Glazed elevators in atrium hotel lobbies, notably in the USA, offer gap-mouthed rides through vertiginous interiors.
Such "needs-offer gaps" can take any number of different forms.
In some apparel departments, achieving higher levels of productivity required a significant shift in the merchandise mix to fill the needs-offer gaps.
Category by category, this retailer uncovered dramatic variations in the nature of its headroom and needs-offer gaps and, consequently, in its growth opportunities across the business.
To survive a downturn, retailers must constantly work to identify and close their needs-offer gaps to win as much of their headroom as they can.
The map should also specify the needs-offer gaps that have to be closed to grow, shrink, or fix each category's merchandise lines.
But in a recession, retailers' scorecards should also indicate where they stand in capturing headroom, closing needs-offer gaps, and taking out bad costs.
Needs-offer gaps such as these explain not only why half of Starbucks's customers are now spending more of their coffee-related dollars at competitors than at Starbucks but also how the company can change that.
To find headroom, expose needs-offer gaps, reduce bad costs, and cluster stores correctly requires changes to all four of the processes that are core to managing every retailer's business: customer research, merchandise planning, performance management, and strategic planning.
Second, to use segmentation to establish clusters of stores that can exploit different opportunities to go after headroom, close needs-offer gaps, and take out bad costs, each cluster must contain substantially different proportions of each customer segment.
