Monthly Archives: February 2008

An Individual Also Has A Market Culture

Posted on February 26, 2008 by | Leave a comment

So often we talk about a Market Culture as being something that an organization (company, business unit) possesses.  We forget to mention that the actions that define this way of business life start at the individual.

Personal Culture => Group Culture

Your Market Culture => Your Company’s Market Culture

So every day ask yourself, “What have I done today to be a strong Market Culturalist?“

  1.  What new Customer Insight will I gain today?
  2. What new Competitor Awareness will I have today?
  3. How will I Collaborate today?  Both internally and externally?
  4. Will I take into account the Long-Term Impact of my decisions?
  5. Will I encourage and display Leadership today?

These questions will not only help lead your day to day activities toward those best for your business, but will provide a “leading by doing” example for your coworkers.

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Posted in Innovative Thought, Market Culture in Action

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Retroactively Introducing the “Market Culturist”

Posted on February 12, 2008 by | 1 Comment

In my last post I introduced the term “market culturist.”

In case you’re wondering, a “market culturist” is a new term I’m making up to describe someone that shares our philosophy — someone who gets what we do. There are a number of you out there. Perusing the Internet, I came across a great piece from the Church of the Customer, who are very much in sync with the customer side of “market culturism.” The article highlights Mark Cuban’s view on creating the right internal/team culture:

“You have to set the culture because that’s how people make decisions,” he says. “If you don’t know what your cause is, if you don’t know what your culture is and what you’re rewarded for and what’s respected and what’s expected, then you’ll make mistakes when you let people make judgments. Then you get all kinds of autocratic environments that don’t succeed.”

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Posted in Market Culture in Action

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Mark Cuban is a “Market Culturist”

Posted on February 12, 2008 by | 1 Comment

I’m a fan of Mark Cuban. I like the enthusiasm he brings to his basketball team, the Dallas Mavericks, and to the NBA. I like watching them play. When I was dominant on NBA Live ’03, the Mavericks were my team. I appreciate the rebel spirit he brings to his team and NBA referees, and the way he goes after what he wants, like the Chicago Cubs.

So when I saw a post on his blog about one of my other favorite topics, music, I had to dive in. And wouldn’t you know, he a “market culturist!”

A little over a week ago, Mr. Cuban talked about a movie’s official soundtrack. A few get really popular – these days the hype is for Juno – but most just languish in the final end credits that no one watches long enough to read anyway. So if most of them aren’t really doing much anyway, and they cost so much to publish and record, is there any other way they can be used to provide value to a customer? Yes, says Mark Cuban, give it away for free to whoever buys the movie ticket.

That’s where the real Hollywood money is made anyway, right? Ticket sales. And as prices for tickets approach $10 apiece, I do, from time to time, wonder if seeing the movie in the theater is worth the money. I mean, thanks to bit torrents and Quick Silver Screen, I can see a lot of movies for free at home. Legality questions? Try Usenet.

So, back to, “why would I want to pay $20 to see a movie with my gal, when we can see it at home for cheaper and not have some idiot’s cell phone go off in the middle of important plot developments?” Because I’m a music fan and the ticket will give me access to a free copy of the sound track. And as a music lover, if I’m made aware of one more band that I’d like, or a new version of a popular song, that’s really valuable to me. Some people are writers, or like to chop up movies on Fan Edit. Mr. Cuban says give them access to the script. As he summarizes,

“Bottomline, is that anything that can be delivered digitally as a download could be bundled into the value of a movie ticket and delivered from the ticketing site, the studio or from the theater’s website. The cost to deliver a song, script or even video (like what you might find as extras on a dvd) digitally is nominal relative to the marketing investment required to get people to the theater”

Mark Cuban: Visionary, business “maverick,” and a true “market culturist.”

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Posted in Customer Value, Innovative Thought, Value Propositions

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Tipping Our Way

Posted on February 1, 2008 by | Leave a comment

In an article published in this month’s Fast Company magazine, Columbia professor cum Yahoo! researcher Duncan Watts debuffs Malcolm Gladwell’s concept of the Tipping Point. Using network simulations (whose alternative uses include predicting the spread of disease) Watts determined that the role of the Influencer, that highly connected firestarter of new trends, is not as important as previously believed. Trends propagated or withered, regardless of an Influencer’s presence. Networks that consisted of a few people who knew a few people were just as probably to reach critical mass as those venerated in The Tipping Point. Interesting read.

The conclusion that Watts comes to is that targeted viral marketing is really no more effective than good old fashioned mass marketing. I’m not a fan of this on many levels, one of which is highlighted by the number of offers I receive in my spam email folder. But another interesting take-away is this:
“Watts believes this is because a trend’s success depends not on the person who starts it, but on how susceptible the society is overall to the trend — not how persuasive the early adopter is, but whether everyone else is easily persuaded.”

So what is our society susceptible to?

It might be that corporate culture can affect the way you deal with your customers.  The subtitle of the 2008 New York Stock Exchange CEO Report is “Putting Customers First,” and the report proceeds to highlight the importance of the relationship with the customer.  From the executive summary:

  1. “The first  theme is that this may be the year in which there is a renewed vigor around the customer — 2008 may be a year where [sic] many CEOs put the customer at the top of the long list of issues on which they must focus.”
  2. “Brand, reputation, and investments in corporate social responsibility are more important this year — all efforts that are focused on winning the hearts and minds of the customer.”

Here are two core components of a corporate culture – executive leadership and shared company values – that must focus on the customer.  This is at the heart of a strong market culture, and the message we’re sharing.  Folks are starting to listen, and those that adopt these principles and apply them to their business the fastest are the ones that are going to keep their customers the happiest.

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Posted in Customer Satisfaction, Innovative Thought

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