What is a Strategic Point of View?
Chapter Three: Principle 2—To Be Compelling Requires a Strategic Point of View
Dear Friends,
I hope you’ll find this installment useful. It’s a very simple way to get started developing a strategic point of view. But remember, your strategic point of view will only work if you do the primary research first to ensure it’s built around what people actually do.
If you have read the previous installments in this chapter, please jump to the bottom to see the links. And please share this post with three people who need it!
What is a Strategic Point of View?
There are two reasons why I wanted to introduce my thinking about personal performance now. The first is that brand strategy has historically been about building customer loyalty through storytelling, but now finds that the customers it’s trying to win care more about their own personal performance than they do about being part of a brand tribe. Therefore, the role of storytelling in particular, and brand strategy generally, needs to change.
The second reason is because the previous section is an example of a point of view.
In 2017, we presented the point of view on personal performance to the members of the Experience Strategy Collaborative. The future focused insights, thought leadership, and recommendations that went into the point of view, helped the companies who participated that year, steer everything from the way they designed storytelling to the way they developed solutions.
A point of view is a forward-thinking analysis of a customer’s future needs. Not what they wanted last year or what they want now, but what they want in the future. It is built around a future-focused insight on the customer that can be fulfilled by the company because A) only the company knows about it or B) the company knows how to execute against it in a compelling way. Or both.
The point of view helps the company to make faster decisions about how to deploy resources, what channels and tools to build, and how to innovate. The point of view looks far enough forward that the company has time to adapt and adjust. It is not a ‘responsive’ strategy element—like customer experience metrics are—rather, it is a powerful element that calls upon the company to continually innovate toward a common vision of what the customer should experience. As the company grows, the point of view evolves, and keeps the company ahead of its competition. As customers become used to the new solutions generated, the company updates the point of view. And of course, the point of view informs the value proposition of the company heavily.
A point of view can be written a variety of ways. It doesn’t require a celebrity CEO to cite it. It’s an organizing tool that designed for internal audiences. It’s not the company’s mission or vision. It’s not the company’s brand truth. Like a value proposition there’s a formula you can use to help you create your company’s point of view. But the formula only really works if you are willing to invest in gathering real, new insights about people, understanding the implications of those insights, and marshalling resources to go in the direction the point of view points to.
Here's the formula:
First, identify a near future need of the customer. That near future need can be described using the statement “In the near future, our customers will …” Or, you can create a ‘should’ statement. For example,
In the near future customers will no longer be loyal to brands the way that companies have historically thought. Or: Our brand strategy should be driven by how customers actually become loyal to brand.
Both describe the future state of the customer.
Next, describe what the company can do going forward to strengthen its relationship with customers and create value for both customer and company. For example,
Our customers want to improve their personal performance and will reward us with their loyalty if we can develop a culture of innovation, direct resources toward solutions that improve customization, and learn to anticipate future needs.
The third step is to describe the impact that the new direction will have on the company’s business and business model. For example,
By focusing our resources on personal performance our company can simplify our channel strategy, deliver a consistent and compelling message to our customers, and create growth. We will be able to innovate faster. We will be able to stay ahead of what the customer needs.
The final element in the point of view is an explanation of the guiding principles that will help the company’s decision-making and design. For example,
Our guiding principles are
Use our data and resources to help individuals get the job they want to get done, done
Celebrate the achievements of customers and employees who improve their personal performance
Measure progress, not satisfaction
Here’s how the whole point of view statement:
In the near future customers will no longer be loyal to brands the way that companies have historically thought. Our customers want to improve their personal performance and will reward us with their loyalty if we can develop a culture of innovation, direct resources toward solutions that improve customization, and learn to anticipate future needs. By focusing our resources on personal performance our company can simplify our channel strategy, deliver a consistent and compelling message to our customers, and create growth. We will be able to innovate faster. We will be able to stay ahead of what the customer needs. Our guiding principles are
Use our data and resources to help individuals get the job they want to get done, done
Celebrate the achievements of customers and employees who improve their personal performance
Measure progress, not satisfaction
Please remember, that this is an example. Your company’s point of view will be based on your understanding of the near future needs of your customers. This is also what I call a declarative statement of your point of view. It’s the point of view in its most simple, strategic form, like a mission statement and a vision. It is meant to be revised periodically, especially as the company begins to gain traction and can more readily see it’s customers near future needs.
The strategic point of view guides resource allocation, training, innovation, measurement, operations, and messaging. It’s the point of view that helps the brand story to become authentic and trusted, because it comes first and there are tangible touchpoints. Think about what T-Mobile did. John Legere helped establish the point of view, the company changed its policies to allow no contract service, and then the brand strategists revised the storytelling to be the Un Carrier. That’s the proper sequence. That’s how companies become compelling to their customers.
And it’s the exact opposite of what the brand experience model (the-brand-makes-a-promise-and-the-experience-keeps-the-promise model) suggests is the proper relationship between brand and experience.
I like to think of the point of view as being the part of the overall business strategy that is kept internal and provides a foundation for marketing, development, design, and execution.
To be continued …