*Customer Affinity as the True Measure of Marketing: "Profitability from Customer Affinity," a new study released by the Chief Marketing Officers Council, reveals that most B2B
technology companies still fall short of meeting customer expectations despite an increase focus on engagement. Among the findings:
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56% of vendors perceive themselves as being extremely customer-centric, but only 12% of customers agree;
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An overwhelming majority of vendors--85%--are convinced that they are getting better at responding to customer needs, but 45% of customers disagree;
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More than half of customers surveyed described their relationships with vendors as "dependent and captive," "struggling for common ground" or "combative and adversarial." When
asked to describe their relationships with the channel, 45% of customers surveyed evaluated their channel relationships similarly;
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Vendors seem to understand that channel partners truly are partners in their success, and that going to market effectively with the channel is critical to maximizing their
value to customers. Yet only 8% of vendor marketing respondents said they do an extremely good job of teaming with the channel to build stronger customer affinity;
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More than 30% of customer respondents said they would terminate relationships with companies that fail to gain their trust; 62% would scale back existing engagements, while 7%
would no longer consider the vendor for future business; and,
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Co-innovation with customers is vital to building customer affinity. Nearly six out of 10 customers say co-innovation is extremely or very important.
Source: CMO Council
*Marketing, Instant Messenger-Style: If you thought instant messaging was child's play, think again; when properly implemented, it can be a viable and cost-effective marketing
tool. Erin Coker, director of advertising services for EyeWonder, Inc., highlights these best practices for IM marketing success:
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Find your IM audience via day segmenting (corporate users are more inclined to be online between 9am and 5pm, while the after-school crowd dominates the evening hours) and
multiple IM platforms.
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Keep it fresh with ad units on multiple properties. Also consider mouse-over expandable ads to drive interaction and create an experience within the given space
limitations.
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Engage users with "strong and descriptive" calls to action. This translates into "large and persistent" in IM-speak.
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Reward users with widgets, coupons, downloads, etc.
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Keep it simple via structured ads with clear content. Creativity is important; an over-the-top theme could crowd the space and ultimately confuse the consumer.
Source: imediaconnection.com
*Lack of Strategic Management Hinders Innovation: A report released by McKinsey in late 2007 revealed a gap in how companies approach innovation. Based on a survey of more than
1,000 top executives across multiple industries, the report uncovered the following findings:
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70% of surveyed executives named innovation as one of their top three priorities for driving growth, but their approaches are inconsistent and, at times, counterproductive;
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More than one-third of top managers (senior VP level and higher) say innovation is part of their leadership teams' agendas, but the same number say their companies govern
innovation in an ad hoc way;
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40% of top managers say the problem is a lack of the right employees, but only 31% of other managers agreed; and,
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Among the executives who did say they have the right talent, less than 25% felt that corporate culture inhibited progress in innovation; one-third of lower-level executives
agreed that culture was a problem.
In a similar vein, a BCG study presented data on innovation spending, offering the following results:
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The automotive industry topped the chart for increasing innovation spending, with 76% of respondents saying they planned to do so. Entertainment and media (73%) and energy
(71%) followed.
Source: McKinsey, BCG and BusinessWeek.com PRN