In the last couple weeks, I’ve hit a number of articles that bubble around a lot of the business ideas I’ve been poking at lately. If you’re attentive, you’ll probably see the common thread and how that thread might relate to this very-alpha early-stage project I’m thinking about.
Steve Denning on the shift from delivering a good to delighting the customer:
In the 20th Century, firms got by on profits. In today’s more competitive world, profits can vanish overnight with the entry of a new product or service into the marketplace. Making profits is obviously required for survival, but if profits are all a firm has, it faces a precarious future. The true bottom line of any business—and the key to an enduring future—is whether customers are delighted. Delighting customers means continuously providing new value for customers sooner, so that they are willing to buy the firm’s goods and services not just today but also tomorrow. It’s goes beyond mere transactions; it’s about forging relationships. For this to happen, it’s not enough that customers are passively satisfied. That’s just the price of admission to the marketplace. Today, customers must be delighted.
Key point from an academic study of Groupon:
Looking at merchants’ recent use of discount vouchers, we are struck by how few merchants measure the effects of discount vouchers. If a merchant intends its discount vouchers to attract consumers who return for future visits (paying full price forevermore), then that merchant should have a plan for assessing whether voucher customers return
re: Google getting into the Groupon business:
Imagine, however, from a local business standpoint all the telephone calls coming in from online marketing firms and specially the myriad daily deal purveyors — Oy!
“Publishing without publishers“:
And brands that are authentic, not shameless or opportunistic, have a chance to create content that people will pay attention to.
Some thoughts on modern advertising from an interview with ad and design legend George Lois. NSFW and also one of the best reads of the year-to-date:
There are 50 companies in America today that spend at least $150 million a year on advertising, and you could look at their commercials and have no idea what product they’re advertising. I’ll be watching one today and say, “What the fuck was that?” You don’t know what they’re talking about. For some reason young people—or maybe everyone in the business—is afraid of looking like they’re selling something. They try to make pieces of entertainment. They don’t get to the point …
Everyone said, “Oh yeah, that’s a great one!” I said, “What beer were they advertising?” They had a five-minute argument over the brand name. They didn’t know which beer it was … Make it simple. A great ad campaign has two mnemonics: There should be a visual one—somebody doing something—and something verbal. The big idea has got to have this synergy of memorability.
Related articles
- To Groupon or Not To Groupon: New Research on Voucher Profitability (blogs.hbr.org)
- Why is Groupon so Important? (measuringmeasures.com)
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