Look out the window and what do you see:
- McDonalds
- Doctors office
- Grocery Store
- Gas Station
- Law Office
- Golf Course
Half of those are about consuming (McDonalds, Grocery Store and Gas Station). The other half about achievement (health, legal advice and a recreation experience).
For a business to be a long-term success it must have a business model and a customer engagement model that compel an initial engagement and then a long-term relationship. A business needs to have reasons for how to charge, serve the customer, message to the world and most importantly demonstrate why the world cares.
Often a business copies something that worked for another business and then apply that thinking this model will work here.
Since everything a business does should start with the customer how about the first question being “do they want to consume something or achieve something.
Consuming is often a commodity, price sensitive, highly competitive and subject to the whim of the customer. Since consuming is price sensitive the price is what the market will bear, and must have a minimum margin to survive.
If this is an achieve business this is about helping the “customer achieve” something and how important that something is to the customer will determine how much the customer is willing to pay (they pay a lot for the right plastic surgeon) and the engagement model they expect.
Every business needs to let their customer know which problem the business is solving. For a business to try to be both is seldom a good idea even though a Golf Couse may sell golf balls they are NOT a retailer; the balls are part of achieving. So decide and stay the course (a pun).