Bloghound

Several people asked for more details on my 2006 predictions post. Here you go. Happy Holidays.

Insourcing vs. Outsourcing

Rather
than going outside to outsource low-value or transactional work,
companies will see the value of insourcing marketing talent and ideas.
Insourcing has helped Procter & Gamble add $3 billion in revenue
per year. Rather than typical “research & development,” P&G now
uses a “connect & develop” approach, insourcing more than 30% of
new product ideas coming from outside the company; the goal is to get
to 50 percent “insourcing.”

New market concepts vs. new products

Buying
music online is a big new market concept, which is why iPod and iMusic
are so successful. The Segway scooter, on the other hand, was a big new
product idea but not a very big market concept, which is why it hasn’t
been so successful. Companies who get innovation will focus more on
market concepts, which are difficult for the competition to quickly
copy, and less on new products, which can be easily knocked off.

Consumer insights vs. market research

Conventional
market research is too slow and superficial to keep up with fast
changing market trends and fickle consumers; what was hot six months
ago is often in a deep freeze by the time the focus group results are
in. Continually gathering market insights will become more important
than conventional qualitative research. In a recent speech at Wharton’s
Marketing Conference, Hershey CEO Richard Lenny urged companies to rely
on insight-driven customer marketing to increase the odds of success.

Communities vs. Blogs

Blogs
are beginning to be too hard to keep up with and are still more of a
one-way conversation, with the blogger talking at the blog readers. As
customers yearn for two-way conversations – and an easier interface –
they’ll seek out communities of interest. Also, companies will find
that creating communities for their customers is the best way to find
consumer insights.

Meaning making vs. promoting

Customers
are tuning out advertising, promotions and spin. What they want is
trusted help in making decisions. Companies that adopt more of a
meaning making approach – helping customers make sense of so many
competitive choices – will out market their competition. Meaning making
will become especially hot for companies selling expensive, high
consideration purchases.

Point-of-views vs. messages

While
messaging helps define what you want to communicate, messages
themselves have limited value unless they’re translated into
interesting, sometimes provocative, talkable point-of-views that gently
smack people in the face, getting them to pay attention and join in the
conversation. POVs jump start sales conversations, presentations, and
media interviews.

Teach me vs. tell me

Educational
psychologists would make great marketers. They know that the keys to
teaching students of any age are 1) make sure it’s personally relevant,
2) put it in a larger context, and 3) give it some emotion. And one
more: make it involving, a partnership more than a transaction.
Teaching vs. telling implies a lasting valuable outcome, not just
information. Marketers will benefit by taking a page from the teaching
textbook.

Salons vs. conferences

People will
be more attracted to small scale salon-style events where they can meet
with other interesting people in an interesting setting, and enjoy a
looser, more “open source” approach to the agenda. Salons provoke
thinking; conferences just present information.

Podcasts vs. Webinars

Get
it and go, downloading company speeches and presentations to your PC or
iPod so you can listen to it at your convenience will replace set time
and date Webinars. We’re all too buys to rearrange our schedules to
when a company wants to host an online meeting. But we will tune in to
valuable ideas, when it fits into our schedule.

Voice of the customer vs. voice of the company

“Are
you talkin’ to me?” Smart companies will listen more to the customers’
voice, address what the customers want to know, and talk the customers’
language, not some artificial “brand voice” created by the agency.

Behavioral targeting vs. 18-45

Behavioral
targeting vs. demographic or even psychographic segmentation is the
difference between being appreciated because you’re relevant and being
a clueless pest. Done right, behavioral targeting increases both
profitability and loyalty. Heck, even the Federal Reserve Bank gets it
– a new Fed research center is focused on “behavioral economics” to
better understand how people really make their spending and saving
decisions (hint: it’s rarely rational); insights will feed into the
Fed’s policy work.

Analytics vs. metrics

Metrics
have their place in measuring tactics, like advertising clickstream
data. But metrics tend to be rear view mirror, while analytics provide
predictive data you can act on to constantly improve programs and get
new ideas.

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