Za Book Title
Many people have helped me pick the title of my new book in contributing ideas or reviewing options. It seemed only fair to update you now that we've made the decision. (in this case, we means the great team at...
How to Build a High Performance Culture
April 2, 2010 - 7:45 AM
Nilofer Merchant
Alliance of CEOs
TechMart Santa Clara, Santa Clara, CA
This is a private event.
Online Reviews Second Only to Word of Mouth as Purchase Influencer in US
A broader investigation into how business can exploit online community underlines the importance of online information in driving purchase decisions, but the most influential information is beyond the direct control of companies selling products and services. Courting the small fraction of Internet users who write online reviews and comments is a very important task for many companies, but one they often neglect.
Many companies downplay the importance of online communities because only a few percent of all Internet users contribute to them heavily. What they don’t understand is that most other Internet users read those reviews and rely on them heavily when making purchase decisions. Taking good care of online communities can be a huge money-saver for companies trying to get more marketing impact from limited budgets.
WinMarkets Blogs
What were they thinking?
By Bruce LaFetra on February 7, 2010
It's always fun to watch the Super Bowl commercials each year. Some are really good; some are amusing; once in a while, one is really bad. Audi's "Green Police" ad for the A3 TDI diesel makes my list for one of the all-time worst commercials. Not because of the unfortunate parallels to Nazi Germany's Orpo, or German Order Police and their green uniforms. Not because it wasn't amusing--I laughed while watching it. No, this one goes down for mocking the very demographic Audi is targeting for the A3. Audi's Green Police are heavy-handed, over-the-top, greenie goons. Not the image I would associate with a product I actually wanted to sell.
Rubicon is looking for a few (3) excellent leaders
By Nilofer Merchant on January 28, 2010
We've got 3 interesting roles to add to our Rubicon (actually our current company is called Rubicon, and we're creating a new company we affectionately called Rubicon TNG until we name it more formally). We're ready to hire some leaders who want to co-own and co-build a business that enables transformative outcomes. We wanted to ask you, our community to help us get the word out on it.
The New How: Business Solutions Through Collaborative Strategy
By Nilofer Merchant on January 4, 2010
For years now, our clients have let us build a different kind of strategy with them. They've let us not only catalyze and define the big idea, but they let us work with them to translate that big idea into a plan and approach that everyone buys into and ultimately makes real.
Canon Gets It
By Bruce LaFetra on November 16, 2009
I was looking at digital cameras on the web the other day, and Canon stopped me in my tracks. They have user reviews just like many resellers, but very few manufacturers. Reviews are prominently featured just below the fold on the initial page for each camera model. More than that, they collect the most common comments at the top and list them under "Pro" and "Con" sections. You read that correctly--Canon prominently lists top consumer complaints on their web site. Things like "poor low light performance," "complicated to use controls/menu," and "difficult to use." Were the marketing people completely cut out of the loop?
Lessons from the PayPal developer conference
By Michael Mace on November 9, 2009
PayPal's developer conference in early November, the company's first such event, gave some good lessons for tech companies that want to create their own developer communities. Since that seems to include most tech firms these days, we thought it might...
The Myth about the Myth of Crowdsourcing
By Bruce LaFetra on October 7, 2009
Is Jigsaw the only true example of crowdsourcing? Dan Woods, writing in Forbes, thinks so.
Quantifying Collaboration
By Bruce LaFetra on September 9, 2009
One of the challenges with a qualitative process framework like the LOVE model is that it is hard quantify all the benefits, especially during the initial stages of adoption. The latest McKinsey Global Survey looks at the business benefits from Web 2.0. Operationalizing the LOVE model in practice leverages many aspects of Web 2.0, so the McKinsey data is perhaps the most relevant data we currently have for this type of approach.
Hope or Hype: Data in the Cloud
By Bruce LaFetra on September 2, 2009
Nilofer, just back from FOO Camp this past weekend, reports the underlying current in discussions involved data in the cloud and how valuable it will be. I'm on the record as a believer in cloud data, but maybe see it happening in a different way.
If all you have is a PowerPoint hammer, everything starts to look like a bullet point
By Bruce LaFetra on August 25, 2009
Why do we use PowerPoint so much? Is it to convey information more effectively or merely to communicate more information? How much thought do you give to your choice of tool in light of the objective in communicating the information: instruction, background, decision aid, or don't know? The truth is that we communicate information for a variety of reasons, but the rise of PowerPoint has caused people to stop linking how they communicate with the business objective. PowerPoint is a powerful tool for some purposes, but actually an obstacle to others. T.X. Hammes has an excellent article on how PowerPoint is changing decision making in the military.
Filling Your Company with LOVE: A new framework for understanding consumer relationships
By Bruce LaFetra on July 28, 2009
As companies see increasing value in social media campaigns, it is becoming apparent that the transactional-centric models currently used for tracking and measuring marketing campaigns are not up to the social media challenge. With social media campaigns often focused on brand building and driving engagement, the tools used to measure the impact on sales and brand are ill-suited to accurately measuring the full impact and value of social media campaigns. The buying or sales funnel that has served marketers well for many years no longer works in an environment now centered on two-way and unstructured communications. A new framework developed at Rubicon Consulting, Inc., building on ideas originally conceived by Harry Max, offers the relationship-centric LOVE model as a replacement--and enhancement--for the transaction-based buying funnel.
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