In the past, companies focused on developing standard products and standard service
lines and then incenting their sales force to push and sell them to existing customers and
prospects. But many products or service lines are one-size-fits-all and have become
commodity-like. For example, most banks offer similar checking and deposit services. In
addition, competitors can quickly replicate a company’s standard products and services.
Consequently, the importance of services rises, which results in a shift from product driven differentiation toward service-driven differentiation to differentiated customer
micro segments in order to gain a competitive advantage