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The Power of Focus

November 12th, 2010 by Byron Darlison

5 Comments

Dave Haynes over on his blog on sixteen-nine had a post that struck a chord with me. He writes about the success of Context Media focusing on one market, building it, and then adding to that offer with a new and synergistic product. I can’t tell you how strongly I agree with this strategy. Focus is everything.

We created the Rise Vision digital signage solution for Operators like this. Sure, it could be used by anyone, in very generic digital signage ways, but, I believe that those that will be successful will focus our platform on niche markets and bring to that offer their deep expertise and understanding of what that clientele want.

An Operator with extensive knowledge of a market can create a unique proposition for their target. They can extend our platform to create a value add that is very hard to match and to turn away from. This is exactly what our product is designed to do – provide the platform that can be extended and uniquely focussed to enable the creation of unique, and therefore valuable, solutions for niche markets.

In my humble opinion, the generic shot gun approach of we do digital signage for anyone who wants it, which I unfortunately hear all too often, is a me-too game that will be plagued by commoditization.

Your thoughts?

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  • http://twitter.com/DSMarketer Alex Bernier

    I agree. And if anyone’s read the book “Inside The Tornado” by Geoffrey Moore, he describes the state of our industry something like a bowling alley. Essentially meaning that we need to specialize and deliver a “whole” product to just one or a couple markets. Your business is the bowling ball, and the different markets are the pins. You begin to establish dominance in select few markets…thereby making it easier to knock over related markets.

    It is all too easy to try and be all things to all people with digital signage. After all, for most applications the only thing that differentiates a product for one market as opposed to another is the content on the display. So (as the typical sales-people that we are), it’s tough to ever say “No” to a client that isn’t in our focus, because they are looking for the same system but with different messages.

    However, we need to think ahead. There’s more functionality available out there for these different markets. Sure, maybe some scrolling text and pictures will work for a hospital. But why not make it easier by developing an app that automatically grabs schedules and information from their current system? Or an app that automatically calls up patient’s names on the display when the doctor will see them? Or an app that automatically WELCOMES you right when you walk through the door, because it knows you’re scheduled appointment time? For the same price, it’s obvious who the client will choose to lead their new digital project, because you’ve just delivered a more “whole” product to the hospital.

    That’s just one market and one example. Much like a tree – the further you spread your branches, the more leaves you produce, the more sunlight you get, and the larger you grow.

    • http://www.riseholdings.com/ Byron Darlison

      Absolutely agreed Alex.

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