futurechat

Over the course of the last few weeks, there have been many posts that have talked about 2010. Here are some thoughts that I found interesting. If you are aware of more, please do share some links too.

5 Non-Obvious Marketing Trends To Watch – Rohit Bhargava

• The Importance Of When.
• Rebirth Of Usability
• Marketing With Customer Service
• The Rise Of Voluntary Ambassadors
• More Businesses Find Their Personality

How Enterprise Applications Will Change – Esteban Kolsky

• Business Functions – You have to embrace a new model, and you need new business functions for that.
• Communities – You will no longer build communities to control, you will participate in ad-hoc and impromptu communities.
• Experience – Or are you trying to do the “online experience” or the “brick-and-mortar experience”? The disconnect is what’s causing you to fail.
• Convergence – You will need to converge your Enterprise 2.0 (internal) and Social CRM (external) strategies (first), initiatives (second), and implementations (third).

Three Enterprise 2.0 Themes You Should Be Watching – Hutch Carpenter

• Impact of SharePoint 2010
• Enterprise 2.0 Becomes “Like Air”
• Enterprise 2.0 Market Stratifies

10 News Media Content Trends to Watch - Vadim Lavrusik

• Living Stories
• Real-Time News Streams
• Blogozines
• Distributed Social News
• News Goes Mobile
• The Year of Geo-Location
• Story-Streaming
• Social TV Online
• Marketers as Producers
• Social News Gaming

Consumer Trends Influencers

A Resolution to Fix Morale – Kelli Schmith

• Simply pay attention to your people – Give your employees thoughtful attention.

The New Way to Work – Top 5 Trends to Watch – Contagious Ideas

• Organizations will embrace Design Thinking
• Women will play a more important role in re-defining traditional notions of work
• Small business owners will become the new stars of economic growth
• “Happiness” will become a way to measure economic prosperity
• Personal branding will become the buzzword of talented workers around the world

Four Ways Consumer Mobility Will Reshape Digital Advertising – Dave Courtney

• Audiences Will Replace Channels
• Mobile Evolves Beyond Devices
• Contextual Location Emerges
• Engagement as a Metric

Landor’s 2010 Trends Forecast: Market Trends and their impact on Brands

Media Predictions – Pat Kitano

• Community Engagement will become the Driver of Local Media
• Mobile + Local advertising = Penny Saver 2.0
• Mobile + Advertising + Pubsubhubbub = Alert systems
• Advertising as Content
• Everybody becomes a marketer, and some will become sales closers
• Virtual socializing and Webinar ubiquity
• The grass roots Web
• The stream is more important than website
• Curation is the new syndication
• A new era of open social media

5 Social Media Implications for Brands – Sienna Farris

• Social media marketing will finally transition from “nice to have” to “must have”
• Location-based social networking is here to stay  ( Also read The Future of Geo-Tagged Marketing )
• Experimental social media budgets are key
• The division between the virtual world and the physical world will continue to blur
• Crowd sourcing will turn social media into a direct sales channel

The Top Trends That Will Shape Social Entrepreneurship – Nathaniel Whittmore

• Online Action Moves Away From Just Donations
• Coworking and Startup Incubation
• Sector Blending
• Innovation Ecosystems
• Creativity in Seed Stage Funding

The Year Marketing Dies… – The role of the new marketer:

• Won’t be simply to focus on outbound messaging but to consult with sales, customer service, and human resources on how the brand must be communicated in every consumer interaction, every tweet, and every touchpoint,
• Won’t be merely to imagine creative messages but to fashion programs that are seamless with the actual product and service experience,
• Won’t be to plan bursts of communication on a yearlong calendar but to respond to and be part of the ever-changing dialog with consumers,
• Won’t be to count friends, page visits, eyeballs, readers, or viewers but to measure changes in consumer attitude and intent,
• Won’t be merely to talk at consumers but to listen and engage one to one,
• Won’t be to build campaigns but relationships,
• Won’t be to create impressions but experiences, and
• Won’t be buy media but to earn it.

The 10 TENsions That Will Define 2010 – Ross Dawson

• Optimism – Fear
• Institutional work – Independent work
• Hyperconnected – Disconnected
• Openness – Privacy
• Youth – Experience
• Death of Media – Birth of Media
• Immigration – Borders
• Climate Activists – Climate Doubters
• Innovation – Copying
• Me – Everyone

Digital Trends

• Social media fatigue
• Real-time search and social search
• The end of the Intranet … as we know it
• Content leaves home
• Augmented Reality (AR)
• Service on demand
• User-friendly collaboration tools
• The new interface
• iPhone-killers

Some Next Big Things – Faris Yakob

• Gestures – Gestural interfaces are the future of human computer interaction, at least until we find a way to connect something straight into your brain
• Banners – Thinking about banner networks as ways to distribute samples of interesting content to your audience might lead them to earning their own attention
• The socialization of mainstream media – new media do not displace old media. They simply change what it is for.
• Content – To get in on the spread requires content strategy, and the lack of media scarcity online means we need to “think like a dandelion” – produce as much content as possible and see what catches the breeze.
• Hyper-connectivity and transmedia

Penny for Your Thoughts – Don Tapscott

Four Big Ideas Influencing Marketing – John Moore

• Word of Mouth isn’t always Spoken, Sometimes its Visual
• Clear is the New Clever
• Social Media is about Solving more than Selling
• Word of Mouth Marketing Begins First by Listening

Consolidating Strategies – Wim Rampen

• For 2010 I wish all the Customer Centric strategies to consolidate, on a company level

12 Digital Marketing Predictions - Lee Odden

• Hybrid Plans that Combine Subscription Fees with Advertising
• More Transparency on Websites Could Undermine Online Ad Efforts
• Social Plus Search Will Equal Better Results, More Ad Opportunities
• Mobile Commerce’s Time Has Arrived
• Retailers Grapple with Measuring Social Commerce
• Mobile Is Moving Into the Mainstream
• Earned Media Takes Center Stage
• Social Ad Networks Will Expand
• Twitter
• Online News Content
• Digital Video Convergence
• Look to the 55+ Age Demographic for Internet Usage Increases

Technology Forecast & Predictions – Jack Uldrich

Future of Advertising

BtoB Marketers Predictions – Paul Dunay

• Facebook Advertising will take off – Should try it out for recruiting or even brand advertising
• Mobile Marketing – Experiment with Location Based Services especially at live events
• Social will leave Marketing – It starts to transform the rest of your BtoB organization from Product Development and R&D, to Billing and Finance, to HR and Recruiting, to Customer Service and the Contact Center
• Corporate Websites will become less important – More consumption of content off of the corporate website in places like Facebook, YouTube, and relevant Communities and Forums
• Lead Generation tools must combine with Social Media tools
• Listening tools will also get much stronger
• How to handle Advocates will become more important
• MicroVideo shops will start popping up
• Businesses will demand Intelligence not Social Media

Ten Trends

Also explore the Insights and Ingenuity List

Consumer Trend Report from TREND HUNTER

Further Updates : Jan 6, 2010

Top Digital Trends : The drive for content at scale ranks among the developments set to make waves by Brian Morrissey

• Content at Scale
• The End of the Digital Agency
• Social Gaming
• Demand-Side Platforms
• Engagement Pricing
• Augmented Reality Grows Up
• Social Media Morphs into Digital

Top Ten Digital Trends – Simon Mainwaring

• Where You Are Is Who You Are
• THE Customer As Advertiser
• Real-Time Search
• Selling The “Why”, Not The “What”
• Overcoming Overload
• Content Is King
• Augmented Reality
• Measuring Engagement
• Crowdsourcing For Everyone
• Your Brand in Their Hands

Predictions: Conscious Capitalism, Vertical Learning – Raff Viton

• The integration of Conscious Capitalism will spur long-term growth
• Vertical learning will be of increasingly high value

Five Predictions on Collaborative Computing – Rob Howard

• 2010 will be another year of growth for the industry
• Engagement analytics will replace Web analytics
• Platform, not application
• Collaboration will replace social
• Enterprise search technology will grow

Customer Experience Resolutions – Bruce Temkin

• We shall put in place a robust voice of the customer program
• We shall stop playing with social media and put it to good use
• We shall treat customer service as a loyalty-driver, not a cost center
• We shall go beyond just fixing problems and inspire brand promoters
• We shall establish clarity in our brand, internally and externally
• We shall identify a senior executive to lead the transformation effort
• We shall help new customers get value from us faster and easier
• We shall improve the usability of all self-service interactions
• We shall communicate more clearly with customers across all channels
• We shall make our culture more customer-centric

A Look Forward – David Polinchock

• Authenticity continues to be a critical
• As SM grows, people will demand much more from brands
• Brands must learn that they start the conversation, people amplify it
• If you don’t give me information, I’ll go to someone who will
• We need to expand the Experience Continuum
• To expand the Experience Continuum, we need to start creating Oneline experiences
• We’ll start to understand the importance of Location Based Branding
• AR & QR codes will become mainstream
• Physical retail needs to adapt or face the consequences

5 Marketing Principles Brands Should Embrace – Frank Striefler

• Create better realities
• Don’t be design blind
• Be “brand led”
• Think 365 — not 360
• Be interesting

The Words You are Going to Hear a Lot

• Spurned Media
• Mobilenecking
• Jack Ripper
• Wiki Wart
• Oedipost Complex
• Deciprocity
• Faux Post
• Appfusion
• Brand Tease
• Shelf Storm
• Apptosterone
• Buck Sucked
• Trust Lapse
• Runway Rebel
• Blog Dodger
• Tweet-Shifting
• Curbcasting
• Twitstop
• Digital Detox

The Future of Social Media

The Mobile Internet Report – Summary

10 Things – Bring Work to Life – Krishnan Chatterjee

• Impact Not Transaction
• A piece of You. Not You as a piece
• Run the race against yourself
• Knowledge and Skills are irrelevant without Insight
• Earn a Seat at the Table
• Think Outside In
• Leadership is the art of self-redundancy
• You HAVE to push the envelope
• Detail, Detail and Detail
• There is no trust without being yourself

Do telcos still believe that irrespective of service quality, they will be able to get new customers and existing ones will not churn out?

Recently, a telco launched a “blazing fast” data card service. However the launch was truly noticed  on twitter. It started with a seemingly innocuous but sarcastic message and turned into a torrent of comments from users of the service. The conversation stream is available here.

There are 3 points – Advertising, Service and Listening to Customers to consider

1. Advertising - Think of these words from a popular song , “Words are all that I have , To take your heart away “. These words could well be true for smart copy and advertising and their role in the success of large brands. But it is not true any more. Smart words have to be backed with tangible service and a great experience.

2. Service - Why make a promise when it cannot be kept. A quick scan through the comments in the stream pointed to customers facing these problems

• Speed Issues – One cannot promise blazing fast speeds and then the top problem is also speed.
• Billing Problems
• Incomplete Documentation
• Incomplete Information at the time of purchase

Service design and an emphasis on the complete experience have not been adequately factored in.

3. Listening to Customers - On the real time internet, there are two words that have come to define service , sweet and fail. There is no word called satisfied or some such measure. These two words can start an avalanche of conversations which must necessarily be addressed. There is no hiding from this and  proactive and near realtime action is required from credible sources within the company.

Have you taken steps to listen to these conversations ?

Telcos, have placed bets on a certain point , that the demand from new customers will outweigh by a factor of 10 or more the customers who will churn out. In this scenario, less than adequate emphasis is paid on service and experience. With number portability soon to be launched and new providers innovating with their models, can incumbents continue to ignore service and experience aspects.

Finally, the song does have a line, Lets start a brand new story…

Lately, companies are focusing on re-branding etc and talking about the new identity. While this is good,  what about effort that needs to be put in taking the next steps in building a brand based on service?  Re-branding enhances the expectation of a customer. 

Does the new service design improve the experience inline with the rise in customer expectations? More importantly, does service redesign form a part of the roadmap of these brand makeovers? 

So think about it, the next logical step after a brand makeover is to ask the question ,Would you recommend us to a friend or colleague? This is the basis of calculating the Net Promoter Score of a business but I feel there is more to this than just the question ? It contains the story of a brand’s service. 

The story, in the words of a customer, of what they felt and how they were served while interacting with a particular brand. This story , if you look for it, is available on the internet and is just a search away.  It is increasingly being discussed in various social circles , offline and online. This story moves faster than any conventional advertising and promotions. 

So here is another question , if you came across a story about your brand that was not flattering, would you continue to focus on creating a new advertising or communication template or take steps in improving the service experience .

Your answer determines the next aspect of the service experience, its impact on your team ? Your ability to hire the best talent and retain them depends on the story of your service again. Would you recommend a friend to work for us is a question that may well be asked internally to your team . The answer will be the story of your service to the internal team. It will also give you an insight into the sustainability of your brand experience. After all a constantly changing team will create challenges in learning , consistency and motivation. 

Finally,  would you take up the task of creating happy customers and employees who have nice things to say about your brand?  The truly distinctive Indian brand that lives up to its promise by delivering great service.

Perhaps the concern with Social Networks is that they can make the entire network of a person vulnerable to some sort of a problem. Not just beacon, Facebook also faced some issues with programmes such as Zoost.

Should one consider P2P networks as Social Networks too ? They are a source of significant privacy breaches. These were covered in a very comprehensive report on Techweb . Credit card details, Social Security Numbers, RFP’s and more were found to be floating around in these P2P networks.

A new advertising related service which has got the attention of ISP’s and Privacy groups is Phorm.  While the service itself says that the customer information is anonymously tracked , but the worrying factor is when it is layered with ISP information could it become a privacy threat ? Add another layer of social and mobile networks and it could be very interesting!

Nicole made a very interesting point on credit card information being shared on Amazon. I think we are sort of resigned to using credit cards online and offline. And one hopes that fraud does not take place. What if , however, these sites and banks decide to mine data and do a mashup. Hypothetically speaking if a bank or card company wants to know the social network profile of its customers and their transaction and other habits. Will we accept it ?

Also, what role do organisations such as Truste and others play in the social networks, ISP’s and Banks story. In a world of mashups, how do trust certifications work.  Conversely  is there an organisation that a customer signs up for that can certify the security of customer information.

“Branding is so yesterday, tommorow is already here…. ” this is how Kevin Roberts starts this talk at Zeitgeist Europe. I came across this video while looking up videos on Lovemarks . This is fascinating and insightful

Not a day passes without a report of a major accident on India’s roads. There are people who lose their loved ones and people who have injuries that they need to cope with for years and years to come.Genuine mistakes do cause some of these accidents .Most accidents, however, are likely to be caused because of brazen behavior on roads, low rule awareness and poor driving ability. I have , as yet , not written anything new in all this but I do feel passionately for road safety.Everyday on our roads, we see people breaking every known traffic rule with impunity.So I decided that I will take photographs of these people and send them to police for whatever action they deem fit. Punish or Education was their choice. However , after about a week of diligently taking photographs of erring drivers I was exhausted. Sometimes I missed the right moment or there were simply too many people breaking rules in the same photo frame. I should have invested in a video camera !Perhaps , I should release a coffee table book called Signs of Traffic! Hmm..So after a lot of thought I have these questions :

1. Why can’t traffic monitoring cameras be put on each traffic light or busy areas ?
2. Why can’t automobile companies look at safety related initiatives as part of corporate social responsibility ?
3. Why can’t the advertising standards focus on ensuring ads do not encourage dangerous habits on roads ?
4. Why can’t school curriculum focus on safety as an integral aspect of education ?
5. Why can’t corporate entities focus on safety as integral to their work environment ?
6. Why cant the law be modified to require traffic violators to compulsorily work in the trauma or emergency area of a hospital?

I’m sure there are more , but these are the ones I’ve thought about and come to mind as I write. If more come to mind, I will write about it.

Monitor Traffic with Cameras

My little experiment with a digital camera, while I was driven to work and back , convinced me that incase this were done it would really increase revenue for the traffic police. You might say it is very obvious . My thought is that maybe the reason it has not been done is because of funds prioritisation issues. Maybe, if that is the case, the concerned department could look at a public-private enterprise. My idea , focuses on a company taking on the responsibility of installing cameras and sharing revenue on a per car booked basis. Linking this data to insurance companies may result in increased revenue.The biggest benefit will be that roads will be slightly more safe to drive on. There are other related benefits of these cameras but I will focus on the safety aspect.Safety Initiatives by Automotive and related companies Some out of the box thinking is required to address this issue. I feel the automotive sector has a huge social role to play in highlighting safety issues. A case in point is the Castrol Drive for Safety campaign. It effectively highlights the danger of talking on mobiles while driving ( disclosure : One of the Castrol divisions is a client ). There are so many issues that need to be addresed and I do feel the automotive sector needs to do more. Some of the initiatives that come to mind are

• Training centers that teach driving that are linked to dealerships and service centers
• Automotive Safety and Defensive Driving CDROM and other literature that is part of the kit of a New Car
• Airbags as standard fitment . I find it amazing that cars are sold with power windows but no airbags. Surely safety should have been given more priority. Am i being naive ? If you gave the customer a choice between airbags and power windows at virtually the same price , what would they buy ? Is human life different at various price points? Does the pain of loss or injury differ at different price points ?

Responsible Safe Advertising It’s a hilly road, a girl and boy on a bike ignore the diversion sign and the instructions of person trying to guide them away from a treacherous patch of road. It makes me angry each time ! A man and a woman flirting about a cup of coffee. I’m sure this is common.What is uncommon is that they are breaking every rule book under the sun and they are driving their respective cars. Sudden u-turns, zig zags, you name it they have the move. Except that it makes me angry ! A bright red car races down a picturesque and serene area, throwing water on a person who is relaxing. The look on his face does’nt seem to suggest he is going to buy that car anytime soon.It makes me angry each time I see it. I’m not the greatest expert on brand values and communication but I do know one thing. Brand’s value propositions tend to focus on responsibility etc etc . How is it , that each of these ads seem to highlight a disregard for rules, potentially unsafe behavior and in the last case low civic sense. The group that owns the bright red car company, also has a chain of spas and hotels. I wonder how customer service managers of the spa will handle such a scene if it were to happen.Get a grip! , see the writing on the wall . People are getting hurt big time , communication ethics and advertising should focus on being responsible.Indian creativity, can surely come up with more responsible and cutting edge communication. Schools and Safety The reason we have low awareness of safety issues is because we have never really been taught safety. Looking back on my school years, I dont remember more than a couple of classes on road signs etc. Over the years, that emphasis seems to have gone even further down. I have read the debate on sex education but I’ve not yet come across any debate on safety. I wonder why !In addition to the above, I don’t see schools put any effort on safety aspects of their students and teachers. I find it shocking that court interventions have resulted in standards being defined. It should have been part of individual schools agenda to ensure safety of their students and teachers. Even now implementation of these standards is fairly poor. One just has to stand outside each school to get a sense of reality.Schools are spending money on advertising, infrastructure upgradation. How about safety? Investing in safety will always be a wise investment. Train the drivers, ensure an optimum number of students are there in each transport vehicle. The vehicle itself has to have optimal safety devices . Could an automotive brand be associated and engage in a more meaningful way with its future customers.Safety in the Work Environment  When we first started working for Castrol BikeZone on an experience design project, we were briefed on the HSSE policy of the company. With specific reference to road safety, clear instructions to switch off the phone while driving and usage of seat belts while in car were given. Their emphasis on security continues even now.A lot of companies do have safety policies but somehow the implementation of these seems rather limited. In the booming IT/ITES sector of India, I would highlight the following

• As the work day winds down in India, the work day in other parts of the world starts. At around 6pm onwards, conference calls are scheduled with other parts of the world. Most of these calls are fairly involved and long in duration. The interesting bit is , that a majority of the participants are in the process of moving out of office and driving back. Thus these calls are taken in the car while driving. Should the loss prevention or safety officer of a company be worried about these hazards ? Yes!. Are they worried ? I need to do some research to get a better sense . My gut feel says not enough is being done.
• The bpo boom has definitely resulted in a large number of people carriers on the roads. These vehicles carry staff to and fro from the workplace everyday. Most times, these vehicles are outsourced to a transportation company wh

  o has service level agreement (sla) with the bpo. Broadly speaking remuneration to the transportation company is based on the SLA which may include number of trips and people transported. It is fairly obvious that this system has some safety loopholes. Traffic rules are broken, long work hours of drivers and inadequate training issues result in accidents.

Similar instances exist in other areas as well. What is the benchmark of safety in such a scenario ? What does one measure and how can road safety be improved? It should be a priority discussion topic within the corporate leadership. Service in Hospital Accident Trauma Center This is a slightly radical point but I do believe that some sensitization is required. There are too many aggresive drivers with a brazen sense of power. They drive recklessly and end up hurting innocent people. I strongly believe that people who have been involved in accidents should be asked to spend time and assist in trauma centers. They should see the destruction and pain caused on our roads .Maybe it will bring some good sense into these people.The core objective of this post is to highlight the issue of road safety and the proactive role a company or a brand can play. The objective is to find more ideas and solutions that solve problems .