When I discover a new platform, I always approach it first as a potential customer. Analysis of the LCL Mon Campus case and the challenge of value creation vs. capture.
Published on 2020-02-07 by Nathalie Lamborghini Dumas.
When I discover a new platform, I always approach it first as a potential customer, and if possible, I test it, or I imagine the journey based on the description given; nothing more revealing! Then (old habits die hard) I start analyzing the how and why, identifying strengths, weaknesses, potential roadmap, competitors (who are sometimes where you least expect them), etc. Then I check if theory validates what I observed. In short, I play Sherlock Holmes.
And that day on the TGV, reading some articles, I come across LCL's announcement about a platform for young people: "LCL Mon Campus." I have a teenager in the midst of career guidance, so I have double interest in looking into this…
I dive in
I type "LCL mon campus" in the URL, and I'm directed straight to the LCL website, under student offers. A little flag goes up. I wonder: why am I not directed to a dedicated site or an app to download since they're announcing a platform? Well, I'll probably find access to the platform itself on the site... I continue, and indeed, it's a web page. I start wondering where the platform model is, but I'm interested as a customer so I keep reading…
The first line asks me to contact an LCL advisor, which cools me down a bit: I'm ready to open an account if the service is worth it, but I definitely don't feel like talking to a bank salesperson.
I continue: it's great, it starts with career guidance: I'm offered 3 solutions in the form of links to what look like startups.
Next point: "my first apartment," again 3 links, sometimes to startups, sometimes to a button to call my LCL advisor. Then, "I insure my travel" with the license, insurance. Then, "I manage my daily life," "I save for my projects," "I go study abroad."
On the journey step identification side, nothing to say : it's well done, interesting and relevant. I see myself in it.
Next step, action: I go back to the top of the page to career guidance: ultimately today, it's the only topic that interests me. The rest will come later; but if my teenager is taken care of by a platform on all these topics, and I can play a role, that's great. I'm ready to subscribe and open the account LCL undoubtedly wants me to open.
So I click on the first link: "hello Charly." And indeed, I arrive at a startup, and I start studying the offering. Yes, I'm interested.
But then what's the Next Step for me, the customer?
Option 1: I go back to the LCL site, and there I'm told I need to call an advisor. Again : no, I still don't want a conversation with a bank salesperson. I just want my interface, to register and start my journey.
Option 2: since I don't actually need the other steps today, I go back directly to "Hello Charly." The LCL website promised me free access to Hello Charly's chatbot, but honestly, if it's at the price of having to talk to an advisor, I'm not interested.
And at this point, I switch to professional mode.
What a pity...
I'm promised a platform, a campus for young people, with all sorts of steps, and I end up with a list of links. And if I analyze my journey, I realize that ultimately LCL probably spent considerable resources to set up this program, identify the startups, choose them, build the partnerships, communicate, and created value, since my interest was sparked to the point that I took action. And so much value that I'm even going to open a "Hello Charly" account. But alas, LCL will not capture the value created on my journey: they won't know if I made a transaction or not, I won't have opened an account with them, I may not come back to their site for the following offers, they won't be able to get a commission from Hello Charly since I'll sign up directly. At best, my clicks on the web page will have contributed to increased visits to that page.
What a pity… The journey is well identified, it's attractive, it even goes so far as to generate action from the customer; but I'm doubtful about the value LCL will derive from it, compared to the immense potential a platform model would have represented here.
This small experience illustrates one of the key topics of platform models: value management. In these ecosystem models, the one who creates value is not necessarily the one who delivers it to the customer, and not necessarily the one who captures it either. It is therefore essential to ask these questions upfront: what is my new value chain, who creates value, who delivers it to the customer, and who captures it; what about monetization? What governance model to implement? What control points to apply to better know the customer, follow them on their journey, and what mechanisms to retain them? How to orchestrate the customer journey to share the created value? All topics to work on from the start, during platform design.
As Stefan Michel said in the Harvard Business Review of April-May 2015: "Companies devote far more time, money and effort to innovating to create value than to innovating to capture value."