Futuretainment – A must read for CXO’s…

The cover reminds the reader of Facebook. The layout of the pages looks like some Flickr stream. And the text in them sounds like some kind of YouTube video that undermines with only some well-thought words the fast development of the social web world around us.

Futuretainment is more than a book for future management. It mirrors a consumer led-world, we cannot yet imagine in our business dreams – a world of social, media, entertainment and economic change. The world we are living in, is not facing a social media revolution anymore. The media revolution is getting closer to real life the moment these words get typed into my netbook.

Mike Walsh has been living and thinking about this social evolution of social media production and consumption from the beginning. This book shares his experience for all CXO’s to access a new understanding of modern customer’s culture of purchasing.

Businesses must re-educate themselves in their understanding of the way customers listen, read and watch product and brand innovation. The way consumers are broadcasting, gaming, branding, following advertisements and publishing is not following the old ways of traditional communication. Friends have more value than companies advertisments. They don’t believe in the authority of a big company any longer. They trust in the power of themselves: from customer to customer. Recommendation business is the future.

The CXO’s career success will be depending on how they can explain the change to themselves and to their stakeholders – and change the aspects of their business values to make the customer-led change happen inside their own company. A cultural change that will cost money, adapt identities, and move man power from traditional CV-based features to open-sharing minds. If you read the book you will know why it is worth while to go down that route.

Futuretainment… – The best idea is to buy this book for your management team as an incentive, and then build your business strategy on its theoretical and tactical basics. Re-invent your business strategy to become a part of the futuretainment world. Don’t try to hold on to traditional customer communication.

The future is moving fast. Entertainment is changing business values and workflows from desktops to mobile devices. Consumers love to be heard, and not to be manipulated. Thus, CXO’s better re-organize their internal and external cultural to keep up with the futuretainment’s pace.

Spot On!
In the last weeks, CXO’s and managers have asked me if this is all true about the social change and the myths around social media. I always adviced them to read this book by Mike Walsh, listen to his blog, or simply to follow him on Twitter. I absolutely agree with his words…

The book is published by Phaidon and art directed by the Vince Frost with Quan Payne.

The cover reminds the reader of Facebook. The layout of the pages looks like some Flickr stream. And the text in them sounds like some kind of YouTube video that undermines with only some well-thought words the fast development of the social web world around us. Futuretainment is more than a book for future management. It mirrors a consumer led-world, we cannot yet imagine in our business dreams - a world of social, media, entertainment and economic change. The world we are living in, is not facing a social media revolution anymore. The media revolution is getting closer to real life the moment these words get typed into my netbook. Mike Walsh has been living and thinking about this social evolution of social media production and consumption from the beginning. This book shares his experience for all CXO's to access a new understanding of modern customer's culture of purchasing. Businesses must re-educate themselves in their understanding of the way customers listen, read and watch product and brand

Smile = the key to social business success

For years, the world has thought about the key that perfectly describes what makes business people successful. One of the most important factors is an anthropological challenge (in my eyes) that should be so easy to be implemented for all businesses …and still can so seldomly be found in our social web world.

We business people just have to…

S = Social customer thinking is smart!
M = Market and measure constantly!
I = Invent, improve, innovate and stay involved!
L = Listen to your customers (…or just leave it)!
E = Engage your (potential) customers!

If you read these eight links, integrate the ideas in your business strategy, live it and go out -offline and online- to embrace customers, then these customers will pay back – with a SMILE.

Don’t you think?

PS: Sending you all a smile with this post!

For years, the world has thought about the key that perfectly describes what makes business people successful. One of the most important factors is an anthropological challenge (in my eyes) that should be so easy to be implemented for all businesses ...and still can so seldomly be found in our social web world. We business people just have to... S = Social customer thinking is smart! M = Market and measure constantly! I = Invent, improve, innovate and stay involved! L = Listen to your customers (...or just leave it)! E = Engage your (potential) customers! If you read these eight links, integrate the ideas in your business strategy, live it and go out -offline and online- to embrace customers, then these customers will pay back - with a SMILE. Don't you think? PS: Sending you all a smile with this post!

News Update – Best of the Day

“Markets are conversations” tells us the Cluetrain Manifesto. Let’s check some Facebook fan pages from well-known watch brands. The engagement of the audience is interesting to compare. While some manufaturers seem to have a PR channel like Tissot with less conversation happening, Omega gets the tone right and can really pick up a lot of ideas and thoughts for their marketing. And Baume & Mercier speaks in a French marketing language to their audience – a reason why not many people are talking to each other?

UK SMB companies obviously don’t embrace Twitter for their business strategy. A new study suggests that only 26% have a Twitter presence.

The old becomes new? Funny commercial from a brand that is associated with an old generation in my eyes – Old Spice.

"Markets are conversations" tells us the Cluetrain Manifesto. Let's check some Facebook fan pages from well-known watch brands. The engagement of the audience is interesting to compare. While some manufaturers seem to have a PR channel like Tissot with less conversation happening, Omega gets the tone right and can really pick up a lot of ideas and thoughts for their marketing. And Baume & Mercier speaks in a French marketing language to their audience - a reason why not many people are talking to each other? UK SMB companies obviously don't embrace Twitter for their business strategy. A new study suggests that only 26% have a Twitter presence. The old becomes new? Funny commercial from a brand that is associated with an old generation in my eyes - Old Spice.

Is customer-centric business the future?

In the last 12 years, the credo of my business life was “Customer First!”. It surprises and disappoints me when I experience poor customer service. Or when I hear from unhappy friends, colleagues or relatives telling me stories about how companies treat the centre of their business: customers.

Last week, when I was thinking about how to leverage this to a higher level, I came across a modern business strategy vision by Ranjay Gulati, Harvard Business School professor and author of the book “Reorganize for Resilience: Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business“. In the following video Gulati tells us how to deliver what customers really want.

Reorienting vs. Reorganizing
Ranjay Gulati sees the fundamental changes appropriate for some movement in company processes. Customers have more information, more choices on products while companies are facing global competition. So, businesses have to think about their business (not only marketing or sales efforts!) and how it operates.

Redefining vs. Reinventing
The analysis of the customer base might show that the website is designed for male while the majority of the users might be female. So, we need to ask questions like “Who are my customers?”, “How do my customers shop?”, or “What do they really want?”.

Gulati explains with the latest success of Best Buy how women and men shop. At that point, he also hints to the upsale opportunity of recommendations.

Success for businesses, he believes, comes from “Inside-Out-Perspective”. Companies don’t have to produce everything themselves but need to make the client happy like Apple with the iPhone. 90% of the inputs are not made by Apple. The same occurs to the apps in the Apple store where Apple basically just orchestrates the customers wishes.

“Make this identity shift. I am not here to sell what I produce – I am here to solve a set of customer problems (…) and actually acting on that!”

How to get to a customer-centric business…
1. Shifting mindset: the intention to solve customer problems.
2. Sense of curiosity and humility: the wish to understand your customers.
3. Make a creative leap: the will to understand their needs.
4. Align the elements in the organization: the motivation to live the customer-centric business.

Spot On!
Interested to get your view on this modern business strategy. Let us know what you think about customer-centric business. Or do you think the social web will be leading us towards this business process anyway?

In the last 12 years, the credo of my business life was "Customer First!". It surprises and disappoints me when I experience poor customer service. Or when I hear from unhappy friends, colleagues or relatives telling me stories about how companies treat the centre of their business: customers. Last week, when I was thinking about how to leverage this to a higher level, I came across a modern business strategy vision by Ranjay Gulati, Harvard Business School professor and author of the book "Reorganize for Resilience: Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business". In the following video Gulati tells us how to deliver what customers really want. Reorienting vs. Reorganizing Ranjay Gulati sees the fundamental changes appropriate for some movement in company processes. Customers have more information, more choices on products while companies are facing global competition. So, businesses have to think about their business (not only marketing or sales efforts!) and how it operates. Redefining v

Web-Strategy? Tell visitors what’s in it for them.

One-on-One Interview with Pete Brand
Owner and Co-founder, Mindscape

Pete Brand is co-leading Mindscape, a West Michigan-based interactive agency specializing in Web-based applications, Internet marketing strategies and user-friendly design. Employing their distinct “Mindshare Process,” the Mindscape team has helped hundreds of clients achieve exponential increases in Web traffic, drive online revenue and build consumer loyalty.

The Strategy Web interviewed Pete to get his view on the challenge to set up the right web strategy for their business.

Q: What is the benefit of connecting web-strategy to business strategy?
Pete Brand It is critical to develop your web strategy to be congruent with your business strategy so you can use it as a mechanism to help reach your business strategy goals. If you have an area of focus within your company strategy which you hope to grow and increase awareness, the Internet is the most effective and efficient way to create that awareness. Conversely, if you have an area where you are looking to decrease focus and your web strategy doesn’t take that into consideration, you could gain business you can’t support.

Q: Why is it necessary to analyze the business strategy first (client focus)?
Pete Brand When you take a deep look at your business strategy and take the time to identify how your offerings help your online audience solve the problems they are turning to the Internet to solve, you will find a very clear, efficient way to communicate the benefits you have available for your clients and potential clients. Too many companies spend the majority of their efforts telling the story of their products and company instead of focusing on the problems their prospective clients are looking to solve. It is very important to remember: Your visitors don’t care about you, your company or your products. They only care about what’s in it for them. Tell them!

Q: How does the “Mindshare Process” work for companies?
Pete Brand The “Mindshare Process” allows companies to clearly identify the outcome they would like to achieve online, the specific “buyer personas” they are trying to reach, their competitor’s online strategies, and the exact terms their potential buyers are typing in to identify the solution they provide and how often they are search for those problems. Essentially once they have gone through this process their strategy is created based on factual information and not on “guess work” which is what happens with 99% of the companies we meet with. The results are staggering!

Q: What does your “Mindshare Process” mean in terms of web-strategy?
Pete Brand When a company goes through the “Mindshare Process” the data that is uncovered and the analysis process we follow allows us to develop a web strategy that caters specifically to the buyers a company is trying to reach. We are able to identify EXACTLY what those buyers are looking for and by determining the commercial intent of the keywords they are searching with, we can reach them at the EXACT moment they are looking to buy. Based on that I would say the “Mindshare Process” helps a company develop a web strategy which will directly impact their level of increased revenue.

Q: Can you guarantee any benefit for companies that are working with the “Mindshare Process”?
Pete Brand We can ABSOLUTELY guarantee a strong benefit for companies that work through the “Mindshare Process.” In fact, every company who has gone through the “Mindshare Process” has seen significant increases in revenue. For example we had one company’s online revenue go from $4,000,000 annually to over $22,000,000 in just over 18 months.

Q: What have you learned are the 3 biggest mistakes in web-strategy?
Pete Brand The first and biggest mistake we find with companies is having NO web strategy. It seems as though a large percentage of companies realize they need a web presence and simply throw together a website and turn it live.

The second biggest mistake that rivals NO web strategy is the messaging on their website. The days of one way communication have ended. Internet users simply aren’t interested in what a company wants them to know. They only care about what is important to them. Web strategy needs to be focused on the benefits to the visitor. If it isn’t, they won’t be back.

The third biggest mistake is having a website with tactics but none of them tied to an overall web strategy. We find this a lot with companies. Don’t get me wrong, having tactics integrated in your web presence that help you reach your overall Internet initiative are good, but when they aren’t tied to an overall web strategy I would say they are only about 25% as effective as they could be.

Thank you for the interview and your time, Pete!

One-on-One Interview with Pete Brand Owner and Co-founder, Mindscape Pete Brand is co-leading Mindscape, a West Michigan-based interactive agency specializing in Web-based applications, Internet marketing strategies and user-friendly design. Employing their distinct "Mindshare Process," the Mindscape team has helped hundreds of clients achieve exponential increases in Web traffic, drive online revenue and build consumer loyalty. The Strategy Web interviewed Pete to get his view on the challenge to set up the right web strategy for their business. Q: What is the benefit of connecting web-strategy to business strategy? Pete Brand It is critical to develop your web strategy to be congruent with your business strategy so you can use it as a mechanism to help reach your business strategy goals. If you have an area of focus within your company strategy which you hope to grow and increase awareness, the Internet is the most effective and efficient way to create that awareness. Conversely, if you have