Customer World

Do you know how to build analytics from conversational databases?

Peter Kim of Forrester has written a thought-provoking article on the future of the advertising agency. The report argues that consumers now rely less and less on marketing messages when in buying mode. Instead they seek guidance from family, friends and others in their respective communities to guide them toward purchase decisions.

Peter’s views via AdWeek

(Agencies are) “in “a world of hurt” because consumers are tuning out the messages the industry is predicated on producing. Instead, it believes shops need to be organized around communities, not disciplines. What it is calling “the connected agency” would not only know certain communities but also be active members of these groups. Pushing messages would give way to encouraging voluntary engagement, and ongoing conversations would replace time-based campaigns”.

My View:

As communities & conversations become more and more important, there is a need to understand how to build analytical models around huge "conversational  databases" that will emerge. The ability to mine data and conversations together, will become a  huge competitive advantage for service providers. The ones who will succeed are the ones who will be able to overlay the traditional transactional data with conversational data. This is a skill that needs to be built and nurtured if brands and service providers have to succeed in the future.

Capital One's Card Lab - Get your customized credit card

Capital One recently announced the launch of Card Lab.  Ron Shevlin writes about this:

Capital One launched Card Lab, which it claims is the first “do-it-yourself” credit card offer. It’s an interactive tool that lets prospective card applicants choose among a number of options to build their own card package. Not surprisingly, you can’t get a 25% annual bonus and 2 points per $1 charged and 1.25% back on purchases and….you get the picture (otherwise see below).

My take: Card Lab is a winner because it:

1) Builds up versus narrows down. Card Lab’s approach puts prospects in charge, and presents the options in such a way that they can easily see the tradeoffs they make when selecting certain options.

2) Engages with interactivity.Card Lab, on the other hand, is a great demonstration of the interactivity the channel is capable of delivering. Serious prospects can play what-if to their hearts’ content in order to understand the product features and tradeoffs available to them.

3) Yields actionable data.The web analytics folks at Cap One are going to have a field day with Card Lab. Analyzing the usage, trends, clickstream, etc. should help Cap One marketers get a really good understanding of who’s looking for cards online, what their preferences are, which features are most popular, and so on.

I agree with Ron completely. It's a great idea and extremely customer-focussed.But, CardLab sounds a little intimidating to me.Another key issue though is actually the process of accepting or rejecting applicants - that is, how customer-level data is connected real-time for approving and disapproving an application as credit cards are fraught with credit-risks. Am sure Capital One has the process taped-up for this.But, this is a key factor for positive customer experience and product adoption. 

Here's one more product that fits-in with all the advantages what Ron is talking about:

Closer home in India, my example is HDFC Bank's NetSafe card for customization,customer-centricity and the method to manage the process well. It's a lovely little product. In fact, it works on the fear of Net Security which is a primary concern for credit card customers using their cards online.

NetSafe, is a unique online payment solution that offers complete security while shopping on the Internet. With NetSafe, customers can shop online through a virtual credit card, without revealing their actual HDFC Bank Credit Card number. What's more,they can use the HDFC Bank Debit Card(Check Card) also for online purchases. Customers here choose their account limit for this specific card - Value of credit limit, date of expiry of the card etc.! Customer can create as many online credit cards as possible(subject to the overall accepted credit limit).

Does P&G need another community portal or a platform?

Procter & Gamble has launched a portal for pet lovers - petside.com. According to NY Times:

...Web portal that looks something like a Yahoo or AOL for pet owners, with a bit of Facebook and MySpace thrown in.The site, Petside.com, offers a full menu of information about dogs and cats, from the serious (how to diagnose your pet’s illnesses) to the silly (funny animal videos). There are links to shopping sites (like Petco.com) and articles about topics like what to do if visitors are allergic to your pet (hint: vacuum). Visitors are encouraged to set up social networking profiles in order to meet other pet owners.

While it's a great idea, it raises some questions in my mind. Frankly, I don't have all the answers but it can set a context for a discussion, I think:

1. Can such portals aggregate "interested" customers and create sustained interest ?  Am not sure. There is a lot of content on the web for pet owners. I think marketers need to add context around the content rather than just content. I personally don't think there is a need for one more portal and consumers are not waiting for one, I presume.
2. Is it still old world thinking? The TV era was about creating content and it helped aggregate audience. During the later years,there was proliferation of channels but it was still limited. The internet has opened-up a flurry of 'content creators' with micro audiences. So, it may just  be impossible to lead with content alone. The clutter in  new media is  lot more higher than traditional media. If TV soaps had a 13 or a 26 week interest, such content might have 13 days or 26 days interest?!! How do marketers keep the momentum going?
3. How can P&G create a platform? Thinking laterally, Google creates APIs that can be plugged-in with other sites and hence it is a sort of glue where ever users go on the web. It's in the context of the user rather than the marketer. So, do marketers like P&G have to create CPIs, where  C stands for customers. If I was a pet owner, P&G builds a set of CPIs that can help pet owners get content the way they want.It pulls content from different creators. It's an equivalent of a  "TV remote" in the offline world. If I don't like the content, I switch it off and move to another. P&G's site needs have a lot such CPIs which consumers can use. It may be mobile reminders, email alerts, or a plug-in into my igoogle  which is an independent channel for pet owners, beauty, grooming etc. P&G has to create an open marketing platform for content developers to use its CPIs.

What do you think? To me this makes a lot of sense and seems far more relevant than creating one portal after another.

          

Add social value to your customer's financial value

Forrester has some interesting insights on the growing importance of social value in determining customer value:

• As marketers, we find ourselves relying more and more on consumers to impact others in their purchase decisions.  Evaluating customers based only on their business or financial value - such as my much-loved Life Time Value, or an operation's ROI - is *has been*. 

What's social value?

          I've simplified it into 3 components:

1) A customer's knowledge and involvement - in short, his level expertise  and  interest  in the  category and brand. 

2)  How he participates, and the value of his connections - what social activities is he involved with (both on and offline) and where (on what networks is he active).  The value refers to the value of the connections themselves:  are the communities more tightly-knit or diffused, are they public or more intimite.

3) The number of contacts the customer has in each network.

Your CRM or loyalty program members and active web users would be great starting points for social scoring. 

Engagement and experience are your new 30-second spots

Don Shultz had done a review of the book "Profitable Marketing Communications: A Guide to Marketing Return on Investment," - A topic that's gaining attention among CEOs today. He picks-up 8 tips - 8 investor tips to marketing communications- from the book:

The eight tips are:

• Concentrate on outcomes, not outputs
• Forget consumers, target customers
• Manage your communication investment portfolio
• Differentiate in any way you can
• Engagement and experience as the new 30-second ads
• Apply a "focus investing" approach
• Establish a measurement culture
• Leverage your employee capital 

I quite liked two tips here.

1. The one on engagement and experience as the new 30 sec ads. This requires a lot of processes and breakdown of silos in the organization. But, it is a critical factor, if marketing has to make business impact.
2. Establish a measurement culture is also a great tip as it is a culture often missing among marketing fraternity. It's always the output that's the focus. Once the output is complete, one tends to forget to continously measure the business impact across all marketing investments not just TV ads only.

The end of marketing as we know it

Nishad pointed me an interesting post from Zeus Jones on the trend of convergence of marketing & operations.

They believe two themes seem to be emerging:

• The increasing focus on customer experience and usability within companies. Smart companies now realize that their core offerings shouldn't be wrapped with a customer friendly veneer. Instead usability and experience should be built in from the ground up.
• Marketing's move from creating images towards creating experiences.  The best marketing today are tangible proofs of company values and ideals. People look past propaganda and focus on what companies actually deliver.

I personally think this is increasingly felt as a need amongst CMOs/CEOs. The current siloed structure of organziations creates huge challenges for the CEO to make this happen as there are divergent objectives and agendas in the company. In the future, there will be more budgets allocated for change management, customer experience mapping etc. as business heads, operations and marketing need to collaborate to make customer experience come alive. This needs ground-up thinking and execution amongst these stakeholders.

P&G plans open source innovation

It's a bold move by P&G - taking help from outside to develop product ideas and share intellectual property rights!

iMedia reports:

The development programme, called Open Innovation Challenge, is a pilot collaboration between the National Endowment For Science, Technology and the Arts, British Design Innovation, Oakland Innovation and P&G. If it is successful, more large companies will pledge their interest.

Participants will be invited to submit proposals for products which fit P&G's criteria and have the potential to build businesses worth over $100m (£50m). To protect their intellectual property, the ideas won't be seen by P&G, but will be reviewed by Nesta, BDI and Oakland Innovation.

Ten of the most promising proposals will be selected and entrants given access to feedback, advice and up to £25 000 so their ideas can be developed to a stage where they demonstrate commercial viability.

Up to five of the strongest applicants will then have the chance to present their finalised ideas to P&G. The fmcg giant will have 90 days in which to decide whether to invest in the idea and sign appropriate contracts, otherwise the creator will be free to take their proposition to other brands, or investors. As is customary in such cases, the innovator will retain its IP in either instance.

Is this the shape of things to be expected, when companies plan product development in the future?

Leadership scarcity

It's easy for organizations to be wanting to be customer-centric but the challenge is the need for a leader who can set the agenda, pursue the agenda relentlessly, be steadfast about the results, be ruthless about execution across various departments in the organization etc.. But, according to Jeffrey Phillips that's the area where there is a huge gap. Company boards need to find such leaders and there seems to be scarcity for such souls:

....there are few true leaders in most businesses, since it is impossible to pursue more than a handful of "visions" or strategies in any business without complete chaos.  Most senior executives in businesses are "managers" - that is, they understand the vision and attempt to implement it to the best of their understanding.  They don't create the vision, and in most cases don't fully back it or understand it, but are doing their best to implement the vision.  In any context, in any organization, there can be a maximum of one leader in this regard, however, in most firms there aren't any real leaders.  Most CEOs are pragmatists, guided by Wall Street and expected earning and returns.  Some leaders, like Jack Welch for instance, became recognized because he had a vision and pleased the street.  Some leaders, like Steve Jobs, have been recognized for their vision but have had up and down experiences - most likely because they could not communicate their vision effectively to a solid management team below them.  In many other firms, however, it is difficult to identify who is responsible for creating a vision and encouraging people to follow his or her vision.

....The best place today to find true leaders in businesses is in smaller, private firms.

Getting inspired by a designer

I read this interview of Ivy Ross, Chief Creative Officer of Disney Stores and was fascinated by some of the concepts she talks about. It has some great lessons for building organizations and developing ideas. Companies of the future need new structures and design thinking to create products and a culture that builds trust amongst employees who work there. There's a lot to get inspired from her thinking:

• I think there are no unique ideas anymore.The only way we are going to uncover  truly new ideas is to have diversity of thinking. It has to come from this diversity of people building on each others' ideas to create something new.
• Let's face it. Everyone has everything. We are not about price anymore. Everything exists at every price level.It's about the connection you find with that object.
• I also believe creativity and innovation are built around trust and freedom.
• You think of a cow giving milk and you only think of the end result.If the cow had not had the time to graze, there wouldn't be any milk. We are always hooking people for output, output, output. We are not giving them enough time to feed.
• I think the future of design is not just designing the object.We are going to design entireties, entire entities.

Marketing to postmodern consumers

Dr Margaret-Anne Lawlor, makes some interesting points on how postmodern consumers view brands and product choices in front of them:

Postmodernism is concerned with consumer choice, continuous change relating to consumption patterns and product availability, along with marketing practices that challenge the status quo. Postmodern consumers buy and use commodities and fashions that allow them adopt multiple, temporary self-images.

The practice recognises a mischievous type of consumer who prides oneself on resisting traditional marketing courtship and brand boasts. Instead, the consumer tends to favour brands that appear to lack a unique selling proposition (USP).

Postmodern consumers tend to have contradictions. At one level, they will show irony and irritation at the status quo, such as the long-running tradition of soap operas and the phenomenon of reality shows. But at another level, witness the strong viewing patterns of these genres of entertainment.

Another characteristic of postmodern consumerism is the attraction to hyper-reality, in other words a simulated reality.

Eating healthily is a topic of conversation but look at the growth in smoothie consumption in Ireland. Market leader Innocent has about a 64 per cent share of the Irish market and enjoyed 100 per cent in annual growth in the UK.While many consumers will pay for such a product, would it not be much cheaper and more satisfying - albeit less convenient - to make one’s own smoothie? Therein, lies the contradiction of the post-modern consumer. We want a reality - namely health - but are happy to buy the hyper-reality offered by the creative marketer.

Outsourcing marketing to volunteers

Apple's iPhone, in my view, is a case study on marketing by buzz. There's a lot to learn from this for other brands.

Economist had this to write about Apple's iPhone marketing strategy:

The actual launch day, June 29th, became known as “iDay” among Apple cultists. Queues started forming days in advance at many of Apple's 164 shops in America. Depending on the location, the scenes had flavours of Woodstock, Mardi Gras, or—in Silicon Valley's Palo Alto, say—an Apple programmers' conference. Pizza deliverymen did a brisk trade catering to the waiting masses. Steve (“the Woz”) Wozniak, who co-founded Apple but has since parted ways with it, could have got an iPhone through connections, but waited in line just for the experience.

• The first shoppers to emerge victorious were cheered as heroes and brandished their trophies for the cameras.
• AT&T's rivals, Verizon and Sprint, issued “talking points” to their salespeople, with helpful hints for impugning the iPhone's divinity. They lost customers anyway.

Honchos in all sorts of industries have long studied keynote speeches by Steve Jobs, Apple's boss, for ways to cast spells on audiences; now they also need to work out how he outsourced his product marketing to an entire nation of volunteers.

Learning innovation from Apple

Economist has a fantastic article on learning innovation principles from Apple. Here are some tips from the article:

Not invented here and very welcome here

The first is that innovation can come from without as well as within.In fact, its real skill lies in stitching together its own ideas with technologies from outside and then wrapping the results in elegant software and stylish design. The idea for the iPod, for example, was originally dreamt up by a consultant whom Apple hired to run the project. It was assembled by combining off-the-shelf parts with in-house ingredients such as its distinctive, easily used system of controls. And it was designed to work closely with Apple's iTunes jukebox software, which was also bought in and then overhauled and improved. Apple is, in short, an orchestrator and integrator of technologies, unafraid to bring in ideas from outside but always adding its own twists.This approach, known as “network innovation”, is not limited to electronics.

Designing new products around the needs of the user, not the demands of the technology

Too many technology firms think that clever innards are enough to sell their products, resulting in gizmos designed by engineers for engineers. Apple has consistently combined clever technology with simplicity and ease of use.

Stay hungry. Stay foolish

Listening to customers is generally a good idea, but it is not the whole story. For all the talk of “user-centric innovation” and allowing feedback from customers to dictate new product designs, a third lesson from Apple is that smart companies should sometimes ignore what the market says it wants today.

Fail wisely

The Macintosh was born from the wreckage of the Lisa, an earlier product that flopped; the iPhone is a response to the failure of Apple's original music phone, produced in conjunction with Motorola. Both times, Apple learned from its mistakes and tried again.

Adding social innovation to design

Josephine Green, is a Senior Director of Trends and Strategy at Philips Design. Her perpective on design is quite interesting:

• History teaches us that technology truly becomes a growth engine when, and only when, it is accompanied by social innovation.
• Because any new emerging technologies have to be relevant, meaningful and appropriate to people’s changing lives and to society’s emerging needs Only in this way can the new technologies reach their true potential and can companies and society grow and prosper.
• We believe that the future is about technology and social innovation and that while technology is still important, it becomes more an enabler in adding value for the individual and the collective. This means putting people at the center of our processes and business. It means thinking differently and doing differently.
• We need creativity, difference and boldness, and even more inefficiency, to let the truly new and imaginative emerge.
• We are now committed to this approach and are innovating through a network of partnerships and alliances involving customers, research institutes, other companies, etc.

Design is a business tool, but it is also a cultural tool. Design has always been a bridge between technology and culture and people.

Subliminal impressions drive our thinking

Ever wondered what goes behind people who come-up with great ideas? And do you want to know how their minds work?

It's the subliminal impressions that you pick-up everyday that makes a difference to your thinking. You may never realize what caught your attention but it's there right at the back of your mind. So, train your mind to catch its attention on simple but unusual things that you see around you. Being inquisitive and perceptive, can make a huge difference.

You can't afford to get brain dead, you got to be 'brain agile' every minute, if you want to come-up with some great ideas!

Read more to believe it! Little John helped me learn this today!

Derren Brown is a mind master when it comes to suggesting, influencing, planting and hypnotizing.Our brains are pulling directly from everyday experiences that we aren't even remembering. Our bus ride to work, the lunch line, etc. So, pay a bit more attention to that boring stuff around you.

The Wired 40 - Most innovative companies in the world

Wired has released the annual list of most innovative companies in the world.  Apart from the Googles, Apples and the like, to me the list has some interesting trends of how customer-focussed innovation is going to be key for survival and growth of companies around the world.

Here are key innovation trends that I picked-up which are going to have significant impact on our society and culture:

• Innovation Trend #1 : Green Energy
• Innovation Trend #2 : Medical Services
• Innovation Trend #3 : Gaming
• Innovation Trend #4 : Information transformation
• Innovation Trend #5 : On-demand lifestyle infrastructure & entertainment

Take a look at some of the companies in this list:

Medtronic has moved up one place in the list. What do they do? They make chest implants that transmits vital signs to the Web for your cardiologist to view. Clearly to me, it is the starting of converting pharma/medical products into a customer services business.

Sunpower is in the business of "green energy". Again an extremely customer-focussed utilities business where they are using solar energy for residential and commercial applications. They have moved-up 4 places in the rankings.

Level 3 - If internet video and  web 2.0 are reshaping our lives, bandwidth and data pipes are key catalysts to this change. Level 3 boasts of 50,000 miles of net backbone. Companies that carry and convert this data into information in real time will be in demand. Level 3 is new to this list!

Exelon is driving innovation around alternative energy generation. Energy crisis is going to be a key global problem and Exelon is aiming to build the first new US reactor in a generation. Companies that can innovative in the area of alternative energy will be the winners of tomorrow. They have moved-up from rank 33 to 17!

Nvidia and Nintendo  are in this list too. Gaming and gaming related business seem to be a key innovation trend that is catching-on. As more and more consumers get addicted or introduced to gaming or as gaming becomes an integral part of our lives, more and more brands need to understand how to leverage this new G-culture. In fact, Nvidia moves-up 11 places and Nintendo is new to this list!

Salesforce.com moves-up 8 places. Clearly, it seems SAAS(Software As A Service model) is here to stay. It's no more just about building great software products but the business model of making it available to millions over the web on an access fee basis is going to be key.

Comcast, NTT Do Co Mo, Verizon are players who are changing the landscape of entertainment and mobile communications. They are driving on-demand internet based entertainment and building new digital lifestyle infrastructure. 

   

Making Social Networking mainstream

NY Times has a very interesting article on how enterprises are making Social Networking as a platform to get  companies closer to their customers.

I really love the extension of the idea to business because social networking was seen more as a "peripheral community" among industry leaders. These sites were seen as a hub of young consumers getting together more as a hobby and sharing amongst themselves common issues and interests. Imagine, if this can become mainstream for enterprises - making it the hub for its customers! I think this is a big idea and inflection point for social networking this year and the future too.

When large companies & visionaries like Cisco Systems, Ning(the latest venture of the Netscape co-creator Marc Andreessen) put their might behind it, this idea has the capacity to really fly. Look at some examples of how it can be used:

• Imagine a social networking site for Whirpool where women who have bought their products can share their experiences,recipes, usage problems, service issues etc. in a social networking context. This could lead them to meet new friends, new information about raising children, new usage ideas etc. and Whirlpool will be the catalyst for this community. It could end-up in them sharing photos, holiday information etc. and this community will help Whirlpool design its products and services better for them. Imagine they allow customers to build their own site, invite their friends, look and feel are customized etc.
• Or a bank where people talk about money and issues wrt money - How to save, how to increase their wealth, investment opportunities, chat on financial services brands, their agents or Financial planners, their concerns and fears about the future of their investments, retirement plans etc. Imagine a banking website having a social networking site that can allow this community to grow and spread on the web, mobile, TV etc.
• Social networking can become the call centre of the future. The agents are customers themselves!

I think this is a great opportunity but companies need to be just the catalyst for such forums. They need to enable, listen, share, collaborate, engage with these customers and prospects if enterprise social networking has to come of age.

Innovating GE way - Go back to School

Business Week reports:

It's a first, however, for General Electric's health-care unit, which sells $15 billion a year worth of clunky X-ray machines, CAT-scan machines, and ultrasound testing equipment. The health-care division has long been a technology innovator. But it has historically tried to differentiate its products by getting better and faster readings from its instruments—"feeds and speeds" as Lou Lenzi, the general manager of global design at GE Healthcare, puts it. So turning to art school students for ideas is a significant departure.

GE wants to make medical tests easier on both the patients and the operators of the equipment, which means focusing on the human side of the equation, from ergonomics to emotions. How, for instance, could a traditionally monstrous CAT scan machine be designed to seem less ominous to patients already distressed by their medical condition? How could a machine be easier for the technician to use?

"We're looking beyond the hardware. We're looking at the patient's journey."( says Lawrence Murphy, the health-care unit's chief designer (My emphasis)).

Improved Experience

There were other forces at work, too. One of GE Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt's initiatives has been to call on employees to "Go Big" by targeting large markets and ideas that might pay off in outsized ways. With that in mind, the health-care designers asked the Art Center students to look at how the company's services might be delivered in developing nations 20 years from now.

Thumb-Print banking debuts in India

Wired reports on a new banking innovation that is taking place in India. Thumb-Print ATMs are being installed to take the power of 'anytime, anywhere' banking to rural India:

Banks and ATM machines are an unfamiliar sight in the rural countryside here, but the government hopes to change that with new technology that could ease the transition from cash to computers.

A pilot program will put 15 biometric ATMs at village kiosks in five districts across southern India. The machines are expected to serve about 100,000 workers who will use fingerprint scanners, rather than ATM cards and PINs, to obtain their funds.

Biometric ATMs are already in use in Colombia and a few locations in Japan, but haven't caught on in much of the rest of the world. As a result, biometrics companies are watching the experiment closely as a potential watershed for the industry.

Nagaraj Mylandla, managing director of Financial Software and Systems, which helped design security protocol for the new system, said there are 35,000 non-biometric ATMs in India today. In three years the number of machines is expected to triple to more than 100,000, leaving a window of opportunity for suppliers to make the new technology standard issue for all new machines.

The increase will mean that just about every rural village and outpost will have access to the world's financial backbone and, if the pilot program is successful, fingerprint identification could become standard, even for private bank transactions.

"Many banks here are keen on this idea of doing away with ATM cards," said Sunil Udupa, CEO of AGS Infotech, the company supplying the first batch of ATMs to the five districts in India. "Whether it is practically possible is a very different question, but the interest is huge."

Toyota adds customer-centricity to its design technology

Toyota has come with an interesting design concept to stop drunken driving.According to news reports:

Toyota Motor Corp. is developing a fail-safe system for cars that detects drunken drivers and automatically shuts the vehicle down if sensors pick up signs of excessive alcohol consumption.

Cars fitted with the detection system will not start if sweat sensors in the driving wheel detect high levels of alcohol in the driver's bloodstream, according to a report carried by the mass-circulation daily, Asahi Shimbun.

The system could also kick in if the sensors detect abnormal steering, or if a special camera shows that the driver's pupils are not in focus. The car is then slowed to a halt, the report said.

The world's No. 2 automaker hopes to fit cars with the system by the end of 2009, according to the report.

Recognizing an idea

Very often, I find people extremely protective about their ideas. They do not want to share it.They get obssesed with it. They are unwilling to listen, change or improve upon it further. The idea then dies a natural death because in their opinion nobody is willing to buy it. 

Here's some great advice from Doc Searls for such people so that they can evaluate their ideas first. Though this advice is for entrepreneurs with new business ideas, I think it holds good for anybody who is in the business of creating ideas esp. in the emerging open source marketing world:

1. Ideas aren't physical. Regardless of the legalities, treating ideas as possessions insults their vast combustive power. Jefferson put it best:
   

   The moment [an idea] is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of everyone, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.

2. Ideas aren't worth jack unless other people can put them to use.
3. Ideas won't change the world unless others can improve on them.
4. Ideas grow by participation, not isolation.
5. Ideas change as they grow. Their core remains the same, but their scope enlarges with successful use.
6. Ideas have unexpected results. No one person can begin to imagine all the results of a good idea. That's another reason to welcome participation.
7. Nobody's going to "steal" your ideas, any more than they can steal your cerebrum. You're the source. Authority over the idea begins with you.
8. Authority derives from originality and respect. You can't get respect for your original ideas unless those ideas prove useful to others.

You - Time's Person of the year

Finally, User Generated Content and Customer-Driven marketing has got mainline. The Time Person of the year is  "YOU".

You, me, us...we're all Time's Person of the Year. Well, technically speaking not all of us (more on that in a bit). Time has selected, 'You' as Person of the Year because of the revolution in user-generated-content that is increasingly influencing society.

The December 25th issue features a number of articles surrounding the selection. There is of course the cover story, as well as:

- The YouTube Gurus
- Essay: Andy Was Right
- Enough About You
- It's All About Us
- The Beast With a Billion Eyes
- Web Boom 2.0
- Making Mischief on the Web
- My So-Called Second Life

Smashing the clock!

On-demand customers are changing the way companies are transforming the workplace. Business Week has an interesting article on how Best Buy is responding to this challenge:

The nation's leading electronics retailer has embarked on a radical--if risky--experiment to transform a culture once known for killer hours and herd-riding bosses. The endeavor, called ROWE, for "results-only work environment," seeks to demolish decades-old business dogma that equates physical presence with productivity. The goal at Best Buy is to judge performance on output instead of hours.

Another thing about this experiment: It wasn't imposed from the top down. It began as a covert guerrilla action that spread virally and eventually became a revolution. So secret was the operation that Chief Executive Brad Anderson only learned the details two years after it began transforming his company. Such bottom-up, stealth innovation is exactly the kind of thing Anderson encourages. The Best Buy chief aims to keep innovating even when something is ostensibly working. "ROWE was an idea born and nurtured by a handful of passionate employees," he says. "It wasn't created as the result of some edict."

So bullish are Anderson and his team on the idea that they have formed a subsidiary called CultureRx, set up to help other companies go clockless. CultureRx expects to sign up at least one large client in the coming months.

Then again, the new work structure's proponents say it's helping Best Buy overcome challenges. And thanks to early successes, some of the program's harshest critics have become true believers. With gross margins on electronics under pressure, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT ) and Target Corp. (TGT ) shouldering into Best Buy territory, the company has been moving into services, including its Geek Squad and "customer centricity" program in which salespeople act as technology counselors. But Best Buy was afflicted by stress, burnout, and high turnover. The hope was that ROWE, by freeing employees to make their own work-life decisions, could boost morale and productivity and keep the service initiative on track.

It seems to be working. Since the program's implementation, average voluntary turnover has fallen drastically, CultureRx says. Meanwhile, Best Buy notes that productivity is up an average 35% in departments that have switched to ROWE. Employee engagement, which measures employee satisfaction and is often a barometer for retention, is way up too, according to the Gallup Organization, which audits corporate cultures.

Adidas apparel when you check-in!

Fairmont Hotels has gotten in on the fitness game by announcing their Fairmont Fit program which will deliver adidas workout apparel and exercise equipment to your hotel room door.

Guests can order adidas shorts, t-shirts and athletic shoes as well as yoga mats and other fitness equipment, all delivered to room, for use during their stay. Travelers can use complimentary items or choose to purchase the fitness gear through the hotel or resort's guest services desk.

The Fairmont Fit program begins in January 2007 at the Fairmont DC, the Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver and the Fairmont Winnipeg.

I think this quite a nice innovation and also a great 'brand trial experience' for Adidas.

thro' hotelchatter

Laws of Simplicity

John Maeda has some excellent advice on how to keep things simple.  I feel there is a lot to learn for marketers from these laws. Because brands  need to develop a distinct identity, their marketing communication has to be simple & focussed yet  must only say what matters. Take a look:

Law #1 :  Reduce - The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughful reduction

Law#2: Organize -Organization makes a system of many appear look fewer

Law # 3: Time - Saving in time feels like simplicity

Law #4: Learn - Knowledge makes everything simpler

Law#5:  Differences - Simplicity and complexity need each other

Law#6: Context - What lies in the periphery of simplicity is not peripheral

Law #7: Emotion - More emotions are better than less

Law #8: Trust - In simplicity we trust

Law #9: Failure - Some things can never be made simple

Law#10: The one - Simplicity is about subracting the obvious and adding the meaningful

thro' Garr Reynolds

Curiosity Gap

Rob Fields writes:

Fast Company highlights the work of an agency called Campfire, which has been responsible for some of the most highly touted viral campaigns of the past few years: Audi’s “The Art of the Heist” for its A3 sedan; ESPN NFL Football 2K4; and The Blair Witch Project.

.....one of the keys to great viral is the skill at which marketers can manage the curiosity gap, i.e., “the addictive pull people experience when their preconceived ideas are challenged.”  The article further points out that creating that pull isn’t easy.  “For the gap to work, though, the audience needs enough backstory and a sufficient flow of detail to keep it guessing.”

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We're no longer an advertising company - Martin Sorell

Thoughts of China and rapidly advancing communications technologies are what keep Martin Sorrell awake at night, the WPP Group chief executive told yesterday's Media Convergence Forum at Manhattan's Le Parker Meridien hotel.

'No longer an advertising company'
As part of a detailed view of where WWP is going and why, Mr. Sorrell said "we're no longer an advertising company. About four or five years ago, more than half our revenues -- more than half of the $11 billion -- started to come from outside [the] advertising [business]."

Over the next five years, he said, he'd like two-thirds of WPP's business to be coming from outside the traditional advertising business.

See the video excerpts here from Ad Age.

The new revolutionary online organizer - Scrybe

There has been a lot of buzz around scrybe. Looks like an incredible product that can make  a customer's life simpler, easier and convenient.

Scrybe^TM is a groundbreaking online organizer that caters to today´s lifestyle in a cohesive and intuitive way. Simple solutions for some age old problems.

• Seamless offline access - without any installations
• Rich and fast like a desktop
• Intuitive zoomable calendar views
• Organize your thoughts with bookmarks, web snippets, images and files
• To-do lists integrated with your calendar
• Share and collaborate with friends and co-workers
• Elegant, compact and handy print formats
• Easily work across multiple timezones
• Import and export from other apps easily. Your data is yours!

My Customer, My Co-Innovator

Michael Schrage writes:

What portion of your cell phone’s myriad features do you use? Market research shows that most mobile phone owners use less than 20 percent. The innovation that matters isn’t what the innovator offers; it’s what the customer adopts. And as organizations recognize this, they’re starting to use their customers as a source of innovative introspection.

One company that understands this is the networking giant Cisco Systems Inc. Over the years, Cisco’s architects and engineers have developed scads of internal tools that allow them to design, configure, optimize, and compare alternative network infrastructures. How did Cisco come to share this inside information? In the past, Cisco’s engineers and architects felt, often correctly, that most customers and prospects simply wouldn’t understand their internal, informally assembled aids. However, Cisco had several highly sophisticated customers who weren’t satisfied with “solutions”; they wanted to see and understand the thought process behind the company’s proposals

.“We’ve found that when we share our tools with customers rather than just demonstrate how much we’ve improved our technologies, we learn a lot more,” Randy Pond, Cisco senior vice president of operations, processes, and systems

Of course, many companies resist the idea of bringing in customers as innovation partners. Eric von Hippel, head of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, hypothesizes that internal innovators frequently view customer innovators as rivals who might undermine their creative role.

To externalize innovation, organizations must add value to tools they’ve already designed, developed, and deployed. To do this, companies need to audit the very tools they most take for granted and see how — or whether — they should be externalized. That kind of introspection may be the most customer-oriented innovation a company can make.

Nikon gets real people clicking

Joseph Jaffe writes about the new consumer generated content work from Nikon:

Nikon did what every major brand should be doing...it got out of its own way and let the real people that counted do the talking: their own consumers.

Here's the frame-by-frame:

• Nikon sent a bunch of their D80 cameras to a group of Flickr users and let them snap to their heart's content
• They took a bunch of submissions and used them as part of a 3-page spread, which ran in places like BusinessWeek . Here's the Download 3_page_ad_2.pdf

I think this is a lovely example on how to get consumers engaged and involved with a brand. In my opinion, successful brands of the future will be ones who will let consumers lead the marketing rather brands leading or teaching consumers.

Cashless Monopoly: how we train the consumers of the future

New cashless Monopoly game will be available in the UK this year, and next year in other markets.  The new game gives players a VISA branded debit card, and includes a card reader that players use to exchange money.

Is cash disappearing completely? Probably not. But cards are here to stay, and are likely to become more and more embedded in behavior at younger and younger ages. 

While this may represent just another line extension for Monopoly, Visa deserves some credit for participating as a partner. Talk about product placement for your brand with emerging consumers!

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One number for a better life

How many phones do you have today? An office phone, your mobile phone, your home phone  plus a phone or two more for different reasons, I guess and when you multiply this with all the friends and contacts you have in your phone book, life looks really complicated when you want to contact somebody. But, it won't be a problem anymore.

GrandCentral is a brilliant new web app that lets you consolidate all of your phone numbers into one number, meaning someone can call you on your GrandCentral phone number and all of your phones (cell phone, work phone, home phone) will ring. And then it gets interesting.

If you don't want every one of your phones ringing each time someone calls your free GrandCentral number, you can set rules by friends, family, work, and others, defining where the calls should be directed. When a user leaves a message, you can listen to it online or directly on your phone. The remaining set of features on GrandCentral are a little mind-blowing, in that "I'd never thought of that, but how am I now living without it?" sort of way.

Here’s a list of some of the features:

• Incoming phone calls ring on different phones according to which group you’ve placed a caller’s phone number in.
• You can play different voice mail greetings for friends, family and work calls.
• Voice mail is stored indefinitely.
• Voice mail can be listened to and replied to with just a few clicks.
• Voice mail messages can be listened to in real time and you can jump in to initiate a conversation in real time with one click.
• Telemarketers or others can be banished to the spam folder so if you’re called by the same number again your phone will simply not ring.
• You can click to have GrandCentral call both the person who left a message and your phone.
• You can record a section of any call with one button on the keypad of your phone.
• You can seamlessly switch from one of your phones to another.

thro' Techcruch

Are you in it for the money?

I see people around always discussing money - most of the time lack of enough. They are constantly looking at others saying how he or she makes more money. But, the ones who have made most money, don't seem to start wanting to make money. They start with what they are interested and excited about. Seth Godin has a post about this:

Woz wasn't looking to make a lot of money when he invented the Apple computer, and Nolan Bushnell certainly didn't imagine he was creating the video game industry when he invented Pong.

In fact, the more I think about it, the more it seems that pioneers are almost never in it for the money. The smart ones figure out how to take a remarkable innovation and turn it into a living (or a bigger than big payout) but not the other way around. I think the reason is pretty obvious: when you try to make a profit from your innovation, you stop innovating too soon. You take the short payout because it's too hard to stick around for the later one.

..people who want to join the pioneers are often focused on a steady paycheck and juicy options... they would probably be better off seeking the edgiest thing they can find, run by the most devoted visionary.

Second Life for Leo Burnett

Madison Avenue seems to have got the Second Life virus. Leo Burnett, one of the world's leading advertising companies, has set up an ideas hub in Second Life.

Conceived as a celebration of creativity, the yet to be named hub will immediately bring together in a virtual world nearly 2,400 creatives from Leo Burnett and Arc Worldwide in 80+ countries.For a flat rendering of the hub, please visit http://tinyurl.com/nkjvz.

Most importantly, it will give Leo an understanding of Second Life first hand, so if they recommend this type of marketing to clients, they might actually know what they are talking about—because they are doing it.

Xerox develops ' transient document'

Xerox has come out with a great customer innovation. Take a look:

Inspired by the fact that many print outs have a life-span of a few hours (think of the emails you may print out just to read, or the content you proof read on the train journey back home), the specifically prepared paper will preserve its content for up to 16 hours.

The paper has a “photochromic compoud that changes from a clear state to a coloured state under ultra-violet light.” The print face will then fade with time. I really wish we could develop a paper that we could specify how long it takes to clear, but I suppose Xerox is still working on that one. Xerox told PC Pro Magazine that “further research is being undertaken to give the option of subsequently preserving the content if the user desires, which might literally involve warming up old data through the heating of paper.”

thro' caffeine marketing.com

DIY Bands

Springwise has this excellent post on how you can take customer involvement to a new level:

Aiming to empower independent artists, SellaBand has created a platform that enables fans to sponsor bands, and get a piece the action in return. How it works: fans, dubbed Believers, find an artist they like on SellaBand.com. For USD 10, they can buy a share, or 'Part'. Once the band has sold 5,000 parts, SellaBan