Businesses have different ways of advancing their goals. It is also important to have good strategy formulation procedures. It enables them to make significant sales. The three-dimensional business definition model is an example of Dereck Abell’s contribution to strategy formulation.
The Abell Business Model
The three-dimensional business definition model examines an organization through the eyes of the customer (Mun, 2002). The belief that an enterprise cannot exist without the buyer of its services and goods is strong.
It has three main questions that every business must seek to answer: Who are the customers of the organization? What are the client’s needs? What technique are used to meet the buyers’ needs? The buyers can be represented by the groups or individuals (Mun, 2002). This makes it easier to identify a segmented market and thus to meet the customers’ needs. Dereck Abell developed his the model in the 1980s. It is still called the Abell’s Framework (Mun, 2002).
He developed a framework in which he summarized the three questions. The horizontal axis comprises of the customers. On the vertical axis he positioned the buying needs of the customers (Mun, 2002). The other axis was inclined. It indicated the technologies that would support the organization to produce and deliver the desired products to the customer. The framework gives the overall picture of the model for the organization’s strategy.
One example would be when a furniture house delivers furniture that the customer can easily fit at home using available knowledge (Mun, 2002). The technological needs would be the modern joinery equipment the company uses to fix the furniture. It would also include transport mechanisms. The firm can segment its customers by classifying office furniture and household furniture (Mun, 2002). One can divide the market even further based on the income levels of the customers.
Reader’s Digest Association publishes the Reader’s Digest magazine that had the largest circulation in the world in 1992. It has more than twenty brands that are leaders in their segments or groups (Mun, 2002). It has managed to source for markets all over the world but mainly in North America and Canada.
Other Products
The company sells magazines, condensed books, videos and compact disks. Many customers believe in the company and its brands. The company can easily use the same segments and groups to introduce and sell other brands.
The organization can begin selling diaries (Wang, Li, Zhang, Xie, & Gao, 2014). The customers would see this as an additional favorite product to satisfy their needs. It would go a long way towards helping them to keep a record of the magazines and books they have read from the company. It would also help them to maintain a record of their day to day activities. As a result, it would increase their reading habits. Abell’s distribution channels would be available for this new brand.
Most of the people who read these magazines and books also have personal daily activities (Wang et al., 2014). Some go camping during weekends and holidays. The organization can link up with the solar energy suppliers. The aim is to acquire and label the reading lamps. The group can then supply its customers with the lightning products in conjunction with the other Reader’s Digest products. It would enable them to read even when they are not at home.
Conclusion
Before developing this model, Dereck Abell had gained experience through the knowledge and work experiences in the European and American continents. The model is relevant because it focuses directly on the customer.
References
Mun, J. (2002). Real options analysis. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Wang, G., Li, H., Zhang, C., Xie, Y., & Gao, C. (2014). Express business transformation research based on hoare three-dimensional structure model. Applied Mechanics and Materials, 587-589, 2080-2083. Web.