Category Archives: Value

The Value of Value

Value is Key to Solution Marketing

You might think that the most important aspect of marketing a solution would be what goes into it. What goes into a solution are just a bunch of pieces, products, or components. But value is about the benefit and cost of those components to the user or buyer.

More specifically, value is equal to the difference between (1) the benefit as perceived by the user and (2) the total cost of the solution. By perception I mean that the user or buyer must appreciate and want the resulting benefit. In fact, if they don’t perceive it as a benefit to them, it’s not a benefit but is instead just a useless feature.

Value is interesting in many ways, some of which are counterintuitive and not so obvious. Following are a few important examples – both obvious and not so obvious. Continue reading →

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Netflix: It’s About the Customer Strategy, Stupid – Part II

By Steve Robins

Six Solution Marketing Lessons from Netflix

As I mentioned at the end of the last post, Netflix: It’s the Customer, Stupid, Netflix’s recent misadventure is a cautionary tale for solution marketers. Following are a six key lessons:

#1: As a vendor or service provider, technology upgrades are good.

So, if you rent DVDs and know the market will eventually transition to video on demand, you need to offer video on demand as well – just as Netflx does today. Streaming is proven and consumers will demand it. It’s not a matter of if, but when. However…

#2: Consumers and customers do not share your company’s timetable

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HP TouchPad @ $99 – Value?

By Steve Robins

No, this is not a good thing

Confession: I enjoy talking about “value” because sometimes, it’s counter-intuitive. For example: how can an expensive solution or product be a better value than an inexpensive solution or product?

Value has been making big news lately, especially in the turbulent world of tablet devices. Take a look at six months of HP TouchPad headlines: Continue reading →

Arrogance Is Not a Solution

– By Steve Robins

Arrogance contributed to Apple iPhone antenna woes

Continued from Apple: Honey I Forgot the Customer!

Solutions are driven by user needs. Even innovative new offerings need to be based on the needs and habits of real users. Apple’s iPone 4 debacle, aka “Antennagate”, came about in part because they failed to include actual users in their development cycle.

Continue reading →

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Solution-As-A-Suffix?

– By Steve Robins

The 5 Solution Requirements

Let’s face it, the word “solution” is often derided. Why? Because all too often, marketers and tech companies act as if adding the word “solution” to the end of an offering immediately transforms it into a solution. And they’d be wrong.