marketing & biz trends
DESCRIPTION
observations about trends in the business environment midyear, 2010, touching on marketing, social media, reorganization, and more...TRANSCRIPT
Biz & Marketing TrendsMid-2010
New Entrepreneur ExplosionOn a micro-scale, individuals are
exploiting unlimited reach of the web:
Using Give-aways, Contests, Video, Webinars, Whitepapers, & Slide presentations, Trial Memberships…
Which serve for list-building for emails…
To build reputations & followers, usually with the end-goal of selling…
Services such as coaching, virtual assistants, how-to’s for personal fulfillment, becoming a speaker, or any just add-water expertise niche.
Consumer Spending changing…Consumers still willing to
buy latest techno equipment
(iPads, and iPods, oh my)But they’ve learned during the recession how to negotiate their own price for many commoditiesAnd greater price transparency through search engines mean greater bargaining power! “U.S. consumers bought less clothing and footwear in April compared
to the same month last year, but opened their wallets for electronics, major appliances and status goods...”Read more
Technology love-affair drives applications & consumer activityThe mobile market is exploding
(100,000 new apps for iPhone alone, at beginning of 2010).*
Addiction to Twitter, digital messaging, photo/video sharing fuels our perceived need for new devices.
*per Mashable
Observing Media shifts…
Continued collapse of print medium…
Case in point: Reed Business Information shuttered 23 magazine titles in single day in April!
*source: BtoB online, May 2010
Observing Media shifts…
Consolidation & merger of media sources continues, making megalithic influencer entities
Microsoft purchased Yahoo > Google purchased YouTube > Twitter purchased Cloudhopper > Google rumored to purchase Twitter ?
Biz-use of the web & mobile for greater efficiencies:
Discovering Cloud-computingUsing more virtual tradeshowsRolling out webinars on new products & services (especially important for info-providers/aggregators, like Hubspot)
Customer interactivity reinforces consumer engagement & loyaltySmaller businesses deploy robust, sophisticated websites to compete against larger ones
Micro-channels & Micro-sites are mushrooming!
http://www.slideshare.net/MicrosoftOffice
Twitter grows…
Twitter saw well over 1 BILLION Tweets in Jan. 2010!
(Being tested by Best Buy, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks & Virgin America)
Twitter now wants to “monetize” or cash-in with new ad platform- Promoted Tweets (Advertisers bids for keywords on a CPM basis)
The incredible growing Twitterbird (graphic from Aravind Ajith , aka The Design Superhero)
Firms Do a Re-Org…
Re-organization of companies, continuing integration of Sales & Marketing.Reshuffling & renaming departments internally continues. “Flattened” levels of large companies & their functions are outsourced abroad or subcontracted to specialist providers, like CRM solutions, Social Media specialists, etc.Services like PR and advertising becoming obsolete, replaced by multipurpose web & creative agencies.
Companies are re-thinking C-suite responsibilities:
Microsoft recently named a CCO (Chief Creative Officer) & CSO (Chief Strategy Officer).Kodak created a CLO (Chief Listening Officer) post.Chief Networking Officer (CNO) & Chief Branding Officers are other new C-level roles, sitting at the table with the CMO & CTO, representing marketing & technology.
Sales Force changes…
Sales superstars will be
the better listeners, marketing gurus, &empowered to negotiate the best client-specific deals.
Graphic credit: Ricardo Gimenes
Sales Force changes…Sales forces increasingly demand prequalified leadsSales reps now required to do more ongoing relationship maintenanceSales has better resources at its disposal, like trigger alerts, campaign management tools, dashboards, 3rd party info aggregators & intelligence tools:
Marketing is a-changing…Less $ spent on print collateral; more spent on segmented email campaigns.
Marketing function now required to deliver solid tracking results, such as length of customer engagement over time.
Emergence of new analytics to help, e.g., IBM’s new Social Media Analytics Tool, which can analyze everything from product names and industry jargon to slang and emoticons.
Marketing is a-changing…
Marketing has a need for turn-on-a-dime immediacy:
Twitter fuels a social “insatiability complex”Consumers have a collective attention-deficit disorderCompanies keep an “ear to the ground” & expected to respond in real time
Marketing is a-changing…
Paid placement will be more targeted and entertaining. “Remarketing” allows advertisers to target users already engaged with brands through prior website visits.
Website content changing, too…Websites content changes will need to
be more frequent, as visitors seek the novel, yet designers will need to keep positioning of key features constant.
Another bonus for frequent updates: Google started incorporating real-time listings in its SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
More website changes on horizon…
Video becoming more prevalent & replacing Flash on mid-budget sites, as:
Flash is more difficult & costly to create, whereas,Video is available to all, &Video can be crawled by search engine spiders for key words, unlike Flash.
New Entrepreneurs & Social Medial Stars
IT Stars emerging, who possess high E.Q.’s (emotional intelligence) & presentation skills
Case in point: http://www.slideshare.net/razorfishmarketing/anything-but-typical-learning-to-love-javascript-prototypesGetting people to
share is the new economy, calling for new ethics, etiquette, and tweet “karma.”
