As a young marketing graduate in the 70’s I was given a scholarship to attend an intensive marketing management program in Boston, run by Harvard professor Jim Hagler.
He changed my life.
One of the many things he rumbled to me (he spoke, but it came out as a rumble) was:
“Son, find out how they intend to stay in front of the curve”
Sage advice.
Marketing is all about staying in front of the curve, the challenge most businesses have is defining the curve.
Most businesses have a choice of curves, but you cannot be all things to all people, so choices are made.
The price curve
The cost curve
The innovation curve
The Value curve.
It is just this last one that really matters to customers worth keeping. They want value, however they choose to define it.
Whatever else you do, for your chosen group, niche, cohort, or however you choose to define your ideal target customers, stay in front of the value curve.
Look around you, there is no successful enterprise that is behind the curve.
