I first came across this tool in the book “The Strategist’s Mind” (Zehn-e Strategist) from Ariana Ghalam publishing, written by Mojtaba Lashgarbolouki and Seyed Hossein Jalali. It was such an interesting and practical tool that a few of my clients used it in their businesses and got great results. Since I couldn’t find anything written about it, I decided to introduce the tool itself and how to use it in this article.
What is the Three-Tier Non-Customer Framework?
This tool was originally introduced by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne in their famous book Blue Ocean Strategy. “Three-Tier Non-Customer Analysis” is the Persian equivalent chosen for the term Three-Tier Non-Customer Framework used in that book, so if you want to dig into the original sources you can search for it under that name. The idea behind this framework is to keep an eye on three groups of people who aren’t your customers. Those three groups are:
Soon-to-be Non-Customers
This group is made up of people who have strong potential to become customers, but haven’t acted yet for temporary or minor reasons. They’re interested in your product or service, but there might be a few things standing in their way:
- They might need more information.
- They haven’t built up enough trust in your brand yet.
- The current price or terms don’t work for them.
Refusing Non-Customers
This group is made up of people who deliberately avoid buying your product or service for specific reasons. Those reasons could be:
- They prefer competitors’ products.
- Your product doesn’t fit their personal needs or values.
- They’ve had a bad experience before with your brand or a similar industry.
Unexplored Non-Customers
This group is made up of people who aren’t even on the radar of your current market. These non-customers might have been left out of your market because of differences in lifestyle, culture, or simply not knowing your product exists.
Why does the three-tier non-customer analysis matter?
Because this analysis points your mind toward groups of customers that organizations usually overlook when it comes to innovation and transformation. Most of the time they only pay attention to their existing customers and their requests. So paying attention to these customer groups can lead to a brand-new innovation and a revolutionary product, and bring you a new share of the market.
How do we use this tool?
To use this tool, you first identify each group of non-customers, then you need to figure out the needs, inclinations, preferences, and assumptions of each one. After that, you spot the key things your current customers and non-customers have in common, and finally you bring variety into the value you offer your customers so you can attract more groups of them. You can create that variety by adding something new, adding to what exists, reducing, or removing some of the components.