Experience of one

very funny or maybe offensive for some

In days of yore, businesses considered people as operand resources. Just like gold or crude oil. The more you have them the better off you are. Hence people are considered just like a commodity to be owned and segmented according to all the different criteria be it demographics or psychographic. People from marketing will conduct customer surveys to tap into our likes and dislikes so that they can deliver the correct product according to our age group and income distribution. Or as in the case of hair shampoo, you can go into a supermarket and discover for yourself all the different types that is most 'suitable' for your hair type and maybe lifestyle! For me, that is an example of market segmentation at its best. But in the end, for some people, the value in having a multitude of choices for hair shampoo will lead to much confusion and lost value. ( I had spent countless hours thinking in-front of shelves of shampoo bottles, figuring out whether my hair is greasy, normal or dry or combination/ with or without dandruff/ should I buy the one that is suitable for people with tudung or without/should I stick with the menthol one or not/ with or without conditioner/ two in one/three in one/ etc.etc----after all that I usually migrate to the section that sells panadol!)

The shampoo example illustrates how the goods dominant logic works. In years to come companies who still operate from this kind of logic will certainly be left behind. These companies must move on to the new service dominant logic*. Under this logic customers are responsible to extract the kind of value from the goods or service that they consume. It puts the companies in the rightful place as facilitators of value creation. It will create a unique experience for every one of the customer. The experience of one.

* don't ask me how the shampoo case can be redesign under the new SD logic...go figure :-)