shift. 1. 2. 3. None of these strategies are fair. 1. 2. 3. 4.
Value Disciplines model - Treacy and Wiersema. Why Porter's Model No Longer Works - Nilofer Merchant. Imagine that you wanted a new home theater system.
But instead of spending hours in Best Buy or on Amazon comparing configurations and assembling the parts you needed, you could signal what you wanted and a company would create it for you. You might simply Pinterest the elements you liked, including information about your space or noise limitations (“One-bedroom apartment on busy street in New York,” or “suburban space that needs stuff protected from little kids”), and then have a retailer give you a personalized, optimal configuration. Right now, social is largely seen as a way to amplify messages (“Like” us on Facebook!) Or to create conversations around customer service (“We’re so sorry you’re having a problem,” the persistent tweet from @ComcastCares).
These two key functions — Marketing and Service — are regularly discussed as shaped by social era dynamics. But the social era can — and will — be more than that. Big Isn’t Enough Generic vs. Social Becomes Central to What We Build.