Over the Xmas period I’m writing an eBook considering how business is changing including the fundamental shifts we are experiencing and, also the key things we possibly need to get back to. It will cover between 50 and 100 words all supplied by my colleagues, clients, followers, connections and fans. Although, I may throw a few into the mix.

I’m hoping to provide an overview of some critical factors that will influence the future of work and business. Some of you have been kind enough already to provide some interesting topics such as; value, adaption, substance, competition, talent, time and feel.

It would be great if you could join in! I’ll reference you in the book and provide a hyperlink to your website or blog. Hopefully, I can provide some thought provoking ideas and thoughts with a bit of humility too. Can’t wait for the conversation to start once it’s published in February/March 2010.

If you want to contribute a word or two, please just make a comment on this blog, direct message me on www.twitter.com/annholman or, email me at ann@annholman.co.uk

Thanks!

In the past we have segmented the market based on product rather than the solution, then measured market share by that product. This also involved the benchmark of that products features against its competitors. Companies then started adding on by offering more features rather than adding value. In this situation you are solving the wrong problem.

Segmenting by customers doesn’t tend to work either. In an increasing sophisticated environment, slicing up by gender, age and location or by business size has become as useful as the world having one telephone. Customers increasingly don’t conform to the average customer in the segments you have had in the past.

New ways of marketing and the onslaught of social media throws a new perspective into the mix. We have become too good at creating products that don’t help customers do a job. Companies need to go back to the drawing board and look at what their customers are experiencing and what problems they need solving.

If you want to to build a brand that means something to customers, you need to create products and services that mean something to customers. Markets are no longer driven by typical customer segments but by small groups of people with niche common interests and connections. Traditional demographics such as gender, age and geographic location have taken a step back and we need to be segmenting on the ‘experience’ customers want.

Lets talk about something different, similarity! Groove Armada said it in their song ‘if everybody looked the same, we’d get tired of looking at each other.’ Look around you, we do look the same. Coffee shops on the high street, marketing agencies, bottled water, training companies, banks, solicitors. Just go and compare these two sites; www.hellyhansen.com and www.musto.com and you’ll get a flavour of what I mean.

When your competitive advantages are the same, you have got to approach how you engage with your market place better, which is why I keep banging on about customer experience. Here’s a suggestion. Set up a new project team that meets on a regular basis. Make it cross functional and call it the ‘Disruptive Team.’ Their job, to disrupt the status quo, to discover what TRULY makes you different and to guide you swiftly away from similarity.

Undertaking something like this won’t destroy your brand, indeed, it might just be it’s saviour.

I presented a seminar this week in Cornwall for www.mervynsmallwood.co.uk on customer loyalty and social media. It struck me that, like yesterday’s post, some new things are going to be challenging for business but we don’t need to panic about social media. Not just yet anyway. There is time to sit down, relax and just watch/observe.

My top five tips of what you need to be doing if you are looking at your marketing strategy in the next few months. Social media will be at the forefront of that so:

1. Read this book www.ducttapemarketing.com/socialmediaforbusiness.pdf

2. Research and play with social media, it’s meant to be fun.

3. Get yourself booked onto www.alikeminds.org in February 2010.

4. Find a social media ‘guru’ and pick their brains.

5. Read this blog and others www.thebrandbuilder.blogspot.com/

Don’t panic, social media is here to stay. You don’t need to jump on the bandwagon just yet. It’s more important to make sure you know what you’re doing and want to achieve. Spend 3 months getting your head round it. Play with www.twitter.com Start to engage with people. Follow people you like, follow people you hate. Understand the language, how it’s changing the way we do business, then launch yourself into it.

Social media is not a spectator sport so be prepared for that. You are not going to lose out by waiting a few months. In fact, you are going to be in a better position to manage the process and ensure your business makes the right decisions rather than hundreds of decisions.

I don’t think we are under any illusions here. Moving from a pre dominant offline marketing strategy to an online one is going to be tough. Not least because we have to go back to the drawing board and start again, forgetting almost everything we have been taught about marketing.

That’s not a bad idea though is it? Structurally things are shifting and essentially we have to move from a transactional relationship with our customers to one of engagement. In 2007, Forrester offered the definition of ‘engagement’ which included four elements; involvement, interaction, initimacy and influence. Now there’s a start. For me ‘influence’ is probably the most significant and exciting. Scott Gould has posted a fab article that’s a must read on influencers and translators. Catch it here at http://scottgould.me/influencers-and-translators/

There are three challenges here. Design a strategy that incorporates the four elements and embeds them in the culture of the organisation. Secondly, that those elements are implemented at every stage of the customer process and, thirdly, that you measure them to ensure it translates into meaning for you and your customers.

Some time ago John McMahon from www.forum21.co.uk professed that there were nine competitive advantages ranging from production cost to marketing to R & D. I still think he is right but those nine can be honed down into two differentiating factors; the price you charge and doing something definably different/innovative.

Realistically, if you’re in the price sensitive market, price in some ways is all you’ve got and we know where that leads. More price reductions, more price promotions, more sales deals, less margins. People want quality but have low expectations of customer service. Let’s be honest, if I go into Primark, I’m not that bothered about having a meaningful, long term relationship with the people in there. I want my t-shirt for £1 and then I want to leave.

If you’re delivering something different and innovative, now that’s a different ball game all together. Expectations from the start are critically higher. We demand undivided attention if we are buying a premium product. We desire a mutually respectful relationship that’s full of trust. Our motivations to purchase are just as much about the product as the service and its emotional too. The focus has got to be the unrelenting exceptional customer experience.

Or, you can just be in that very vulnerable, very competitive place, the middle like Next, River Island, Debenhams and Marks and Spencer where you have to look good, be good and deliver a good price too. In fact, you have to hit both competitive advantages simultaneously, continuously, everyday! Now that’s difficult.

Well not quite literally! In the past we have imposed ourselves on our customers through advertising, selling and ‘interruption’ marketing tactics. Are we now entering an era of invitation only? I’m not talking about ‘if your names not down, you’re not getting in’ but is the web not enabling us to communicate the true us, targeted effectively to those that are listening?

Should our marketing now be about communicating distinguishing information that exposes our grace, humility and expertise? Our customers can find us easier than we can find them nowadays. We don’t need vast amounts of info in our head when we can get the answer via a few clicks. If we have a clearly definable presence on the web, that’s highly focused, is that all we need? If we have that high profile and what we talk about is intriguing enough, interesting and based on an honest relationship, perhaps it will be inviting enough!

Who would have thought it 20 years ago? There were inclinations of what was about to happen 10 years ago, The Cluetrain Manifesto more than hinted at it. Now that it’s upon us why do some people still not get it? The world is a changing and we better get to grips with it as soon as possible. If you are not already, you need to be understanding social media and crowdsourcing like there is no tomorrow.

People from around the world are gathering in places to converse on subjects they are commonly interested in. They share information, collaborate on projects and trade knowledge for little or no money. They will probably never meet face to face but trust, respect and a genuine relationship is formed sincerely.

Everyone now has a vehicle to explore their latent talent. That same vehicle can provide an audience for that skill whether it be creative, specialised knowledge innovative new products or a craft. The barriers to entry are almost non existent.

And, what that brings is the ability for people to find their own voices again, often for the first time in a work environment. Without the constraint of corporate speak and culture, people are conversing with all sorts of people. Barriers are breaking down. Language is losing its spin.

The web, social media and the crowd doesn’t care what qualifications you have, whether you went to Harvard or Cambridge or Exeter. It couldn’t give a damn the colour of your skin, where you were brought up or what gender you are. The traditional pre conditions of working with certain people is evapourating except, of course, quality.

People in old school company structures are bored. Sick of being suffocated in a contradictory world of systems and procedures where the work is about money and position. People are banging on the door of their prison, sorry office and asking to be let out. To be free to contribute and do something meaningful and different.

These tools, some newer than others do not, in fact isolate us, far from it. It does the opposite by allowing us to share and colloborate on levels and in numbers never seen before and, hell, this is just the beginning. It means huge changes for every business, and I mean every business. Old, traditional models don’t need scrapping overnight but they will need to be very soon.

It has huge implications. There is a new meaning to outsourcing, competition, teams, the way you use talent, intellectual property, business models, innovation, marketing, customer service, leadership, motivation, inspiration the list goes on. We are not talking about little changes in practice here but significant, huge shoves. Burying your head in the sand won’t make it go away.

You don’t need to buy big exclusive brands anymore. You don’t need an Audi or a VW when a Skoda or a Seat will more than do the job. You don’t need to buy Armani jeans when Next is just around the corner. Purchasing a mountain bike, today, causes anyone procrastination issues. There is a plethora of choice and the supposed lesser brands have caught up.

The difference between a Golf and a Skoda used to be huge 20 years ago. Now you couldn’t slide a piece of paper through the difference, except the price of course. Even Alex Ferguson, Manager of Manchester United has commented that the difference between the Premiership and Championship is minimal nowadays.

This means that brands are pushing up against each other. The market place is crowded and that has implications for customer purchasing. VW are going to have look very hard at how they justify the extra £3000 - £5000 for their cars when a Skoda more than does the job, particularly after the purchase. Too many brands and you get crushed and so does your customer. If you were in the exclusive market, I bet things are getting more difficult each year?

If exclusivity is diminishing because someone chased you and closed the gap, you need to concentrate on creating a new visible wedge! It’s why customer experience is so important. Future small business success will be based on choosing one of two competitive advantages; price for identical products and those who create innovative experiences that are distinctly different.

Traditional marketing pushes messages to people who aren’t listening. Anything you create; brochures, direct marketing, telemarketing, exhibitions have all been designed for people who don’t want to hear it. They are not interested anymore in our egotistical approach to selling how good we are and how we are different from our many, many competitors. There is no demand for messages, they want conversation and an intelligent one at that.

Customers want to look you in the eye, even online. They don’t want the truth disguised in corporate speak, nor, repackaged as public relations spin. They can smell BS a mile off.

Customer expectations have changed radically, yet most businesses marketing campaigns have become inert. Those that commission marketing consultancies who create campaigns around traditional approaches deserve everything they get…indifference. No wonder marketing is failing. No marketing strategy should be developed without a long, hard look at how to build credibility and reputation. Have a high level conversation with your customers rather than broadcasting the usual crap about your product. Customers are listening to conversation, but not to the bombardment of traditional marketing techniques we keep spewing out.