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ASTEROID IP HAS STRUCK PLANET EARTH
by John Audette of MMGCO
The dinosaurs had a nice run. But about 65 million years
ago, theory has it, they were brought down by a large rock (an asteroid
more than five miles in diameter) that crashed into the earth somewhere
around Club Med in
Cancun, causing an explosion 10,000 times greater than could be produced
by all the nuclear weapons currently on earth. Evidently the rock changed
the environment on a global scale.
Though it pales in comparison to the run of the dinosaurs (or even "Cats"
for that matter), business has had a nice run since the Industrial Revolution.
And no big rocks appear to be on a collision course with our
modest little sphere, allowing the topless sun bunnies to lounge comfortably
on the beach in Cancun. But a radical change in the environment is underway
nonetheless -- caused not by big rocks from outer space, but by the little
grains of sand that pad those sunbathing bottoms.
Silicon chips, linked together in a global network, and communicating
in the standard global language of Internet Protocol (IP), are causing
immense global change. And many businesses, well adapted to the old environment,
are having a hard time adjusting.
You hear a lot about "getting it" or "not getting it"
when people talk about the Internet. Do you ever wonder just what that
means? Well, here goes. I'm going to tell you what it means to get it
-- at least in a business context.
Ready?
The customer is in charge.
Asteroid IP has flipped the world over and -- the customer is in charge
(say it out loud). Those little IP packets have given the customer unprecedented
power:
(1) Information is Ubiquitous
There's no place to hide on the Internet. The customer can compare your
products -- features, benefits and price -- with all of your competitors
products in a heartbeat, making the 'Net the most competitive business
environment in history.
(2) A Wide Choice Bestows Pull Power
The Internet is a pull medium. The viewer has millions of choices. The
old media are push. How many newspapers do you have to choose from
in your town? How many radio stations? Television channels?
(3) Everyone is Potentially a Publisher
You provided lousy service to Bill Bob. He complained but you gave him
the run-around or the brush-off. Did he persist? Nope, he simply put together
a little Web site called yourcompanysucks.com and made it
available to 100 million people on the Web. In the pre-IP world, it took
someone like Ralph Nader to act as a catalyst for consumer advocacy. Now
we're all potentially consumer advocates.
(4) Everyone Hates Obtrusive Advertising
In push media, it's hard to hide from advertising. Full-page print ads,
billboards next to the road, radio commercials, television commercials
-- it's hard to avoid them. The remote control for the TV bestows some
power, but it's like a pop-gun compared to the nuclear war head called
the mouse.
(5) Commoditization Breeds Self-Reliant Customers
For over ten years now there has been a powerful trend in retail toward
commoditization for an ever increasing number of products. This reached
a sort of climatic state with the proliferation of the retail "Big
Boxes",
the depersonalized, no frills warehouses offering little other than price,
selection and availability. Knowing that they would receive minimum service
and worthless advice at the hands of minimum wage, minimum
knowledge workers in these facilities, customers have taken the initiative
to inform themselves. The Internet gives these customers the opportunity
to take their self-reliance to new levels.
OK, we all "get it". We're upside down and the customer is in
charge. Now, what do we do with it -- so little time, so many bosses.
Here are six ways that businesses can adapt to the post Asteroid IP world
of the 'Net:
(1) Market Information
(2) Give, Then Take
(3) Build Community
(4) Find Ways to be Proactive
(5) Provide Great Customer Service
(6) Provide Great Selection & Great Pricing
Marketing Information
-------------------------------
On the Internet we are increasingly casting our votes against obtrusive
advertising by refusing to click on banners. In response to this, advertisers
have been developing ways to make banners more obtrusive,
using devices such as blinking text, animation, even streaming video.
Meanwhile Web users in focus groups have been observed literally holding
up a hand to cover particularly obnoxious banners. This is similar to
the way we protect ourselves from obtrusive commercials on television
by hitting the mute button or clicking to another channel.
When I watch myself using the 'Net, I find that I'm almost always in the
mode of looking for information: current news, sports news, financial
information, latest happenings at Guinness -- whatever. And when I'm looking
for information I'm not going to be distracted by a banner ad that is
trying to sell me something. It's hard to distract someone when they're
deep into a task, in this case a search for information. I mean, really,
have you ever seen an ad in a dictionary? So instead of distracting them,
why not help them? Advertise information.
Here's a fictitious real-life example:
You're in business to sell music online. So you puchase the keyword "Mozart"
at Yahoo. Good move. Now when someone searches on the word Mozart your
banner appears at the top of the search results. What is the message they
see on your banner? Could it be something like:
Movie Soundtrack Sale!
Save on music from the best musicals of the 90's
Click Here
Yech! You are advertising a sales message (albeit not a very targeted
one) and your potential customer (who is charge) is most likely looking
for information. Do they click on this banner? Not very often.
Wouldn't it be more effective to advertise information? After all, the
viewer is looking for information about Mozart -- why not offer it to
him?
Maybe a banner along the lines of:
"Did You Know That Mozart Never Attended School?"
Click Here for the Web's Definitive Site on Mozart,
Including a Collection of His Works
Or use rich media to build a live banner something like this:
"Do You Know What Level of Schooling Mozart Completed?"
Check One: o none o grade school o high school o college
For the Surprising Answer, Click Here
Then, after the viewer has arrived at your site, you can present him with
a wealth of information about Mozart and subtly present your sales message.
You will more than likely develop a customer, create sales -- and give
yourself a chance to grab some beach time.
The current advertising model was developed in response to a media environment
that was severely limited in terms of space and time. Advertisers have
adapted cleverly to these limitations by concentrating their efforts on
eliciting an emotional response from the viewer. It has worked so well
that many believe that tweaking emotions is the only way to advertise,
forgetting that it's simply an environmental adaptation. The post Asteroid
IP environment of the Internet offers almost unlimited time and space.
We now have the ability, indeed the need, to appeal to viewers intelligence,
as well as to their emotions.
There are countless other ways to market effectively on the Internet,
many of them having nothing to do with banners. The point is that the
essence of the Internet today is information. Market information, advertise
information, provide information -- and the customers and sales will follow.
Or, another way of looking at it, now that things are upside down and
the customer is in control, is that marketers need to meet customer needs
-- as opposed to manufacturing them as in the past.
In the next issue of ADVENTIVE.COM we'll discuss how giving before taking
enables you to market with information. And a killer example of one successful
online company doing just that -- a company with which I'm
intimately familiar.
Supporting Data
-----------------------
--> A recent report from research company Jupiter Communications points
to a dire warning sign: falling click-through rates. Currently, viewers
click on banner ads approximately 1 percent of the time
the ads are displayed.
Source: As quoted by Dylan Tweney in IDG.Net article, 9/20/98
http://www.idg.net/new_docids/market/advertising/position
--> While the industry obsesses over an average click-through rate
of 1%, or less, the fact is it can hit 10% with suitable creative, strong
media and strategic timing.
Source: ICONOCAST, 9/2/98
http://www.iconocast.com
Next Week in ADAPTING to the NET:
"A Spectacularly Successful Way to Market On the Net: Give, Then
Take"
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