Page 95 - MYM 2016

Solving customer headaches and four other Ways to compete
As more industries are being rede ned and challenged by new competitors, it becomes important to pinpoint common patterns in the marketing strategies of successful disruptors. Five principles have been identi ed: focusing on customer “headaches” rather than “needs and wants”, making the most of big data, rethinking industry boundaries from “Inside-Out” to “Outside-In”, adding new value to consumers by de ning new ecosystems, and relentlessly cutting costs.
bY doMiniQue TurPin
Most people
are familiar with Uber, Airbnb, Tesla, and Net ix as
disruptors. But how many have heard about Mediq? It is a Dutch healthcare company that aims
to make traditional pharmacies
a thing of the past. My col- league Carlos Cordón has been watching Mediq closely. In a pre- sentation to the IMD UK Alumni
Club in April 2016, he observed that today highly trained phar- macists are in the business of “moving lucrative boxes” over the counter in exchange for “a piece of paper” (the prescrip- tion), rather than caring for patients.
Professor Cordón suggests that thanks to companies like Mediq, pharmacies are next in line for a major disruption. For people su ering from chronic
DisrUPtioN & iNNoVatioN
Marketing Secrets
of industry disruptors
OCTOBEr 2016 MINd YOUr MarkETING | 95