The Double Dilemma of Pleasing Customers and Consumers

Perhaps one of the biggest changes to shipping over the past decade has been the industry’s willingness to embrace inputs and insights from other industries. Though often grudgingly.

With the boom in digitalisation and maritime informatics, we see that lessons from other industries are suddenly brought to bear on what was a most traditional, conservative and even staid industry. Not anymore.

From fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) to SAAS (Software as a Service), even video gaming, there is so much that can be learned, packaged….repackaged and delivered to the maritime industry.

In embracing and accommodating this rapid evolution, maritime companies must have their head on a swivel. Paying equal attention to the “maritime” angle, but also the hunger and demand for progress, innovation and pain point fixes needed by users. You cannot just look ahead, you have to look all around too…as any good ship watchkeeper knows!

Note the word “users” in the paragraph above. When I began writing I kind of felt the need to write “clients”. That sounded too corporate. Then I wanted to say “customers”, perhaps even “consumers”. However, as we need to learn they are all very unique groups with needs and wants that have to be carefully and very differently considered.

In the world of FMCG, the giants such as Unilever have to focus on two masters simultaneously. They have their customers, the supermarkets — Asda, Tesco, Walmart, etc, etc. Then they also have to consider the consumers…you and me. We that smell of Lynx Africa, and have soft Dove-doused follicles.

They cannot neglect one at the expense of the other. If they make products that only appeal to their customer, they would not necessarily be something that the consumers actually want. So Asda would have them stuck on the shelves…not a good look!

So we see that there is a slightly double-headed challenge to navigate. They have to package the products to appear attractive, at the right price points and with a view of the high street zeitgeist. They also have to deliver to those who fill their baskets. If you promise smooth skin, by Jove you better deliver.

Which is a little of the issue facing the maritime informatics space in shipping. There is a very difficult challenge, as, on the one hand, the product has to appeal to the actual “customer”, the shipping company. It also on a practical level has to actually deliver on all its potential and promises to the user, the “consumer”, who happens to be a seafarer.

So in asking yourself the question, Customers Vs. Consumers, what’s the difference? Customers are the people who purchase your product or service. Whereas Consumers are the end-users who use or “consume” your product.

In the maritime domain, these are not the same people. So we immediately have a development and even a marketing challenge on our hands. The product has to hit the brief with both, and often there are very different demands that each imposes.

One of the approaches is to understand the pain points of both. These are likely to be very different. Let’s think of maritime informatics again. The seafarers need the tools to manage voyages. They want to monitor the present — whereas the company is understandably focused on analysing the past and optimising the future.

It is a fascinating dynamic, and in creating the tools for maritime digitalisation and competitive efficiency, there are staging points along the way that will either resonate or be ignored, depending on the focus. Depending on whether the customer or consumer.

We can talk of digital nerve centres of commercial ship operations, but we cannot ignore what the Second Mate needs or the Chief Engineer demands. So the challenge becomes in bringing together a message and sense of connection.

People get to know and like products because of the places they go to, Asda et al, stock them. So, in this sense, seafarers are dragged into usage by their employers. While they may struggle along with the software they don’t like or want, we need to do better than that. We need to get a message to the shipping companies that this is the tool to make a difference, and it will bring together whatever they want, be it voyage monitoring, reporting, analysis and optimisation into one platform. But more than that, we need to deliver for seafarers too.

That is why the old adage that wisdom over knowledge is key. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is fruit, wisdom is not putting it into a fruit salad. So we have to harness the knowledge about what shipping companies need. They need to be compliant, they need to record, analyse, to deliver profits. We also need the wisdom to know what those on actual ships do, what they experience and what will make their life and work easier, better, more productive and enjoyable.

That is the challenge for any provider — giving the customer what they want, while always giving the consumer what they need. From softer hair to smoother shaved cheeks, through to better voyage data and performance. If a company doesn’t deliver, then it will die. That is the law of the sales jungle.