Archive for the 'Strategy' Category
July 21, 2008
Three Reasons Branded Online Communities Fail
A Deloitte consultant just released result of a study of 100 businesses with online communities. From the WSJ:
One of the hot investments for businesses these days is online communities that help customers feel connected to a brand. But most of these efforts produce fancy Web sites that few people ever visit. The problem: Businesses are focusing on the value an online community can provide to themselves, not the community.
The three main reasons for failure were not surprising:
- Focusing on the technology over the value of the community to its members;
- Failure to assign experienced staff to develop the community;
- Poor or no metrics for measuring success.
Let’s tackle those one at a time:
Bells & Whistles
It is so very tempting to focus on the gee whiz things you can do with technology, especially with the very hot social media arena. However, you have to center all of these efforts on the value you will provide to your anticipated community members, making sure that is aligned to deliver some value for your company or organization when it takes off. Constantly ask yourself “So what?” as you develop your plans. Once you have the value identified you can make rational choices about the technology you choose to deploy.
Leadership and Management
Would you launch a new product or service line without an experienced person to develop and manage it? Not usually, no. The same goes for online communities. They require care and feeding and interaction to do successfully. This requires dedicated staff who can interact with others online effectively and keep your online space focused on the value it should provide to participants and the company. It boggles the mind to read the story linked above and realize many of these companies spent over a $1 million on their site and then put half a staff person in place to run it.
Measuring Success
This goes back to value: your measures for success must tell you if you are creating the value you planned to achieve. Are your community members getting value? Is this participation generating value for the sponsoring company? Simply pages views and site registration won’t do. If you goal is to convert community members into customers, be sure you have processes and tools in place to measure that conversion rather than simply hope for the best.
(Story spotted via the most excellent CMSWatch.)
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June 19, 2008
Chief Program Killer
I had a conversation yesterday where one of Peter Drucker’s maxims on innovation was mentioned: sustained innovation can only happen in an organization if you are diligent about killing programs that do not provide sufficient value.
The reason for this is plain. It is impossible to make resources available for sustained innovation if all the resources of the organization are tied up in existing programs, products, services, etc.
Many organizations have put an executive in charge of fostering innovation but I imagine few of them consider putting the same person in charge of killing programs as well.
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May 28, 2008
Selling Like It’s 1989
I was shopping online a few days ago for a nice fountain pen. When you want a fountain pen, you start with Mont Blanc. However, Mont Blanc publishes no prices online and they do not allow their retailers to do so either. The result? Many pages across the web featuring very nice Mont Blanc pens, each with a ‘contact for price’ button.
I bought a pen from Cross instead.
Price really wasn’t an issue here, it was convenience. I did not want to go through the hassle of having to interact with a human for what should have been a very simple, self-guided, impulse buy.
Controlling price information was a feasible strategy pre-Web. Keeping the numbers hush-hush prevents retailers from discounting competitions, protecting profit and the sales channel. This does not work when customers can easily price shop across the globe and expect to be able to make an informed purchase immediately.
I shudder to think of how many sales Mont Blanc forgoes with this dated tactic.
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April 25, 2008
Building Community and Collaboration with Global Customers
I am appearing on a panel discussion next month where I will be sharing my views on how to build community and collaboration with global customers. The entire event looks pretty interesting so I have posted the information below. Use the promo code SPEAKER to get a $100 discount on registration.
The event is BDI’s Global Communications: Connecting Across Borders and Understanding Cultural Differences conference in New York City on May 13. It is being held The Graduate Center of CUNY. Here is the conference description:
It has been reported that a substantial number of U.S. based multinational companies’ primary source of growth and profits are linked to global markets. New generations of consumers are growing at a rapid pace in China, India and many other emerging markets. However, it’s not business as usual when communicating, connecting and branding on world-wide basis. During this full day conference, we will examine case studies from leading multinational companies who will share their lessons learned from a communications and branding perspective. 350 communications and marketing professionals from both the corporate and agency communities are expected to attend the conference.
Let me know if you’ll be there!
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March 10, 2008
Going Global by Going Small?
Data from the end of 2007 show that about 20% of the world’s population have access to the Internet while around 50% have cell phones.
What does this imply for how potential customers will be viewing your site, especially in the developing part of the world where cellular networks leapfrog land lines? Checked your site in a cell phone browser lately?
Relatedly, below are the slides from the presentation on global web strategy I gave last week at ASAE’s International Conference. Thanks to the 100+ people in the session. Great audience with very good questions. Also, my thanks to the SHRM contingent for playing along in a surprise case study of their efforts!
Feel free to contact me if you have questions about addressing international audiences with your web presence.
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March 4, 2008
Your Global Web Site
Ever since a Brit invented it in Switzerland as part of a European scientific organization, the Web has been intended as a global medium.
Once your site is live, you immediately have access to a global audience that is only going to grow and diversify further in the future. I remember being amazed by the immediate flow of e-mail from around the globe that I started receiving once my name and address were listed as a resource on a new site that launched in 1995.
Yet, most organizations completely ignore the potential for addressing global audiences and their unique needs. The web is an often efficient way to grow your customer base around the world but it will only work effectively in that role if you develop a strategy for why those audiences will receive value from you.
I am speaking on this very issue Thursday at ASAE & the Center’s International Conference in Washington, DC. You can see the program agenda on their site and I have posted my session description below.
If you have any questions you would like addressed during the event, be sure to post them here or send me an e-mail at david@highcontext.com.
(As an aside, with all of its global initiatives, why does ASAE give the International Conference short shrift with an anemic web presence? Seems rather short sighted to me.)
Making your Web Go World Wide: Global Web Site Strategy
The Web is a powerful vehicle for establishing and enhancing your global presence. Maximizing the contribution of your web site to your international strategy takes much more than translating a few pages of content. This session will zero in on these key issues:
- Defining global strategy in terms of the Web
- Common strategies and design patterns for global web sites
- A decision framework for evaluating which approach best supports your goals
Leave this session with a clear understanding of how the Web can support your association’s international goals and how to make it happen.
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March 3, 2008
Nickels and Dimes
The Washington Post wrote on Sunday that most banks hide the total list of all fees that they charge customers. All fees are not listed on most sites and agents were unable to get a full list of fees when they requested one in person at a branch.
Since the advent of ATM fees, many, many banks have realized they can nickel and dime (or dollar and twenty) their customers without losing many of them if they make the fees non-obvious or hard to avoid. This added millions to the bottom line but what a way to treat your customers. It leaves a huge opportunity to differentiate your company by treating your customers as valued business instead of cash trees to be shaken for spare change.
Even the cellular companies are starting to clue into this. Most of the major players have rolled out unlimited talk plans for around $99/month. AT&T even offers a truly unlimited data plan to go with it (most others charge extra fees over a certain amount of bandwidth used). These plans only make sense for people who talk a LOT on their phones. These are also some of the most profitable customers they have as well. Why not treat them well with a plan that eases their mind about no additional fees while also making good money for the company. That’s the kind of dynamic you should look for.
Amazon’s Prime membership is another example of this virtuous circle. Prime members receive free 2-day shipping on their purchases: the more they buy from Amazon the more valuable the membership. Nice dynamic!
Look for those virtuous circles in your own company or organization when considering pricing strategy. Money given to you should be in exchange for value, not as an involuntary ransom or tithe.
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February 12, 2008
Quoted in Article on Effective Web Site Measurement
I was quoted in an article published by Microsoft Office Oline titled Deciphering your Web site traffic reports: 5 tips. I was interviewed by Christopher Elliott for the article, who does quite a bit of writing on travel and business issues.
Here is the section with my input, discussing how too much data can often be a bad thing:
Focus on the numbers that really matter. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with data, much of which doesn’t apply to your company. “Identify the top two or three statistics that actually allow you to make decisions about your site,” says C. David Gammel, an online media consultant and president of High Context Consulting in Salisbury, Md. “Ignore all the other data.”
Why disregard this wealth of information? Because poring over all the data will create what Gammel calls “analysis paralysis.” And that can detract you from your goal. His advice is to focus only on the metrics that are relevant to your business. For example, rather than obsessing over page views, look at the clicks to your online store and compare them with sales.
You are far more likely to make progress if you measure completion of specific, value producing goals, than simply trying to increase your overall page views and unique visitors.
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February 5, 2008
Internet Disruptions and Global Web Audiences
Several undersea telecommunications cables were cut in the Middle East/South Asia region last week. Networks from Egypt to India were impacted, creating very slow to broken connections. Outsource operations in India were a big concern but the large players had alternate connections available as part of their disaster response.
There has been a lot of speculation as to how the cables were cut and no ships have been identified yet in the areas where the cables were severed. John Robb posted today about how cutting undersea cables is a viable strategy for small groups to execute in a system disruption campaign.
All of which made me think about organizations who address a global audience via their web sites. If Robb is right, this kind of disruption could be become more frequent. If you have a large audience for your site outside your own region, you should consider how to ameliorate this risk in advance.
What could you do? The main thing I can think of is to distribute the hosting of your web sites around the globe, either by maintaining mirrored sites or deploying localized sites in their target regions. Locally deployed sites in key regions would provide you with continued service to those audiences even if they are disconnected from the Internet as a whole for a period of time. This is a non-trivial effort but if serving global audiences is a key part of achieving your goals, it could be a good investment against future disruption and associated losses.
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January 23, 2008
Products or Markets?
Kevin Holland posted last week about his position that associations should be driven by the needs of their market rather than any particular product they produce.
Many association do choose to drive their products and services based on the needs of their market (which are largely their members and others closely associated with them). This is fine and often works quite well.
I would like to make the point, however, that an association could choose to have a particular product or service (or set of products/services) as the driving force for their strategy, addressing any market that values them. Their customers and members would change over time as they find new markets for their core product. The CFA Institute is a good example of what this might look like in practice.
Driving your choice of markets by a particular set of products you produce is as valid a strategy as determining your products/services by the needs of a defined market. Each would lead to very different looking associations but that’s the whole point of strategy: picking a direction and putting it into action.
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