Immensely Valuable Field Guide for Word of Mouth Practitioners—with a Twist
 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!
However, this direct customer connection also means that marketing will be much more fun and less frustrating for companies that understand the shift and engage their customers. This direct, fun and productive new reality emanates from the book’s every […]
Media Reflects Power Shift away from Producers to Consumers—Glimpses of Consumer Empowerment
 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.
Ours is rapidly becoming a P2P world in which individuals communicate with individuals digitally, and this represents a profound shift for media companies, their clients and everyone’s customers. The focus of the morning discussion was “media”—television, print, radio—which are still largely organized to deliver one message to an audience of many. Of course, the “mass” has always been comprised of individuals, but their alternatives to mass media have been few until fairly recently. Now they are tuning out mass messaging in favor of more relevant communications, which increasingly come from—other individuals. Meantime, people are increasingly connected via the Internet (whether through mobile […]
An Excellent Primer for the Core Competency of the 21st Century
 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.
Conventional wisdom holds that “innovation” cycles reappear every five years, when companies have exhausted the then-current cost-cutting approaches and need to focus on driving the top line.
However, the Knowledge Economy doesn’t call for your father’s innovation. The 21st century kind will require that companies turn themselves inside-out. Winners will learn to engage and catalyze their customers’ creativity. As author Patty Seybold aptly puts it, “Companies with the smartest customers win.” Outside Innovation is an in-the-trenches manual for evolving your company to embrace the innovation imperative.
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Economic Outlook for 2007 Reveals Pockets of Opportunity + Political Handicapping
 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 consensus was that the U.S. economy would have a relatively benign year in 2007. All panelists predicted a higher Dow, and their predictions concurred with Wall Street’s most accurate ,^) indicator, the Super Bowl Predictor. Little of import will happen on the political front, the U.S. economy will grow at a slower pace, and investment returns will be generally highest outside the U.S. Elsewhere, consumer empowerment reared its head in the executive pay issue, […]
A Must-read Guide to the Importance of Web 2.0 and the Knowledge Economy
 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.
Chris Anderson is editor-in-chief of Wired, and the book has an appreciation for culture, the economics of technology and the importance of innovation. It’s also very well written: Anderson tackles some fairly abstract concepts, but the reader doesn’t trip over them. It’s possible to read the book quickly, but there is plenty of substance for a detailed, reflective reading as well. Difficult to over-recommend!
The Long Tail offers an insightful look into the byte-oriented Knowledge Economy and its movement away from the zero-sum, bits-oriented Industrial Economy—and what this holds for business and culture. The book […]
Mobile Phones a Plum Market for Apple—If It Changes the Rules
 As mobile phones and smartphones become increasingly commonplace in mature and emerging markets, pundits increasingly predict that Apple will apply its design and experience expertise to field a mobile phone. Renowned for the elegance and simplicity of its devices and services, Apple provides unparalleled experience through world-class design of hardware, software and services. It delights and inspires customers by making the complex simple and beautiful.
The market for computing devices, wireless access and information (content) is at the point of convergence, and its value chain players—access providers, device makers and information providers—are vying to grow their influence. The digital device is rapidly becoming the hub for an unlimited number of information services. For many people, it is the main access device to the Internet, more than a computer. Within the market for devices, smartphones represent the convergence of PDAs and phones.
But the market for “music phones” is crippled by intractable value chain conflict. Can Apple use its core competency to create sustainable competitive advantage by changing the rules?
Are Rumors Grounded in a Solid Business Case?
The never-ending […]
 Consumer empowerment and disruption are being unleashed by the many-to-many Web. As we’ve been writing for some time, Web 2.0 is giving individuals collective voices that can rival the authority of global enterprises and governments, which is disruptive because it changes the rules. We call it Consumer Empowerment. Blogs, social networking, podcasts, wikis, vlogs and their intermediaries like Technorati, MySpace and iTunes give customers the tools to create and distribute content for free—instantly and globally. When rules change, you can quickly strengthen your market position by understanding and adapting more quickly than competitors.
Google any specific product, phrase or service, and you will notice that customer content is growing quickly, especially in specific, customer-centric areas that organizations aren’t focused on. Customers contribute customer-relevant content because they are passionate about the subject. Growing “tribes” of individuals connect, collaborate, and become smart very quickly. Threat: large organizations are losing control over the information about their reputations, products and services. Opportunity: adding value to these customer-led conversations can increase your credibility and appeal.
Large organizations attained their market power through efficiency, the hallmark of the […]
![Bank Wins Web 0.2 Citation for Delivering "Yechsperience" [customer experience satire]](http://rollyson.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/webdot2-logo.png) (**Updated) Marketing Outlays Sabotaged by Sub-par Process Execution
Chicago, 29 November 2006—Today, the Global Human Capital Journal awarded Grace Bank, the top three credit card issuer, its notorious Web 0.2 Citation for inducing an acute spasm of customer yechsperience™.
This citation demonstrates how exceptionally poor service destroys brand despite kind words and happy pictures from Marketing. Although Grace employed a somewhat formulaic approach, it demonstrated laudable skill at producing customer irritation and angst.
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The Knowledge Economy, Ultimate Context for Understanding the Future welcomes you to the Post-Industrial World, which turns past assumptions on their heads.
 The Knowledge Economy is a post-industrial economy characterized by a highly developed information technology industry along with overproduction and commoditization in industrial and agricultural sectors. Widespread information technology (IT) adoption among producers and consumers enables all market participants to create and share information about all aspects of economic transactions. The creation, packaging and sharing of information is termed “knowledge.” In the Knowledge Economy, information about an underlying good creates most of the good’s differentiated value.
Consumer mobilization and engagement in the Knowledge Economy renders many of the Industrial Economy’s rules invalid. In the Industrial Economy, consumers had little information relative to producers, they were isolated from each other, and they had no collective voice. They were at a disadvantage as market participants. The “second stage” of the Internet, “Web 2.0,” facilitates P2P (peer to peer) information sharing, and its tools are free to use and accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. Producers […]
Peter Sondergaard opened the analyst firm’s vaunted annual Symposium/ITxpo this week by admonishing CIOs to prepare for a consumer shift that will reverse the current state in which business and government control customer and constituent relationships. As reported by eWeek, Gartner’s head of global research didn’t pull any punches: businesses will have to earn the right to justify premium offerings by empowering consumers:
 “The impact of consumerization is the most important trend impacting IT in the next 10 years,” Sondergaard remarked. “There will be a shift in culture reflecting the dominance of the ‘digital natives.’ Consumer technology will be integrated into (the) home, home office, in transit or recreational areas, and users will initiate interactions from all of these settings.”
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