The book discussed the "dimension of merit" or the set of attributes to a technology that the user finds valuable and preferable. These preferences create uneven groups of customers or "lumps" in the market. The goal of these emerging technologies is to find the "most favored attribute set" within the market to capture the largest customer set and marketshare.
The firm can then make a choice -focus on a niche market and be vulnerable to competition. Small changes in the attributes can cause a shift and can lead to greater or fewer customers based on the lump in the market. Many disruptive technologies fail to mee the needs of the intended market. These technologies then focus on niche markets which allows the attribute set to grow more rapidly, allowing the technology to infultrate new market segments.
Strategists use an attribute matrix and evaluate customer reactions and responses to the technology. The spectrum of responses are broken down into 3 components:
- Basic: a basic attribute that is expected in an offer but gives no real value in the market but can preclude the firm from the market if not included
- Discriminators: attributes that distinguish the technology in the market (can be both +/-)
- Energizing features: These are typically new attributes that have a sharp distinction in comparison to other offerings and great influence on the consumer .
After the attributes have been determined, the constraints to bring these attributes to market must be determined and evaluated. Companies evaluate the market landscapes to push barriers and look for technologies that will help improve positioning. Other companies have technologies and are in search of markets. Companies can use three strategies to position themselves in the market:
- Niche dominantion - company offers a product to a niche market and creates or moves the technology barrier or constrains the attributes available in the market
- Niche fusion - the fusion of two or more niche markets allowing a firm to dominate the fused niche markets. The attributes of the products are favorable among many niche markets
- Create a new technology envelope - radically changing the set of attributes to offer superior products or brand new products to consumers. The shift can put firms out of business and change the market landscape.
This concept of lumpy markets can be seen in the digital and film SLR camera markets. Camera uses were either point and shoot operators to high end photography professionals. The markets were lumpy based on the the type of camera users and the products avaible to those users. When digital photography took off, some of the film markets dried up and looked for new ways to compete with digital photography.
When looking at current digital SLR and point and shoot digital cameras, both have a desired market: lower and mid end, reasonably priced cameras versus higher end consumer cameras & photographer professionals. Over the last few years, we have seen many of the digital cameras carrying basic attributes (LCD screen on the back) to distinguishing attribute (photo dock and printer capabilities for cameras). But the energizing attributes diminish quickly (very high resolution, high dynamic range *HDR*) as cameras continue to push the level of megapixels.
