*Power to the People: According to a recent Nokia study, the current wave of user-created media may be here to stay. Nokia polled trend-setting consumers from 17 countries
about their online behavior and lifestyles.
Extrapolating information from its 900 million customers, and including the attitudes of industry leaders, the study ultimately concluded that the public, not traditional
media, will control 25% of the world's entertainment by 2012.
The study distinguished four emerging trends within the collaborative entertainment phenomena: Immersive Living (the increasingly hazy line between real life and digital life);
Geek Culture (the craving for more innovative forms of media); G Tech (the "feminization" of entertainment); and Localism (the user's preference for homegrown content).
Nokia claims that much of this entertainment will be created and circulated on mobile phones.
Source: Mobilecrunch
*Top of the Heap: USA Today, AARP The Magazine and Huffington Post, respectively, are the nation's top newspaper, consumer magazine and blog, according to
BurrellesLuce's 2008 "Top Daily Newspapers, Blogs and Consumer Magazines" list.
Other notable findings:
-
The other top 10 daily newspapers, in order of ranking, were: Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Daily News, New York Post, Washington Post,
Chicago Tribune, Houston Chronicle and Arizona Republic;
-
The 2007 end-of-year rankings of consumer magazines were nearly identical to those posted in December 2006. The biggest change involved Time, which dropped from No.
8 to No. 12;
-
The second- through ninth-place finishers among consumer magazines were AARP Bulletin, Reader's Digest, Better Homes and Gardens, National Geographic, Good Housekeeping,
Family Circle, Woman's Day and Ladies' Home Journal;
-
Based on their Technorati Authority score, the top five blogs were unchanged from 12 months ago, but there was movement within the group. Technorati Authority is defined as
the number of blogs linking to a Web site in the past six months. The higher the number, the greater the Technorati Authority;
-
Besides Huffington Post, which rose from fifth to first, TechCrunch went from fourth to second, Engadget dropped from first to third, Gizmodo slipped from third to fourth,
while Boing Boing fell from second to fifth, and,
-
The leading 25 blogs included 11 that were not on the list a year ago.
Source: BurrellesLuce
*Customer Loyalty Easily Said, Not Done: Although customer loyalty remains a top priority for most corporations, a new Global Benchmark Study shows that the majority of
companies still fail to produce the ideal customer experience.
The study examined 379 executives and their customer experience cycles, from brand definition to alignment to feedback, and revealed that 80% agree that customer satisfaction
is more important today than ever before, yet they continue to lose business by failing to follow through with effective strategies.
Highlights of the study include:
-
Only 43.9% of survey respondents believed that their companies deserve their customers' loyalty;
-
42.6% responded that their companies' products and services are not worth the price they charge;
-
56% responded that their companies have differentiated and beneficial products and services;
-
43.7% said their companies will take any customer that is willing to pay;
-
Only 34.8% indicated that their company has a dedicated customer experience management role;
-
Only 27.2% of the respondents said that the definition of the customer experience is well-defined and communicated in their companies;
-
Only 28.8% responded that employees have the tools and authority to solve customer problems; and,
-
Only 23.9% agreed that their employees are well-versed in how to delight customers.
Source: Strativity Group, Inc. PRN