How to design a better Value Proposition for the post consumerism economy? The paradigm is changing fast likewise the desire to own goods, even virtual ones; what then is the value that makes sense in our lives?
I’m just fed up with networking events’ proposals. If you would attend just at half of those organised every day in London City you can’t work; you merely attend events. Each organiser shows the great value you will get attending his event. From the “breakfast meeting” starting at 7.30am with just the food cost (£10) you will meet teens of entrepreneurs (all of them ready to do businesses…). Then the “mid morning meeting” just meet people, entrepreneurs and business men over a topic talking about businesses. You can’t miss the “lunch time event”! (lunch cost just £20) than do business around a lunch table. Nothing is better than a “Tea time meeting” where new people are talking about businesses with a cup of tea (£8)! But you wouldn’t miss the “evening meet up”: After your job (what job?), drink beer (£6) with smart business people… Are you free at night? Here’s a solution for you: The “speed date” meeting (£10) to make businesses or date people: amazing horny entrepreneurs will attend, oops sorry I mixed up the two features… Yes, in London “Networking” industry comes just after banks and food industries. It seems incredible that in such a crowded city one of the trendy activities is to make people meet.
But what is important is the value of that offer: How many horny women have you ever met in a speed date? Maybe very hot girls don’t need a speed date to find boiling guys…
In the same way smart entrepreneurs do not really need to attend networking events to find skilled people to do business with! Actually the attendants are mostly advisors and others are just looking for clients. Surely some deals would have been closed here and there, but at what cost?
We are bombarded by proposals: everyone would like to create value to us. Products, services experiences, all stuffs that promise us lot of happiness and money. Maybe the purpose is merely to make money instead of creating real value. In Stuffocation James Wallan describes plainly the effect of excess in stuff ownership. The Economy of Experiences has modified the “goods’s value” to “the value of use”: Rent the car you really need: you will drive the best car you deserve avoiding fixed costs.
When a company proceed to evaluate its proposal to markets the trap of seeing a value where it effectively isn’t too often can derail the business burning resources without creating any result. The bad news is that in this era is quite tricky to design proposals which work, the rate of “new products” that fail is still well over 70%. This means that less than 30 out of 100 new ideas actually thrive. And very little of that makes new entrepreneurs suddenly rich.
The good news is that notwithstanding what James Wallan reports, people need new ideas and new products and there will always be a way to create real value even if people reduce goods consumption. It simply become more complex because not all ideas are good anymore. Maybe we just have to pay attention to people’s real needs and how do they do their things, then get underlying trends and dream up new efficient ways to make the same things better.
The need isn’t just to meet people; it is to meet the right ones to with whom we can collaborate and create real value. The one who will have the good idea to persuade good prospects to sit beside fantastic providers and discuss openly about new solutions to business problems and about new collaboration frameworks, he would have success only by an execution, on the way to market this value, coherent with the good idea.
I have the method to support ideas to thrive, if I would have the ideas I would be an entrepreneur but, maybe in this case, I would need someone who could apply the marketing methodology.