Month: January 2013

Matrix Commerce is Coming Will You Be Ready?

Early in January of 2012 I found myself struggling with the general terms around multi-channel, cross channel and omni-channel to adequately describe the rapidly evolving retail and e-commerce marketplace reality we all currently face.

Searching for a term that would better capture the full complexity and many drivers impacting the business, on January 3rd 2012 in a moment of epiphany I came up with the term and concept of Matrix Commerce on which topic this whitepaper is a primer.

Matrix Commerce describes the complex construct integrating marketing, sales, sourcing, pricing, profitability, service levels, delivery and consumer perceptions. Inherent in this is the notion of complete customer centricity from many of the above items extending to include customer desires for positive social outcomes relative to cause alignment and even the sustainability performance of companies they choose to do business with.

A mouthful for sure, but while you’re chewing on that start considering the types of real time and rapid processing systems which will be required to support such multi-facetted business decisions, not to mention the reams of big and not so big data that will be necessary for companies to collect in order to make them.

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In Praise of Slow Media

Slow media is patient. It’s not on a deadline. It isn’t measured in column inches. It can be calm instead of sensational, deep instead of superficial.

In the age of “Breaking news, Emmy nominations announced!” and 140 characters, it’s sort of surprising to realize that we are also living in the golden age of slow media.

For years, on Sunday mornings, you could find me sitting in my driveway, recently arrived home from one errand or another, listening to Krista Tippett’s extraordinary interviews on the radio. Thanks to the web, there’s no need to sit in your car any longer, and Krista’s groundbreaking approach is spreading. Spending 90 minutes in the studio with her to create this week’s show was, for me, one of the highlights of my career. (download).

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What Will Become Of The Lance Armstrong Brand?

The sordid tale of Lance Armstrong is unfolding right before our eyes across the web, social media and of course TV in addition to pretty much every other channel known to man.

AUSTIN, TX - JANUARY 14: In this handout phot...

Back in August of this year I wrote an article about Penn State and if their brand had received the death penalty. While obviously different on many fronts, there are some similarities between Penn State and Lance Armstrong when it comes to branding and there’s a lesson for all marketers and advertisers.

The opening two paragraphs of the aforementioned Penn State article fit like a glove when overlaid onto the Lance Armstrong saga:

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Return on Relationship, The Book, is a Reality!

Last year I embarked on a journey with my friend and co-author Kathryn Rose to put into words what Return on Relationship really means. And after months of hard work, I’m very excited that our new book, Return on Relationship: Relationships are the New Currency; Honor Them, Invest in Them, and Start Measuring Your ROR has finally come to fruition, and will be launched January 29th!

Now, you’ve heard me talking about ROR for years, but this is the first time that the concept has been thoroughly discussed from more than just my point of view. Kathryn brings a fresh, practical perspective, and together we explore the depth and breadth of relationship building for businesses.

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Hey CMOs, It’s Time To Get Disruptive

Many moons ago I wrote an article entitled simply Are You Disruptive? In that piece I openly questioned if marketers or business owners, brands, etc., were in fact, disruptive. As I wrote then which is still very true today. I myself am “disruptive” by nature, disruptive not in the breaking mom’s china manner, but rather questioning the accepted norms. Or as Howard Jones would put it, “challenging preconceived ideas.”

I was reminded of my earlier piece while reading something from Forrester Analyst Corinne Munchbach. In a blog post she used the term “Embrace digital disruption.” Now she was using it in the context of something CMOs need to do in 2013 and she was in fact referring specifically to B2C CMOs but I absolutely believe it applies to ALL CMOs – B2C and B2B CMOs alike.

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Twitter passes 200 million monthly active users; no longer a fad

I wrote my first in-depth post covering Twitter in March 2007 saying that Twitter would be the “message heard around the world.” Since then, we learned that Twitter has become a human seismograph where news no longer breaks it tweets. We learned to speak in 140 characters or less. We’ve witnessed Tweets erupt into revolutions. Hashtags are now a way of life. And, we now live in a world where if it wasn’t tweeted, it didn’t happen. Life unfolds in a digital river where experiences and common interests are the ties that bind us. Twitter is indeed part of the fabric of how our world communicates and connects and it contributes to the evolution of our #digitallifestyle.

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Behold The Untapped Big Data Gap

As we close out 2012, one topic that got a lot of “airtime” in 2012 will surely stay on top of many marketers minds as we enter 2013: Big Data.

The title of my article is a paraphrase of sorts as it comes directly from a study done by IDC which revealed, among other things that in “2012, 23% of the digital universe would be useful for Big Data if tagged and analyzed. However, currently only 3% of the potentially useful data is tagged, and even less is analyzed.”

The “even less” part comes out to less than 1%, 0.5% to be precise.

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The Decline of Machines – Why Social Media is not Technology and Vice Versa

Originally posted at Collective Bias Blog 

by 

Most of today’s senior business leaders and marketers developed much of their perspective during the dot com boom of the late 90s and early 2000s. It is little wonder then that when approaching social marketing the solution for most folks is rooted in technology.  The same with most start-ups that are still pursuing the model of aggregating a huge audience, using “Big Data” to spot patterns of groups and selling ads. People buy more stuff and we get a ridiculous valuation.

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