Much has been made of Facebook’s planned IPO, and many have picked over the carcass that is the filing paperwork, seeking hidden rot among the reams of comment and figures. There’s little doubt the Securities and Exchange Commission will have its questions and comments given that Facebook’s public debut is the most anticipated since Google’s bow, but Facebook is no Groupon, and lessons learned from that companies filing mistakes surely informed the actions of the Facebook bean counters and lawyers. I predict fair winds as Facebook’s stock sails towards its first trading day.
As I reviewed the Facebook filings, and in particular, Mark Zuckerbergs 2100 plus word letter to investors, (longer even than typical for that most anticipated of annual letters, Warren Buffett’s) I was struck by how little attention the founder paid to advertising, the very heart (and muscle and nervous system) of Facebook’s business model. He only mentioned it once, and frankly, that concerns me. Vision and speed and dedication to his proudly pronounced “hackers way” is all well and good, but when the man controls some 57 percent of what will probably be one of the most valuable companies ever to go public, one hope for a little focus on where the dollars are coming from.
Still, I expect the public launch will be a success, and the transparency required in being publically traded will force Facebook to look beyond its core to find and develop other services and sources of revenue. I mean, Google is designing cars that drive themselves for crying out loud. What does that have to do with search? Nothing. Why are they doing it? Because they can. What Magic will the Zuck be asked to conjure as he very publically marches forward? Time will tell, but one thing we do know is that Facebook’s Magic will be born from a different market research methodology than we’re used to.
When asked about what market research was done on the iPad, Steve Jobs famously replied, “None. It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want”. (Of course, the Apple employee directory lists a whole slew of individuals who are market research types, and no doubt they've been hired to do something, but I digress...) Its been argured that Facebook as a concept would have never passed muster if its creation relied on the opinion of consumers and yet, every Facebook update and new tool or application is designed based on their very use. Facebook has taken a very “bite sized” and incremental approach, but its still market research
Sean Bruich, head of measurement research at Facebook, says the company wants to know about only a couple of things: first, the world in general and how Facebook user’s lives change over time and second, how consumers interact with each other and with the advertising on Facebook. Those answers come from the data Facebook is already collecting, so they claim their need for external surveys and other market research is limited.
As more and more companies become “Socially Embedded” and as ever increasing amounts of data are collected by individual companies and services many of them will rely on their own data to answer their own questions. But when you are public, particularly when you are as hugely public as Facebook seems it is going to be, you suddenly have a new group of stakeholders that are far more demanding, traditionally far more conservative and likely far more inquisitive that your users and customers: the investors. What will their expectations be, and will reliance on internal sources of data be sufficient to defend the vast sums of their capital that no doubt will soon to be spent by Facebook on one venture or another? I think not. Detailed and thorough research will be an important component of their business and product planning model, and like Apple, dispite Mr. Jobs iPad quip, one can expect the ranks of Facebook's inhouse research professionals and a reliance on other experts in our field to grow. Over time, the share price will be the barometer of investors satisifaction with the results. I for one will be thankful for the transparency a publically traded Facebook brings. Our ability to look behind the curtain will be good for everyone.
2011 was a challenging year. The global economy, natural disasters, access to capital…all we’re factors that effected many companies in the Information Technology sector. And yet, there were many successes, and much can be learned from the experience of doing business over the past year.
In partnership with crowd IT research experts Thinkspeed, we recently completed our annual IT outlook, and our review of what to expect in 2012 promises to be enlightening.
During this research project, we surveyed an international selection of IT managers, directors and executives from a variety of industry verticals. We began by soliciting information on their firms overall IT spending plans in the coming year, as well as plans for increasing or decreasing staffing levels.
We also spent time inquiring about current and planned use of cloud based services, identifying which enterprise level functions already employ cloud based products, what the top cloud based products are, and which service providers are most trusted when it comes to the provision of back-end cloud based infrastructure.
In addition to the game changing effect companies expect from cloud based business practices, the consumerization of IT has been at the top of the list of discussion and action among executives, managers and engineers. The consumerization of IT is defined as the introduction of consumer-oriented technology and behaviors into the realm of Enterprise IT.
We asked specifically about plans for handling the rapid expansion and use of consumer based devices at the Enterprise level, and we identified trends in acceptance as well as where the concerns and risks lie. Questions regarding enterprise integration of consumer owed laptops and smartphones were also asked, and the folks we spoke to shared their strategies for implementation as well as their worst fears and how they plan to cope with them.
Our 2012 It outlook answers some fundamental questions about the year ahead, and identifies opportunities for growth. We’re uncovered the answers to questions such as:
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Will IT spending increase or decrease, and by how much?
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What does the IT staffing landscape like in 2012?
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What does the adoption of cloud based services look like, and which vendors are leading the pack?
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How prevalent is the consumerization of IT, and what plans are companies putting in place?
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What are the main concerns about these trends, and how to companies plan to mitigate the risks?
For more information on out 2012 IT Outlook, or to schedule a personal briefing, contact us at info@siliconvalleyrg.com.
In Partnership With:
VIDEO: Silicon Valley Research Group 2012 IT Outlook
On Friday, I shared with you the first part of a message from noted business success guru Jay Abraham. As promised, I incude here the second part. In it, Jay cites the wisdom of Peter Drucker, who defines what it really means to be an entrepreneur, and askes us the basic question, "are you ready?" 2012 promises to be year of challeneges matched only by the size of the opportunity most of us face. I hope you look forward to this year as one where you too will leave your mark. Happy New Year!
My Wish For You: Never Give In, Never Give Up! (Part Two)
By Jay Abraham
I was reading a staggering article from legendary business guru--Peter Drucker over the holidays. It focused on the misperception most people have about entrepreneurs.
Drucker says most small business owners are NOT entrepreneurs. They are merely proprietors--who add no true value to the world other than perhaps diverting some of the commerce that their industry would normally generate over to themselves.
Stated differently, the vast majority of businesses are mere commodities, marginalized, non distinguishable vendors of stuff--providing nothing unique, nothing superior, no greater experience, no distinctive benefit or advantage to the consumer.
True entrepreneurs--on the other hand strive to create something new or better for their marketplace in what they do. They create true value for the consumer. They engineer it or execute it...or present it...or purvey it differently than the maddening crowd of generic competitors do.
In small or larger ways, true entrepreneurs are the driving forces of positive upheaval in their industries, markets and business worlds.
They have passion, purpose--a keen sense of possibility. They are anything but ambivalent. They are anything but apathetic. True entrepreneurs love change. They live for the opportunity to flex their cerebral, creative juices.
Mere business proprietors are in it only for an income. All they do is what has been done and is being done before them a thousand or a million times, over. It's almost a job. But true entrepreneurs--true entrepreneurs create new satisfaction, new demand, new experiences, new levels of dimension and possibility to (and through) whatever they do.
So here we are--at the forefront of the New Year, contemplating our fates, our futures. My question to YOU is this: are you content with mediocrity? Or are you game to create something (or some things) new, something different, something better for your market?
Do you have the willingness to transform your business and relationship with your market? Can you...will you transmute values (as Drucker says).
Will your marketing/selling strategy trigger a positive upheaval that will transform the way your marketplace sees you, connects with you, relates to you, respects you, remains loyal and a fan of you?
Some final points to consider as we begin our 2012 adventure into marketing down the path of being preeminent.
True entrepreneurs relish the chance to surmount obstacles that their other competitors find daunting. An enterprise that does NOT commit itself to constantly innovate inevitably ages, dries up and declines, then dies.
INNOVATION, by the way does NOT necessarily refer to anything high tech--though it can be done that way.
It merely refers to anything tangible or intangible that brings greater value, benefit, contribution, advantage, enjoyment, understanding, protection or enrichment to a marketplace. That gives you an enormous array of ways to become an agent of change, a creator of value--through your marketing strategy and actions.
Finally--you must be willing to perceive change as an opportunity, not a threat! Stop holding onto what already exists. Breakthroughs only occur when you are pursuing something better. Drucker says true entrepreneurs are awash with "rerum novarum cupidus." That's Latin for being "greedy for new things."
One more point. It's important: entrepreneurship, innovation, breakthrough thinking---none of it comes automatically.
It's not necessarily natural. And YES, it is work to accomplish that which your herd-based competitors won't/don't. But the rarified satisfaction and fulfillment that comes with wanting to innovate, reaching for innovation--for the benefit of your marketplace, working for it is unimaginably rewarding. Happy New Year!
Jay
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a happy and prosperous 2012. As I was sitting at my desk earlier this week doing the thinking required to plan for this coming year, I recieved this message from noted business development guru Jay Abraham. His physolophy for business success as he described it struck me as highly effective, and I wanted to take this opportunity to share it with you in two parts. Today, the message is Focus and tenacity. I'll share the rest in my blog post on Monday. Happy New Year!
My Wish For You: Never Give In, Never Give Up!
By Jay Abraham
So, ok... 2012 is here. What--if anything, are you... will you be doing
differently this year (than last year), to propel your business to more
success, achievement and greatness?
If you have a great answer, then--stop reading. If NOT, here are some
thoughts to---maybe inspire you to seek more breakthrough thinking in
the areas of marketing, strategy, innovation and self-management.
Winston Churchill is famed for delivering the shortest commencement
speech ever recorded in college history:
"Never give in. Never, never, never--in nothing great or small, large or
petty--never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense.
Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might
of the enemy. "
What's the implication? Well (I think) there are many. If you're small
and struggling---take a deep breath, draw in your second wind, dust
yourself off and jump back into the ring -but fighting not against mere
competition.
Rather, fight against mediocrity and commoditization--by making yourself
and your business unique, desirable, valuable--far more valuable than
your competition can possibly equal.
How? Don't allow us to be mere intellectual entertainment. Make my
resources your propellant towards greater achievement.
Focus on your marketplace, not on your own self interests.
In everything you do online or off--sell leadership. Demonstrate to
people that you feel their pain or hopes or dreams or fears or needs.
Don't patronize or pander. Definitely don't self-serve! Provide people
with ideas, advice information that have (and hold) true value or
entertainment or purpose for THEM--not you.
Make your market, your client, your prospect, your recipient of whatever
communication you're sending--make THEM the center of attention. It's not
about you. It's all about them.
This may sound awkward--but--most people fall in love with their product,
service, company or industry. Try--instead--falling in love with the
people you serve, the people you're communicating and connecting with.
Show people that THEY matter. Their lives, their interests and their
situation truly matters to you and your business.
In life and in business, we are rewarded in direct proportion to the
value, contribution and benefit we bring to others. Conduct a quick
reality check. Do you bring meaningful value to others--in what your
business does, certainly.
But do your communications, conversations, interactions, all bring
people value?
Are they (and you) authentic, purposeful? Remember that the entire
concept of value, benefit and contribution are all--totally subjective.
What YOU think may be appealing, exciting, worthwhile--your market may
find worthless. So let THEM always decide with their response, their
sharing, their positive--or negative feedback.
Always stop and ask yourself, your team, your marketing--do they and what
you are doing and saying-- really add value?
On Monday January 9th: Bringing the Business Success Message Home.
At this time of year, in addition to sending good wishes and glad tidings to friends, family and associates alike, we often reflect on what kind of year it’s been, and turn an eye towards our plans, hopes and dreams for the coming year.
The past 12 months has been one of tremendous change and activity, around the world and here at home. We witnessed the shock and horror of the Japanese earthquake and resulting tsunami, brought in living color to our living rooms, PCs and mobile devices. The unfathomable destruction was made real to all of us, recorded for all time by citizen journalists and videographers armed only with their smart phones and a front row seat to nature’s wrath. Osama Bin Laden, architect of the 9-11 attacks, unceremoniously "departed this mortal coil". Social media took center stage thanks to its role in the Arab Spring uprising and Occupy Wall Street movement, connecting people nationally and internationally behind the common cause of fairness, freedom and liberty.
In technology news, the world lost a great and talented visionary with the passing of Steve Jobs, a complicated, multifaceted leader whose contribution to our interaction with the technology we use will forever be with us. Google swallowed Motorola Mobility in yet another outward stretch of the search giants industry embracing tentacles. The Groupon IPO wowed us, then disappointed us, and now leaves us wondering what the future holds for other technology companies as they too prepare for their public offerings. And then there are NetFlix, Amazon and HP, companies whose marketing missteps this year served to tarnish their shine, and left us wondering what market research was conducted and who's minding the store.
For us here at Silicon Valley Research Group, the year was a standout. In addition to the wonderful opportunities we’ve had to work with our clients, including projects providing market research, customer insights and strategic recommendations related to embedded devices, consumer electronics, alternative energy, cloud based storage and technology retail, we’ve also added new products and services such as OpinionBridge(TM) and MarketBuilder(TM). 2012 promises to just as exciting and fast paced.
We wish you all, clients and readers alike, a warm, safe and loving holiday season, and hope you all enjoy a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year
Most Sincerely,
Al Nazarelli
President & CEO
Silicon Valley Research Group
We're pleased to bring you the second in our Two Minute Market Research Manager video series, "Tablet vs. PC", a research project summary.
To explore and understand the increasing usage of tablets by the youth segment, Silicon Valley Research Group’s Customer Anthropology Lab executed a qualitative, observational time-and-motion style study.
The topics that were covered during the interviews included:
• Exploring why certain tablet(s) were chosen over other options
• Observing common tablet behaviors
• Discussing whether or not tablet behaviors were replacing PC behaviors
• Evaluating tablet purchase prospects
• and the importance of differing tablet features when comparing and selecting tablets
Check out the video for a more detailed summary of the report, then visit us here to find out how you can reserve your copy.
Heres the link to the Video: Two Minute Market Research Manager: Tablet vs. PC
As a market research technology company principally engaged in serving the needs of the technology community, we are often asked to relay information about the latest trend sin market research. Not all methods work in all situations, but knowing what's available, what the benifits are and how to properly apply it to each clients unique situation directly effects how successful a research project will be.
With that in mind, we are producing a series of short videos which in about two minutes will explain the latest methods and how they should be applied. This series, which we are calling the "Two Minute Market Research Manager", will provide some valuable insight into what works and what might not. Our first video is on a subject dear to our hearts: Asynchronous Online Focus Groups. We've blogged about this technique before, and because of our success in applying the method for our clients, we wanted to make it the focus of our first production.
Over the coming weeks and months you can expect to see other videos in the series, some related to technique, some observational and probably some just for fun. We look forward to hearing your comments, and welcome your feedback and suggestions.
Enjoy!
VIDEO: Two Minute Market Research Manager: Asychronous Online Focus Groups
When it was announced this month that Ron Johnson would be leaving as VP of retail Operations at apple to occupy the CEO suite at J. C. Penney, the retail and business blogosphere was all atwitter. What, if anything, from his wildly successful experience at Apple could he bring to the classic department store structure, and how would his imprint first be felt?
After all, Johnson's leadership at Apple's retail stores resulted in outstanding growth and a wildly respected customer experience. I’ve posted excerpts from a recent article, in which he explains in his own words the thinking that led to the Apple retail store image and why today’s technology retailers have it all wrong. (You can link to the entire article HERE)
What I Learned Building the Apple Store
By Ron Johnson
When I announced that I was leaving Apple to take the reins as CEO of J.C. Penney this month, the business press (and lots of others) began speculating about whether I could replicate the Apple Store’s success in such a dramatically different retail setting. One of the most common comments I heard was that the Apple Store succeeded because it carried Apple products and catered to the brand’s famously passionate customers. Well, yes, Apple products do pull people into stores. But you don’t need to stock iPads to create an irresistible retail environment. You have to create a store that’s more than a store to people.
People come to the Apple Store for the experience — and they’re willing to pay a premium for that
Think about this: Any store has to provide products people want to buy. That’s a given. But if Apple products were the key to the Stores’ success, how do you explain the fact that people flock to the stores to buy Apple products at full price when Wal-Mart, Best-Buy, and Target carry most of them, often discounted in various ways, and Amazon carries them all — and doesn’t charge sales tax!
People come to the Apple Store for the experience — and they’re willing to pay a premium for that. There are lots of components to that experience, but maybe the most important — and this is something that can translate to any retailer — is that the staff isn’t focused on selling stuff, it’s focused on building relationships and trying to make people’s lives better. That may sound hokey, but it’s true.
The staff is exceptionally well trained, and they’re not on commission, so it makes no difference to them if they sell you an expensive new computer or help you make your old one run better so you’re happy with it. Their job is to figure out what you need and help you get it, even if it’s a product Apple doesn’t carry. Compare that with other retailers where the emphasis is on cross-selling and upselling and, basically, encouraging customers to buy more, even if they don’t want or need it. That doesn’t enrich their lives, and it doesn’t deepen the retailer’s relationship with them. It just makes their wallets lighter.
So the challenge for retailers isn’t “how do we mimic the Apple Store” or any other store that seems like a good model. It’s a very different problem, one that’s conceptually similar to what Steve Jobs faced with the iPhone. He didn’t ask, “How do we build a phone that can achieve a two percent market share?” He asked, “How do we reinvent the telephone?” In the same way, retailers shouldn’t be asking, “How do we create a store that’s going to do $15 million a year?” They should be asking, “How do we reinvent the store to enrich our customers’ lives?”
It’s not easy, of course. People forget that the Apple Store encountered some bumps along the way. No one came to the Genius Bar during the first years. We even had Evian water in refrigerators for customers to try to get them to sit down and spend time at the bar. But we stuck with it because we knew that face-to-face support was the very best way to help customers. Three years after the Genius Bar launched, it was so popular we had to set up a reservation system.
There isn’t one solution. Each retailer will need to find its own unique formula. But I can say with confidence that the retailers that win the future are the ones that start from scratch and figure out how to create fundamentally new types of value for customers.
Technology marketers are harnessing predictive tools to drive market success. Such tools have been widely used in traditional industries such as packaged goods and retail. Now, these same tools are proving invaluable to Technology Company’s feature set and pricing decisions across a wide variety of products and services, ranging from cell phones and tablets to enterprise software licensing. The price you are willing to pay, the features you must or must not have for the price offered, the perceived value of a specific set of features; all can now be dynamically measured, tested and retested is ways that would have been difficult to achieve only a few years ago.
Qualified quantitative analysis teams can adapt these tools to complex pricing and feature set decisions related to technology products and services. These research techniques help technology marketers optimize their offerings to maximize share, revenue and/or profits. Built to be statistically valid based on the research areas of discrete choice modeling, trade-off analysis and conjoint exercises, the research processes harness vast amounts of detailed customer preference data into a managerially useful and predictive market simulators. When properly designed and executed, the simulator can be akin to having a room full of customers always ready to vote on realistic “what-if” product choices.
These research techniques are crucial when the market goals include:
- Guiding product feature bundles or SKUs;
- Determining optimal product price points;
- Measuring and tracking competitive brands values;
- Maximizing market share versus competition;
- Minimizing cannibalization from new product offerings;
- Developing product based segmentation strategies;
- Tapping niche customer markets.
The value in these tools is the ability to test and retest at near zero incremental cost. Once the data has been gathered and analyzed, manipulation to test assumptions is an easy task. Wherever price and product features intersect, the knowledge gained through a predictive market simulation can greatly increase a product or services success at the price point desired.
microsoft silicon valley, focus technology group, microsoft research silicon valley
Reed Hastings, President and CEO of Netflix, is not a dumb guy. He didn’t build the company from its humble beginnings in Scotts Valley, California into the multi-billion dollar in-home entertainment powerhouse it is today by not thinking clearly. Along the way he actually managed to get the cable companies and studios to get a bit worried, and that’s a pretty hard thing to accomplish.
And yet in September 2011, he made the Qwikster announcement and in turn set a course for public relations disaster. In the process he buried the company’s share price in a hole it may well take some time to dig out of and lost a great deal of trust and goodwill among customers and investors alike. The resulting backlash lead to the decision being reversed and an entire business plan was thrown out. The customer didn’t like the decision and made their feelings known, publically and loudly.
It’s a similar story with Bank of America. The plan to raise debit card fees so outraged the public that an about face was announced and as a result other banks including Wells Fargo and Regions rolled back their plans for debit card fees. Finally it seemed a victory for the little guy.
How can companies so completely misread their own customers? How does it make these companies look in the eyes of customers, vendors and investors when they have to backtrack so quickly on their decisions?
Some claim these and companies like them got too big for their britches and in an atmosphere of arrogance and a “they will have to take it or leave it” thinking, made these pricing and service decisions. Executives and boards alike, critics charge, must have felt they we’re “too big to fail” at their plan to increase revenue at the expense of their customers.
I disagree. It’s highly unlikely that intelligent executives and board members would knowingly place dollars and support behind an initiative they ‘guess” might work out. Much thought and planning and yes, probably market research, went into the creation of these plans. Netflix may well have determined that customers were ready for a separate online service, and Bank of America probably studied the customers’ ability to absorb higher fees. It is highly unlikely, however, that they tested their customer’s price tolerance across a number of specific products, services and scenarios, and as a result of this omission, miscalculated the public’s emotional reaction to the changes. Well executed Customer Anthropology Studies, carefully crafted Conjoint Analysis Surveys and Voice of the Customer interviews are all techniques which, in different ways, would have identified customer resistance points and helped executives plan more effectively.
In the end, the net effect of NOT listening to the customer in advance certainly cost these companies more than a well planned and executed market research project would have. Know your customers wishes and what their probable reaction to pricing and service changes will be BEFORE you act.