e-Commerce Three New Trends

Geoff Ramsey, the co-founder and CEO of eMarketer, recently shared 0.001% of the information that his team of researchers and analysts knows about Internet market trends during his morning keynote at Electronic Retailer’s LiveEdit Lab.

Why can I be so precise?

He presented 60 slides out of the 54,000 charts available to eMarketer’s subscribers. You do the math.

Now, I’m not going to try recapping all 60 of his slides here.

Instead, I’m going to highlight three key market trends that Ramsey touched on. Plus, I’ll pass along his analysis of how each of these new trends is profoundly affecting the business landscape.

Slide #15

The first market trend that is worth highlighting is the percentage of Internet users who are watching video online monthly.

According to eMarketer, it’s 73% – or 137 million Americans. And by the end of the year, eMarketer estimates that 154 million, or 80% of Internet users, will be watching online video.

About a year ago, I reported on a survey conducted by PR News and Medialink which found that “PR pros aren’t using online video as often as they're watching it.”

Well, they better start using it now. Online video isn’t an emerging market trend. It’s already emerged – big time!

Slide #18

Ramsey said, “Online video is a great way to engage with your customers.” And he recommended:
• Placing video footage of your products on your Web site (e.g., create a video demo!);
• Placing video ads on other content video sites, e.g., on YouTube and product category-related sites; and
• Creating your own Webisodes – content so entertaining that people will come to watch it (and share it with others).

Slide #24

The second market trend that deserves serious attention is the percentage of large companies that already have a blog. According to JupiterResearch, it’s 34%.

Last August, at Search Engine Strategies San Jose, I caused a stir in the blogosphere when I said, “Getting excited that you’ve got a blog is like getting excited that “the new phone book’s here!’”

Now, less than a year later, it appears that if your company doesn’t have a blog already, it’s going to feel even more like Steve Martin in “The Jerk.”

Slide #28

Ramsey said, “Advertisers should explore creative ways to leverage the power of blogs.” And he advised:
• Monitoring the blogosphere not only with professional services, but also on your own;
• Working with existing relevant bloggers, in ways that will encourage them to link to your site;
• Placing advertising on popular blogs; and
• Creating your own blogs -- to create a community of interest around your product.

Slide #44

While the third market trend didn’t surprise me, it may come as a shock to some others in the industry.

A survey by AdMedia Partners found that 69% of senior media execs think social media is “over-hyped.”

And Hitwise has validated this skepticism by reporting that only 4% of US online retail traffic is driven by social sites, which is significantly less than the 29% of online retail traffic that is driven by search engines.

Slide #48

So, what’s a marketer to do?

Ramsey outlined four strategies for gaining consumer insights into social networking:
• Looking, listening, lounging and learning;
• Advertising on the big social networking portals, e.g., MySpace and Bebo;
• Getting vertical with your social advertising on smaller, niche sites like Flip.com; and
• Building your own social network, e.g., Procter & Gamble’s Capessa community site.

Now, six slides out of 60 are only 10% of Ransey’s presentation. And that’s just 0.0001% of the information that eMarketer knows about Internet market trends.

So, you may want to dig deeper. Nobody wants to be the last one on the block to spot key market trends.

Global Market Thoughts

Using Market Basket Analysis … Is It Sufficient?



Market Basket Analysis based on affinity algorithms is one among the most popular and commonly used techniques to analyze market basket data mostly applicable to consumer package goods. The association rules tend to identify a basket of products which are likely to be bought together. With increasing complexity and competitiveness in consumer package goods industry due to information revolution, mass merchandising is on decline. Consumers are increasingly recognized into large number of distinct segments. Diverse items are available for sale. Products category contain hundreds of competing products. High degree of differentiation is being achieved leading to strong brand names offering strong competitive advantage. Temporary price reductions, temporary product assortments and placement at stores are not sufficient for inducing customer loyalty. Due to greater degree of information access, consumers are highly mobile and knowledgeable to make purchase decisions based on price and differentiation of products. Eventually, retailers having greater ability to negotiate favorable terms with suppliers and manufacturers reap the advantage.

With maturity of consumer package goods industry, mere opening of new stores to sell to larger number customers hardly ensures profitability. Essentially, it is important to retain existing customers with increased product portfolio. Retailers are able to reduce their operating costs. Manufacturers are achieving economies of scale increase profitability. Operational efficiency can typically be increased with introduction of customer loyalty program leveraging on information technology.

Present day demands great deal of collaboration among retailers, suppliers and manufacturers. Actionable recommendations from analysis should cater to the needs of all partners in the chain. Market Basket Analysis tends to give biased recommendations profitable to retailers. Though statistically the results are credible but in this competitive economic environment and informational open market results may not translate into actionable strategy.

Problem takes origin from affinity algorithms in Market Basket Analysis which takes into account individual and isolated rules.

Current need is to generate rules to predict the association among group of products. Complex algorithms being practiced can be used to include product categories, but it leads to increase in rules exponentially. The rules appear to be complex leading to difficulty in interpreting the rules. Furthermore, affinity algorithm in itself does not assume causal assumptions whereas the output of the algorithm suggests causal relationship among the products. Hence there is a need to introduce either a new and causal form of affinity analysis. Extension of algorithm to produce rules to be applicable across larger groups of transactions needs to be explored.

How to tell your story?

So, How do you tell your story?
If the interaction with the customer is just "give me your price for X dollars," how do you inject your brand story? How do you sell it's value.

I suppose you can try to give your "pitch", but how do you do that without coming off like a used car salesman?"


The basic answer is this: If you wait until the customer is interacting with the sales person to begin telling your brand story, then it's too late.

Brand stories used to be told through advertising alone. Today, thanks to blogs, Word of Mouth (WOM), Facebook and a host of other social media, most prospects have the opportunity to learn about companies well before they ever visit the corporate Web site. The social media universe is loaded with information about products, companies, people and their associated brands. Prospects are no more than a few key words and a click away from gaining a perspective on the brand.



This diagram illustrates the point. When people are searching (intentionally or accidentally), they come across information about brands that help them form an opinion — positive or negative. Eventually, they'll make it to the appropriate Web site, and then, they'll make a decision on whether or not to make a purchase.

The role of the sales person in this environment it not to tell the brand story, but more to not tell a contradictory brand story. If a company has effectively planted all the right "seeds" in the social media environment, and augmented the message with PR and advertising, then by the time the customer meets the sales person, they're already ready to buy. All the sales person has to do is facilitate the sale — and not blow it.

Too often, organizations fall prey to the sales strategy of the month. They'll bring in sales consultants to determine the challenges and present a new selling strategy. For the most part, it's bunk.

Sales people need marketing people to lay the appropriate groundwork in the marketplace so people are prepared to purchase when they walk in the door. If the brand story has been well articulated, then the customer knows why they're there — and they're ready to buy — and their purchase will not be based on price, but value. Which results in a higher price than an undifferentiated competitor might get.

That's the true value of a brand. And that's why companies invest in telling their brand story — well in advance of the customer visiting the Web site or coming to the store.

An EYE on your B2B Marketing Strategy

Marketing your products or services to other businesses offers many different challenges that marketing directly to consumers. Here are some steps to help you optimize your B2B marketing efforts.

Understand your target market.

It sounds like a cliche but you will not believe the number of people who skip this important step. Make sure you clearly identify your audience and customers. Find out who are the key decision makers. You can waste a lot of time and effort by trying to sell to those who do not have the power to make buying decisions. Maximize your resources by targeting the true decisions makers. If you are not talking directly to the decision maker ensure that all information and collateral stands on its own with a clear message. The decision makers may only see your summary so make sure it communicates your message clearly.

Make sure your marketing plan is aligned with your strategic business plan.

It sounds simple but in many organizations this does not happen. Marketing plans may get reorganized on a near daily basis due to reductions in budget, re-focusing of ideas, or changes in sales initiatives. By keeping in touch with your strategic business plan you will reduce your risk and also make better decisions. This will help you to deliver your marketing communications with maximum impact.

Optimize your B2B Website

Almost all B2B websites are not utilized to their maximum potential. Rather than thinking of it as an on-line catalog see it more as a strategic competitive weapon. It is usually the first view of your company that many people receive. What do they see when they first look at your site? A global leader or another follower?

Use an efficient search engine.

Today the search engine results page for your company name is the new digital front page for your company. When you do a search for your company's name in Google, what do the first ten search results say about your company? Remember that this is what many potential clients read about you before they even visit your site! There are companies out there whose sole purpose is search engine reputation management. This involves making sure that the top ten results for your name are favorable.

90% of technical buyers use the internet to look for products. So make sure you optimize your business opportunities by being visible in the major search engine.

Optimize your website across global preferences.

Gaysex Optimizing your site to be found in search engine searches is critical in today's economy. But this is only the first step. Once on your site the visitors have to be converted into leads. Study your web analytics to find out the habits of your visitors. Invest in usability studies. Constantly update the site based on your findings to improve the user experience. This has paid huge dividends for many companies involved in B2B.

Remember that you website is a low cost way to communicate your product and brand to your target markets. Also bear in mind that the same is true for your smaller competitors! It is essential that you stay on the leading edge of the technology and maximize your online potential.

PR vs. Advertising.

PR is often better than advertising! However PR involves more than just press releases. A larger proportion of your efforts should be spent on case studies, articles and white papers. Successful PR also requires continuous dialogue with media representatives. Frequent contact and relationship building are essential. Aim to make their job easier by reacting quickly and offering full explanations backed up with illustrations and photos. Making the editor's job easier will reap rewards and generate increased editorial coverage. Optimizing your press releases for search engines is a powerful and cost effective way of getting an instant message to a mass audience. It also increases your chances of being found by a journalist researching your industry in a cost effective and effective manner.

Integration of you marketing efforts is an essential part of your comprehensive marketing strategy. These efforts are not individual tasks but rather linked together with a view to increasing your total business. For example, search engine results are PR, or - your target market determines your web site content. By linking together your marketing efforts you will help build your corporate brand and generate leads. The end result is better return on investment and increase value for your customers.

Brand Connection - 10 Great Tips to ensure people trust your brand

1) Articulate a clear sense of purpose

First, revisit the purpose of the business. The purpose should be inspirational for everyone with a stake in the business. There are very few businesses that do not make a social contribution. You take away oil or banking, the utilities or transport businesses and watch the knock on effect on everyone's lives. The social aspect of a business mission is not a superficial aspect of branding. Within this new sense of purpose is the concept of balance. Increasingly, shareholders understand that managing simply to secure financial results can bite sql server hosting on the bottom line.

2) Create a workforce committed to your purpose

Articulating your purpose gains you at least two things. First, you communicate a consumer benefit (and win a bit more trust). Second, you stand more chance of achieving that rare thing - employees working together for a common goal. Creating a co-operative culture where employees work together on a shared goal won't happen by accident. A co-operative culture involves a planned approach, employee involvement, the sharing of best practice and common policies and processes.

3) Define "how we do things around here."

People have a lust for a clear framework of how to behave. These are usually called values. The fact is there are Loch Ness monster ways of defining how you do things in your business. Shell has their business principles. Southern Sun Group of South Africa has defined its top ten accountabilities to stakeholders. Johnson & Johnson has a credo.

But there are three critical factors:

" your convictions need to emerge from your business"

" they need to be genuine convictions and strong enough to remain in place when tested"

" and they need to be translated into practice"

4) Manage the intangibles

The model of business success has changed. Past financial success only provides one dimension of value. Other factors which can add to the value of a business include a clear strategy, a strong Board, customer loyalty, employee skills, new revenue streams, competitive differentiation, reputation and innovation. If you successfully manage values and value you earn trust.

5) Develop a clear strategy for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Here's a prediction. In the next decade or so CSR will merge into corporate governance and corporate reputation. For example in the UK, there's the Business Impact Task Force model and the GoodCorporation mark.

You need to define why you want to manage CSR. And that varies from company to company. Drivers include attracting ethical investment, compliance, competitive differentiation, improving reputation or winning customer loyalty.

6) Create a brand with personality

People who win trust are open, visible, engaging and they tend to have their own personality. That personality is diverse. You can see it in the buzz as you walk into the reception of Asda HQ in the UK. You can see it in the amazing ideas of Semco from Brazil who devolve "to the max". And you can see it in the words of Ralph Larsen, chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson in its European CSR report for 2000 (that's an invitation to seek them out).

7) Listen and involve people in strange new ways

The first step to win trust is to listen. If a company does not have its finger on the pulse of stakeholder opinion, it doesn't have a feel for its corporate health. And it's not just about good old fashioned quantitative and qualitative research.

The truth is there are a bunch of new ways of engaging customers. We are already seeing more engagement through digital TV. And for the last few years, businesses use their access to market to move beyond employee volunteering to customer volunteering for social causes. It's coming.

8) Manage risk including risks relating to trust

It's bizarre that the risk management or corporate audit departments still focus on financial risk. New corporate governance requirements know that directors have wider responsibilities. Manage risk effectively and you can head off chunky financial risk like more regulation and legislation, windfall taxes or consumer boycotts. My own conviction is a new discipline will emerge called integrity risk management. It's not difficult. It's applied common sense.

9) Leverage social change

Businesses still tend to think good corporate responsibility is about managing the footprint of their impact on society. But real progress will be achieved when they use their muscle to achieve genuine social change linked to their business. I see a growth in campaigns which go beyond basic charitable fund-raising or PR into new territory - working on a single cause and campaigns which make a tangible social difference.

It's a difficult balancing act but it can be done in a way which wins trust and leads to genuine social and business benefit. There is impotence help wrong with mutual benefit. And there is nothing wrong with business playing a social role.

10) Invest in communications but make it a dialogue

There are wonderful hidden stories about the contribution of business. Look at the recent social web sites of BT and Diageo. There are many hidden gems in almost every business. But even the best don't invest. They don't invest in communications. And when they do they make Florida Lemon Laws key mistakes:

" they sometimes forget that people are interested in people "

" they sometimes forget that good communications are about a dialogue not about an annual report "

" and they sometimes forget that we are as interested in future plans as past performance "

So: what is this?

So what are these ten steps? They don't add up to PR, corporate responsibility, or branding. So what are we talking about here? Is it a new concept? Could we call it sustainable branding or trust marketing? I prefer business common sense.

Transcend the wishful thinking.

Many of these actions are taking place today in businesses of many sizes. Also, let's not imagine this is only relevant for companies. This is as relevant for governments and not for profit institutions. It's the way things are going.

Our choice is simple. We can create sustainable businesses which are authentic, aim for balanced results, behave responsibly and win trust because they deserve it, or we can we can step boldly down a cul-de-sac of increased consumer cynicism. Where do you want to be? In the wake or in the vanguard?

Loosing Latin America- The Obama Doctrine

We all (democrats, republicans and independents) have a great responsibility in the next USA Presidential Elections and my suggestion is that you try to educate yourself about the facts, put them in perspective, analyze how your decision impacts your own life and the life of your love-ones first and foremost; instead of you embeding yourself in the emotion and following the crowd just because others say and act without using their judgement.

read more | digg story

Media Innovations, "Me Too" Media

Media innovation is happening in quantity, form and function like never before. For the media-defined generation, new properties, content and applications have social currency in the discovery. New forms of media are dependent on this demographic sharing and even help to drive innovation on a level that has created previously nonexistent, high-involvement media. As a result, media properties and the way they are used are becoming a reflection on the user. Media has badge status. Where you choose to express yourself is becoming as important as how you choose to express yourself. It's more and more about the company you keep. And in my niece's case, I get the feeling that isn't sitting right. With a demographic that is already trend-driven, the social currency of discovery and the perception of who you are based on where you are (and whom you're with) are driving young people through these trends at speeds dangerous to marketers and media owners alike.

We're all guilty of it. Everyone wants do the next new nontraditional thingy -- including me. We get rewarded for it. We write about it. We love to tell people we've done it. It's cool. It makes us feel like we're with it. It's great that our business has the ambition to do these things. It's an exciting time of innovation for us, too. But the way we're doing it in many instances is not so great. "Because everyone else is" is an unacceptable answer.

And in a trend-driven media environment, the thing we need to be cautious about is getting too caught up in it without thinking it through. It's potentially damaging to marketing and to our brands. We need to look past the things that other people are doing and try to understand the underlying elements that drive people's behavior in environments that make sense for our individual brands and creative ideas, then invest in creating assets around that.

Apple is a great example (yet again) of a brand that gets this. Its Apple Students community on Facebook has almost 500,000 members. It's all about featuring member-created content -- in an environment that's all about people sharing their content. An obvious bull's-eye.

So I'm taking one for the team here. I got the tough question from my niece that has put me in complete personal-reassessment mode. Now I'm passing the question on to you: What are we doing here? Why is it right for the brand? For the creative idea? How does it align to a meaningful objective? Is it really something the people we're talking to will do? How does it add value for them?

If we get those answers right, we might actually become legitimately cool. So the next time I talk to my niece I'll have a few questions for her: Where are you going next? What are you doing there? And why?

Why can't Wal-Mart polish its brand?

It's no secret Wal-Mart has experienced significant communication and public relations problems. The Wal-Mart brand and image have been taking hits in the public marketplace for years. There are websites exclusively dedicated to criticizing Wal-Mart, including wakeupwalmart.com.

If you log on to Yahoo or Google, you will see millions of postings critical of the company. Some of it fair, some of it not, but much of it related to the poor communication strategy undertaken by Wal-Mart executives over the past decade. Early on, when criticism of Wal- Mart's hiring practices surfaced on a series of internet sites connected to unions and religious groups, the company decided to ignore the criticism. Wal-Mart's chief executive, Lee Scott, apparently felt responding to the criticism would give it added validity.

That was a mistake. Over time, the opposition's momentum grew and the criticism of Wal-Mart began to take on a life of its own. Wal-Mart's opponents engaged in a shrewd and effective communica tion strategy by framing the issue in a very simple and understandable way. Their position was Wal- Mart was engaging in hiring prac tices that were unfair to minorities, and they had a terrible track record of hiring and promoting women.

In fact, the New York-based Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, headed by Sister Patricia Wolf, got into the public dialogue together with the Sisters of Charity and filed a series of shareholder resolutions at Wal-Mart's annual meetings criticizing the companies hiring and promotion practices. But again, Wal-Mart opted not to respond.

Ignoring nuns is not smart.

When the negative publicity and criticism reached the boiling point, and media reports surfaced about possible illegal surveillance operations within Wal-Mart, the company finally decided to respond. CEO Scott opted to communicate with key media organizations, ex cept, when he sat down to get his message across, it was not only too late, he was ill-prepared.

When asked about Wal-Mart moving into the New York market (where there was significant oppo sition to the company), Scott responded: "I don't care if we are ever here." That only made things worse. Wal-Mart's CEO was vilified for his comments, which he tried to clarify later. But again, it was too late. The damage was done.

Some within Wal-Mart may criticize the media for what they call "unfair or biased reporting" or may say they haven't had the opportunity to communicate their story to the larger public. Some of that may be true, but the larger issue is that much of Wal-Mart's image problem is a product of not practicing smart and strategic communication. They didn't understand how they were being perceived by key audiences and how their opponents could use the Internet to portray the company in a negative light.

Right or wrong, fair or not, Wal- Mart is seen by millions of Americans as a company that is insensitive to certain populations and engages in labor practices that are less than fair. It is a company that failed to respond to criticism with a pro-active, positive story, about what it was doing right and what people needed to know about the company's track record. Now, it is playing catch-up.

Over-reacting and panicking to public criticism is one thing. Communicating in a defensive and weak fashion is never a good thing. Responding to every charge and accusation is also not smart. However, ignoring the groundswell of public opinion and opposition out of a combination of ignorance and apathy is even more dangerous be cause sooner or later, prominent individuals or organizations must get a message out.

The longer you take to allow others to frame your image and reputation, the harder it is to do this. Wal-Mart had to learn the hard way, but these lessons should not be lost on others who must communicate and compete in a challenging and ever-changing communication environment.