Virtuality is a bridge, nothing more but nothing less

In the internet & mobile world virtuality has been over estimated as if it could be a substantial value on its own and as such compete with reality.  True, virtuality’s attractivity comes from its unbeatable advantage that the sky is the limit with regard to what you can create. But one should not forget that the experience remains real, and without experience there’s nothing, not even virtuality.

In the early internet years this believe has resulted in the worldfamous buble. Though the buble has brought the internet community to more realism, virtuality remains a concept difficult to manage when it comes down to marketing.  I believe there’s a basic rule which can help to put into place a pragmatic approach.

RVR or Reality-Virtuality-Reality. One must start from a reality of the customer, a well defined evidence that is present in the day to day life and project it into a new day to day experience. The virtuality is a mean to implement an extension to this reality. Doing so, it creates an environment to enhance the experience. But to make the experience work there needs to be a connection back to the reality.

The reason why this formula is essential in my opinion is that value to be sustainable must be created in the day to day life of customers and nowhere else. If you keep that focus in mind, the risk you will get attracted by the mermaids of the virtuality will be very low.

In conclusion I do not underestimate virtuality but I am convinced that its greatest value for marketing lays in its ability to build a bridge. A bridge between two realities, the one before and the one after the virtuality.

Beyond the information BigBang… there’s a meaning!

For ages information was scarce, exclusive and accessible to few. Its value was high and people were ready to make efforts to reach for it. The powerful search engines on the web still witness the hypothesis that information needs to be found. The foundations of this approach are based on the paradigm that information is objective and has an independent existence.

In to day’s internetworked world, information supply is exploding where as demand for it not necessarily is and remains more or less stable. The standard law of supply and demand applied to this situation tells us it is obvious that the value of information drops to dramatic lows. Worse, the overflow of information becomes pure noise and its value negative.

From a marketing point of view this means companies have to understand that it is no longer sufficient to provide “information” in the opinion that who needs it will find it.  Acting as such companies are only adding an extra load to the information overdose and create aversion instead of sympathy.

In order to communicate efficiently companies must foster the creation of meaning. Information on its own is insufficient though it is an important ingredient.  Companies need to bring it to a subjective level in order to make it work for them. This subjective level is the customer and his world. He only is able to create the meaning companies try to provide.

There are different ways on how to apply this insight. Let me name just a few examples.  Websites can avoid confronting their users with useless information based on the knowledge they have of their customers’ behavior on the website. Technology companies can translate technology into the customer’s user environment. If companies fail to do it their communication will become noise and customers will walk away from it.

to your success!

Buy-ology, a must read

With a budget of 7 million $ Martin Lindstrom conducted a study about “why we buy”. The why being not necessarily a rationale, as this we know means much more a justification than a reason. Buying behavior like any other behavior finds it reasons in the mystery how our brain works, and our brain does much more than only thinking.

To find out how our brain works when we are in contact with brands, Lindstrom will use a sophisticated fMRI scanner. This high tech medical device observes which part of the brain gets activated when people are confronted with certain types of messages. As each part of the brain treats certain types of information this approach allows observing how the brain “understands” or processes the messages.

The results of these tests can be found in the must read book “buy.ology Thruth and lies about why we buy“. Many conclusions of this research are surprising for the rational mind. Maybe less for those who are familiar with Neurosciences and Neuromarketing, but they will still find very valuable information for managing brands in the 21st century.

to your success

Spirituality, a new dimension in marketing?

Didn’t French writer Malraux predict “the 21st century will be spiritual or won’t be at all”? Well, for sure something’s happening. Lets start with Quantum Physics the latest and state of the art development in science. Quantum Physics describes physical realities in a very similar way as Buddhists describe their metaphysical concepts. We witness science, which 500 years ago started to liberate itself from the theocratic paradigms return to some extend to spiritual concepts.

This morning I youtubed a Philip Kotler presentation he gave at the London Business Forum in 2008. Kottler explained how marketing had evolved during the last ten years. When he started to explain Brand-Management he introduced the spiritual dimension in Branding. He claimed where brands traditionally looked for mindshare and heartshare, they have – in order to be successful today – to add spiritshare.

What Kotler understands by it, is that brands have a contribution to deliver to “something bigger than the individual”… a rather very open definition of spirituality. I personally would opt for the term “meaning”. As spirituality exists in people’s lives to create a meaning, so does a brand it creates a meaning in the customers life.

After marketing joining the Malraux paradigm, who is next?

to your success!

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Seeing is believing becomes seeing is knowing

A large group of researchers, among which renown Professor of Neurosciences at the New York University Joseph Ledoux, have brought to the evidence that of all our senses visual stimuli are the most influential to our primitive brain (where we take our decisions).

The reason? Compared to the acoustic nerve, the optical nerve transports 25 times more information. It seems like the eye is trust worthier than the ear because of the fact it brings more information? Neuroscience research is pointing in this direction anyway.

But humanity has not been waiting for neuroscience to understand the power of visual information. Across the ages and cultures, mankind has understood words as such are not powerful enough unless they activate our visual system. When we need to make sure our word based communication is effective, we use techniques such as metaphors and story telling. And these techniques are in its essence purely visual.

To conclude let me get back to the research result that visual information is the preferred source of information when it comes to decision making. There’s the saying “seeing is believing” but based on this scientific evidence of the information superiority of visual stimuli, I suggest bringing this saying to a newer level “seeing is knowing”. As when it comes to decision-making knowledge is preferred to beliefs.

to your success!

Dare to think and FEEL beyond your product: TCE (Total Customer Experience)

Is a Harley Davidson a) a motorcycle or b) is it an instrument which allows a 40+ to feel young and wild again? It’s not difficult to answer that question and I guess everybody knows the answer is b). As a) stands for the product type and b) for the experience it allows to create.

When it comes to their products many companies fail to think or feel beyond their product. But when you assume your product responds to a need, be aware that this need is always larger than what the product stands for itself.

The customer’s experience defines the value of your product and nothing else. Ignoring this value creation process and refusing its ownership leads to frustration for the customer and manufacturer.

And we are not talking about just some experience but about the total experience. Successful products focus on ownership of the TCE (total customer experience) and are engaged in a never ending challenge to improve it continuously.

So dare to think and above all feel (an experience is not only cognitive but much more emotional) beyond your product and you will be contributing to improved customer experiences and thus create more value.

to your success!

Innovation is customer driven NOT technology driven

Yesterday morning during my work out I watched on YouTube a video in which Google’s CIO (2003-2008) Douglas Merrill explained innovation. Google is a successful company, nobody can argue on that. And if you would ask me, no wonder when you learn more about how they conceive innovation.

Though Google develops loads of software, has an outstanding reputation regarding its technology, employs thousands of brilliant engineers…  it’s not technology which drives their innovation… but their customer’s needs.

In my first blog “technology is a non-sense” I already stated that technology on its own has no sense. Technology can only be considered as innovation when it creates customer value.

But there is also a second important element that is a logical consequence of a customer view on innovation. Merrill explains often great innovations for the customer are made possible only by small adjustments on the technology side.

This means companies do not necessarily need great technology or technology experts to be successful, but much more do they need to – what I like to call – “own the customer’s” experience and use technology only as a means to improve their customer’s experience.

Positively surprised by this customer oriented approach (from my experience rather uncommon) for a CIO I googled (what else?) Merrill’s profile and found out he holds a PHD in psychology.  That probably explains a lot.

If you want to learn more on innovation at Google, watch this video http://bartnorre.wordpress.com/2010/12/06/technology-is-a-non-sense/