Posted by Kirsten Gibbs Last updated 12th August 2020 reading time
Yesterday, I read "Simply Better. winning and keeping customers by delivering what matters most." by Patrick Barwise and Sean Meehan.
Here are a couple of interesting quotes from the book:
"Most customers, irrespective of how you have organised them into segments with slightly different needs, expect the basics.  Alas, it seems they are disappointed remarkably often."
"From a customer perspective, product categories matter more than individual brands."
"The basics" are those things that a customer expects to get from anyone in the category, and which in practice they don't always get from everyone, or maybe not even anyone in the category.
The encouraging message of this book is that you can systematically grow your customer base by systematically delivering on the basics for your category.  Doing "what it says on the tin" may not be glamorous, but it is a winning strategy. And to be successful at it, you need to know exactly what you're promising, and build your business around delivering on that promise.
The even more encouraging message of this book is that once you've got that sorted, you can safely expand "the basics" and change the game for your category.
