Web 2.0 Is Transforming Relationships Between Customers and Companies*
I’ll risk using a hype-laden term like “Web 2.0” in the title: I think most of us have been around long enough to understand that hype doesn’t mean that nothing is there, although it can distract us from seeing things that we should be watching.
I have been in the thick of the “adoption curves” of Java, e-business transformation and SOA/Web services (detail). They have been instrumental in creating a new information infrastructure and business process capabilities. “Web 2.0” will prove to be the most transformational so far because it is changing relationships. It changes individuals’ relationships with each other, and it will change how companies and the customers relate to each other. It will demand “Marketing 2.0.”
Tectonic Shift
As I argued in The 3.x Economies, we are transitioning away from the Industrial Economy and entering the Knowledge Economy. In the Industrial Economy, companies created value by manufacturing products efficiently based on their core competencies, and they marketed products to customers. They also created and marketed services on a large scale. “Marketing” grew as a profession during the 20th century when […]
Word of Mouth Marketing is an exceptionally useful, insightful and surprising book. Andy Sernovitz has done a masterful job at creating a brief, lucid and tactical guide to realigning your company’s relationships with your customers, quickly and inexpensively. It is very straightforward, honest and full of practical techniques. Moreover, it is very human because it addresses customers as human beings, not demographics. I suspect that this aspect of the book might peeve those marketers that are invested in the difficulty and complexity of their craft. Think about it: when customers were (relatively) mute and invisible, marketers were the intermediary between the enterprise and the customer; in the absence of the customer’s voice, they created models and theories to simulate it. WOM, powered by Web 2.0, means that customers can talk in their own words, and companies can listen. The customer’s back!
As readers of these pages know well, I estimate that one of the most poignant changes that faces Industrial Economy enterprises is shifting their primary focus from production and operations to the customer. The Industrial Economy mechanized work and production, and by any measure it created unprecedented wealth by drastically lowering per-unit costs of any kind of product you can name, bringing more products within the means of more people. This worked extremely well while demand exceeded supply: customers were excited to have their first car/house/television, and they were happy with what producers brought to market.
The Executives’ Club of Chicago assembled a visionary panel to give Midwest business leaders their advice for media communications in the (“new” ,^) digital age. Rishad Tobaccowala, CEO, Denuo Group and Chief Innovation Officer, Publicis; Dr. Jim Taylor, Vice Chairman, The Harrison Group and Emily L. Barr, President & General Manager, ABC 7 Chicago were panelists, and Susan D. Whiting, Chairman, Nielsen Media Research moderated the breakfast, which took place 30 January 2007 at Chicago’s Mid-America Club.
To thrive in the Knowledge Economy, companies will have to learn how to innovate at warp speed, or they will simply slip beneath the surface of the water like stricken liners. Ultra low costs and exceptional quality feature sets are merely expected, and they no longer differentiate.
Academicians everywhere are struggling to improve their students’ competitive standings in the global Knowledge Economy, which levels the playing field in many respects. It is far easier to build a world-class competitor in the Knowledge Economy than it was in the Industrial Economy. A strong educational system is a must, along with a highly motivated population, decent infrastructure and incentives for foreign investment. In former times, being a world competitor necessitated gaining control of vast natural resources to produce a strong industrial base from which world-class armies and navies would be built. India currently exemplifies the Knowledge Economy model very well*, and countries worldwide have taken note.
Two recent articles show that even the most intractable problems can be overcome when organizations find ways to align their goals. Sometimes collaboration makes for strange bedfellows—like the military and environmentalists—but opportunity is often highest when when “mashing up” groups that are not used to working together. Innovation can produce surprising value when leaders open their minds, challenge conventional wisdom and make unthinkable changes—like paying a hospital more for treating patients less.
The Executives’ Club of Chicago assembled an all-star panel to give Midwest business leaders their guidance for various aspects of the U.S. economy in 2007. Diane Swonk, Chief Economist of Mesirow Financial, Alan Murray, Assistant Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal and Robert “Bob” Froehlich, Chairman of the Investment Strategy Committee, Deutsche Asset Management broke out their respective crystal balls for 2007, and the audience was not disappointed for lack of insight or wit. The session was scintillatingly moderated by Terry Savage, Financial Columnist of the Chicago Sun-Times.
The Strategic Management Association, the Harvard Business School and the CDMA sponsored the 2007 China Outlook, which was given by Lyric Hughes-Hale, Founder China Online in Chicago 9 January 2007. Her presentation was preceded by David Hale’s 2007 Economic Forecast.
The Long Tail is a watershed book that reflects many of the profound socioeconomic changes wrought by the transition from the Industrial Economy to the Knowledge Economy. The “Long Tail” represents the splintering of the mass market—what is happening, why and how you can thrive in the new era of the niche. Moreover, it shows how the mass market was a temporary phenomenon that developed because niches were not economically viable for producers to address.