Having explored and characterized the market environment, and having examined users' needs in sufficient detail, you must now make some key strategic guiding decisions around how you wish to address the prevailing market environment as you have just encountered it.
The work of this phase is about setting three strategies — market strategy, brand strategy, and offering strategy. The decisions associated with these strategies will define the primary paths for how you approach the market, how you position and posture your brands within the market, and the sorts of product or service offerings you feel will best support these positions. If the preceding phase was the birthplace of what innovation, this is its cradle. This is where the insights that have been gained thus far will be nurtured into a grander scheme of attack.
As with the preceding phase, the work of this phase can be thought of as a macro exercise, in that it is often not be tied to any one individual development project, but instead provides overarching direction to many projects that are to follow.
It is very important at this juncture to make the distinction between having a predisposed market intent and being open to an opportunistic market intent. The three strategies (market, brand, & offering) will only work well together once your market intent is clearly understood. In some cases, businesses come to the table having already fully decided their market intent. In other cases, they are out in search of finding a lucrative new market intent. In these latter cases, if the business is open to pursuing highly opportunistic intents, then the more opportunistic and broader wisdom of the crowd may be the right venue for discovering this. This can be done through crowdsourcing, as previously highlighted in Phase 1 (see Market Insights Through Crowdsourcing), in which case we move from talking about market insights through crowdsourcing to talking about market intent through crowdsourcing. We are capable of helping clients formulate their market intent in either of these manners.
Of all the phases of the Emergent NPD Process, this is the one phase that can be thought of as a "living" phase. Unlike in a traditional NPD process, where the market, brand, and product strategies are defined and locked down at the very beginning and remain static and unchanging, in an Emergent NPD project, these strategies, particularly the product strategy, must be revisited and constantly refined throughout the course of the project. It is to remain fluid up until the point in time where a formal Business Plan and Go–To–Market Strategy have been developed, presented, and approved (Phase 6 – The Plan).
There are three areas of strategy that must be addressed in order to achieve consistently successful product lifecycles, namely market, brand, and offering strategies. There is a flow–down hierarchy amongst these which actually begins two levels higher at Business Goals. Business Goals serve to establish a Business Strategy, and this Business Strategy in turn plays the predominant role in shaping the Market Strategy. Arising out of the aggregate Market Strategy, each brand will then have its own unique Brand Strategy. And likewise, arising out of the governing Brand Strategy, each offering (product or service) will have its own particular Offering Strategy. Optimum business performance occurs when there is good orchestration between all three of these.
In all cases, the market intent driving these strategies should be firmly rooted in the discovery of emerging market needs... the crux of Discovery–Driven Innovation.
What brands do you own? What is their relative market positioning? In what ways is this important? What impact does this have on your broader business and your corporate identity? Is your market strategy good enough, or are you leaving something on the table? These questions all have their life in the domain of Market Strategy.
We work with clients to understand their Business Goals and Business Strategy and then we examine their current Market Strategy in light of both these and the market environment (as revealed through our research). Related to this, we offer straightforward coaching on such prescient ideas as what it means to be technology–focused, market–focused, or customer–focused, and how this affects your organization's identity and Business Strategy success.
We will review your current Market Strategy in detail in order to test it for coherence to your stated Business Goals. We will then assist you in the process of either creating an entirely new Market Strategy, or fine–tuning your current Market Strategy to better support these Business Goals. We ask only that you come to the table with a sense of identity of who your business is and what its fundamental purpose is.
What is the brand? How is it defined? Who defines it? What is the brand message that goes along with it? What experience is associated with this brand? Is there coherent language reinforcing that message? Is it even the right message? Or do market trends warrant a new message? What content are you providing to build this brand? These questions all have their life in the domain of Brand Strategy.
We work with client Market Managers and Brand Managers to develop and refine coherent Brand Strategies for their brands.
We will work with you to explore your desired future state for the brand and then develop a statement of the brand experience being sought, including the descriptive, visual, and experiential brand language to be employed in conveying a particular brand message for the brand. Downstream in the greater process, this will support the development of effective Offering Strategies, and the related design and offering attributes that will ensure coherence with the governing Market and Business Strategies.
What are your products or services? How well do they succeed in reinforcing the message of their brand? Do they have the right visual and experiential brand language elements? Do they have the right attribute mix to live up to their brand promise? These questions all have their life in the domain of Offering Strategy.
We work with client Product Managers to develop and refine coherent high–level Offering Strategies for their product and service lines.
We will work with you to explore your desired future state for your offerings (deriving from their Brand Strategy) and then develop a statement of the high–level product / service experience that is being sought. We will then establish the design and offering attributes that will ensure coherence with the governing Brand Strategy, including the design language that coherently conveys the sought–after brand message.
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