UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITIONS

INTRODUCTION

 In marketing, a unique value proposition is a clear statement that explains the benefits
of your product, how it solves customers’ problems, why it is different from the rest,
and why customers should buy it.
 In marketing, an ideal unique value proposition must provide the following:
 Relevancy. Explain how your product solves customers’ problems or improves their
situation.
 Quantified value. Deliver specific benefits.
 Differentiation. Tell the ideal customer why they should buy from you and not from
the competition.

Evaluate your current value proposition by checking whether it answers the questions below:

1. What product or service is your company selling?

2. What is the end benefit of using it?
3. Who is your target customer for this product or service?
4. What makes your offering unique and different?

Effective Business Model Development Viability

 In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, having a viable business model is

crucial for success.
 A business model defines how your company will create, deliver, and capture value.
 It outlines the core components and processes that drive your business and determines
its sustainability in the long run.
 Testing the viability of your business model is a crucial step in ensuring its long-term
success and profitability.
 In this session, we will explore the key steps and strategies involved in evaluating the
viability of your business model.

Identifying and Understanding Your Target Market

 Identifying and understanding your target market is the first step in testing the
viability of your business model.
 Your target market consists of the specific group of customers or clients that your
product or service is intended to serve.
 By understanding who your target market is, you can tailor your offering to meet their
needs and preferences effectively.

1. Conduct market segmentation:

 Divide your target market into smaller, distinct segments based on common
characteristics such as demographics, psychographics (Understanding customer’s
emotions and values), or behavior.
 Example: If you launch a new fitness app, you may segment your target market into
fitness enthusiasts, busy professionals, or seniors looking to stay active.

2. Develop buyer personas:

 Create detailed profiles of your ideal customers within each segment.

 Include information such as age, gender, occupation, interests, pain points, and
motivations.

3. Conduct market research:

 Use surveys, interviews, focus groups, or online research tools to gather insights
about your target market's preferences, needs, and pain points.
 Example: Survey fitness enthusiasts to understand their preferences for tracking
workouts or accessing exercise programs through mobile apps.

What are the 5 Factors that Determine the Viability of a Business?

 To stay competitive in a market landscape that’s constantly in flux(Change) you’ll

need to understand the dynamics that govern the success and sustainability of a
business.
 Five critical elements dictate the viability of a business.
 Asking what they are and how they relate to your business model is what sets
established business owners apart from those who fail quickly.

The viability of a business is determined by a combination of various factors including, but

not limited to, market demand, competition, financial stability, operational efficiency, and the
quality of the management team.
How can I Determine the Viability of a Business?

 Business viability is like asking whether a business has a good chance of surviving
and thriving in the real world.
 It's all about figuring out if a business idea or a company is likely to be successful and
make a profit.
 Whether you’re just starting or you’re a year or two into your journey, going through
the following steps will be an invaluable exercise to help you work out if you should
forge on or pivot.
 Think of it this way: Imagine you want to open a bakery.
 To determine if it's viable, you'd need to consider things like:

How can I Determine the Viability of a Business?

Market Demand: Is there a strong desire for baked goods in your area, or are there too many
bakeries already? If people love pastries, your bakery might have a good chance.

Competition: How many other bakeries are there, and how well are they doing? If there are
too many, it might be tough to stand out. What point of difference can you offer?

Costs: What does it take to run the bakery? This includes ingredients, rent, staff, and more.
Can you cover these costs and still make a profit?

Revenue: How much money can you make from selling your baked goods? Are people
willing to pay the prices you need to charge to cover your costs and make a profit?

Sustainability: Can your business ke

ep making money over the long term, or is it just a short-lived trend?

Legal and Regulatory Issues: Are there any laws or regulations that might affect your
bakery, like health and safety standards or zoning rules?

Check these five critical factors against what business plan…

#1 Market Demand

 Understanding the market demand involves analyzing market trends, understanding

the needs and preferences of your target audience, and offering products or services
that meet those needs.
 Conducting market research can help identify current gaps in the market and create a
unique value proposition that sets you apart from the competition.

#2 Competition

 A business cannot operate in isolation; it has to contend with other players in the
market - which isn’t always a bad thing.
 Having competition can help hold you accountable to excelling in your business,
pushing your boundaries and innovation.
 Analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors can provide insights into
market opportunities and help carve out a niche for your business where you can
excel.

#3 Financial Stability

 Financial stability involves maintaining a healthy cash flow, having sufficient capital
to cover operational costs, and ensuring profitability in the long run.
 A business with a robust financial foundation is more likely to withstand economic
downturns and emerge victorious.

#4 Operational Efficiency

 Operational efficiency involves streamlining processes, reducing waste, and

improving productivity to give your business the ability to utilize resources most
optimally.
 A business that operates efficiently can offer better quality products and services at
competitive prices, to gain an edge in the market.

#5 Management Team

 A competent management team has the power to steer a business in the right
direction, make informed decisions, and provide a positive work environment.
 This is an easy one to overlook but it gives back in so many ways with high employee
satisfaction, less turnover, and the ability to attract a highly skilled team to back you
up.
 It’s also important to have a strong management team to handle stressful situations.
 It’s one thing to have a stable team around when the going is good, but you want a
team that sticks with it when the plan hits the fan.
How Can I Assess the Market Demand for My Business?

 To assess your market demand, start with market research to get a feel for the current
trends and customer preferences.
 There are plenty of online tools that can help, including Google Trends as well as
consumer surveys to gather data.
 Studying your competitors and their customer base can offer insights into the market
dynamics as well as your own experiences and grievances with the products on offer.
 What Strategies Can Be Employed to Stay Ahead of the Competition?
To stay ahead of the competition, focus on offering superior quality products or
services.
 Secondly, invest in customer service to build a loyal customer base.
 Innovative marketing strategies and leveraging technology can also give you a
competitive edge.
 Remember, understanding your unique selling proposition (USP) and capitalizing on
it is key.

How Do I Ensure Financial Stability for My Business?

 Ensuring financial stability involves budgeting, financial forecasting, and maintaining

a healthy cash flow.
 It’s just as important to monitor every money movement as a sole trader as it is when
you are an enterprise.
 Consider seeking the advice of a financial advisor to help you navigate the complex
financial landscape.
 They can also help you forecast risk and put aside a contingency fund to safeguard
your business if something unforeseen knocks the wind out of your sails.

How do I Enhance Business Operational Efficiency?

 Set up a business system and flow with intent and purpose from the start.
 So many businesses just allow their business to grow ‘naturally’.
 This creates a patchwork of operating methods from all over and the result is far from
smooth and seamless.
 Streamline your everyday business processes by blocking out task times, delegating
effectively, creating a system (which will automatically show up double handling and
gaps), and bringing in automation when relevant.
 Implementing systems that facilitate smooth workflow and reduce manual errors can
be a game-changer.
 Make sure you and your team stay up-to-date with training to foster productivity and
efficiency as well as personal growth.

CONCLUSION

Remember, the journey of building a viable business is a continuous learning process.

Stay curious, be open to feedback, and never stop learning.

The road to success is paved with diligence, resilience, and a deep understanding of the
business landscape.

Prototyping, Piloting & Pivoting

WHAT IS A PIVOT IN A BUSINESS?

 In terms of business, a pivot is a fundamental change of direction after the realization

that your current products or services aren't meeting the needs of the market.
 A pivot like this will often test fundamental hypotheses about the product, your
business model, and growth mechanisms.
 It involves strategically changing a company's business model, product, or target
market.
 Pivoting is not just about switching the product but also includes revising the way a
company delivers value to its customers.

What is “Pivoting”

 While pivoting in the startup world means shifting to a new strategy, many
entrepreneurs believe it entails drastically changing the whole company.
 But this is not always the case. Oftentimes, a company only has one important
problem that it needs to address, and only requires a change in a single aspect of the
company.
 In 2016, Selcuk Atli, CEO and Co-founder of Bunch, introduced his Pivot Pyramid,
which outlines five main pivoting areas.
They follow a standard order: customers, problem, solution, tech, and growth.

Layer 5: Customers

 Customers are the foundation of every startup. The problem you are solving, the
product you are building, and the technology it's built with will all depend on who
makes up your customer base.
 There can be many reasons for a customer needs to pivot. For instance, the initial
requirements of your customer might have changed or you could have altered your
product during the building process which resonates more with a different target
group.
 Be sure to evaluate the rest of the steps in the pyramid if you make any changes like
this.
 Facebook made a successful pivot by changing its user base from a semi-secret
college club to a global party to which everyone is invited and went on to become one
of the biggest companies in the world.

Layer 4: Problem

 Maybe you have identified the right customer, but are solving a problem that doesn't
exist or is relatively inconsequential (Unimportant)
 You can pivot in this case, but you'll need to re-evaluate and change your solution,
tech, and growth strategy.

Let's look at another example:

 The retargeting campaign company, Criterio, started as a recommendation system for

online retailers, however, it turned out that this issue wasn't as important to retailers as
another one.
 Online retailers were struggling with large numbers of "almost-customers", who
abandoned their shopping cart right before checkout, never to return.
 This was hurting retailers much more than the issue Criterio originally identified, so
they made a customer need pivot to address the most pressing problems faced by their
customers.
Layer 3: Solution

 The solution you're offering will almost certainly go through a lot of changes before it
reaches its final form.
 Always be prepared to make updates, create new features, and offer new services.
 You may also discover that people use one feature much more than the others, or that
you've focused too much on one feature and your users are requesting others.
 In this case, you could consider a value capture pivot to meet their wishes and
increase your profitability.
 When you make changes to your solution, always remember to look closely at the
technology you're using. Is it the right one?
 What adjustments could you make to keep growing after you've made the changes to
your product?

Layer 2: Technology

 As your business grows, your tech needs will almost certainly change.
 The technology you chose in the beginning may not be good enough to keep your
business growing.
 Your users may not know what technology you use, but they will know if one of your
products doesn't work, which is why you need to continuously assess your options for
changing your tech.
 When Facebook began to take off, its PHP programming couldn't keep up with the
expanding scale, so they developed a technology called "HipHop" that converted PHP
into a more scalable language (C++, C# or "C-Sharp").
 This pivot allowed them to keep up with the increasing demand and eventually get to
where they are today.

Layer 1: Growth

 If everything up to this point goes smoothly, you're really on the right track! So now is
a great time to start experimenting with your growth strategy.
 What are you doing to reach your customers? Are you getting enough users, or do you
need to get more?
Changes you make at the bottom of the pyramid won’t be frequent.

For instance, you can’t change who your customer is and the problem you are solving often.

The pace of experimentation increases at the top of the pyramid.

This is especially true as your startup matures and you find product market fit.

Start with the customer and problem

 A common mistake entrepreneurs make is that they start with their product and
technology without truly understanding who their customers are.
 If this is broken — nothing else works.
 That’s why you shouldn’t focus too much on marketing before you nail the customer,
problem, and solution.
 First, you have to make something people want.
 You don’t want to put jet fuel in a car with a broken engine. Fix the engine first.
 A common mistake that kills early-stage startups is focusing on different types of
customers at once.
 The changes you make at the bottom of the pivot pyramid will impact the decisions
you make above like product, technology, and marketing.
 So, if you focus on more than one type of customer, you are building multiple startups
at once.

EXAMPLES

YouTube

 Today it's the most popular video-sharing platform on the internet, but at its inception,
YouTube was set up to be an online video dating site.
 Launched on Valentine's Day 2005, their unofficial slogan: "Tune in, Hook up" didn't
exactly reach worldwide appeal.
 The YouTube team noticed that people were beginning to upload videos rather than
dating profiles, such as planes randomly taking off and landing. This led to co-founder
Jawed Karim posting "the first video on YouTube" titled: "Me at the Zoo".
 His silly, yet honest video inspired others to post their funny videos on the site,
thereby providing proof of concept that people uploading videos of themselves online
could be profitable.
 Instagram
Instagram is one of the most famous software startup pivot stories.
 Instagram is one of the biggest social media platforms in the world, but before
becoming a social media platform with millions of users, Instagram was a prototype
known as "Burbn", which had check-in features, photo post options, and could gain
points, in addition to several other features.
 The founders, Mike Krieger and Systrom, soon realized that the UI was too difficult
to be practical and so decided to pivot.
 They limited their Instagram startup software development to posting, commenting,
and liking features – making it one of the most simplistic visual platforms on the
market.