MISTAKE #39: You are static in a dynamic world
“If the other guy is getting better, then you’d better be getting better faster than the other guy is getting better... or you’re getting worse.”
The law of retail relativity is having a greater and greater influence.
“The success of a retailer or product is not based on absolute metrics like lowest price or lab-tested superior performance. It is based the shopper’s perception of the relative difference compared to other options. Success comes from convincing shoppers you offer a better value, a better user experience, better customer service or better satisfaction.”
This is a result of the omnichannel experience allowing more shoppers to have access to more information and more products than they ever have in the past. And for the foreseeable future, the amount of information and product they have access to will continue to increase.
Shoppers are constantly making relative, not absolute, decisions. The circumstances around them can change faster and easier than ever before. Purchases rarely reflect the century-old habit of going down the street to the local storefront to buy the same item at the same price every time.
Convenience can be clicking a button and having a package delivered to your front door tomorrow (or potentially later today). But it can also mean going to a store where you can touch and feel and play with a product before committing to buy it.
A flash sale can both prompt an unplanned purchase, but also permanently change how value is perceived in a category.
Confusing or unclear content can cause your potential buyers to tune out...just like finding static on a TV or radio station causes the audience to turn the channel.
Retailers no longer have geographic boundaries to define their marketplace. Nor can they operate like a monopoly that can ‘force’ people to shop for them. In a similar manner, there are fewer and fewer captive audiences that can be force-fed content or advertising.
With a mobile device in hand, shoppers can instantly cross channels and platforms as they decide what option provides the most convenient fulfillment. And new buying options (like virtually shopping at Tesco while in a Korean subway) will presumably continue popping up all around.
To be purchased, products will need to incorporate better content and customer service to convince shoppers they are the right option. Earning a ‘yes’ purchase decision will become more and more about helping shoppers say ‘no’ to all the other products they now have access to. The companies to succeed will be the first to realize they are no longer just selling a product. They are selling the entire shopper lifecycle experience…
From learning or relearning about the category
And being exposed to all kinds of content trying to shape their perceptions and expectations
To deciding what product attributes matter
To evaluating the products that offer those attributes
To being influenced by customer reviews about the user experience
Or the customer service experience of others that can alter their confidence in the company
And deciding what companies, if any, they’ll opt in to an ongoing ‘relationship’
AGILITY IS THE BEST COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
In the future, few products will find success the old-school way, by creating a single product, optimizing a package and marketing message, and buying print or air to consistently deliver that message to the masses in return for steady year-over-year sales growth.
The almost non-existent barriers to quickly introducing new products and new content along with the ever-expanding assortment of platforms to deliver both products and content is creating a far more dynamic environment.
The historic advantage of being the incumbent…the established, market share leader…could actually become a disadvantage in this new environment. They have succeeded in the old power structure and built large organizations designed around that old structure. They have the most to lose. They don’t want change and will likely be slower to recognize and respond to it.
Small companies with new ideas and little to lose want to create disruption and have never had more tools at their disposal to do it. They aren’t tied to what worked last year or for the last decade.
These companies will combine the ability to think differently and act quickly with the willingness to adapt to the changes they see happening around them. They are being built to succeed in the new world where brand awareness and brand perceptions can dramatically change overnight.
They know that superior content can help an inferior product overcome obscurity (though we’re still fans of the mantra "average is not acceptable"). And the most convincing argument to buy their product might start with giving shoppers a good reason not to buy the competitive product.
PICK A (SMALL) FIGHT
It doesn’t matter if you’re working for a large, dominant corporation with a portfolio of 1000 products or a small start-up trying to sell your first SKU. You are living in a dynamic world where agility has become the best competitive advantage and success is a relative term.
As you go through your work routine this week, take a fresh look at the things you’re doing that have always been done the same way and ask "why?". This can range from what information is included (and not included) in analysis reports to how key decisions are made (what data, assumptions, past experience, etc. are used for justification).
Find little things you can improve without needing formal permissions or approvals. Wholesale reinvention is probably not warranted or realistic, but starting to change small, outdated habits could have a huge impact over time.