It´s finally official. I signed my 3rd book deal last Thursday again for Infor, a Finnish training- and publishing company. Infor did great job with my last one book to make the their best selling book for 2010, thanks for all who bought the book!
Next book is the most challenging. I decided to research and write about digital opportunities for SMEs. That´s in plain English small and medium companies.
I will try to narrow the approach for both b2c and b2b businesses less than 20 people with limited marketing budgets, and try to find out how SMEs could use digital world to:
1 Acquire more customers
2 Serve their customers and other stakeholders
3 Grow sales
4 Save time and money
I have already booked a few interesting Finnish entrepreneurs to interview how they see their own marketing and sales are utilizing digital channels,and what they see next steps.
More information of the book coming later this winter. Stay tuned!
2/08/2011
1/18/2011
A perfect loyalty program
In today´s world we all belong to one or more loyalty programs. In exchange of personal and behavioral information we believe that there are numerous benefits to apply into the program.
I finished reading Youngme Moon´s excellent book "Different" not long time ago. In her classes she has asked students to think out-of-the-box to invent a perfect loyalty program. Since I am in daily basis working with loyalty programs this exercise sounded interesteing. And so so it did. Outcome was kinda interesting:
1st A perfect loyalty program dont keep score, dont keep track of points - instead it surprises customer with random acts of generosity
2st ... that, instead of handing out of prizes to customers,it gives customers ability to award prizes to employees who treated them well
3rd ... in which customers bond together and accumulate points together, in return group-based rewards
4th ... that, instead of making it harder for the customer to quit our service , made it easier for them to quit, without penalty
5th .. in which rewards were in the form of donations to the customer´s favorite charity.
Sound like utopia against my educational and expertise background. But, hey, why not. No one has tried anything like this ever. I dont say, it would work out.
After all, who would thought 15 years a go that we all love a web page with one input field and a submit button.
I finished reading Youngme Moon´s excellent book "Different" not long time ago. In her classes she has asked students to think out-of-the-box to invent a perfect loyalty program. Since I am in daily basis working with loyalty programs this exercise sounded interesteing. And so so it did. Outcome was kinda interesting:
1st A perfect loyalty program dont keep score, dont keep track of points - instead it surprises customer with random acts of generosity
2st ... that, instead of handing out of prizes to customers,it gives customers ability to award prizes to employees who treated them well
3rd ... in which customers bond together and accumulate points together, in return group-based rewards
4th ... that, instead of making it harder for the customer to quit our service , made it easier for them to quit, without penalty
5th .. in which rewards were in the form of donations to the customer´s favorite charity.
Sound like utopia against my educational and expertise background. But, hey, why not. No one has tried anything like this ever. I dont say, it would work out.
After all, who would thought 15 years a go that we all love a web page with one input field and a submit button.
11/18/2010
Segmentation for hyper-mature markets
Youngme Moon in her excellent book "Different" explains an alternative segmentation scheme. The one we all learned at the school was
* innovators
* early adopters
* early majority
* late majority
* laggards.
For years each business category (airlines, telecom, music, ICT, you name it) has organized their product development and marketing activities based on the model. And it has kind of worked.
Moon offers a different approach to today´s hyper-maturated market where augmentation-by-adaptation and augmentation-by-multiply seem not to created any competitive value.
I think this one is rather interesting. Her segments are the following:
1. Brand Loyalists. They have a stubborn passion for a particular brand. No matter what the competitors do, they will stuck into the brand number one. Apple fans, anyone? They are advertisers dream - only problem is that you dont have to advertise for them.
2. Reluctants (in the category like "Mobile Phones"). They rather would stay outside of the category, but sometimes they dont have a choice: "You need a mobile phone." Dot. These people would buy a category product that simple and easy, because they lack of familarity and they feel frustrated (because of all marketing communication they dont understand). Dont send them any dialog marketing!
3. Pragmatics, non-differentiators. Their buying decisons are based on combination of habbits, routine, price and convinience: "for mobile phone I always to the nearest Gigantti, and I always buy reasonably priced new Nokia". They really dont care which product they actually buy. They have a grown skepticism towards brand alternatives.
4. Opportunists. Yes, they know a lot, they are category experts ("i know everything about the telecom technology") - but they are brand-agnostics. They participate to the category WITHOUT joy. They are transaction-oriented: coupon clippers, airmile users, discount seekers, bargain hunters, rewards points accumators. They buy all xmas presents with Diners or Amex points. They are often cynical what has happend within a category but they keep themselves updated for utilitarian reasons. They are advertisers nightmare, but dialog marketing does a trick here.
5. Finally, category connoisseurs. They have a huge affection for the category (=food lovers, motorcycle fans..), but they are not typically loyal to any brand. They are selective, picky and informed, but their loyalty is directed toward the category. Marketers like them, but they are tough to convert to Loyalists.
Think any business category and how these five segments nicely cover the bases, showing most of the ways that people, consumers, cope with hyper-mature markets. Apply the segment to airlines (full of opportunists and reluctants), or telecom (dominated by opportunists and pragmatics - wake up Sonera/Elisa...), or drugstores (growing proportion of pragmatics each passing year). If you compare any category today and ten years ago, in terms of an anatomy of a customers base, you will find out that the numebr of brand loyalists is shrinking rapidly, and brand-agnostics are stepping in.
That is a challenge to any of our customers today.
What do you think?
* innovators
* early adopters
* early majority
* late majority
* laggards.
For years each business category (airlines, telecom, music, ICT, you name it) has organized their product development and marketing activities based on the model. And it has kind of worked.
Moon offers a different approach to today´s hyper-maturated market where augmentation-by-adaptation and augmentation-by-multiply seem not to created any competitive value.
I think this one is rather interesting. Her segments are the following:
1. Brand Loyalists. They have a stubborn passion for a particular brand. No matter what the competitors do, they will stuck into the brand number one. Apple fans, anyone? They are advertisers dream - only problem is that you dont have to advertise for them.
2. Reluctants (in the category like "Mobile Phones"). They rather would stay outside of the category, but sometimes they dont have a choice: "You need a mobile phone." Dot. These people would buy a category product that simple and easy, because they lack of familarity and they feel frustrated (because of all marketing communication they dont understand). Dont send them any dialog marketing!
3. Pragmatics, non-differentiators. Their buying decisons are based on combination of habbits, routine, price and convinience: "for mobile phone I always to the nearest Gigantti, and I always buy reasonably priced new Nokia". They really dont care which product they actually buy. They have a grown skepticism towards brand alternatives.
4. Opportunists. Yes, they know a lot, they are category experts ("i know everything about the telecom technology") - but they are brand-agnostics. They participate to the category WITHOUT joy. They are transaction-oriented: coupon clippers, airmile users, discount seekers, bargain hunters, rewards points accumators. They buy all xmas presents with Diners or Amex points. They are often cynical what has happend within a category but they keep themselves updated for utilitarian reasons. They are advertisers nightmare, but dialog marketing does a trick here.
5. Finally, category connoisseurs. They have a huge affection for the category (=food lovers, motorcycle fans..), but they are not typically loyal to any brand. They are selective, picky and informed, but their loyalty is directed toward the category. Marketers like them, but they are tough to convert to Loyalists.
Think any business category and how these five segments nicely cover the bases, showing most of the ways that people, consumers, cope with hyper-mature markets. Apply the segment to airlines (full of opportunists and reluctants), or telecom (dominated by opportunists and pragmatics - wake up Sonera/Elisa...), or drugstores (growing proportion of pragmatics each passing year). If you compare any category today and ten years ago, in terms of an anatomy of a customers base, you will find out that the numebr of brand loyalists is shrinking rapidly, and brand-agnostics are stepping in.
That is a challenge to any of our customers today.
What do you think?
10/11/2010
Website updated
Personal note: my small planning/design/consulting agency updated service we offer. Check it out (in finnish) http://www.lowreality.com/. Services include internet strategy definition, web site concept design, web site redesign requirement capture, interactive producer and of course - just a lecturer or trainer :-)
9/13/2010
New case: Equfit - for riders
A friend couple of mine invented a new kind of training program combining traditional aerobics with different exercises (streching, pilates, yoga, balance) needed to become excellent horse rider.
End result: Equfit. Check out the site (in Finnish) www.equfit.fi.
I helped them for the marketing concept, program names, copy texts and web site in my spare time. First trainining session are held on their own riding premises (they even have their own gym). I would love to see these training package to become a nation-wide.
Engaging, informative and even scary commercial
Nicely executed commercial from Elisa, a Finnish telecom operator about Could Computing including interesting facts about social media as well. Good addition to my lectures, thanks!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Naf0jxDd-R0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Naf0jxDd-R0
7/01/2010
10 most beautiful infographs
I am a huge fan of beautifully crafted information graphs. Mashable recently listed ten most beautiful ones, which prove as beautiful as they are interesting.
This one even ended up to recent book :)
Check out yourself. Which one is YOUR favourite?
This one even ended up to recent book :)
Check out yourself. Which one is YOUR favourite?
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