Dec 12, 2011 | Innovation, Marketing, Strategy
From bricks and mortar, to the web, and now to mobile apps. What is next for retailing?
There was a blue last week between the current and previous MD of David Jones, about who wore the blame for DJ’s being slow into e-selling, billionaire Gerry Harvey is often bitching about the unfair competition from e-tailers, and Australian post is gearing up to deliver parcels, as their snail-mail service is on its deathbed, certainly unable to support the infrastructure built for another age. Now the just released Productivity Commission report on retailing has recommended that the threshold for the application of GST on imported parcels drop from the current $1000, as soon as it is cost effective to do so.
It seems to me that there is a resurgence of alternative retail, new business models that leverage the changing environment, Harris Farm, Aussie Farmers direct, Kogan, and many others. By looking backwards to set the regulatory framework, we run the risk of compromising the emerging foundations of the future, and stamping on the wrong hat.
Dec 2, 2011 | Customers, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy
How do you calculate the value of an investment in social media?
Any investment attracts the need to try to quantify the returns, both to measure the success of the investment when it is too late to do much about it apart from ensuring the same mistake is not made again, and to prioritise competing investment options against a limited pool of funds available.
Accountants love the discounted cash flow, and real options type analyses that prevail, but how do you do these on an investment in media, social or otherwise?
It makes sense to start to consider “data chains”.
Cause and effect;
Influence and action;
Believable and buy;
These are all examples of the chains of connections that are on the surface largely subjective, but lead to an outcome that can be measured. The task of measuring the return on the exposure that can accrue from a presence in Social Media, and even conventional media, is fraught with challenges, but with systemisation of the pools of data generated from your sales, customer retention, prospect identification, web analytics, and all the other data collection options now available, you can start to see the patterns emerging that can be used to calculate a return, even if there is a “fudge factor” present.
At some point you simply have to acknowledge that behavioral patterns are not easy to quantify, and even harder to predict, but by explicitly acknowledging the chains of cause and effect that exist, you can start to anticipate, if not predict, the returns
Dec 1, 2011 | Branding, Communication, Customers, Marketing, Social Media
Marketing on line is no longer the “next new thing” it was just a few short years ago, it is mainstream, a major consumer of marketing resources, and source of huge marketing value when done well. As with all new things, you get better with practice, and we are just at the beginning, learning how to use the tools now becoming available to build an experience for our customers they relate to, and can value, building the relationships they have with our businesses in the process.
In past blogs, I have noted the success of Tesco, particularly in Korea with their virtual shops, and the astonishing range of innovation that can be generated using QR codes.
In this link to what is in my view the best curator of web marketing topics, the Businessgrow blog, there is an accumulation of the best on line campaigns done to date. It avoids the usual suspects, and concentrates on those that are pushing the boundaries, and is therefore a valuable glimpse into the opportunities emerging. The web may be a free medium, but it is one where content is king.
Being different takes creativity, guts, foresight, and resources help, but are not a substitute for the other three. In the end being effective on the web is way more than just being there, because almost everyone is there now, you have to stand out, be relevant, engaging, and useful.
Nov 28, 2011 | Change, Collaboration, Communication, Marketing, Social Media
The internet is choked with lists, 10 ways to do this, 5 best ways to handle that, bloggers put them in because a list is a proven driver of blog traffic. People seem to want the core of an idea to be trimmed down to a set of bullet points, perhaps it is just more digestible that way.
I have certainly done it a bit, with 12 facebook tips for SME’s, How to make twitter useful, 6 rules for strategic alignment, and many others, some my lists, others a link to the lists of others, each for one reason or another seemed to be useful and worth sharing. In the case of the lists I created, mostly they emerged from work I was doing for a client at the time, and the process of assembling a list assisted me to order my thoughts, and so hopefully, helped a few others in a similar way.
Today, the “Uber-list” from Forbes magazine, which has a whole feature on the worlds most innovative companies, the worlds 2000 leading companies, the most powerful people, the richest, and so on.
It makes for interesting reading, almost wherever you make your dollar, there is some reference to the industry, who is who in the zoo, and what they did right.
Thanks Forbes, something for everyone.
Nov 27, 2011 | Communication, Leadership, Personal Rant, Social Media
The digital world has taken over, but the emergence of social media tools that host a lot of pretty low grade stuff sometimes overshadows the huge impact the tools of the web can have, sometimes life-changing and even saving, impacts. Just look at the role played by social media during the floods in QLD, the disaster in Christchurch, and the changes happening in the Middle East.
Consider the site Ushahidi for instance, born in crisis, and evolving in a manner that has, and will continue to make a huge difference to many peoples lives in times of crisis. Such a tool would have been impossible without Tim Berners-Lee, his colleagues and subsequent innovators.
The value of just one site like Ushahidi, and the useful utility of social tools makes up for all the junk that appears to be the other side of the coin, making up the volume.
Nov 24, 2011 | Customers, Marketing
The case for employing intelligent people, and letting them get on with their jobs exercising common sense has been made again and again. In this lovely example of the hubris of rules, Safeway in Honolulu ensured they stuffed up by following a voluminous rule book, the substitute for trust in the common sense of your employees.
What damage has this stupidity done to the Safeway brand, and will any amount of advertising about how they care for their customers and their families wipe out the lasting impression forged by the news story of their stupid insensitivity and lack of care.
