“Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.”
Turns out, it takes more than a mousetrap for the world to beat a path to your door. Check out this post on LinkedIn to read more.
Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay
By Steve Robins
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
By Steve Robins
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…
Filed under Case Studies, Pricing, Pricing, Value, Value
By Steve Robins
If you’ve read The Solution Marketing Blog for a while, you know that business (or consumer) problems tend to remain fairly constant while the technologies and solutions to those problems tend to advance at a more rapid pace. That’s one reason why most problems have multiple solutions. And it’s why dominating a market today does not guarantee dominance forever. Just ask General Cinema (General Who?) or Blockbuster or, well, you get the point.
So, if you’re a savvy solution marketer, you realize that today’s hot technology or medium will eventually be replaced by another. Continue reading
Filed under Case Studies, Solution Marketing
The Strategic Role of Product Marketing
Presentation at ProductCamp ON>LINE Friday June 11 at 1:15 pm ET
Register – free to attend. Learn more.
 Steve Robins has been helping companies to transform their marketing focus from technology platforms to customer solutions -- for over 10 years as a tech analyst and marketer at EMC Documentum, KANA and The Yankee Group. More... |
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