The Pope and the CEO > Marketing
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Cheapest reliable alternative
For most products and services, most of the time, people sign up for the Cheapest Reliable Alternative Plan. If everything appears to be the same, then of course they’re going to pick the cheapest one that’s good enough. In the face of this understandable strategy, you have a few choices: You can be cheapest (difficult to sustain). You can be more reliable (great if you can figure this out). You can be redefine the playing the field to be the only one (most preferred). Buying a new microphone or lights for your DJ business doesn’t do any of these three to your competitive status, it merely makes you feel good. Same with re-organizing your office, painting the parking spaces or buying a new laptop. They merely keep you where you were. The scalable, profitable strategy is to change the game, not to become the most average. The book, Blue Ocean Strategy, is a great read on this subject. The authors, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, give the reader strategies to shift their offerings from “red oceans” – shark infested and highly competitive market space, to “blue oceans” – free of competition. For the strategist in you, here is a… Read more
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Digital Business
Christian publisher Zondervan keeps pace with digital technology. It offers many great titles on the iPad. While many other publishers struggle, Zondervan will have its first year of sales growth in a long time thanks to its digital business. Digital accounted for 3 percent of sales for the fiscal year 2010 which ends next month. Next year, digital is expected to generate 8 to 10 percent. There’s one product in particular that I recommend you check out in their store both in video and print – whatever mode you prefer, and that is Acton’s The Birth of Freedom, How Biblical Foundations Changed History. This well done documentary and text educates us on just how much of our current notions of human rights and freedom are based on Judeo/Christian principles.
