|  As
a marketing consultant, I watch with interest as a growing number of companies
around the world in a variety of different industries have opted to become market-driven
(a.k.a., end-user focused, customer-centric, etc.)
In post-Communist Russia...
...Successful business managers in the new economy recognize the importance of
trying to please their customers. A March, 1999 Financial Times article quotes
the head of product design for a successful jeans manufacturer, "Before our
boss was the state. Now we have a new boss -- the market. We choose styles and
designs, but the risks have also increased. If we work (choose) badly, we earn
bad wages."
Pretty simple, pretty direct! American industrial
distributors...
...are continually being advised to listen to their customers.
In a May, 1999 article in Industrial Distribution a recent chairman of the National
Association of Wholesalers-Distributors states, "distributors need to stop
being product-driven and become customer-driven. We need to target customer segments
better to retain them . . . and increase value-added." Sounds like good advice,
especially in these days of disintermediation. In Silicon Valley...
...Marc Andreessen, founder of Loudcloud, a new technology service provider, and
ex-Netscape wunderkind, deflects competitors' skepticism by admonishing them to
"focus on their customers and not on their computers."
(Business
Week, Nov. 8, 1999.) Why the
Change? Someone famous once said, "Change occurs only when the
pain of changing is less than the pain of staying in the present state."
And this pain is a function of time and circumstances. In Russia, for example,
it is easy to see that the strategies for success that worked well in the past,
would not work so well in the new free-market economy driven by independent customer
choices, decisions, and purchases. The result of continuing to use those
dated strategies would have been more painful for the company (eventually going
out of business) then the result of trying a new way to run the company. In
a lot of industries, the new digital era of technology is driving the change and
compressing the time companies have for getting in touch with, and understanding,
their customers. In fact, it is oftentimes the company's decision to create a
Web presence that quickly highlights the extent of the customer understanding
-- or lack thereof. "At a lot of companies the Web just provides a more effective
conduit for demonstrating that you don't know anything about your customers,"
says Steven Pratt, a Deloitte Consulting partner in a recent Industry Week
article. The company facing the largest risk is the one whose customers
are better understood by the competitors than by the company itself. In the pre-internet
economy, a company could profitably exist for some time operating with strategies
that weren't end-user driven. However, in today's digital world with a thrity
miute HTML update of text, your competitors are telling the world (and your customers)
why their products and services deliver the best value for the money. So,
How Well do You Know Your Customers? Don't assume you know your
end-users' want and needs. Ask them directly. Then decide if your company's Year
2000 sales and business plans focus in on satisfying those needs? If so, have
a Happy New Year. If not, let's talk about how to make that happen . . a year
from now you'll be glad you called. -- by Rosemary Walter | 
As
a follow-up to the First Quarter 1999 Big Picture story "Is E-Commerce Right
For You?," Actmedia now reports that almost 50% of E-commerce Web sites are
now profitable. And that an additional 29% expect to be profitable within two
years.
309
East Rand Road #330