I was reading some marketing material about growing a subscriber base and how easy it is to fool yourself into preaching to the converted. It got me thinking how the same could apply to analytics. The core foundation of analytics is to mine out those micro markets that offer the most profit. And there are many businesses today doing this very successfully. However, could we be in danger of then seeking more and more value from that micro market in a lifetime customer value model, and overlook new emerging markets? I remember many years ago when I proffered a new marketing twist on a housing product to a well established house building firm. The owners response was that “we tried that 10 or 12 years ago and it didn’t work? I was dumbfounded, not that he had dismissed my idea, but that he believed that something that didn’t work 10 years ago, would not work now.
Having worked as a roadmap strategist for high tech companies for many years, I can state with confidence that many products that will be delivered to market in 10 years time are not possible to build today, based on todays technical know-how. I also feel confident in stating that the market is almost spurning a new generation every 5-7 years. So it is very likely that something that was tried 10 years ago will work very well today. But not to dwell on trying to rationalize my marketing strategy [incidentally, the same business tried my idea a few years following and it was a huge success!!].
The point of my post is that we can fall prey to chasing the same big whale, and not notice that the other pools of profit that were not apparent at the time we first entered a market have now become whales in their own right – right under our noses. I urge you to do a blanket analysis across the market on a regular basis, preferably by an independent third party source unbiased by the businesses current focus.