Food for thought #2

In my last post I presented a conceptual model to visualize the risk, when deciding whether to enter into a new market, especially one that bears several risks, from a marketing perspective. As already stated, this was a static approach, but nevertheless such simple visualization approaches to model a specific and challenging situation can be of use to get an idea of given dependencies.

Modelling strategic dependencies in a specific frame for decision-making can help to communicate complex problems in a quick to digest way

The following article shall pick up on this notion and highlight the capabilities, a visual model can have, to communicate effectively situational factors that influence decision-making processes. In communication theory, there is always a sender and a receiver of a given signal. The signal should be built on characteristics that the receiver will be able to decode and to transform into context he can understand and use. Therefore, the sender should plan for this circumstance already in the beginning, when developing the signal and also, when sending the signal. If a sender ignores this fact, then the signal can be misinterpreted. This, we want to avoid - and we also want to avoid this, when thinking of the creation of a visual model to present the findings of research.

I propose, that a visual model, even if it only is conceptual, can be a great communication tool to induce a sound decision-making process. But please, although I'm serious here, you know you can see this thesis as a rhetorical one. In theory, marketing models, and in many consulting businesses there a plenty of visual models to induce good decision-making processes. But as I mentioned, with this post I would like to highlight aspects, that hopefully give some guidance, on how to build visual models. And also, these aspects could be seen as criteria to assess, if a visual model is really of help. See the following list and hopefully, it is some food for thought to you.

Aspects to think of when creating visual models:

• cut out nice-to-know information
  • just say and show what is relevant and needs to be shown for the problem / solution assessment
  • interesting data can be put in an appendix for a deep dive if there is interest
  • don't get me wrong, more data is mostly helpful, especially for exploration and knowledge building, but keep it simple in the model visualization
  • put the additional information that supports the findings in an extra area
• keep in mind the initial problem situation
  • digging through data can lead you sometimes astray
  • explore your data, but structure the findings to find matching factors for the solution
  • look for dependencies that can be visualized
• think of your audience
  • are the main factors of the model known within the audience; if not are they easy to comprehend?
  • color me blind - check your color usage for good contrast and highlighting the elements that induce the findings and the main focal points
  • can clear decision possibilities be extracted from the model visualization?
  • does your audience need to explain your model to other people?
• think outside the box
  • remember, you can get ideas from existing models
  • combine them if needed or use abstracts of them to build what you need
  • if you can, build your visual model in a systematic way, so others can use it as well - as you know: knowledge sharing is caring

Aspects to think of when finalizing and presenting visual models:

• a clear title and a short depiction of the findings
• quick to grasp the full picture
• be able to explain it in one or two sentences
• be able to quickly see the main takeaway
• in short, it should be self-explanatory
• not overflowing with information

Just by counting the mentioned bullet points which were listed here, you can see, that preparation and understanding the problem and your audience is key.

Thereby, build your visual models around these cornerstones:

1. finding factors that influence decision, positive or negative
2. visualize for your audience to understand, not yourself
3. be systematic so it can be shared and reproduced

Well, some of these aspects seem like common sense, but then again, it never hurts to hear, read them over and over again. You know, just in case. And in the end, this article is also just a reminder for myself.

Sincerely, Mario

Food for thought #1

During my master studies, colleagues of mine and I were tasked at the seminar "Strategies and Practices in International Direct Marketing" with the development of an assessment of a country from a marketing entry point perspective. The biggest challenge at hand was not only to research all the necessary information about given country, but rather the conceptualization of such assessment in a quick to grasp manner.

How should you assess whether to enter a new market from a marketing perspective?

In literature, there are many models that already provide you with the necessary knowledge on how to tackle such task. For example, Porter's Five Forces (1979) is a great example for analyzing the competitive surroundings of a given business endeavour. But in our masters seminar, we wanted to create a visual concept that highlights a fit versus risk view.

How did we approach this problem? Well, in my bachelor studies especially in economics theory, the concept of the Edgeworth Box (1881, Pareto 1906) stuck with me. Although this concept was not created to assess the risks of entering a new market from a marketing managers point of view, but it provided me with a spark. Some food for thought. The concept of a visual representation for a problem to solve, while having different dimensions that stand in contrast to each other.

That is how I combined theoretical country risk assessment research methods with a concept from a different field of study. And it opened up a new way of visualizing the risk marketing has to bear, when thinking of entering a new market.

Things you learn, keep it in mind, you never know when it may be part of a solution for a situation you find yourself in

In the end, the result was the creation of a marketing country risk box, as shown in figure 1. Where you have 4 dimensions, 4 criteria that is, which lend themselves for the evaluation of a given problem. 2 dimensions that provide a positive outcome for ones situation or plan, and 2 dimensions opposing them, which represent risk factors, that influence the planned outcome in a negative way. Through a research and a scoring model methodology, where you assess each dimension and give them a score from zero to five, you are then able, with the help of the marketing risk box model, to visually identify three possible zones. A low risk, a high risk and the actual risk zone.

Figure 1: The Marketing Country-Risk Box (MCR-Box) Source: Jia, Schumm, Sitter (2013)

I know that this methodology is heavily static in itself, but, and that is what I wanted to highlight with this post, through combining different concepts sometimes, good things come out of it. In this case, it is a new and structured way of modeling risk factors in a business decision to help managers decide on how to proceed.

Therefore, keep an open mind, and try to see the hidden potential in the processes of thinking through several concepts.

Sincerely, Mario

Hello world!

hello world ... ein erster Test im Coding. Ein erster Test auf dieser Website. Ein Test, der nicht der letzte sein wird und diese Seite wird eine Reise sein, mit vielen trial&errors. Aber das ist der Weg, versuchen wir es!

M.S.