May 10, 2011 | Customers, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy
Pretty big aspiration, to outcompete the two businesses that have consistently demonstrated the power of innovation as the core competitive tool over the past 10 years, and have reaped the rewards by creating and redefining markets and then taking all the gravy. The story of Skype since the company was initially bought by Ebay is enlightening, and shows how it has been done.
Ben Horowitz, a tech entrepreneur and angel investor got into the act by being part of a consortium that bought Skype for just over 2 Billion $18 months ago. They withstood full frontal assaults from both Google and Apple, who both have a habit of winning, and have just announced the on-sale of Skype to Microsoft for 8.5 Billion. Reasonable return.
In Bens blog entry, where he announces the sale, and articulates the short history that netted$ 6.5 billion in the time it takes my local council to consider an application to build a fence, the key to this stunning outcome is in the first sentence in the second last paragraph, where Ben referrs to the quality of the people, and the network effect of existing Skype users as being the key to the success.
The power of an idea whose time has come, coupled with the best of the collaborative and networking tools of the net 2.0, and great customer service.
May 10, 2011 | Branding, Change, Marketing, Social Media
Branding and brand marketing has always been about finding customers for a product, a “build it and they will come” approach. But life, and the world has changed from just 20 years ago.
I remember the day I saw my first fax, an astonishing tool, but I have not used one in 10 years. At that time I worked for a large company, and the “Boss” got anxious if he could not walk down the corridor and talk at (deliberate grammatical error there) anyone he wanted to, at any time, without the risk of anyone either contradicting him, or not doing as they were told.
Now.. That boss is as relevant as a dinosaur, the world of marketing is all about the individual, “find a customer, and build what they want!” It is products for customers, and the tools of the last 20 years have made the middlemen of previous generations, that command and control boss I had, the advertising agencies, promotional consultants, creepy blokes from universities who you just knew could never have sold a box of matches to a freezing man, irrelevant. The difference is the e-tools that have emerged over the last 20 years, transparency, and the flexibility and opportunity they bring is brings is king, although most institutions hate it, as they survive by hiding things.
When everyone can be a publisher of news, books, photos, ideas, the barrier to entry of needing a printing press is gone, all it takes is $600 for a computer and connection, and if you are really skint, go to the local public library and publish for free.
Morgan Spurlock has made his point in several independent films very differently, he now does it again, by selling naming rights to his TED talk, as he says, probably the only time it will happen. Worth a look.
May 4, 2011 | Communication, Customers, Marketing, Small business, Social Media
The technical solutions emerging are fantastic, but how often do you see the technology get in the way of genuine interaction with a customer?.
Like any tool, the tech-tools of the 21st century are only as good as their users, and if their users are technology obsessed, as many seem to be, so what? How does that add value to the consumer?
The great opportunity is to use the tools to become customer obsessed, and genuinely deliver value and benefit to customers by intimately engaging with them and their needs.
It takes effort, and the right culture to support the effort, but “micro-marketing” to consumers, meeting their individual needs via the tech tools will become the driver of success in the future.
May 3, 2011 | Marketing, Social Media, Strategy
A friend works for the local council who have banned the use of social media, “Just a time-waster” is the view.
Here’s the thing, I thought local councils were there to serve the community, to reflect the way they think, work, bring up their families and play in the manner in which their rates are used to provide services. How can they do that efficiently when they do not communicate in the way their constituency communicates? How can they connect and engage?.
Social networking is not primarily about sales, or brand building, or communicating widely, it is about relationships.
Successful relationships can lead to those other things, they can be a useful outcome, but if you make them the objective, the relationship will not build, and it is the relationships that evolve into sales and brand preference.
Social networking is more P2P, (person to person) than B2B or B2C, and as in any relationship, you need to put in before you can take out.
May 2, 2011 | Collaboration, Marketing, Small business, Social Media
There may be no charge to post stuff onto social media platforms, but if you are running a business, and people are using the time and resources you have paid for, by definition, there is a cost, even if it is an opportunity cost.
Many businesses I have seen just react to social media use by employees by banning it, usually with a spectacular lack of success, others just ignore it, accepting the time spent as a hidden cost in their overheads, only a few have seen the hidden value.
Surely it would be better to set out to harness the resources that are going to be consumed anyway in such a way that they deliver some value.
Here is a list of ideas, feel free to add to them:
- Set up a social media intranet to:
- harvest new product and improvement ideas,
- customer service success stories,
- problem/solution discussion threads for company centric problems,
- a virtual “water cooler” discussion forum on just about anything on employees minds,
- Encourage consumer/customer contact with individuals in the business
- Offer product usage tips, recipes ideas, to consumers, allowing them to respond and build a community
- Report on company activities outside normal trading, and seek stakeholders feedback on how they went
- Ditto for activities of employees away from work
- Add personal stories about being an employee, supplier, customer or shareholder, personalise the place.
Add your own to the list, I suspect it could go on for pages.
Apr 26, 2011 | Marketing, Social Media, Strategy
The line between advertising to build brands and entertainment continues to blurr, and a whole new arena for creativity has emerged in our marketing mix, unheralded amongst many of those who run the corporations that create most of our old fashioned mass marketing.
Last week in the UK, just talking to some kids on fancy bikes in the high street of Chichester, it was clear they were a band of brand apostles for Red Bull, but it wasn’t the exploits of Sebatian Vettel and Mark Webber in the F1 cars, but a bloke I had never heard of, Danny MacAskill, and his exploits on a push bike captured on u-tube that hooked them.
Red Bull, a brand that has been rapidly built on extreme, aspirational, sports performance, does not make an appearance until the credits on this clip, a 7 minute “bike trip” but the impact on these kids was powerful. Advertainment, not advertising, created the powerful connection between the kids and the brand.
