Forrester's Consumer Forum Day 1: Keeping Ahead Of Tomorrow's Customer

Phew! We've reached the end of the first day of our Consumer Forum, here in Dallas, Texas and it's been a busy one – our attendees have had the opportunity to attend over 20 presentations including keynotes, track sessions and theatre presentations from Forrester analysts and industry experts. Some of my highlights:

• Carrie Johnson, VP and Research Director at Forrester, kicked us off by expanding on our theme – Keeping Ahead Of Tomorrow’s Customer. She showed (with the help of Homer Simpson J) how important it is to understand how consumers have changed – become multi-channel, multi-taskers – in a short period of time, and how vital it is that we understand how the next 10 years are going to change them further, especially in today’s economic climate where maximizing the power of every marketing dollar spent is more important than ever.

• Then the mighty James McQuivey, VP and Principal Analyst, took to the stage, Forresterites heaving a collective sigh of relief at the sight – he's been suffering from laryngitis, and it's been touch or go whether his voice would return in time. But it did, and in true McQuivey style, he wowed the audience by revealing some new research into how to satisfy consumers. What do people really need? Well, our research shows that there are four universal human needs – Connection, Uniqueness, Comfort and Variety. We all have all four; they vary in importance for each of us, and vary over time, and understanding your target audience's needs profile will be vital going forward in order to satisfy those needs. He also introduced the Convenience Quotient, a way of figuring out how well your product/service meets your consumers' needs profile. To read more about this and see the first example of this in action, I would recommend James' recent report "Competitive Product Ranking: Picking A Winning Set-Top Box". We'll also be writing a lot more about how to measure and meet these universal needs over the next few months, so stay tuned.

• After James, Cameron Death gave the first industry keynote. He's the VP, Digital Content at NBC Universal, and gave some great insight into how they are dealing with the multiple issues facing them; the collapsing market share of the major networks, the increasing time-shifting of TV viewing (he shared that an amazing 34% of people who watch The Office watch it time-shifted) and the growing tendency of consumers to multitask – watch TV, use the internet, text each other etc, simultaneously. So they are working hard on adapting to accommodate these wired consumers – by developing online experiences around top properties such as Heroes, plus unique content pieces using their TV stars, branded by advertisers (they call them "podbusters"). He also shared news of a very new venture called Gemini Division, a show that consists of 50 webisodes starring Rosario Dawson that was made in partnership with marketers such as Microsoft and Acura. This has only been running for 6 weeks, so too early for results, but I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for more information on that as it goes on.

• Tim Suther, Senior Vice President, Digital Marketing Services, Acxiom emphasized the massive wastage – he estimates over $100bn – there is in marketing spent badly executed thanks to old-fashioned thinking. For him, a real understanding of your customers is key, and marketing measurement and incentives need to be properly aligned to incentivize the right way of thinking.

• Josh Bernoff, a name no doubt familiar to everyone reading this, had a post lunch spot talking to a standing-room-only track session about our new data on consumers' social media activities – the 2008 Social Technographics profiles. In the US, around 75% of the online population are active in social media, for example, whereas 93% are in South Korea if you want to see more of this great data, then do hop over to forrester.groundswell.com, where there is a tool you can use to take a look at the technographics profiles of different demographics. He also shared some great examples of how brands are reaching out to consumers using social media (again, the Groundswell blog has over 100 more examples, all entries to the Groundswell Awards, the winners of which will be revealed tomorrow…!)

And that was just day one….we're back, same place, same time, tomorrow to hear from more experts, including Forrester's very own Lisa Bradner and William Band, as well as industry luminaries such as Daniel P. Garton from American Airlines and Lisa Sherman from MTV. If you can't make it, join the conversation on Twitter and Flickr. See you there!

 

Rebecca Jennings, Principal Analyst
Forrester Research

Notes on the Economic Downturn

Forrester has noted that one of the factors behind their acquisiton of Jupiter was (and is) the quality of our forecasts. To ensure that we offer clients the best information available, we are currently in the process of reviewing our data from the advertising forecast for our soon-to-be-released category ad forecast. As we drift further into fourth quarter, many companies are announcing last quarter's results and some of the news is underwhelming, notably Yahoo!'s display earnings. We're also discussing the current market with many companies in the industry. For example, Jeff Lanctot of Razorfish gave us his view of the Fortune 500 advertisers that he works with, and how many of them are cautiously planning for a tough 2009. Our Category Ad Forecast should be released in the next few weeks.

Will B2B Marketing Become Obsolete? (Part II)

[Posted by Laura Ramos]

Wow.  I am overwhelmed by the response I received from my first post on this subject. Looks like I hit a nerve and inspired some great commentary.  In particular, I'd like to call attention to the thoughful response from Arthur Einstein, who is the VP of Marketing at Loyalty Builders. I wanted to comment briefly on what I am hearing from all of you so far. To avoid obsolescence, readers believe B2B marketers must focus on:

1) Improving customer insight. Business buyers are people, not faceless companies. Rational decisions get clouded by emotions, motivations, and desires. B2B marketers must stop pushing out communications and start listening to what buyers need. Customer research, segmentation, understanding the buying process, and creating relevant information that engages prospects in conversations -- and ultimately long-lasting relationships -- all require marketers to understand their customers deeply. This includes gathering and analyzing factual, behavioral, and social information.  Most marketing organizations are woefully underinvested in the technology, processes, and skills needed to do this right.

2) Managing demand, not just trying to generate it. B2B marketing and selling involves supplier teams interacting with buyer teams. This means fostering multiple interactions that evolve in a nonlinear fashion to build relationships and success. It require sales and marketing to work together to give buyers the unvarnished information they need to make a well-considered selection.  This also means all parts of the selling organization need to get more involved in educating and nurturing demand. When marketers deliver fewer, but more qualified leads that sales can act upon, then marketing's value becomes tangible and strategic to the business. Bottomline: there isn't an unlimited amount of demand out there to draw upon, so marketers need to figure out which ones to invest in to grow into a relationship.

3) Embracing the social groundswell. Buyers have turned to peers for advice for 100 years; social computing simply extends and supports this behavior. Buyers also mistrust advertising and messaging because marketing has been too focused on feeds, speeds, and fluffy claims -- not on value, evidence, and real solutions. Good news: Readers are optimistic that social media, and Web 2.0 tools, offer new opportunities for marketers to correct these past mistakes and use social activity to build relationships that are essential to effective B2B marketing.

To this list, I would also say B2B marketers must learn how to: 4) integrate online and offline communication to better create dialogue and learn more about customer needs and 5) use technology to quantitatively measure, test, and report on marketing activity and the progress of building relationships. Automation will drive the efficiency that wards off obsolesence.

Rebekah Donaldson, CEO and Founder of Business Communications Group, will join me next Wednesday, October 29th, at 8 am Pacific/ 11 am Eastern to talk more about this subject as Forrester hosts a teleconference for our clients and readers. Feel free to join us by registering today.

And stay tuned for Part III of exploring how B2B marketers can avoid obsolesence...

Tags: B2B marketing, marketing trends, marketing forecast :: Add to del.icio.us

Will B2B Marketing Become Obsolete? (Part I)

[Posted by Laura Ramos]

Today marks the beginning of my 8^th year at Forrester and my 4^th year researching B2B marketing.

I’d like to use this anniversary to start a blog conversation about what I see happening in B2B marketing and to think about what’s next. And, frankly, I am concerned about the future of the business marketing profession.  In particular, for those of us marketing high technology products and services.

First of all, I see four macro trends working against increasing marketing's future value.  In brief they are:

1) Commoditization: software as a service, open source, service-oriented architectures and a number of similar trends make it easier to enter a market and more difficult to differentiate products on features and capabilities alone. As a result, marketers need to work harder to understand, attract, and engage an audience. And it takes multiple touches to involve prospects in conversation and figure out if they are ready for sales to contact.

2) Consumerism and the social groundswell: Buyers are more likely to use information from associates than from institutional sources, like marketing messages and sales people, when purchasing. We found proof of this recently at Forrester when we surveyed business decision makers this year and found 36% of the 2187 who buy networking products and 34% of the 2148 who buy security solutions turn to peers (word of mouth) when researching what to buy. Peers were the #1information source picked in both survey samples. Social computing also establishes more open and authentic communication that will fundamentally change how marketing works – no longer will marketers be able to “spin” product problems or customers concerns away. Look at Dell or Comcast for examples of this.

3) Ad avoidance translates to sales call avoidance. Consumers are really good at avoiding ads. Technology only helps them do this. Tivo lets prospects skip commercials, spam blockers keep email clean, and pop-up blockers keep online ads away. This behavior spills over into the business world where busy buyers turn to the Web to get information while avoiding phone and sales calls until they are further in the buying process.

4) Globalization: Besides needing to address customers in fragmented regional markets, marketers are beginning to face offshore skill competition. Not only do marketers outsource their brains to interactive, ad, and PR agencies, but now outsourcing practices like lead generation and telemarketing are starting to bleed over into core campaign design and execution functions.

Unfortunately, I see marketers focus take a narrow view that causes them to miss seeing the impact of these trends looming ahead. When I ask B2B marketers, “What is marketing’s charter or mission at your company?,” most often I hear “We generate demand.”  This goal is very hard to measure. Why? Because most B2B products are highly-considered sales involving a sales force or indirect channel where marketing gets caught in the middle or brushed to the side. Marketers who simply want to know which tactics work best and which statistics matter fail to see beyond the front of the funnel. Without this broader perspective, marketing will become obsolete as the Web, blogosphere, and social networks let businesses connect buyers directly with product development and bypass marketing all together.

So what should marketers do to avoid this fate?  I’d like to hear from you on this topic.  Feel free to comment or contact me. I will be posting more thoughts on this topic over the next couple of weeks. (Hint: managing demand, not generating it, is a key discipline B2B marketers must improve.)  But I’d like your thoughts first.  What should B2B marketers do to become more relevant to the business and avoid becoming obsolete?

Tags: B2B marketing, marketing trends, marketing forecast :: Add to del.icio.us

Meet One-On-One With Forrester Analysts At Our Consumer Forum 2008

Consistently rated as one of the most popular features of Forrester Events, one-on-one meetings give you the opportunity to discuss the unique technology issues facing your organization with Forrester analysts.  Consumer Forum attendees may schedule up to two 20-minute one-on-one meetings with the Forrester analysts of their choice, depending on availability. Registered attendees can now schedule one of their one-on-one meetings, and can schedule the other meetings onsite at the event.  Book early!

Interactive Marketing: An Imperative In A Recession

[Posted by Shar VanBoskirk]

***Updated with new registration information***

With an economic crisis looming, marketers must find new means to cut costs and deliver returns.  Many interactive marketing tools can actually provide cost-effective ways for firms to increase sales and deepen customer relationships. 

I hope you will join me for a  complimentary Webinar where we discuss how interactive marketing can help you battle budget cuts or slagging sales due to the slowing economy.  In this Webinar, I'm planning to define how interactive marketing should be a mandate for all marketers to stay relevant to their end consumers.  I'm also going to tackle why interactive marketing matters, how your firm should approach it and how Forrester can help you craft meaningful interactive marketing strategies.

Here are the details:

When: Friday, October 24^th 2008
Time:  11:00am-12:00pm Eastern Time

Follow this link to register or for more information:  Register here to attend this Webinar

Hope to see you on the Webinar!

Forrester Consumer Forum: Virtually There

[Posted by Steven Noble]

If you can get to Dallas this October 28 and 29, then run — don't walk! — to register for Forrester's Consumer Forum 2008.

By all accounts,this event will be packed full of insights, advice and networking opportunities, but don't take my word for it: read Josh Bernoff's post and then try telling me you don't want to be there too.

If, like me, you have other commitments at the end of the month, rest easy: there are other ways to participate. For a start, you could contribute to the Forrester Discussion Boards. And keep on eye on the Forrester Blog For Interactive Marketing Professionals — it's one of several places where we'll stream video of the keynotes.

Reebok's "Run Easy" Creates A Movement, Not A Campaign

Reebok and its agency Carat shared the details of their "Run Easy" campaign -- a multichannel effort to create a movement in running.

The situation: Reebok has strong brand recognition, but a much smaller share of sales than competitors.  Reebok wanted to create a perception that running was for everyone, not just for the elite, a very different message than competitive positioning.  Reebok also believed that to do this well, they needed to create a *movement* around running.  It wouldn't work to try to motivate people around running just with a few outbound campaigns.

The approach: Creating a movement is different than creating a campaign.  In fact, Reebok used an approach somewhat contrary to how traditional media efforts are developed.  They seeded their market with the "run easy" idea in advance of a large media blitz.  Then they used media to further interest in the idea and enroll people in the movement.  And last they spread the message through in-person events and viral elements in order to drive participation and encourage the community to spread the word on Reebok's behalf.

From my perspective the primary lessons to take away from Reebok's effort, are:

1) To think differently about how you use available media.  Even if you aren't able to adopt alot of new tools, shaking up how you use your existing arsenal can make a huge difference.  In this case, Reebok used television after the word was already out around "run easy."  Instead of announcing a new brand identity, television confirmed that "run easy" was a serious movement and directed people who were interested to destinations where they could learn more.

2) Involve your audience in your media plan.  You've heard Forrester talk already about "ceding control of your brand to your customer."  This example shows where Reebok actually ceded control of what media and what messages they used to the people who were participating in their movement.  Reebok's users created valuable marketing tools like running maps, testimonials, images of them and their friends running easy.  And Reebok users determined what media Reebok should use.  Reebok bought on and offline properties based on how and where their users RAN, not just how they consumed media.

NBC Universal Finds Olympic Investment Was Well Worth It

I'm back with some details from those cases presented at the BIMA event I went to last week.

Nick Johnson the VP of Multimedia Sales for NBC Universal shared some great data and lessons learned from NBC's "ownership" of the Beijing Olympics.

He called the Olympics a cultural phenomenon -- and for more reasons than their presence in China and all of the political hullaballoo that brought about.  From a media perspective, the games brought about significant behavior change among American consumers:

76% stayed up late to watch events
48% changed their routine in order to watch events when they were on
36% delayed doing things in order to watch events

On top of the high volume of television watchers:
56 million unique users came to NBC's site to watch events, get content, see replays
NBC saw 12.3 million video downloads, AND it saw 16.4 million unique mobile users

Johnson's conclusions from the research NBC conducted following the Olympics:

1) Television can still be king.  The Olympics were hugely successful at driving a mass audience for NBC

2) Consumers expect multiplatform content.  NBC found that people expect that content will be online as well as available via television.  And having multiple platforms showing related content increased the use of each.  68% of consumers said they watched more TV because the content was available online.  And 86% expected to see television content available by Web.

3) TV and video experiences should be complementary.  People who watched TV and then went to the Web to download video content doubled their TV watching hours.

4) Cross platform advertising works. Overall, consumers who saw television ads only experienced a 35% aided brand recall.  Consumers who saw ads on TV and the Web showed a 46% aided brand recall.