Today's "Keeping Up" Tip comes from Marketing Myopia, by Theodore Levitt.
He tells us that a major issue people have when growing their business is that they define their businesses incorrectly. He gives an example:
The railroads did not stop growing because the need for passengers and freight transportation declined. That grew. The railroads are in trouble today not because that need was filled by others(cars, trucks, airplanes, and even telephones) but because it was not filled by the railroad themselves. They let others take customers away from them because they assumed themselves to be in the railroad business rather than in the transportation business. The reason they defined their industry incorrectly was that they were railroad oriented instead of transportation oriented; they were product oriented instead of customer oriented.
He states later that the key to success is being customer-oriented, staying on top of the trends and what people are looking for. "It is a constant watchfulness for opportunities to apply their technical know-how to the creation of customer-satisfying uses that accounts for their prodigious output of successful new products."
I think a great example of being customer oriented and not product oriented, is magazine companies. The Internet became a major source of information, and more people were reading blogs than buying magazines. Smart magazines understood the customer demand for constant updates on information, and then developed online magazines for their publications.
If you have a business or are developing your own business, be careful how you define it. Make sure that no matter what, you are staying up on the latest trends, and be open to expand your business to fit your customers needs. You do not have to go away from your original mission, but if you want growth you will not concentrate solely on your product, but rather realize that your customer is important to your success.
-Keep Up!
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2 comments:
perception is everything. Something so simple as the notion of being railroad oriented versus transportation oriented makes so much sense. It's not where you are...it's where you're going (& where your customers are headed is important too) ...thanks!
@Miss Dumas interesting point of view. "It's not where your are...it's where you are going." People focus too much on the now...when they should always be looking a few steps in front of everyone else. Other people are looking at what you are doing and develping new ideas as we speak.
Myspace someone was watching you...their name was Facebook. Facebook someone came up behind you really quick...their name was Twitter.
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