Tag Archive for: Marke

Is customer-centric business the future?

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In the last 12 years, the credo of my business life was “Customer First!”. It surprises and disappoints me when I experience poor customer service. Or when I hear from unhappy friends, colleagues or relatives telling me stories about how companies treat the centre of their business: customers.

Last week, when I was thinking about how to leverage this to a higher level, I came across a modern business strategy vision by Ranjay Gulati, Harvard Business School professor and author of the book “Reorganize for Resilience: Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business“. In the following video Gulati tells us how to deliver what customers really want.

Reorienting vs. Reorganizing
Ranjay Gulati sees the fundamental changes appropriate for some movement in company processes. Customers have more information, more choices on products while companies are facing global competition. So, businesses have to think about their business (not only marketing or sales efforts!) and how it operates.

Redefining vs. Reinventing
The analysis of the customer base might show that the website is designed for male while the majority of the users might be female. So, we need to ask questions like “Who are my customers?”, “How do my customers shop?”, or “What do they really want?”.

Gulati explains with the latest success of Best Buy how women and men shop. At that point, he also hints to the upsale opportunity of recommendations.

Success for businesses, he believes, comes from “Inside-Out-Perspective”. Companies don’t have to produce everything themselves but need to make the client happy like Apple with the iPhone. 90% of the inputs are not made by Apple. The same occurs to the apps in the Apple store where Apple basically just orchestrates the customers wishes.

“Make this identity shift. I am not here to sell what I produce – I am here to solve a set of customer problems (…) and actually acting on that!”

How to get to a customer-centric business…
1. Shifting mindset: the intention to solve customer problems.
2. Sense of curiosity and humility: the wish to understand your customers.
3. Make a creative leap: the will to understand their needs.
4. Align the elements in the organization: the motivation to live the customer-centric business.

Spot On!
Interested to get your view on this modern business strategy. Let us know what you think about customer-centric business. Or do you think the social web will be leading us towards this business process anyway?

Moms access point for engagement? – Social Networks!

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If your company sells children (car) seats, diapers, baby buggies or lipstick, when it comes to engaging at-home moms you may think about social networks. At least two recent reports from the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association (RAMA) conducted by BIGresearch as well as another one conducted by Lucid Marketing and analyst Lisa Finn in the US make clear that moms are more likely to be on Facebook, MySpace or Twitter than other moms.

Moms log on almost daily
And moms are using social networks quite often. A Lucid Marketing study states that 80% of Facebooking moms log in at least daily. Even more, 30% of the responding moms login more than five times each day. Also mobile logins are quite popular: About 40% login from smartphones and computers.

The future seems to belong to Facebook. 90% of the moms say the Facebook benefit is that its easy contacting friends/family. 26% mention they like the apps (games and quizzes).

Social web for at-home moms important
– 60% more likely to use Facebook
– 42% more likely to use MySpace
– 16% more likely to use Twitter
– 15% maintain their own blogs

“Retailers who aren’t engaging customers through social media could be missing the boat” (…) “Twitter, Facebook and blogs are becoming increasingly popular with moms as they search for coupons or deals and keep in touch with loved ones. The web provides efficient, convenient ways for brands to stay in front of their most loyal shoppers and attract new ones.”
Mike Gatti, Executive Director, RAMA

Spot on!
Now, the most interesting part for marketers: 64% like ads (or feeling neutral about) on Facebook, says the Lucid Marketing study. Meaning, Facebooking moms are apparently open to get in touch with brands and marketers – if they take their wants and needs into account. The ‘social moms’ are getting engaged when they search for exclusive deals (i.e. coupons and discounts). Apart from that, these studies indicate that companies addressing moms could replace old loyalty programs. I am sure, this is a great opportunity. But don’t forget to provide sustainable conversation – moms hate it not to be taken serious in their job at-home.

News Update – Best of the Day

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Is the marketers attitude towards traditional advertising changing as all marketers are looking for engagement? PepsiCo is challenging social media efforts big time this year and will not invest in an expensive super bowl campaign. A budget of 20 mio. USD will be invested into a social media campaign. Mashable has all the facts…

If you are in the wine business (or a wine ‘geek’) and looking how to improve your business ideas just listen to a nice case study and see what the social web can do for you. Joe Roberts, certified specialist of wine, shares some good information and show the challenges for big brands with social media.

The world is talking just about one new technology product: the iPad. But did you know that there is already a home-made commercial on YouTube for it? How do you like the idea of the dancing fingers?

News Update – Best of the Day

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How much value has social networking for young-people? While a study shows the huge amount of time American children spend on the web, a new study by the University of Virginia shows the benefit of social networking for the well-adjusted.

”The best-adjusted young people were far more likely to use social media as an extension of their positive friendships,” said Assistant Professor Amori Mikami.

Nevertheless, the reverse situation the not well adjusted children are more likely to display material that was hostile and inappropriate, she says.

Some people have been asking me lately if it makes sense to market a local event with social media. Now, abviously it depends on the industry and the importance and relevance of the topics presented at the event. As a general guideline I found this case study on Tim Patterson’s blog.

The main difference between a viral and a traditional (TV or cinema) commercial is that the viral is produced for the web (longer recording and playing time with more than 30 minutes, violating traditional commercial rules and addressing the buzz-effect) to be distributed amoungst web users in social networks. Lisa Barone just told us what it takes to go viral.

“It is the people that you want to see and pass on your content, they’re not necessarily customers.”

PS: This commercial by Prescriptionforchange.com is one of the latest examples showing a viral commercial production. And, people are discussing about it if it is good or not – this is another benefit you want to achieve with a viral: buzz, buzz, buzz….

News Update – Best of the Day

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How many mobile phone users work with the mobile web today? A new study out of the UK states that 76% of mobile phone users don’t use their mobile to access the web. Even worse sounds the fact that 60% of respondents do not own a mobile with Inernet access (though 30% of those are interested in getting one).

Some experts are discussing if e-readers could replace newspapers. A study by the University of Georgia says portable e-readers such as the Kindle are unlikely to win readers back to the newspaper habit. Young adults in particular compared the Kindle DX used in the study unfavorably to smart phones, such as the iPhone or Blackberry. BUT: If these mobile readers include features such color, photographs and touch screens, the markets might change these results.

Many web-experts start to set up their mobile app. But how can you successfully market a mobile app. AppsFire.com shares some experience from French app store Ratp and the Paris underground.

News Update – Best of the Day

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Content strategy becomes more and more important as customers approach companies and get engaged in company buzz. In order to be prepared companies should have a good content strategy in place. Shay Howe writes about the relevant tactical steps involved in developing a content strategy and offers great case studies with it.

Marketers want to get insight in what kind of advertising are seen and what is not being noticed o the web. The book “Eyetracking Web Usability” offers some answers based on an eyetracking study. Only close to 36% notice ads on a web page. 52% look at purely textual ads, 52% view ads where image and text were separate, 51% of viewers noticed sponsored links on search engine pages. Ads carrying text on top of images is not very successful.

What is the formula of social media success? With Starbucks we have an interesting show case which was summarized by Ayelet Noff that highlight their powerful social media tactics and strategic motivation.

Case Study: Social Media zur Lead Generierung

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Eine aktuelle Fallstudie von Breakingpoint (THX to Jeff Bullas) unterstreicht die weitreichenden Möglichkeiten, die das Social Web bei der Lead Generierung offeriert. Im Mittelpunkt der Strategie stehen dabei als taktische Massnahmen integrierte Emailkampagnen und Social Media Ansätze, welche über verschiedene Plattformen angegangen werden. Die Messung der Ergebnisse zeigt vorzeigbare Zahlen…

55% aller Leads kommen von Inbound Web Visits
75% der durch Marketing beeinflußten Pipeline kommen von Inbound Web Leads

Das Fallbeispiel “verordnet” 6 Social Media Schritte, die den Sales Funnel füllen:

1. Erstelle ein Blog, um anzufangen und nimm an der Konversation teil.
2. Setze einen aktiven Twitter-Account auf.
3. Erstelle eine LinkedIn Gruppe (oder Facebook Page, abhängig von deiner Demographie) – Anmerkung: XING Gruppe in Europa ist sicherlich auch nicht verkehrt.
4. Modifiziere Deine Strategie für Pressemitteilungen für Blogger Coverage
5. Promote Social Media Channels auf Deiner Firmen Webseite und in Email Signaturen
6. Messe die Größe der Social Media Accounts und des Web-Traffic

Die Ergebnisse der Social Media Kampagne machen klar, daß es einen starken Zusammenhang zwischen der Nutzung von Social Media Channeln und dem Wachstum des Web-Traffics sowie der Leads gibt. Das Besondere daran ist, daß der Zuwachs des Traffics sich in der Mehrzahl der Leads niedergeschlagen hat. Hier die Ergebnisse nach sechs Monaten Laufzeit:

10,230 Unique Blog Page Views in Q3
280 Twitter Follower
141 Mitglieder in ihrer LinkedIn Gruppe
155% Erhöhung der Unique Visitor

Die Aufsplittung der generierten Leads…

55% Inbound Web
23% Messen
20.5% Email
1.5% Seminare

Durch Marketing beeinflußte Pipeline…

75% Inbound Web
17% Email
4% Seminare
4% Messen

Spot On!
Die Zahlen wirken sehr überzeugend und zeigen die Möglichkeiten, die dem Social Web bei der Lead Generierung beigemessen werden können. Man darf bei der gesamten Euphorie ein paar Dinge nicht vergessen: Die saubere Trennung der Lead-Ursprünge dürfte noch schwierig nachzuvollziehen sein. Und es stellt sich immer die Frage, wieviele der generierten Kontakte man als bestehende Kunden hatte oder ein Salesteam als “Datenbank-Leichen” über Jahre mit sich herumschleppt. Dennoch kann man die Aktivierung solcher Kontakte mittels Social Media als einen fast noch größeren Erfolg im Vergleich zu kostspieligen Outbound-Aktionen werten. Natürlich wäre es wichtig zu wissen, welchen Aufwand an Personal und Budgets man hinter die Anstrengungen gepackt hat im Vergleich zu traditionellen Marketing-Strategien zur Lead Generierung.

PS: Da habe ich Kyle Flaherty (Marketingleiter von BreakingPoint) mal drauf angesprochen. Hier ist seine Antwort…

News Update – Best of the Day

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Are you surprised when somebody says Facebook is better than Twitter for marketing purpose? Amy Porterfield cites a report by MarketingProfs called ‘The State of the Social Media Marketing’. The report delivers great insight in social media usage by marketers, tactics and strategic approaches.

With the rise of thew social web, governance for social networking in businesses becomes even more important. A recent study by Cisco states that most businesses have no “formal process associated with adopting consumer-based social networking tools for business purposes”.

If you treat your customers like the sales person in this creditbuilder commercial, you won’t make big deals… but you will definitely raise awareness.

News Update – Best of the Day

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Best of the DayPeople are asking me quite often, what it takes to become a smarter social businessperson? I was about to write a post about it. But my strategy works along Jeff Jarvis words: “Do what you can do best and link to the rest!”. And yes, I have found that Don Reisinger at Gigacom has written some excellent 10 tips for becoming a smarter social business person. So, why should I…?

Some companies like AUDI let their social community and fans co-create their new design for the car of the future. Vitamin waters newest flavor was created by their brand’s Facebook fans. Matt Rhodes shares the social experiment which is not finished with the launch of the product in March 2010. The success factor for the engagement of the community was a competition (again – incentives are key, it seems)… and for the success? Collaboration…! The co-creation included: choosing the flavor, designing the packaging, and naming the water.

This Doritos commercial makes me laugh… join in!

News Update – Best of the Day

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Best of the DayWhat happens when you ask SMB’s on their social media usage?. Here is the answer: A report interviewed 1,000 small business owners with fewer than 100 employees and wanted to know their attitudes and marketing plans for 2010. The key findings…

31% don’t use social media because their customers don’t use social media.
29% don’t have the time or staff available to do it properly (a well-know problem)
52% plan to devote more resources to cause marketing in 2010.

H&M finds itself in the social media critics after it came out that they are destroying and discarding clothes that they cannot sell. The official H&M Facebook page is quite successful and has nearly 1.5 mio fans. It will be interesting to see how they react and what social media experts will be telling them to do – and how they are working around this “social media storm”. Here are some tips for companies…

Trying to find a retrospective for 2009 was a challenge. But I finally found this great video by Rob Cottingham, looking back at 2009 in doodles…