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Archive for september, 2005

How ONE is your market today?

Published by on september 20, 2005

Take a look at the world around you and your market’s place it. Since your situation is unique, the fields in the illustration have been left blank. The diagram has two axes: one is how far x is from his customers and the other is how market-oriented the company is. Plotting these two coordinates helps you find your place on the ONE map and to see who is the dolphin and who is the shark on the transparent market before you start your ONE work.

Now, position the following industries on the diagram using A1 to symbolize the consumer and B1 to symbolize the company representative.

1. The auto industry
2. Electronics
3. Food
4. BtoB in other industries
5. Banks
6. Insurance
7. Hotel and travel industry
8. Housing
9. Your company
10. The company you would like to start using ONE

Discuss the exercise with friends, colleagues and customers. Identify the opportunities for changing the market. If there a significant gap between how companies act and how you would like to market to be, then there are huge market shares waiting for you and your company.

You can sell anything at any price with the right buyer

Published by on september 20, 2005


There are people that collect just about everything, even business cards. This makes transparency the world’s best gallery where people of all interests can meet and exchange experiences, goods and services. The world’s most beat up car can become a classic on the internet and companies built on transparency such as eBay , can help find someone who will appreciate just such a car.

At eBay, customers see all the way into each other’s living rooms to meet as sellers and buyers. How far into a company can your customers see and how far are they prepared to go? Could eBay.com take the next step into that living room and offer consumers bar codes to put on the possessions? Or what if you took the next step and developed a digital camera that could read barcodes and connected it with a site accessed by 100 million homes. If 10% of the site users uploaded 10 products, eBay would have 10,000,000 “barcode sale” products. Whatever you’re looking for it, you can be sure that you’ll find it there. And when you search, it will be like knocking on each other’s doors only that all tmedvetna_orghe door will have EBay on them.

What effect would the visible consumer have on story-telling and sales? Would it “feed the story” or get PR? What if someone could place an eBay barcode in the White House? Storytelling and sales?

Put a barcode on ten things in your home that you might consider selling if you got the right offer. What would that offer be? After all, you’re not planning to hang onto that furniture (that you were tired of years ago) for the rest of your life? When you come right down to it: isn’t just about everything you own for sale if the price is right?
P.S. Don’t put a barcode on the dog.

How will Skype + eBay make a new dimension of talking business?

Who sits in front and steers? Who sits in back at CNN?

Published by on september 20, 2005


Travelling together creates common interests. Today’s media isn’t as fast as the Internet, but if you’re on the same bike, you’ll both get there at the same time.
Mass media lives very much in the here and now and as such is changing rapidly to keep up with it. Internet and blogs increased both the amount of information available and the speed at which it’s spread. The word “renaissance” is being used by respected people in the field such as journalism professor, Jay Rosen, New York University and journalist and writer John Lloyd, at the Financial Times. How can ONE be part of this renaissance?

Let’s suppose that CNN is, at this very moment, wondering how they can apply ONE to their organization.

Information travels faster and in far greater quantities than the media are able to cope with. The massive uses filters turn the flow into a manageable and brandable stream. Free newspapers, TV-like newspapers and newspaper-like TV serve up information in ever smaller and more easily digested portions. Profitability in the media world is based on in what way the raw information is processed, packaged and presented. The great flows of information have shifted to blogs and other digital forums where send and receiver have direct contact with each other and the world.

How can ONE improve the credibility of CNN or even Fox? And why are there no so few positive news stories that don’t stupid pet tricks? What would you do with one billion customers?
Is traditional TV news still the fastest medium? Or are bloggs and internet faster? Do you see how they can work together?

To play with timing + the value of the product + context

Published by on september 20, 2005


When the NHL strike of 2004 had gone on into 2005 without a solution in sight, economists pointed out that the effects of the strike could be seen in the national economy of Canada. Entertainment is big business and when the fans are deprived of their experience on the stands, they go over to other sports such as basketball and American football. When the strike is over, the audience may be significantly depleted if the sport hasn’t managed to keep interest alive. Let’s take a look at what ONE can do.

Wouldn’t it be great to let the fans replace the NHL pros during the strike just as women players replaced the male pros who had gone off to World War II? The strike would be a great opportunity to bring the sport back to better sporting values with a ONE NHL Cup. Becoming one with the fans would reduce violence in the stands – the problem of having to act out would disappear when fans themselves are on the ice.

What is the ESPN angle? And what about sponsors?

Let’s say that one of the world’s most popular sports is golf, which to a certain extent is about relaxing, taking out your aggression on a little hard ball and getting control over your life.
Golf is a kind of therapy and a back to nature escape. How can ONE help make the player ONE with the universe? ONE goes beyond make-up!

What other sports can you apply this too?

Transparency can sink unsinkable “Titanic” company

Published by on september 20, 2005


Consumer power has also become a major component in the increasingly sensitive stock market. Positive buzz and enthusiastic consumer support can raise stock prices. A few percentage points can mean billions of dollars for many companies. Three examples of companies that float well with their customers are Dell, Amazon and EBay. In today’s transparent market, bad marketing can sink even the unsinkable “Titanic” company. The question is not when will it sink but when will it be saved by consumer power? Today we have to build boats with consumers to make them float.

 

Can you mention 5 companies that have been saved by the consumer power and 5 companies that have sank like the “Titanic” company”
Make your list of:
Saved companies 1-5 and
Sink (“Titanic” company”) companies 1-5.

Consumer rules in the kingdom of business!

Published by on september 20, 2005

Bad news has a tendency to travel fast like it did for Kryptonite, Intel and others. But do corporations learn and listen? The trail and error learning seem to be not working. Why don’t companies learn and listen? Often Corporations work behind closed doors, focusing on output rather than input.

We like to have your input about companies that listens and companies that don’t listen! Please send us your best cases of companies that listen and companies that don’t listen. Often there seem to be a relation between the size of the company and their ability to listen both to their staff and to the customers.
”Many firms do not yet seem aware of the revolutionary implications of newly empowered consumers,” says the Economist (2005). Companies must realize that the customer truly is king when many customers converge at the same place on the Internet. Instead of engaging in “brand wars”, companies should involve the customer in their daily business. Companies that act cynically, will discover that the wrath of the king – the consumer. Will they otherwise end up being an Anti-brand?
What are your 3-5 best cases of good or bad “ONE” companies and corporations (DELL, Amazon)? Name 3-5 companies that have succeeded in listening to their customers.
I think the time has come for the consumers to rule business, what do you think? Why is consumer a new word for many CEO´s?

Killing costumer is good business for lawyer

Published by on september 20, 2005


The giant Drug manufacturer Merch has managed to both kill their customers with the drug Vioxx and get sued by the victims’ relatives for billions of dollars. This is not the first case or the last one. Users of the drug Vioxx have complained a lot and among the complaints heart attacks, stroke and even death cases have been found.
Again, this is not the first time drug manufacturers have succeeded in accomplishing the opposite of what was intended; saving the lives of their customers and not killing them. What would the consequence be if other branches followed this print and succeeded with accomplishing just the opposite of what is expected of them? In fact, the lawyers in US are so enthusiastic that they have put up ads along the highways trying to catch the attention of patients (clients) and/or their relatives. Perhaps killing customers is beneficial to some branches and professions but it is certainly not beneficial to the customers! It has reached so far that it is considered risky to save the life’s’ of other people. There are many stories about doctors that are afraid of saving lives of other people because of the fear of being sued. Perhaps it is not enough to ask: are there any doctors on board? But one should continue to say: …and is there any lawyer that can accompany or assist the doctor?!
At the same time we see many companies putting efforts and million of Drug manufactur dollars to be perceived as ethical companies. It can be mentioned that a documentary is being made about these companies’ ethical standards and behaviours by Mikel Moore. One might ask what the industry and the companies can do to not kill their customers and make the world as their enemy. ONE solution could be that companies should merge or build a platform of collaboration and solve the big health problems of today instead of making a fortune of human suffering. These companies that merge or collaborate could create a new corporation where they put their resources and efforts on manufacturing medicine that slows down the development of AIDS, cancer, and other diseases. This corporation could be built on the principles of ONE and be ONE with the world. It has to be mentioned that there are of course also good lawyers working for good causes. As far as the other lawyers, there should be an anti-drug against them. Source.

Can you see yourself in today’s brands or products?

Published by on september 20, 2005


Mirrors have always been part of our lives, first as water and later as manufactured products from the 16th century on. Back then, people were only too happy to pay for the privilege of seeing themselves; the better they could see themselves, the more they paid. The same is true for today’s brands. Customers pay to see themselves in the brands they buy. This photo illustrates this well: when people at the local cafe see something they can relate to, it becomes part of the brand mirror. It gives them something interesting to talk about. The question is: can they find something to relate to at a bank? How can you and your customers be ONE with today’s brands and products?

Why companies should not pick a fight with consumer power

Published by on september 20, 2005

The world is becoming a fairer place for consumers who are finding that, thanks to digital technology, they now have a much easier time making themselves heard. Consumers are forcing companies to be more honest by example, good and bad. Companies that are open to the power of the consumer often prosper such as Starbucks, Dell and Amazon. What about your company?

Your source for positive consumer power

Published by on september 19, 2005

The power of the consumer is stronger than ever. Yet, the gap between what a company promises and what consumers experience has never been larger. Consumer power makes or breaks companies. The purpose of this blog is to make, not break, companies and close that gap. Use this blog as an open source platform for the most important business and consumer trend of the future: ONE.
ONE means that companies must let consumers into the process of creating new products and services, and even into marketing and selling them. This is more than theory, it’s survival. The power of interactivity, Internet and word of mouth is a force to be reckoned with. Those who don’t listen, will be crushed by it.
“If you’re looking for creative business opportunities, this is the place, but if you’re more interested in a forum for grievances and gripes then this is not the right ONE for you.” Stefan Engeseth, author of ONE and editor of this blog.

Be ONE with the brand instead of number one on the market.
One-to-one creates distance in the form of “us and them”, separated by a mental wall. You can see development from mass communication (figure 1) where the same message is broadcast to everyone. The next step takes us closer to the individual’s needs (one-to-one) where every relationship is more unique (figure 2). The next mental step is to become one with the market and the customer (figure 3). ONE goes deeper than the communication, the diffrens shows in product developed with the consumers, and how they take part in corporate culture and the way business are building bottom-line etc.

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