{"id":3574,"date":"2020-11-21T08:17:44","date_gmt":"2020-11-21T07:17:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/make-it-matter-with-a-platter\/"},"modified":"2024-05-13T12:12:02","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T10:12:02","slug":"make-it-matter-with-a-platter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/make-it-matter-with-a-platter\/","title":{"rendered":"Make it matter with a platter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019m always looking at the customer needs for 5 years time\u201d was the message from my Dad, growing up and working in an entrepreneurial family and that mantra always kept a highly relevant and successful brand.<\/span><\/p>\n

Only a crystal ball could have given us today’s picture, and the customer of 5 years time was now staring all of us in the face within 5 months.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the initial crisis period of rapid change, we find ourselves looking into a new era, an era where we now know more about our customer\u2019s needs and reactions to any shifts we made in our businesses than we did earlier this year. Knowing more about what to expect certainly doesn’t stop our fears or frustrations as we are faced with the 2nd wave constrictions. However, we know more about what’s going to happen, the norm (for now) has arrived: you can sense it, there\u2019s less of a highlighted spirit of collaboration, singing and Quentin Quarantino no longer has its humorous place. Even the arrival of Zoom doesn\u2019t seem as exciting as the first-time round, and gone are the funny moments of teaching elderly parents tech (when you really knew little yourself), watching a looming face fill the screen as they searched for how to take themselves off mute.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We know more and so does our customer<\/b><\/p>\n

It’s not because we no longer care or lack emotions, we do, it’s perhaps more about knowing what we have to do, what we want and need. Although there isn\u2019t a \u201cnew customer norm\u201d that is completely finalised there is certainly enough knowledge to create the \u201cnorm for now.\u201d Articles and business leaders are all discussing the future and the need to regroup, to bring together the changes of the past 5 months, as well as sharing the ways in which we should realign as we look ahead.<\/span><\/p>\n

So what about what we don’t know?<\/b><\/p>\n

Agility still remains key to staying relevant going forward. There were some hard lessons learnt at the beginning of Covid as so many companies realised how rigid they had become in their operations. This shone a spotlight on those companies who, with an already established agile culture, benefitted from being comfortable shifting their priorities as a result of changing situations with their customers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is these that reported \u201ca more seamless journey forward after the initial shock of Covid, with few setbacks\u201d as referenced by<\/span> McKinsey An Operating Model for the Next Normal. [1]<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The balance that is required between a clear direction and remaining agile is often already existing within small and mid-sized companies, where the more entrepreneurial purpose-led culture quite often still remains, and where the emotional connection to make something better, still plays a leading role in the creation of strategy and any decision-making processes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bringing this balance to life<\/b><\/p>\n

When I see a theory, I always seek to find a real life test case and found an example of this balanced approach from my own community. It’s not a large organisation, however, it perfectly shows how using what we know to provide a clear direction and remain agile can create a strong approach and how this small, yet very successful, business created an advantage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Locally we have a restaurant that has a well-known and established purpose, <\/span>\u201cto surprise, experience, enjoy\u201d<\/span><\/i> – high quality food eating, a business that has of course been highly affected by the changes brought about with Covid-19.<\/span><\/p>\n

It caught my eye on Facebook, <\/span>\u201cZoom food\u201d <\/b>headlined… genius, I knew exactly where they were heading and suddenly, in my mind, Zoom could be fun again.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lockdown 1 brought us all the understanding of the phrase \u201cacceptable social Zoom food\u201d; the early days of the shout out \u201cwho brought the crispy crackers to the Zoom social\u201d as the rest of the group endured echoed sounds of eating horses in their front room, brought us that education.<\/span><\/p>\n

The restaurant owner, as with many, moved towards takeaways and deliveries during lockdown 1 and of course, now in lockdown 2, will repeat the same. However, for them it wasn\u2019t the same, as these entrepreneurs – with such a strong customer-centric purpose – acted wisely. They spent the past 5 months understanding their customers even more and how their product and service was received and used during the 1st lockdown, connecting with the community to understand how they could be even better for them if closure was to be forced upon them again.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zoom food<\/b> was one of the new lockdown 2 product offerings, delivering the same high-quality food just in a format that was reflective of the ever-changing expectations of the customer \u2013 especially as we are all approaching the Christmas season. The genius part: they called it a name that would reignite a Zoom-tired community, now Zoom could be a party again with restored excitement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cMake it matter with a platter: A beautiful Zoom accompaniment in a box delivered to your door, which includes delicious wine pairings too!\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Using this story, I could translate their approach into the thoughts of a recent article I was reading by <\/span>MITsloan management review: Opportunities for brands during the Covid crisis [2]<\/span><\/i>, which highlighted \u201cthe unprecedented opportunities\u201d of small and mid-sized businesses right now as consumers drop their lifelong automated buying routines. The authors suggest relooking at the traditional Four Ps (product, place, price, promotion) to form a direction that captures the opportunity of the changing consumer and to look for options that suit their shifted needs now we know more.<\/span><\/p>\n

I decided to use the successful restaurant story and map it into the suggestion of the evolved marketing 4 Ps suggested by MITsloan, to appreciate the value of the idea more.<\/span><\/p>\n