Getting More Graphic

Big Ideas Topic: For decades, demographic information (age, gender, location) has been hailed as the Holy Grail of audience identification and more recently, psychographic data (interests, attitudes, opinions, and lifestyles) has emerged as the ultimate barometer for success. Now Forrester Research has elevated the concept of technographics as the latest “must know” ingredient for digital audience targeting.

At Issue: Million dollar decisions are based on demographic and psychographic data daily with proven results. Why do you need technographic insight?

Big Ideas View: It is mission critical that you know your audience’s technographics; defined as their different habits, feelings about and uses of digital media – specifically the Internet and its untethered arm, the mobile phone. The key to growing your business lies in knowing your customers. Customers of all stripes are spending more time on-line. Even FaceBook’s largest growing audience is women 55+. Different user groups consume digital media in different ways, so you must know which specific digital elements and channels are used and appreciated by your specific consumers.

The term “technographics” was coined in 1985 by a Dr. Edward Forrest in a study of the habits of VCR users, however, it is Forrester Research who has elevated the term to a standard based on their 2008 tracking across the explosion of digital media. This segmented data is now available to marketers, IT professionals and business strategists in easy to digest tables. They offer reports and webinars for a price. We recommend you can buy the book Groundswell by authors Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff and get some data free from the Groundswell blog.

How do technographics change the way you do business? First, understand that your “on-line presence” encompasses more than just your primary website when your brand communicates in the cyberworld. Knowing the technographic profile of your customer (also referred to as “Social Technographics, or “Consumer Technographics”) will shape your strategies. Forward thinking businesses are reshaping digital strategies now based this data. What types of social media should you embrace (or should you)? Should you blog? Use forums? RSS feeds? Exclusive images, videos? Polls, Reviews, Contests? Subscription clubs? How vital is mobile? Analysis of your audience technographics will indicate if your target group is comprised of (using Groundswell terms) Creators, Spectators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, a combination of two or all of the above. The answer will indicate which tools provide the most promise.

Forrester is not the only game in town for analyzing on-line habits. You can learn a great deal about consumer entertainment media trends with BigChampagne, or try the NPD Group if you want a more retail oriented view. Pew Research (nonprofit), Nielsen Online (some free and some paid), MarketResearch.com, and many others are analyzing habits on-line and a growing number of firms are looking at mobile Internet activity patterns by groups. However, when it comes to profiling customers and their use of technology in order to use these market segments for your strategic planning, Forrester has certainly given us some “swell” tools.

Success is achieved by using a mix of key variables from each data set (demographic, psychographic and technographic) as you identify your core customer and apply your resources to conversing with them. You use demographics and psychographics to determine the technographics. Without knowing your customer’s technographics, you may invest resources and dollars in a strategic direction that does not meet the needs of your customer and therefore, your brand. One thing is sure, even as the economy has slipped digital activity is evolving and there is little time or room for misdirection. Is that graphic enough for you?

[Reprint of our monthly newsletter, The Big Ideas Report, from The Gales Network.  Published 3/13/09 at www.galesnetwork.com]

Missed Opportunity

An online printing company missed an opportunity this week.  I had heard about them from a real world friend (the best kind) and decided I would give them a try printing my new business cards.  The art was already designed so all I needed was for them to print and send. The online order process seemed easy enough at first but for some reason, the files did not upload as they should.  There was a link for “help” and I sent a request to see what happened wrong with my files.  24 hours later, still no call or email.  So I called them.  I put in a series of calls because their phone system was experiencing trouble.  When I was not able to reach a live person, I sent another email request for help.  Another 24 hours and no contact.  The next day I received an email confirmation that they had received my request for help and instructed me to send the files to their service department.  I did.  Next day no call or email.  I finally called and was able to get through to a live human who fixed my files (no explanation as to why they didn’t work) and I was assured I would have my cards in time for the meeting I needed them for.  The cards arrvied the afternoon before my meeting and I was happy until I discovered the cards were only printed on one side.  I called and after a long wait found a representative who was very sorry and said they would be reprinted and I would receive them on Thursday. Thursday is today.  As of 9:15pm tonight, no cards.  No call or email to explain why not and alert me when they will arrive.  Even if the cards arrive tomorrow printed correctly, I am an unhappy customer.  This company had many opportunities to connect with me a create a new relationship.  They chose to treat me as just another order.  What a difference it would have made if they had looked at me as a new, life time friend.  I let them know I had been frustrated early in the process.  I sent red flags.  No one listened. Are you treating your new (and existing) customers as potential life long friends?  Do you listen?  This is the most important thing you can do for your future.  And if Overnightprints.com has a brand monitoring staff member or service, perhaps they might hear about my experience and realize their weakness before they are simply an overnight failure. Brand loyalty does not happen overnight.  It is nurtured, cultivated and consistent.  Simply having a functional website will not build your brand (although it does help).  Being personally involved and humanly connected builds your brand.

[A quick update:  After printing the cards FOUR times, they still could not get it right.  I had a very kind supervisor work with me and still they could not handle it once the file was in the system.  They have indicated they will refund my money.  Wow.  Think I'll go to the local printer.]

Step forward or hide from tomorrow

It was great to hear Seth Godin this morning in Nashville.  Live and in person.  Books are wonderful and digital is great but the live experience proved better.  His call to the Country Radio Broadcasters was clear.  Step forward with the times or find yourself in the past.  The future is here.  The audience has changed and so has the business model.  Seth’s message this morning was directed at radio but its ring of truth should be embraced by all industries.  The transition of power from institutions to individuals means new ways of thinking and acting are demanded from all who hope to build a business with the consumer of this century.  The customer wants to be heard and should be listened to when making decisions. When you are available to do that, you build your own tribe.  No longer look for the audience who just wants your current offering but build transparent relationships with interested individuals and deliver to them what they want.  This commitment will build brand loyalty.  If you know Godin’s work, you won’t be surprised that his emphasis was on permission marketing and viral spread of ideas.  This morning he sounded like a phophet who had lived to see his predictions come true.  Is your business ready to have conversations and build relationships? Listen to what your tribe has to say. Step forward.

From Institution to Individual

I had an encouraging talk yesterday with a small business owner who was changing his way of doing business to address the needs of his customers.  This creative service provider shifted a day off for his staff to Thursdays and was willing to pay them time and a half to work Saturdays because volume more than made up for the higher pay period. His customers had needs and he was willing to serve them. Although most in the medical profession have resisted the shift from “the way it has been done” to a customer driven world, this forward thinking businessman was embracing it and finding his small business margin up (after three quarters of decline) for the first weeks of 2009. His shift to a high tech office over the last year, both in his backroom and in the patient care area, not only gave him great customer feedback that led to this change, it allowed him to measure and understand his profit margin now trending up.  You might expect this thinking from someone just out of med school but this forward thinking comes from a Boomer.  There is a profound shift happening that too many businesses have narrowly categorized as a technology revolution when it is in actuality, a power revolution.  No longer will banks, post offices and doctor’s offices tell us when we can have their services.  The individual is king (or queen) and all industries will be wise to shift their M.O accordingly.  If not, customers will bank with on-line bankers, print their own postage and use minute clinics when they need help. Yes, technology is part of the transition but it is an understanding of the power shift from institution to individual that should drive your decisions in the new world order.

Extraordinary

What is your goal?  Where are you going?  Why do I choose to write this blog?  Because today when I woke up at 5:00am, the word “extraordinary” burned in my brain.  It is part of my vision for life.  Webster’s defines it as “going beyond what is usual, regular, or customary; to be exceptional to a very marked extent”.  To be extraordinary, we must be a lifelong learners.  I must read great authors (and stop reading those who are not), listen to wise counsel and be “in the moment” with so many exceptional people I already know and will meet tomorrow.  I was struck by how life has privileged me to know so many truly extraordinary people this week as I ventured into another social network.  I was struck by how fortunate I am to continue to meet new extraordinary people this week when I attended a reception for a small group of women profiled in Marsha Blackburn’s new book Life Equity.  I listened.  I was in the moment.  I know I am richer because of those encounters.  Don’t wait for life to knock on your door like the Publisher’s Sweepstakes with an announcement that you have arrived at being extraordinary.  Embrace the now.  Be thankful. Be extraordinary.