Cracking The Convenience Code: How The Convenience Quotient Helps Improve Product Sales
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People share a set of universal needs —
satisfy those needs with convenience and you
will win.
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What we’ve learned from a decade of surveys
0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%
Source: North American Technographics Benchmark Surveys, 1998 to 2008
• The adoption curve takes a certain shape because people share a set of basic needs they approach in a specific way.
• Products and services that meet those needs in the most convenient way follow the adoption curve.
• Those that fail to meet the right needs in a more convenient fashion will not succeed.
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What are the universal human needs?
Physiological
Safety
Social/belonging
Esteem
Self-actualization
• Maslow’s Hierarchy is still with us, despite its flaws, because the idea that we share a set of common needs is valid.
• However, Maslow was wrong when he said that needs follow an order — they do not.
• Needs are messy and conflicting; consumers will shift their expression of their needs in response to long-term and short-term circumstances.
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People share four universal needs
Connection
Uniqueness
Comfort
Variety
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What we know about universal needs
• Everybody has all four.
• But they vary in importance for each individual — we call this a need profile
• Each person’s need profile can also shift.
• As a result:
–People will trade off needs against each other in a search to optimize need fulfillment.
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How needs become product features
• Needs serve as a foundation for a product feature decisions.
• Benefits, stated as consumer value statements, capture the need.
• Features then provide the benefits identified.
• Ideally, product features serve more than one need (e.g., a click wheel adds uniqueness, but it also helps people access a variety of music more easily).
Need: uniquenessExample: the iPod/iTunes experience
Benefit:You will feel better than
others.
Benefit:People will notice you’re
different.
Feature:distinctive earbuds
Feature:limited edition
colors
Feature:exclusive
music tracks
Feature:unique click
wheel
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Convenience is the bridge over which you meet needs• Regardless of which need you’re helping people meet, you
must help them meet the need more conveniently than the nearest alternative.
• Features that conveniently provide desired benefits will succeed over those that do not.
• Even the best features — if there are barriers inhibiting them — will not succeed.
• We express this in an equation where convenience = the benefits a product provides minus the barriers to its adoption.
Conveniencebenefits barriers
=-
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Convenience quick notes
• Convenience is not a need, a benefit, or a feature — it is a measure of how well your features provide benefits that meet needs.
–Example: electronic door locks on cars — the feature provides a benefit (ability to quickly lock and unlock doors), which meets a comfort need
• As convenience increases, more people adopt a product because even if they don’t value the benefit as much as the early adopter, the reduced barriers make it easier for people to justify low-benefit purchases.
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We can measure this in a convenience quotient
• A convenience quotient (CQ) is a single score between -1 and 1 that expresses:
–The benefits your product or service provides, minus . . .
– . . . the barriers to its adoption.
1-1
0
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How Forrester will help
• Forrester will help you understand
– Why your product or service adoption/sales are unsatisfactory?
– Why a competitors products or service is selling better than your products?
– How does it compare against others and how can you make improvements?
– How convenient your product or service is?
– What specific elements of your product or service strategy you need to change to improve adoption/sales
– What are key barriers to adoption?
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3) Convenience Quotient Scorecard
1) Convenience score benchmark
2) Convenience score graph
Example deliverables: The Convenience Quotient
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Thank you
Frederic Crehan
+33 6 70 34 5 69
www.forrester.com