Where to Play
Box two of the Strategy Choice Cascade: the choice of field. Which customers, geographies, segments, channels, offerings, and, just as loudly, which not.
Martin's five classic dimensions: geography, customer segment, offering, channel, and value-chain stage. He later added a hidden fifth-and-a-half: the value system stage, where in the customer's larger system of activity you choose to compete, which quietly governs outsourcing and partnership decisions.
The cardinal rule: WTP is never chosen alone. It forms an inseparable pair with How to Win, the heart of strategy. A market is only "attractive" relative to a way of winning in it.
A WTP that includes everyone is not a choice; it fails The Opposite Test. The Olay Case Study shows the power of a narrowed field: women 35–50 noticing first signs of aging, in mass retail, at a prestige price point, and explicitly not the existing 50+ segment.
For resource-constrained players, WTP selection should be preceded by the Cheap Strategy question: what do we already hold that we are not using strategically?
Our synthesis of Roger Martin’s published work, sources credited. Read the originals: they’re excellent.
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