55-01.
Aikido
Pattern description
Aikido is a Japanese martial art in which the strength of an attacker is used against him or her. As a business model, Aikido allows a company to offer something diametrically opposed to the image and mindset of the competition. This new value proposition attracts customers who prefer ideas or concepts opposed to the mainstream.
Inventive problems
The product of company should be equal to the products of competitors in order to woo customers away from the competitors.
The product of company should be different from the products of competitors in order to attract non-customers.
The product should be targeted at a small group of customers in order to fully meet the needs of customers.
The product should be targeted at a large group of customers in order to attract more buyers and get the maximum revenue.
Application examples
In the realm of business one of the first companies to apply the Aikido model was Six Flags, an American corporation that currently operates 21 amusement parks in the USA, Canada and Mexico. In line with the Aikido business model, the focus lies on regional themes and an accessible structure for customers, a strategy that contrasts with nationally oriented theme parks such as Disneyland. The regional proximity of the parks facilitates more frequent visits by local customers, creating higher revenues with less marketing effort. Another plus is that in the low season such parks continue to attract local customers
Founded in 1976, and now part of the L’Oréal corporate group, The Body Shop International plc (known as The Body Shop) is a chain of cosmetic retail stores. True to the Aikido business model, the company adopts a radically different approach within the cosmetics business. Its founder, Anita Roddick, summarised her strategy as follows: ‘I watch where the cosmetics industry is going and then walk in the opposite direction’. A major difference characterising The Body Shop is the absence of glamorous ad campaigns, making do with a marketing budget of no more than a fifth of the cosmetics industry standard. In addition, The Body Shop believes in selling environmentally friendly containers that can be reused wherever possible, also putting natural ingredients into its products and championing an ethical approach by not testing them on animals. All these choices make The Body Shop something of an oddity in the cosmetics industry, but has also enabled it to carve out an entirely new market for natural and environmentally friendly cosmetics for itself.