Customer World

Which media forms will grow and engage consumers?

VSS, a leading PE firm that invests in media, communication & information industries released the next 5 year forecast of the communications industry. It has interesting trends on where consumers are expected to spend more time and therefore engage with marketers' brands. This has a direct impact on the kinds of media, investments & marketing programs that are expected to grow during the coming five years.   

What's expected to grow and shrink?

Here are some of the segments and sub segments of the communications industry which are forecast to grow over the next five years and those that are forecast to shrink over the next five years

"VSS reported that direct marketing benefited from the same trends as branded entertainment as marketers increasingly opted to reach their target consumer with one-to-one messaging as opposed to one-to-many. Digital technology has enabled marketers to perfect their techniques in targeting customers. While direct mail and telesales spending declined due their reliance on such stressed industries as automobiles and financial services, direct marketing still registered a 3.2% increase in 2008 to $106.52 billion, and is forecast to achieve a 5.6 % CAGR during 2008-2013. E-mail marketing performed even better, and continues to expand at double-digit rates because it offers a low-cost alternative to direct mail and other marketing strategies"

What is Growing?
Internet Media	Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Professional Information	Subscription Television
Business Information	Mobile Advertising and Content
Education	Videogames
Direct Marketing	Business-to-Business e-Media
Event Marketing	Tradeshows
Public Relations	Digital Out-of-Home
e-Books
What is Shrinking?
Newspapers	Yellow Pages
Consumer Magazines	Business to Business Magazines
Broadcast Television	Home Video
Radio	Recorded Music
Traditional Out of Home	Traditional Consumer Books

Poverty of attention

I often wonder as we have access to more or more information, why is it that it is getting more and more difficult to take decisions ? Jeffery Phillips had a very interesting perspective on the same.Jeffery writes:

"I spotted a statement on a whiteboard that's stuck with me for a few days.  On the white board, in big, messy handwriting, was the statement:

A wealth of information leads to a poverty of attention.

The point of the statement is that what we are missing - what many of us lack in today's working environment - is not enough information, but enough attention to the important things.  We've migrated from decision makers who had to "go with their guts" and could focus their attention on important things, to those who simply cannot (and will not) get enough information and who are distracted by the search and analysis of information, rather than focusing the right amount of attention and effort on any particular problem."

We just need as much minimum information as possible( or just the right information)  and enough  time for attention amongst ourselves to make the decisions.

 

Bye Bye Barcodes. Welcome Bokodes.

Bokode is expected to be the tagging technology of the future.

Barcodes may have been extremely useful to us over years but what it provides is just information to the person who uses the scanner. But in the new era of technology enviroment that we live in, customers  expect tons of information and help about the brands or products that they use. For example - from the exact place they came from, to how safe they are and their carbon footprint.

See how Bokode works:

Bokeh-code or Bokode for short is a barcode design which is has lenses over the pattern. This new development is going to be presented by its developer, MIT, next week at the Siggraph conference in New Orleans. One of its developers, Dr. Ankit Mohan, is very enthusiastic about the Bokode because of its potential to open up a new way of tagging. The Bokode can be used to set nutrition data on food packaging, and even in developing gadgets to be used in video games! The possibilities are endless. This potential alone makes it very different from the conventional barcode being used now in various products.

As mentioned previously, the Bokode is made up of a LED that is enclosed in a tiny mask and lens. The light within the mask contains the information, and this light can appear either dark or bright. And the Bokode can be read even up to a distance of 12 feet!

Looks like there can be interesting customer applications over this to me right from Auto, FMCG, Healthcare brands.