Business Coaching by Soroush Sameti

Nature of the product (CEMBEL)

Whatever you need to know about the market

​At first, it is better to understand the nature of your product or service. It means what is the role of your offer in the daily life of others. For instance, it is also important to know whether or not it is a critical service which could either save other people’s life or it could be a luxury service which almost everybody can live without. Hence, it is of paramount importance to distinguish between the needs of the consumers.

​CEMBEL system helps you to categorize your idea or offer and your idea or service may fit in one of the following categories:

Critical (C): like First Aid Kit, Medicine, or firefighters’ equipment. These groups of products are useful in a special time. They could be used in rescue teams, hospitals, or similar places. Moreover, in this category, there are many possible innovative ideas. It could be a bandage with special material or shape, your special mobile application that alerts doctors or a rescue robot.

Essentials (E): People cannot live without the items in this group such as food, drink, cloth, or home rentals or shelter. Therefore, a wide range of products or services falls in this category. For example, for the food industry, all chains of farm to fork would come under this domain area. Supermarket, packing factory, delivery services your product or services are also part of this category.

Must have (M): One of the best examples of this category is Insurance. You may be live without it but this is very important to have insurance wherever you live. If you provide insurance services to others, you most likely do not need to others how important it is. Nonetheless, you still need to educate them about your service or type of insurance. The other example in this category is education and investment in your family, kids, and your knowledge. Likewise, training, workshops, or university educations are important in this category.

Better to have (B): This category makes lives better and comfortable. All of the products and services in this category increase your life standard but they are not luxury or fun. It means the offers in this category are required for a middle-class life. Home furniture, normal car (Not Bentley) or Multivitamins are the example of this group. Also, most of the products and services around us which we see them every day, are part of this category.

Enjoyable (E): Enjoyable holiday trip, going out to Restaurants, owning a property, Yoga or cooking classes, and whatever brings you joy can be in this category. Keep in mind that the important thing you are selling in this category is more focused on the element of feeling or the experience and your offer should make some memorable moments in the mind of your customers. If you are offering exotic tours and trips in Asia, it would mean that the customer would be having a certain persona or the imagery about the location as well as the overall experience altogether. Or if you design a video game you shall think in advance about the feeling of players. 

Luxury (L): In this category, you are offering topmost possible services and products that target a specified group of people. The reason why it is more specific is mainly because of it being high priced as well as about the high-quality product or services. 

Now that you have understood the concept of CEMBEL, it is time to decide about your product or service. You may have one service or different products. No worries. Please write down what is the category of your offer or idea?

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