Engagement Strategy Board

Engagement Strategy Board is a positioning framework used to determine the effectiveness of positioning strategies/approaches mapped against a set of defined customer needs. This model is created as a holistic thinking process and are best used to punch gaps within the customer engagement strategy design process. It is used to model the entirety of the engagement and touch-points with a targeted market segment. For instance, this model will allow you to map the different programs developed by sales and marketing department in order to figure out and find the desired balance between the differing KPI's of each department, i.e. strong engagement vs. profitability.

Description: The ESB is used by considering first and foremost the needs of the customer (left hand column) labelled as emotion, capability or transaction focused. With the type of needs in mind, the strategist then need to position the various engagement options. These will be one of the following types as see on the bottom row labels: to mobilize actions, to drive stickiness/attachment or to build affinity/advocacy. 

A strategy that is top-right leaning is considered engagement heavy but transaction light. This is probably pursued by high-value brand-focused goods which operates exclusive storefront locations and sells limited high value goods.. On the other hand, a bottom left leaning  approach will be considered as transaction heavy but engagement light. This may work well for commodity good or daily necessities.  

Strategic Engagement Options

Description: Some of the commonly found strategic options used by customer facing organizations are listed in the ESB map above. For example, Nike as a brand makes most of their revenues from shoe apparel. Whilst they outsources the manufacturing and sells through wholesalers, they do retain full marketing and pricing rights on all Nike goods. With wholesaler owning direct customer touch points, Nike focuses its effort on building product-level capabilities and emotionally charged marketing messages. Lacking the option to pursue a subscription strategy, Nike will be relying heavily on emotionally-focused marketing to drive stickiness (TOP row). The retained ability to control price also ensures that the branding efforts are not jeopardized (BOTTOM row).  What quickly becomes clear is the lack of capability engagement options. With the growing might of e-commerce and advent of mobile technologies, keeping customer engaged with brand through the use of service capabilities becomes an important consideration. Such moves as Nike plus technologies, Nike online store (D2C), trial runs and expert assistance is just some ways this brand is evolving itself to engage digital savvy customers.  

NOTE: Its probably important to note ESB can be used to quickly assess the completeness of the engagement strategy. It is most effective when used in conjunction with a well defined (i.e. not too narrow and also not too generic) target market segment and a completed branding story board.  

Monetization Center of Gravity 

If a strategy is a promise to deliver value (link: definitions),  then the following section demonstrates how various types of business expands their business scope beyond their traditional boundary and  delivers stakeholder values.

If we first look at the Strategy Board via the lense of service augmentation strategy laid out by PSSO model (link: PSSO) the product focused approaches are the most narrow. This is followed by both physical store and cyberspace store is heavily space focused approaches. In the digital era, for a successful and financially rewarding engagement, one needs to think of digital as the possibility to connect spaces and augment physical resource usage in order to unlock new values and drive further efficiency (see link for further explanation of Digital, Ecosystem and Platform).

A detailed article about how different monetization center of gravity drives different engagement options can be found here: link