Conference: What to expect at IC2010?
A couple of weeks back I was invited to speak on a panel at IC2010 and I am very much looking forward to the event. Although, I am not really sure yet what is expecting me I am quite happy to be involved at an event at Maastricht University again. The marketing and strategy study association 3MA is not only the host of the Maastricht Marketing or Consultancy Day but also host of the “International Conference” with yearly changing topics. While all other events have quite the similar content and topic every year the “International Conference” is rather diverse in topics.
This year’s topic is: The Changing Face of Media: A Burden or a Gift”. As someone who is definitely in love with all the new tools that are coming out to make our life easier I don’t really see the burden in any new technologies. Maybe someone can explain this to me at the conference. Overall the lineup of companies indicates that there will be just companies using, developing, or supporting tech and its going to fun again to get in touch with some corporate techies.
Since the event is also a recruiting event I hope that the focus is not drifting away too much from the topic of new media and technology towards job hunt. The program seems to be densely packed which should yield some intense content. I am definitely looking forward to it.
Some good and bad
Just recently I have seen some great examples of how companies could use “new” technologies such as Facebook or viral advertising. One company I did not expect to have a solid new media strategy and perfect execution is Nespresso. The team at Nespresso shows with every move that they have fully understood how to use Facebook and how to interact with their customers through this channel. Their fan-page counts a whopping 242k fans and was Nespresso’s place of choice to announce the release of their new commercial with George Clooney (another great move). It is by far the only coffee-related Facebook fan-page that yields an incredible 1600 comments on the question which capsule color will be the color of this year’s Limited Edition. The almost 4k “Likes” to the question which “pure origin” capsules people like indicate a huge brand interaction that comes almost for free. The use of Facebook is free to anyone and maintaining a fan-page doesn’t take a huge team. Another aspect of why this is also very rewarding for Nespresso is the immediate feedback they get to their campaigns. People on the fan-page are most likely also customers so the quality of the answers is likely to be high due to authenticity and honesty. This approach saves Nespresso a ton of money every day. Not only are they able to track the results of their campaign they can also get in touch with the customers for free.
A perfect example for a company which did not understand social media at all is probably German sports-clothing manufacturer “Jako“. The company actually decided that the best strategy against bloggers who don’t write positively about their products is to sue the hell out of them. This has earned them the reputation of worst embarrassment on the web.
read moreBusiness Practice: Do NOT Reply?
Having received a couple of promo mails lately made me realize just how self-centered many (brilliant) companies can be in their online marketing efforts. Every year companies spend billions just to get in contact with their customers and start a dialogue. They create surveys, focus groups, interviews, Facebook groups, live meetings, live promos, and so on and so on. Still, many do not seem to fully understand the power of sending out a simple email to their clients. Of course, in many cases their message is not read, lands in the SPAM folder, or doesn’t even reach the addressee. In other cases, however, it does reach its destination and then another problem comes into play.
Most companies use a donotreply@blabla.com address to send out messages to their customers. The crux of the matter is that why spend all that money on getting in touch with customers if one very good opportunity to get direct, immediate, and unbiased feedback is just given away? Since it is very valuable to get feedback as soon as possible after a message has been sent out this great option should not be erased. When people skim over the message they might have an idea, a complaint, or just want to say “great stuff, thanks”. For “small” things like this nobody is going to the website, looking and finally finding “customer support”, opening a ticket, then putting his message in there. If the company is not available immediately (that means: really, really immediately) for example via Twitter the feedback will be lost. Since the main idea of e.g. a Facebook group is to create a conversation why not use some more basic tools to create this dialogue? This would also prove that a company’s management understands the idea of social networks such as Facebook and doesn’t just let the student intern administer the Facebook group.
Regarding this topic there have been some great Dos and Don’ts compiled by Karen Sharf and Jeanne Jennings that are effective but also low-cost. Also, Denise Cox wrote on that matter where she wrote about the connection to social networks.
read moreBusiness Idea: Pizza Machine (or how to press your business into a vending machine)
On a recent holiday I came across a great business idea: An Automatic Pizza Baker. It completely blew my mind because this machine was located in an Autogrill highway service station in Italy. Having lived in the US for a while I would have bet all my money on the machine being in the US.
The fun thing about this machine is that you can watch the pizza being made. Although the process of making it and baking it only takes 2 1/2 minutes it becomes somewhat interactive since the screen tells you about the process and the progress. There is four different kinds of pizza to choose from. The only downside here is the lack of different payment options. In this case it was only possible to pay with cash, raising the barriers to purchase enormously.
Business Practice: Changing the business model too late
A recent article titled “The Unlikely Mogul – Can Jason Kilar and his hit site Hulu save traditional TV from itself while remaking it for the future?” from American entrepreneur and tech magazine “Fast Company” has brought me to think about something that came to my mind years ago already. This time it is just about another, though related, industry: Television.
The Music Industry, Still up to date?
I remember that years ago when I read about the first lawsuits initiated by record companies against the people who created illegal copies of pieces of music I thought that since the evolution of P2P software and the continuous build-up of sharing networks it would be soon an unstoppable movement. In deed the outcome was something like this. Although right now the movement is back to hosted solutions like Rapidhare or Netload the idea of the (P2P) networks lives on. People want to share information – in this case – music for free. Apparently, nobody wants to pay for music, films, etc. anymore. On the one hand many people will claim that the work an artist put into the creation process needs to be rewarded. In addition to that there are of course production and logistical costs. Fair enough. On the other hand, to me it seems rather to be a matter of perspective. What if the main good is not the actual CD but more the artist itself? What if the CD actually does not matter but the presence and/or actions of the artist is the actual new money-maker? Many things can easily be copied – such a CD – and are therefore very hard to protect. The artist itself is almost impossible to replace under the condition that people like him/her and his/her music. Thus, the prime objective for the artist should become to reach as many people as possible.
Many companies use so-called “White papers” in order to spark the interest of their (potential) customers. A good white paper usually outlines how the company works, gives detailed insights in the technology or processes that they use, and gives relevant, to-the-point, applicable advice or solutions for different scenarios. To a certain extent the company is giving away valuable information that can be used immediately. It can be copied and distributed but one thing it cannot. It does not replace the actual service or product that the company can deliver. If the business is set up intelligently and a fair competitive advantage exists the company becomes irreplaceable. It is unique and could be compared to an artist. So what if the music is actually a white paper? In this sense I think the music industry missed out on changing their business model in a timely fashion and many of the involved firms have to pay the steep price for it now.
The Business Model Idea
This discussion obviously triggers the question of what the new business model is. To be frank I do not have a one-fits-all solution. If I did I might not put it on here but rather be meeting up with record company executives. One thing is for sure though. Concerts of all kinds, live-venues, interviews, meet-and-greets, private sessions are increasingly more important. I am certain that many artists could make similar amounts of money through innovative ways of delivering and distributing their music and performances. Radiohead is probably one of the most recent examples of how a step ahead can bring is huge success. The band not only got lots of free marketing through their spectacular move but also made it a financial success.
To come back on the “Fast Company” article I see some strong parallels with the Television industry.
When I lived in Texas for half a year I was able to enjoy the services of Hulu.com. Hulu streams TV series legally to US consumers via its website. It does not require but offers registrations for personalized service. All major US TV shows are on there and can be watched at any convenient point in time. The service is like YouTube but with feature shows that run on all major networks. So far, the service is unparalleled in the world. In Europe some internet providers have taken on the challenge to integrate TV into their internet delivery. The idea is to give the customer a box that can do it all. Since this is rather new and customer acceptance is rather slow, not many people have signed up for it so far. No doubt that the market is growing though. In the US a previous invention that sort of revolutionized the market was TiVo – a box that would record the requested show when it was on and that made it available later on even with the option to skip commercials.
The hurdles to make a project like Hulu go global are perhaps preexisting contractual obligations. So far it is not possible for people outside the US to access the Hulu offerings. Since the main revenue generated by Hulu comes from advertisements it is not really a technical issue to let it go global. Assuming Hulu was available globally, there would be a lot of money to be made for everyone; the platform, the networks, etc. Offering a new business model next to the other one does not necessarily mean that the old one would die immediately. On the contrary. If there were other things like paid subscriptions things would be different.
I trust that in Europe many companies would be willing to pay top-dollar, because Hulu has something to offer that no TV station can give you: a perfect profile of nearly every individual viewer. It must be every marketing manager’s dream to be able to custom tailor his message to the individual audiences with maximum effectiveness and efficiency. Hulu offers this for anyone involved with television. Also the chance of getting immediate customer feedback should erase any doubt that might be left. Since the technologies for real-time customer interaction are already there companies have to learn to use them properly, too. One other example of how a global implementation of a video streaming service was successfully carried out is the offerings of South Park (www.southparkstudios.com). Not only are they offering localized mini-sites for many countries but views from non-English speaking countries are also able to view the program in English. This is a very important feature to most young people who like to watch the show in its originality. Translated jokes are mostly not very funny. The show, however, is still running on TV and is probably not going away for some time.
In this three-minute interview with Hulu CEO Jason Kilar he explains that Hulu also is a long-term business
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HO-4ZoNBEY]
And now?
A remaining question of course is what other, non-related businesses can take away from this example. To me the message is quite clear. To change the business model or to explore new ways to distribute a service or product should be one of the top priorities of business owners and entrepreneurs. Constantly working on the business concept is an absolute must since the dynamics of the market should not be underestimated. Especially in a connected world as the one we are living in, a market-changing innovation or innovative approach will most certainly be highly rewarded. Examples for this can be found in every industry, for every product, and in any organization.
Making sure that every possible way to reach your target audience is explored is essential. Maybe this might not be the cheapest way since failures can happen but not daring to try it might be the last mistake of your organization. In my opinion if there is any decent or crazy idea to create new sales it should be tried. Giving away customers (and money) – maybe even to your main competitor – will never be acceptable. Even more shocking is that most of the tools that enable a business to explore new ways are freely available at no extra cost. Many businesses are not using them so far. Facebook and Twitter are just two out of hundreds of examples.
Is it possible to sell a pizza, accountancy services or a haircut through Facebook? I claim that if you can sell taxi rides through twitter it must certainly be.
read moreToby who?
I'm a passionate entrepreneur, nerd, investor, speaker, and startup evangelist. I love to start things and see them grow. Whenever I can I will introduce people to the option of being a free person through pursuing their own dreams and ventures.