CH05-EX01. The Organic Lunchbox Case — How a Customer Segment Changes the Entire Business Model
- Related Chapter: CH05 (Designing the Business Model)
- Related MN: MN05 Business Model Design
- Related KM: KM035-business-model-consistency.md
What This Case Illustrates
This case demonstrates the “coherence” principle of a business model — how a decision about one component (customer segment) changes the other components (Value Proposition, product specification, channel, price, operating structure) as a whole.
Case Description
Even for the same item — an organic lunchbox — the entire business model changes depending on how the target customer is chosen.
- Targeting the premium lunch demand of urban professionals: high-end ingredients and chef preparation, a high price, and a subscription model naturally connect together.
- Targeting price-sensitive college students and office workers: the product specification, price, production method, sales volume (Qty), and channel must all move in an entirely different direction.
In other words, a single decision — the customer segment — changes not only the Value Proposition and revenue structure but the entire operating structure.
Implications of This Case
This case applies the coherence principle to an actual item, showing that the components of business model design (customer, product specification, price, channel, production method) cannot be decided independently, and that changing the customer segment requires all the other components to be reconsidered together.
Source
Price Is Strategy, Part 3, the organic lunchbox case comparing premium customers and mass-market customers, pp. 104–106. (Reconstructed from KM035)