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| − | The desired outcome of Competency #1 is to describe your intended customers with sufficient clarity to enable sound decisions, the development of purposeful innovation, value creation to address their highest priority needs, and messaging that establishes clear differentiation. | + | The ability to describe your indented customers |
| − | The most visible manifestation of this ability takes the form of customer-centric, market segmentation. The ability to segment customers enables the purposeful selection of customer groupings that provide necessary growth, while avoiding dead-end alternatives.
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| − | Market segmentation is not based on your product lines or product types. Your segmentation must be centered on your customers — current and future. While many companies profess to have the skills to develop, validate, and utilize segmentation, our experience indicates that this
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| − | area requires considerable improvement. Your segmentation must clearly:
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| − | * Define the targeted customer
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| − | * Their area of application
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| − | * Their desired outcome
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| − | * The environment where they perform their activities
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| − | Note that in the above criteria, your products are not mentioned, it’s all about your customers.
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| − | The ability to develop and use market segmentation enables better business decisions in a shorter time frame. Market segmentation enables better deployment of limited resources and the creation of defensible market positions. As a side benefit, market segmentation allows you to
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| − | prioritize product development programs because everyone in your organization shares a common view of the “playing field” enabled by segmentation.
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| − | Further, clear segmentation is critical to directing your distribution channels3 to focus on the right customers and avoid “force fitting” products in segments for which it was not designed.
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| − | ==Fundamental Questions==
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| − | * Is your current market segmentation based on customers, their applications, and the results they wish
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| − | to achieve?
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| − | * Do you require every product proposals to make the business case based on consistent market
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| − | segmentation?
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| − | * Do you make all decisions about growing profits based on a valid, customer-centric market segmentation?
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| − | ==Starting Points==
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| − | * Require every product manager to present the latest market segmentation, assess against a clear criteria, and develop an improvement plan with deliverables within three months ― or sooner.
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| − | * Ensure that your marketing team acquires the right knowledge, skills, and motivation to deliver customer centric segmentation schemes that enable solid business decisions.
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| | [[Category:marketing]] | | [[Category:marketing]] |
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| | [[Category:The Four Esssential Competencies to Be Market-driven]] | | [[Category:The Four Esssential Competencies to Be Market-driven]] |
