Building value during the product/service lifecycle
In this text I wanna talk specifically about products and services, in detail about lifecycle of products and services, so, I started as I usually do, doing a little research about the theme, and like everybody, I google the term, and what I basically saw was several pictures of graphs.
So I reflected: the term is lifecycle and I just saw graphs, and all of it started in a low point , and there was an up point and finished in a decline point, and this change was represented by a graph in curve.
I ironically thought, if you have a service or product you have to assume that it will always change for the purpose of selling, so the term lifecycle, and why the hell all this graphs showed the opposite of that? In my experience as product designer, I think our job is not to let this happen. We always work in cycles of implementation, using agile methodologies, some in cycles, like lean, some in periods, like scrum or design sprint. It means that who works with a product never has the work done, there is always something that we have to improve.
To prove that line of thought, let´s think in the modern customer, but differently in a user centered design, an approach user centered in marketing, when we talk in market consumer, we are talking about marketing, right? We have to understand user needs, and the desires behind of it, the consumer comportament is changing and the reality still is: marketing dictade trends.
But marketing is always chaging, and right now it is converging to experience related to user needs, this extract point what I trying to tell:
“The relationship between brand and consumers shouldn´t be vertical, but horizontal. the consumers should be considerated friends and colleagues of the brand. And the brand should be related by your truly character and be honest what your truly value. Just this ways it will be trustful.”
Marketing 4.0 — Do tradicional ao Digital
When we talk in a convergence of what are meaninful in marketing and design also, I related it in Design Thinking as philosofy, we are surrounded by things that matters, and we are looking to use things that leads us to a conscious consumption, there is a tendency to consuming things with social responsible in some level, because we are trying to contributed in some level to something bigger, even if the way is buying something more expensive.
(…)Recent reasearchs in different areas showed mostly of consumers believe in the social factor (friends, family, Facebook and Twitter followers) than marketing communications. Most part of these people ask advice to strangers in social medias and trust them more than marketing specialysts opinnions.”
Marketing 4.0 — Do tradicional ao Digital
Therefore, for your product/service to achieve success always, not in a point in its lifecycle, you have to assume an approach that add value in all possible levels, with ethics, being honest, and this is much more easy to get throught Design Thinking using its tools to work at multiple specialities, and different skills and life backgrounds, it pass since the technical level, until the tradicional marketing, social medias and, of course, design.
When we think about that, we came to the conclusion it´s necessary, from times to times, a review of customer needs, behavior, life journey, how they interact, what the paper the medias has on it, when you do that, your are working on your lifecycle product and avoiding the dark point of decline of your product/service.
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