Communispace’s futuristic marketing

    Commmunispace "was the market leader in creating and managing private, brand-focused online communities for major corporate clients." They developed a new way to successfully market products by taking advantage of Web 2.0. Communispace understood that Web 2.0 is an excellent tool to reach the customer since the customer is always accessible online. Reaching out to the customer online can make listening to customers much easier. Web 2.0 also makes WOM advertising more effective because customers can talk with one another and share ideas regarding a product. Communispace builds online communities for clients and these communities are where they inspire discussion and feedback on their client's products. These communities are more effective than focus groups or surveys because, "communities provide a continuous flow of information, not a snapshot in time."

    I feel that listening to the customer is a huge competitive advantage. Today we live in a society where most companies don't listen to what their customers want. They feel that they know what the customer wants better than the customer knows themselves. This can be a positive or a negative practice. Nintendo for example always tries to be one step ahead of the customer by predicting what the customer wants. For example Nintendo always makes the customer scratch their heads when they announce a new game or system, but thus far Nintendo's risks have worked out in their favor. In 2003 Nintendo launched The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker which was a new installment in one of their most successful franchises. Nintendo was taking a huge gamble because players were expecting the game to look realistic but Nintendo flipped the switch and decided to make the game look like a cartoon. Many fans were not happy but the game still sold and gamers got over it since the product was still good. Nintendo took an even bigger gamble with the Wii. They decided to not compete directly against Sony and Microsoft and instead to make inferior technology that was more gimmicky. But the gimmick worked and ended up outselling the PlayStation 3 and the X-Box 360. Then there are times when a company goes against what the customer wants and suffers dearly because of it. For example Coke launched a new Coke in 1985 which was a huge marketing bust. Customers were not happy and Coke was forced to return to their original flavor. Coke listened and reverted back which is an example of how successful a company can be when they actually care what the customer thinks. I normally refrain from buying products from companies who think they know what I want and refuse to listen when me and others complain that we want the old thing back. My favorite video game of all time is Socom II USA navy seals which launched on the PlayStation 2 in 2003. Socom was an online shooting game that had a huge following. Socom III came out and was nothing like Socom 2, it was a different game. Users repeatedly complained on message boards for Zipper Interactive to return Socom to how it was but Zipper refused to listen and they brought out a few Socom's since the third installment. Today the entire Socom fan base is gone because Zipper would never listen to their customers and now the former fans play other games like Call of Duty. I see why Coke is the best marketed product in history because of their listening.

    Online communities work well for listening because Communispace keeps the communities small so customers can know one another and therefore they will trust each other and feel comfortable sharing. Communispace does not want communities to be the size of Facebook; they prefer to keep them smaller, more like forums. Customers use these communities because incentives are often provided. Companies make marketing decisions from listening to customers. Take Nabisco's 100 calorie packs as an example. The success of that campaign is due to customer input and execution of what the customers want. I wonder how products would fair in a market where every company cared about what customers want? I enjoyed reading this case and I would give it a 9/10.

Using Social Media in Marketing

 

    I read the Gartner article "How To Establish a Social CRM Strategy" by Michael Maoz and the case study: "Virtusa's Social Media Plan" by Carol Rozwell." Both of these readings raise some unique and rather obvious points regarding how companies should integrate social media technology into their marketing plans.

    Maoz article touches on the importance of adding a social CRM strategy into the mix to help companies establish customer service at its best. Setting up such a system will help companies establish trust with their customers which is pinnacle if a company wishes to maximize profit and consumer satisfaction. Social CRM's show how the world is changing right before our eyes. Technology is becoming a more necessary part of business practices and companies now need to be at the forefront of technology if they wish to be a successful corporation. All of the companies that are at the forefront of technology are the highest grossing companies. Let's use Google and Apple as examples to name a couple. The success of these technology companies is showcased in their stock prices. The insanely high stock prices can be credited to the commitment to staying at the forefront of technology. Google is always coming up with some new way for customers to interact with one another whether it's Gmail or android phones and Apple is always coming out with new hardware for people to interact on like the IPAD. Social CRM technologies are "hybrid solutions that encompass social-software applications." Companies must engage in some of these applications if they want to gain customer trust and to foster an environment of happy stakeholders. This article lays out excellent ideas but it would be better if Maoz was more specific in how to develop the strategy. She is vague and states that companies should carefully lay out a strategy and insure that the customers have a voice. Well duh, I could have said that without writing 6 pages. She does do a great job explaining how CRM's will help companies. She states that CRM's will help firms with every aspect of business. This showcases how big a role technology is playing and will continue to play in the future of business. She states that marketing is the biggest use for CRM's. CRM's will allow customers to have a voice and to be informed about firms and their products. This is a double edged sword in my opinion. Customers will be able to share their ideas with companies. Which is a good thing when the customers are saying positive things. When customers want to speak negative about a company, companies will have to go out of their way to appease these customers and to perform damage control so one disgruntled customer doesn't spread their negative experience to other customers. We see this in how companies on Twitter will now give people incentives if they promise not to tweet negatively about the company.

    Rozwell's case shows how Social Media is an ever increasing segment of marketing departments. A few years back social media wasn't important at all to firms and now every firm is allocating some resources to social media. This shows how important social media is becoming in our global society and how this new trend cannot be ignored or companies will suffer in their profitability and long term growth. Rozwell also states that it is important for companies to know how to properly use social media. Using social media in the wrong way could either deem it pointless or dangerous. That's why she touches on the important to adhering to the social media guidelines. These guidelines will insure that companies and their customers will have a good rapport. For example, employees must exercise decorum when engaging in social media technology because everything they say online represents the firm as a whole. If they say the wrong thing they will not only hurt the firm but they might also find themselves out of a job. This shows how we are all losing our freedoms online. Back in the day we use to be able to say whatever we wanted online but now doing so could cost us getting into a school, getting a job, or loss of a job. This shows how online technologies are becoming paramount and people have to behave online as they would in society.

    Both of these articles were enjoyable reads. I felt like some parts of them touched on some obvious things but I learned a lot. I would rate them both a 9/10. I would recommend reading them.

Creating an openness strategy

 

    Charlene Li's "Orchestrating Your Open Strategy" lays out the different ways that companies are using "open strategy's" to reach their customers and to handle their business process. Li touches on how important it is for companies in today's society to know their customers and to know what they are doing. Social media is now making it easier for companies to break down the former barrier and to reach out and find ways to understand all of their stakeholders. This is showcased in the multitudes of firms that are using social media tools to attempt to understand their customers. Companies are using "social monitoring" to observe what their potential buyers are doing online. People are now getting paid to not even blog and tweet but just to observe, so they can help predict the behaviors of their customers.

    Different companies are deploying different open strategies because the same one won't necessarily be applicable to each. For example Coke cannot respond to each person that interacts with them on Facebook or Twitter because of the share volume of responses Coke gets but Kohl's can. Li states that communication is pinnacle to the open strategy. Stakeholders should all share a common goal. This makes perfect since because for a company to truly achieve success, everyone affected by it should be on the same page. If every stakeholder is happy then the company will receive nothing but success and good fortunes.

    I am a fan of the "Organic" strategy. I feel that Microsoft effectively uses it to reach out to all of its customers. In an organic system different parts of a company are doing different things in the social media realm but in a way that makes sense to the company as a whole. Microsoft has bloggers and not every manager knows the contents of the blogs but the system still works because it doesn't force every person in the organization to take place in the blogging. Starbucks found success using a "centralized strategy." Starbucks only lets a select few people interact with the social media and they are reaching many people by this strategy. Starbucks has some of the most Facebook and Twitter followers out of any company that is using social media. This shows how sometimes it is better to just let a few people handle a task instead of adding too many people to it, thus creating confusion and chaos.

    From reading this article I gathered that there is no recipe to picking an open strategy. Different strategies will work for different companies and it's up to the companies to experiment and find out which system will work the best. I wonder which strategy is the most effective overall and which one is used the most? This chapter was somewhat confusing to read and at times I didn't fully understand what the author's main purpose was. I learned a lot from reading this chapter but it was boring and dull so I rate it a 4/10.

Twitterville and customer satisfaction

Twitterville by Shel Israel details the history of the social media tool and explains how it is being integrated into business and put to effective uses. It’s amazing how Twitter is helping companies find new avenues of reaching out to customers. Chapter 4 of Twitterville states how Comcast had god awful customer service. They were infamous for it: even having sites dedicated to bashing Comcast and videos posted of the poor service of their repairman. I know this first hand because I use to have Comcast Cable and they gave me nothing but terrible service for their terrible product. Comcast was horrendous on the phone and never solved the problem and their boxes would always malfunction. The fact that Comcast was able to use Twitter to turn around their customer service demonstrates how powerful of a tool, Twitter really is. Twitter is revolutionizing customer service and making it easier for companies to help customers and for customers to reach for help. It is way easier and more convenient to seek help on Twitter as opposed to waiting on the phone all day.
Jet Blue follows its customers on Twitter so they can monitor customer satisfaction and see how they can improve their service. Jet Blue amongst others are successfully using this social media tool and integrating it into their business to gain a competitive advantage. It is magical that in 140 characters or under, a company can save/maintain a customer relationship. Companies have used Twitter to please frustrated customers and turn those customers into happy ones. It’s fascinating how Twitter can give customers power over corporations. The simple threat of a negative tweet can get companies on their hands and knees trying to please unhappy customer. Companies have been doing everything they can to correct the problem and even giving incentives. Companies will do anything to prevent negative publicity from being broadcasted over the internet. So many users are using social media now and if one person tweets negative about an experience that they had. This one negative experience can easily reach 100,000 after a few degrees of separation and some retweets. This shows how social media is evolving and cannot be ignored. I started using Twitter for this class solely and I noticed that every store I shop at and every product I use has a Twitter. My Beats headphones just snapped in half the other day and I tweeted to @beatsbydre and they sent me back what I have to do to get a new fixed pair of headphones. I am seeing firsthand how if you call a company out on Twitter, they will do whatever they can to insure that customers are having a positive experience with their product. In away twitter is being used to improve customer satisfaction, thus hopefully increasing gains and for damage control. This was a really interesting read. I learned a lot. I rate this reading a 8/10.