Marketing estratégico: definición del producto. Un caso práctico (III)

Tras muchas vueltas, la cosa está decidida. Tras escuchar a Antonio Matarranz, estaba claro que necesito una base de experiencia desde la cuál comenzar mi trabajo de definición de producto. Por otra parte, quería buscar algún elemento diferente que me obligase a ejercitar aquellas fases del plan de marketing en las que me siento más endeble. Sin duda alguna, para mí la dificultad principal está en encontrar el "money", por lo que quería forzar la situación para que me obligase a ser imaginativo en ese aspecto. Y, claro, como soy cabezón, en algo relacionado con la empresa social, ONGs, etc.

Pues ya lo tengo. Tengo que definir más en los próximos días (como bien dice mi mujer: buena idea, pero hay que madurarlo un montón), pero este post me sirve para "pensar en voz alta". Sólo una mala noticia para aquellos de vosotros que a estas alturas del mensaje no estáis ya aburridos de "productos" y "marketing". Como quiero aprovechar estas notas para el Plan de Marketing final, voy a escribir esta parte en inglés :( :( Si alguien realmente desea que se lo cuente en español, pues que me lo diga y se lo resumo sin problema! ;)

The basis of the product will be “Competitive” Intelligence for NGOs and Social Entrepreneurs. Please note that “Competitive” is not the most correct definition, but it can help you grasp the concept. The idea is that NGOs and Social Entrepreneurs have a really hard time finding information about the specific area they want to provide help to, or the political conflicts they must take into account, or the social laws related to a specific issue. They spend a lot of time researching for information.

My goal is to provide a product that combines the typical Web 2.0, social-based capabilities seen in other services such as UnLtd World (http://unltdworld.com/) or WiserEarth (http://www.wiserearth.org/), but which main value proposition is the integration of external and public sources to provide combined and structured information relevant to the entrepreneur´s specific area of interest.

So, for example, a Spanish NGO might be working in the outskirsts of Madrid trying to socially integrate people from the gypsy ethnicity. To do that, you of course need to talk to them, or need help from lawyers, … but it is very useful for them to have integrated information about:

1. Culture. How to approach gypsies, the whys of their nomadic behaviour
2. History. To better understand their background.
3. Laws. Which recent or historical laws are related to our case.
4. News. Recent news about relocations, confrontations with police, etc.
5. Maps. Some of the previous information can be “mashed up” so that geographical information can be shown.

In the case of people doing ground work in hospitals, camps, …, they might need:

1. Research. Patent information. What are pharma companies doing regarding a specific drug?
2. Blogs. What conflicts are being published by journalists?
3. …

Thus, the initial idea is (if it doesn´t change this weekend ;) ) to provide a personal service composed of a big amount of different sources of information combined, transformed and processed (as opposed to the now well-known, but limited concept of a mashup… more about that in the marketing plan!). Some consulting services would also be provided in case the data sources required by a customer must be accessed for the first time. The final result would be a web-based real-time report with different views and profiles that can be used by NGOs and social entrepreneurs in their daily operation. You can also see it as a more flexible way of reporting, such as CRIN (http://www.freepint.com/issues/100205.htm#feature). Information can be managed (initially with certain limits) by the user.

Bueno, pues esto es lo que hay por ahora... creo que como ejercicio me resultará muy interesante... que sea un producto/servicio válido para el mercado, esa es otra historia...tras esta descripción inicial, me centraré en una definición más formal, y en comenzar a pensar en producto completo, segmentación, etc.