oktober 8th, 2009
According to the latest research, it seems that social media is now exploding in terms of users, but also content being uploaded on a daily basis. See Erik Qualman’s great video for inspiration.
The question is: How can companies use social media to build strategic differentiation?
One example could be the ongoing campaign from Danske Bank. They have desperately been trying to salvage their reputation by changing their strategic differentiation to customer satisfaction. In relation to this, they allowed users to freely comment the bank and its actions on a dedicated Danske Bank site. According to Danske Bank, 3500 people either commented or uploaded comments to the site – not bad for a couple of months of running in the Danish market!
The campaign has now turned into 23 specific actions and a twitter account. Time will tell if their new focus and media channel strategy will bring them closer to their customers.
Skrevet af Michael Sherain, oktober 8th, 2009 i kategori Marketing |
No Comments yet!
oktober 7th, 2009
Even though economic recovery might be in sight, marketing budgets won’t bounce right back and there is certainly no room for waste. More than ever before, marketing needs to focus on that part of the business that differentiates you strategically. You’ll understand in which business areas marketing spend can be cut and which areas need extra investments. In essence, marketing investments need to become more efficient.
One of the weapons in the fight for increased efficiency is behavioral segmentation. While it has been around for some time, relatively few companies have actually discovered it. Many still stick to traditional, less insightful, and thus less effective segmentation methods - if they segment at all. The great advantage of behavioral segmentation is that it allows you to get into the mindset of a customer, and it will give new insights in how you should differentiate strategically. By doing so you can more effectively drive product development, sales initiatives, and marketing communication from it.
I recently read an article in the McKinsey Quarterly that zoomed in on the wealthy in China, underlining the benefit of behavioral segmentation. “…Easily obtained demographic information - age, gender, and income, for instance - offers little help in separating China’s wealthy into segments with differing attitudes toward, say, borrowing, fashion, or obvious displays of wealth… More meaningful differences emerged when we considered what respondents said about their needs - the need to feel unique, for example, or to feel financially secure.”
Tuning into customers’ needs will offer a much better way out of the recession than price dumping - a strategy used by many companies. A recent survey in the Netherlands showed that while supermarkets are aggressively offering discounts, the amount of the Dutch consumers that are price sensitive hasn’t changed due to the recession. According to Trendbox, whom conducted the survey, the only consequence the discounts have had, is that discounted products have replaced the purchase of normally priced products. However, the discounts did not bring any extra customers, as the choice of their supermarket is based on other, more valuable parameters.
Especially when combined with demographic segmentation, behavioral segmentation helps companies to truly move from being product oriented to being value oriented. It will give companies the opportunity to position themselves in a way that is true, relevant and high value to their customers. Once this is done, companies can focus on the right customers, with the right proposition, and make sure that the right customers stick around longer.
Skrevet af Pim Schuitemaker, oktober 7th, 2009 i kategori Marketing |
44 Comments!
september 22nd, 2009
In my recent article for Mindshare’s Markedshorisont magazine, I describe the upcoming race to re-take the highest value market positions as the economic downturn begins to bottom out. Companies will need to have clear positioning strategies in place and be able to adapt their brands, cultures, operations and marketing to reflect those strategies. Well-prepared companies will be able to increase control of their value chains in three key ways.
Click here to read the article.
If you read Danish, I also recommend that you register online to read the full magazine including articles on neuroscience, brand equity and preventing brand erosion. Click here to register.
Skrevet af Michael Sherain, september 22nd, 2009 i kategori Brands, Culture, Marketing, Operations, Positioning Strategy |
13 Comments!
