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Category: Background

Articles that cover basic background information

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Goods are distribution mechanisms for service provision

Part of a series on making service-dominant logic approachable

Work In ProgressEarly Thoughts
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Category Background, In Practice
    #Background, In Practice

The role of goods (both tangible products and intangible ones such as digital goods -eBooks, mp3s etc) is different in our needed service-dominant logic

No longer are goods the main focus, with the blinkers of value-in-exchange etc. Instead goods are distribution mechanisms for services.

We can simpler see goods as taking one of two roles. They are either:

  • encapsulating knowledge and skills, allowing the beneficiary to later perform a self service. A hammer allows you to bang your own nails.
  • freezing a service to be later unfrozen by the beneficiary. A CD/vinyl/tape freezes a bands performance which is unfrozen when you press play

This is an important shift in thinking. Helping us minimise marketing myopia and to focus on job-to-be-done theory (increasing opportunities for innovation and growth)

Reading time <4 mins
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Making Service-Dominant Logic More Approachable

Part of a series on making service-dominant logic approachable

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Category Background
    #Background

The definitions of service-dominant logic are great, academically.

However, they are unlikely to light up the management world. Or get the attention they need.

Often using confusing or strange words like phenomenological, or words that have a different meaning than usual, as in the case of institutional.

The order the definitions are given in is also a little unhelpful.

Let's make service-dominant logic more approachable.

Reading time <3 mins
post

Service is the fundamental basis of exchange

Part of a series on making service-dominant logic approachable

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Category Background
    #Background

Let's make service-dominant logic more approachable.

Here we look at the first foundational premise - that service is the fundamental basis of exchange. Which is two words different to goods-logics "value is the fundamental unit of exchange".

But those two words open up a world view where many deficiencies are solved. a world where design-thinking, lean, agile, job-to-be-done, market orientation, relationship marketing are natural.

And where we look past the point of exchange to see additional value creation opportunities

Reading time <6 mins
postInnovation: Diffusion, and What Network Topology can tell usWork In ProgressEarly Thoughts
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Category Background
    #Background

Your target market is a network. Can we take advantage of that network's structure to accelerate diffusion? Or can we make simple structure changes to get that acceleration?

We already have seen that diffusion is the spreading of a message through channels of a social system. In the news we always here of social media influencers, which are really individuals who have many people connected to them. And Gladwell talks of Mavens, connectors etc. The number of connections and their directions are just two metrics we can measure of a network. Others, such as density, weak ties, structural holes give us even more information about how well messages are likely to spread.

If we can find out a network's structure, perhaps we can engineer it to make things easier for us.

However, we might find it is easier to do this within organisations - where how people really connect is often different to the stated top down organisation hierarchy. But general public networks can be harder to understand

Reading time <5 mins
postMarketing Mix – how many Ps are needed?
The Resulting Services Marketing Mix
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Category Background, Tools
    #Background, Tools

Does the classic marketing mix- product, price, place and promotion - fit for today's world? A world where

  • the consumer is better informed
  • our economies are service dominated,
  • technology is replacing people, and
  • we are concerned with sustainability and circular economy

Reading time <18 mins
postDiffusion of Innovation II – Bass Diffusion, let’s get Mathematical…
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Category Background, In Practice
    #Background, In Practice

How should you build up your supply chain? What are the real market sizes of Rogers' adopter types? When is best to launch the next generation of your innovation?

To answer those, we take a deeper look at the mathematics behind Bass' Diffusion Model

The maths helps us understand the split of innovator and imitator types - captured as two co-efficients in the formula. That allows us to understand where to apply internal and external influence. We can use existing sales (or a comparator) to derive these two co-efficients and therefore predict adoption. That helps us manage supply chains and real market size. Additionally, we can determine when it is best to launch the next generation of the innovation (and see what happens when we lauch to early or late)

And, best of all...it all fits real life!

Reading time <14 mins
postInnovation adoptionWork In Progress
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Category Background
    #Background

Innovation adoption is the act of individuals or organisations deciding and starting to use an innovation.

It is closely related to innovation diffusion - spreading knowledge about a particular innovation through a target market (social system / network). And is intricately linked to the often forgotten topic of innovation resistance. As well as having influences with change management, for example, the classic Kotter's 8 steps.

In this article, I explore two main topics.

First, what adoption means for individuals and organisations. Both from the classic product view, as well as for services and platforms (which need both sides of the platform to adopt). And using the perspectives of Rogers' adoption curve, Rogers' Innovation Adoption Decision Process (enhanced to see the role of innovation resistance).

And secondly, how we can speed up rates of adoption through Rogers' adoption variables.

Reading time <13 mins
postDiffusion of Innovation
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Category Background
    #Background

How do people find out about an innovation?

It is via communication, through a network of people (and organisations). Technically this is called diffusion.

I take a network first approach to exploring this question. Putting into context the well known adoption curve, crossing the chasm and the tipping point (where diffusion and adoption accelerates). And gives us insights into how to best position ourselves for diffusion success

Reading time <13 mins
postProduct Innovation – what is it about?Work In Progress
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Category Background
    #Background

It's useful to have some background on product-dominated innovation since service-dominated innovation is similar (yet with additional factors to address).

In this article we look at:

  1. how the roles, resources and value attributes of product innovation play out
  2. Rogers' adoptability/diffusion curve
  3. Moore's crossing the chasm
  4. Bass' adoption curve
  5. the factors that impact the speed of innovation adoption

Reading time <8 mins
postServices are eating the world – the “shift” to the services EconomyWork In Progress
We are shifting to service economies - by 2050 it is predicted to be greater han 80%
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Category Background
    #Background

You may be surprised to learn that the service economy is around 80% of the economy in "developed" lands (already 79% in UK). And it is an economic segment that is increasing everywhere.

I explore why we shift towards service dominant economies and the impact of that shift.

Not least if that you need to think of innovation differently for the service world than you do at present

Reading time <8 mins