Market sensing and learning strategy:Competitive strength through knowing more
Lecture 5
A route-map for market-led strategic change
Value-basedmarketingstrategy
New marketing
meetsold
marketing
Strategicthinking and
thinkingstrategically
Customer valuestrategy andpositioning
The strategic pathway
Strategicmarket choices
and targets
Market sensingand learning
strategy
Strategicrelationshipsand networks
Change strategy
Strategicgaps
Organizationand processes
for change
Implementationprocess and
internalmarketing
Part ICustomer value
imperatives
Part IIDeveloping a value-based
marketing strategy
Part IIIProcesses for managingstrategic transformation
The Customeris always
right-handed
The strategic pathway
• Developing a value-based marketing strategy– Market sensing and learning strategy– Strategic market choices and targets– Customer value strategy and positioning– Strategic relationships and networks
The strategic pathway
Marketsensingandlearningstrategy
Strategicmarketchoicesandtargets
Customervaluestrategyand positioning
Strategicrelationshipsandnetworks
Strategic thinking andthinking strategically
Strategictransformationand strategyimplementation
Agenda
• Understanding customers and markets• Black swans and white swans• From market research to market sensing• New cross-over tools for management understanding• Marketing intelligence• Interpretation• Lessons in learning• Enhancing sensing capabilities
Understanding customers and markets
• Companies have little understanding of why their customers behave the way they do
• Executives looks at averages and ignore market granularity• Agile, fast-moving businesses show high knowledge-intensity• The goal is to raise a company’s “Market IQ”• Crunch question = what do you know that every rival does not also
know?
Black swans and white swans
• The black swan analogy underlines the limitations to our learning and the fragility of our knowledge
• Black swan events are the “unknown unknowns”• Market sensing demands open-minded inquiry and
experimentation not probabilistic estimates and sampling
From market research to market sensing
• What is the difference between market sensing and marketing research?– marketing research involves techniques of data
collection and processing– market sensing is a process of management
understanding
Marketing research versus market sensing
Managementinformation
systems
Marketingresearch
Cross-overtools
Marketingintelligence
Market sensingcapabilities
Marketunderstanding
Internal recordsCRM dataDatabases
SurveysObservationMarket tests
EthnographyInternetFuturology
ScanningTrendsClues
Interpretation
Sources of marketing knowledge Processes of managementunderstanding
From market research to market sensing
• Limitations of conventional market research– unreasonable expectations– the limits of questions– the “right” results– we don’t believe it– excuses
From market research to market sensing
• The elephant in the market• Strategic and non-strategic marketing information
Strategic and non-strategic marketing information
Importance of information
Urgency ofinformation
High Low
High
Low
Priorities Short-termdilemmas
Strategic Timewasters
New cross-over tools for management understanding
• Ethnography– hidden in plain sight– neuromarketing
• Internet sensing– the wisdom of crowds– blogs– virtual reality– social networks
New cross-over tools for management understanding
• Futurology– careful examination of what is going on around us– scenario building – how things may unfold– visioning – working out what is likely to happen and
what we want to happen
Marketing intelligence
• Trends and clues– trendspotting– new identity groups– the quest for cool– looking for clues– deep mining
• But play nicely and don’t be naughty• Managing customer knowledge
Interpretation
• Link between information, sensing and management understanding relies on processes of interpretation
• Integration of multiple information sources central to evidence-based management
• Goal is sustaining learning to create competitive advantage
Lessons in learning
• Storytelling• Watching customers• Meeting customers• Customer days• Building customer scenarios• Listening not evaluating• Studying complainers
Enhancing sensing capabilities
• A structure for market sensing
A framework for market sensing
Probability of the event occurring
Effect of theevent on thecompany*
High LowMedium
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
* 1=Disaster, 2=Very bad, 3=Bad, 4=Neutral, 5=Good, 6=Very good, 7=Ideal
Utopia Field ofdreams
Things towatch
Danger Futurerisks
Enhancing sensing capabilities
• Managing the market sensing process– choosing the environment– sub-dividing the environment to focus attention– identifying the impact of external changes– interpreting the model for strategy building– Linking market sensing to plans– providing information as a stimulus to thinking– consider who should be consulted and involved
Enhancing sensing capabilities
• A note of caution– market sensing and new learning may be disruptive
inside an organization
Top Related