|
This cycle produces new or updated products and services. With Strategic Interactive Marketing (SIM) it is possible to start at a low key level, simply by pushing existing products down the new mediums, perhaps simply using the new medium for product information. This again equates to the Mass Information stage of the Customer Relationship Cycle. However, unless one is taking a low cost strategy which can be sustained in the face of similar actions by competitors, then this approach is not recommended.
Ideally, new products and services should be developed that exploit the power of the new interactive mediums and meet the needs of your most profitable customers. At the same time they need to be competitive in the market place. This competitiveness is increasingly less likely to be on price alone, but rather through product features and service delivery.
Joseph Pine, in his book Mass Customization, contrasts the
Old Ways of Mass Production with the New
Ways of Mass
Customisation
. There is an emphasis on high-quality, small
scale flexible production, fast NPD, co-operative and innovative organisational
cultures, and much more.
Most industries are experiencing an ever decreasing product development cycle,
but with SIM this is accelerated to what may appear to be extreme levels.
Product and service development is less sequential. Rather it is dynamic,
reinforced by Dynamic Systems Feedback
Loops, many of which are derived directly through
consumer interactions using the new mediums.
Click the diagram to see it enlarged.
| One way to address the demands of a faster product/service
development cycle and to meet customer's individual needs is to
develop components (or modules) rather than
full blown products. Then through a process of
Mass Customisation, shift the final
product design to the customer, who in return obtains the specific product
or service he or she needs. Pine defines 6
types of
modularity as shown in the table, along with examples
from the Financial Services industry. |
Pine's 6 Types of Componentisation with Financial Services Examples |
|
|---|---|---|
| Component-Sharing | Payment by Credit Card | |
| Component-Swapping | Premium protection. | |
| Cut-to-Fit | Level of cover. | |
| Mix | Credit Card properties | |
| Bus | Investment Portfolio | |
| Sectional | Universal Variable Life | |
Because of the intangible nature of financial services products, and also
the dependence on Information Technology,
Component Based
Development plays an key role in the
Mass Personalisation and Mass
Customisation stages of the Customer Relations
Cycle.
A Component Based Approach introduces a new paradigm to Product/Service Development. (Click the diagram to see it enlarged).
Stage 1 is to Develop Components rather than complete products. These components need to be design with modularity in mind and then to well defined so that they can be exploited in many situations. With SIM, these component could well be used by customers, so the definition will include appropriate textual descriptions and perhaps pictures and even video.
However, before the components can be offered to customers, various
assembly rules need to be defined. These
rules ensure that customers can only design and purchase products that are
legally valid and within the company's marketing and administrative limits.
Examples include such items as minimum levels of cover, premium payment methods,
and legal protection being only valid on general insurance products. Follow
the link for more general information about Rule
Based
Approach.
In stage 3, Marketing must now promote both the component, the benefits of customised products, and the all important process that facilitates Customer Acquisition. To assist customers in learning and using this approach, marketing could well define sample assemblies for typical customers (if such people exist anymore!).
"Finally" there is an ongoing process of refining both the component, the assembly rules, the marketing promotional activities, and all the downstream activities, such as the Customer Acquisition process, which will be covered in the following pages.
However, before considering these we need to define where we wish to be on the Customer Relationship Cycle.
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JS
[Overview] [Brand
Development Cycle] [ Product/Service Development
Cycle]
[Customer Relationship Cycle]
[Mass Information] [Mass
Presentation] [Mass Personalisation]
[Mass Customisation]
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Framework]
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