The New Marketing Toolkit

New Marketing Tool Kit: Forrester recommends that Social Computing require a new Marketing Tool Kit with New Channels, Technology and Metrics to replace the old Marketing Tool Kit of Channels, Tactics, and Metrics. Figure 9, from the Forrester Report, featured below, illustrates the contrast between the two Marketing Tool Kits:

In transitioning marketing strategies, Forrester advises that, "Firms should approach Social Computing as an ongoing learning process, using some of the best practices of firms that have successfully taken the first steps." MSN and Yahoo are successful pioneers in this arena and marketers can learn from their strategies and from discussion in online forums and on blogs.

Bottom-Up Approach: Forrester suggests that businesses move from the top-down traditional approach to the bottom-up customer-driven innovation approach by ceding control and by offering communities a platform through these strategies:

• Use customers as the source of inspiration
• Observe customer needs in-depth as key drivers
• Encourage spontaneous customer involvement
• Implement a controlled chaos process
• Assess customer's explicit and latent needs

Companies can create this bottom-up approach by inviting the customer to use tools such as search, email, blogs, smart point of sale (POS) and intranets. The result is insightful user-generated content and peer-to-peer networks that provide buzz and drive the pace of innovation.

"Increased adoption of online forums -- such as eService suites and Emotive Networks -- shows that consumers are also eager to share their expertise of products and services with each other," says Forrester. Collaboration on product development in this manner is cheaper, faster, more structured and effective.

Consequently, individuals move beyond basic needs to explicit needs that elevate company goals to sustain innovation of products and services, thereby pushing individual experience to center stage. Concept stores by Sony and Gucci, B2C audio experiences such as Apple iPod/iTunes, as well as B2B network experiences such as Microsoft Channel 9 are examples of companies treating consumers well by offering them desired experiences.

Sales from individual experiences are climbing, according to Forrester, because "experiences span product and industry boundaries." Companies realize that single-function product divorced from a broader experience is inadequate in today's competitive environment.

Through the offering of company-tailored experiences, consumers can become evangelists for company products and services-- shifting the power from institutions to communities. "Passion is the consumer's power to create the message and distribute it through use of social technology," says Chris Charron, vice president and research director of Forrester Research.

Consumer passion via community will challenge the authority of traditional institutions in how consumer "mindshare" is bought (e.g., mobile ads), how governments control the media (e.g., blogs) and how national borders are preserved (e.g., social networks and platforms). Social Computing projects networked enterprises, workforces, and partners -- and their communities -- across national borders.

Value-Added Asset: Social Computing generates value from community, customer service, sales, marketing, production and R&D. And businesses benefit through:

• Added value to their brands from user content and forums
• Savings from reduced service costs as a result of community self-help
• Community loyalty reducing commissions
• Increases in ROI due to word-of-mouth marketing (WOM) and better targeting
• Lower costs from less waste because of co-design
• Greater success due to community input

To create this value, it means that businesses have to let customers become the brand, and have to share assets and responsibilities. Companies not willing to transition to Social Computing will lose the benefits gleamed from user and community intelligence.

Forrester views Social Computing as a continual learning process where marketers and strategists are advised to talk less and listen more when engaging in the following activities:

• Become part of the community by offering customers the opportunity to express themselves and communicate with peers
• Use peer relations to raise loyalty and stickiness by keeping in constant touch with consumers and immediately responding to changes in their preferences
• Avoid an exploitation-only approach to foster positive consumer opinion
• Focus on Social Computing as a strategic asset of value not on its risks
• Employ flexible corporate oversight and use it as a recruiting differentiator
• Track younger employees and Social Computing needs and tools in the workplace
• Provide the tools to facilitate successful Social Computing

"Marketers have to listen to the buzz online and tap into new distribution channels for their products to track positive and negative feedback about their brands in real time," says Chris Charron, vice president and research director of Forrester Research. When asked how marketers can use online buzz to tap into new distribution channels, Charron suggests the following tactics:

1. Work with analytical vendors, such as IntelliQuest
2. Create a blog for your company allowing executives to engage in dialogue with users
3. Develop a campaign, such as Tide's campaign for their environmentally friendly brand, to tap into user passions about your products

As a result of engaging in these Social Computing activities, the role of marketers is redefined through different scenarios with new opportunities and goals.

Redefining the role of marketers: Social Computing impacts business whether companies choose to adopt Social Computing or not because users give communications a new context. Micro Persuasion's Steve Rubel says that, "the change or die mantra is the anthem of the internet age, like it or not."

Firms choosing not to adopt Social Computing will lose market share to companies willing to balance risk for the benefit of lower costs and higher margins. Forrester warns, "Social Computing is not a fad, nor is it something that will pass you or your company by."

Industries most affected by Social Computing include media, retail, telecom, high-tech, finance, travel, consumer packaged goods (CPG), healthcare and automotive. "Gradually, Social Computing will impact almost every role, at every kind of company, in all parts of the world," reports Forrester.

Marketers, advertisers and strategists are involved in all the sources of value-added assets composing Social Computing and their role evolves with the Social Computing environment. For this reason, marketers should be prepared to:

• Evolve, participate and collaborate in redefining the Social Computing environment
• Communicate the impacts of Social Computing to the worldwide audience of users-- buyers and sellers
• Research, monitor, and report findings in Social Computing
• Search for solutions to the risks and problems associated with Social Computing
• Facilitate successful communications and buy/sell interactions within the Social Computing setting
• Act ethically and responsibly within the Social Computing environment

Marketers lead as role models in approaching customer relationships -- balancing consumer privacy and transparency -- while engaging and redefining community in Social Computing. Observing the marketing industry's metamorphosis and participating in the Social Computing environment is the exciting historical milestone of our times that future generations will build on.

The full report can be purchased on the Forrester website.

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Fiona Torrance, an iMedia contributor and editorial intern, is a senior in Business Communication and Finance at USC Marshall School of Business, Center for Management Communication, and a Teacher's Assistant in Advanced Business Writing. Fiona is a published writer, author of Biz Blog Review and is currently conducting independent research under Dr. Sandra Chrystal on the corporate blog as an effective business communications tool.