Mastering the Art of Communication in a Connected, Yet Dispersed World

Online media has lead to an online community that comprises of various demographics such as age, location, interests, opinions and personalities. Companies attempt to communicate with them as one target group and start bombarding campaigns without comprehending specific needs of each one, which in turn, can be seriously consequential in the future. To resolve this, companies can address this issue by communicating “smartly” in a connected, yet dispersed world.

From debates in coffee houses to a closely wired world, progress in media communication has been exemplary. Contemporary media has connected people together on a mass-scale, giving them a voice that can be communicated over the virtual sphere autonomously, thereby bypassing the monopoly of traditional mass media. As a result, more people are embarking on the engaging conversation train. An interesting phenomenon that has emerged is how individuals form groups in the online world. Just like nodes are arranged in a network to form different topologies, these individuals have assimilated characteristics of the former and have clustered in increasingly different groups. This status-quo has experienced compassion by companies in the revenue generation sense as individuals are treated as a single target group when in fact it comprises of diverse demographics. Companies often overlook this aspect and the potential consequences when attempting to communicate with them. These consequences entail the strong deviation between the needs of these consumers groups where interests, opinions and personalities are determining factors in the offer development process. As of note, companies face the dilemma of not having significant hard principles to rely upon as in how to effectively consume the benefits of online media, this part of the strategic spectrum is not given due relevance. Hence, it is important to plan a communication plan which mitigate potential risks, creates consumer value by understanding specific consumer needs so as to trigger positive emotions and secure long term customer loyalty. 

Identify Yourself

Nowadays, companies are compelled to tailor offerings according to consumer needs. Nonetheless, they face shortcomings due to the improper communication. The first step is to attain effective communication between both entities and accepting different target groups over the “dispersed” social sphere. This will allow companies to understand their position how an offering on demand can be tailored to achieve a worthy fit. In addition, core values of a company will unfold in effortless fashion which will bring elements such as brand image, prospective brand positioning and offer development process to the forefront in new dimensions. This can ease strategic decision making, draw constructive conclusions and allow a company to remain aligned with core values and ambitions from a consumer perspective. Given the projection that by the end of 2011, Facebook will reach 1 billion registered users (Zuckerberg, M., 2010), it is likely that the different consumer groups are only going to increase. Therefore, it is crucial for advertising agencies, communication agencies and companies to gather on one platform to roll out engaging communication plans that will target audiences “smartly” and remain aligned with the core values of a company to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.

Friends with Benefits – Maximum Yield, Competitive Advantage

Accomplishing the above will assist companies to identify specific target audiences, enjoy a fruitful relationship with consumers and sustain their brand image and brand positioning without having to spend additional resources. Secondly, it will bring companies, advertising and communication agencies together which would allow them to share resources and share risks a win-win situation. Finally, it will allow companies to target wisely and in retrospect, tailor customized offerings that create value, which will ultimately become their source of competitive advantage.

Harnessing Capitalism via Social

Yea, yea! There is irony involved in the caption above. Not talking politics or .... maybe I am .... when talking about media companies going head-to-head with each other. Trends in the media industry suggest that companies which are able to grasp elements of capitalism are destined for supremacy. Facebook is under severe pressure by Google+ given the strength of the Google brand. It is of interest to many to see what will happen.

Salvaging Facebook … !

The general response from consumers to the constantly evolving nature of Facebook is marked with resentment and rage. Considering from Facebook’s own perspective and given the fact that it operates as the most successful player in the social sphere, it has valid reasons to do so. These series of experimenting allows it to evaluate consumer reactions, check responses, attain feedback and gather innovative ideas to see where are the flaws and where are the niche areas where it can improve and get more advertisers. Fair play since Facebook’s advertising strategy allows it to generate more than half of it revenues! However, with all the experimenting, it bred grounds for another social network to emerge.

Enter Google+ … !
Google’s social network came in roaring. It created a series of waves and initially, it attracted a lot of reaction from consumers. Many wanted to be part of it! Its strategy, based on the invite-only basis, elevated the excitement amongst social media consumers. Finally, a perception was prominent that there is some player that was going to give Facebook a run for its money. Google+ was growing quite steeply at the beginning and its adoption rate was eccentric. It was presumable Google was well on its way to cash on its own advertising strategy to becoming the most revenue generating company in the world. The rather ridiculous adoption rate of Google+ possibly had Google getting a bit carried away. Status-quo suggests that Facebook took serious note and answered Google+ in a very, very “social” manner! It embedded new features such as the NewsFeed and is partnering up with Spotify, the social, sharing and caring legal music service from Sweden to forge a combo that will only allow Facebook to capitalize on its more advertisers and compete for the dollars with Google. Google+ has suffered a drastic downturn. It failed to impress consumers and it failed to provide a ground breaking user experience good enough to compel consumers to switch!

The recent amendments in Facebook have allowed it to go more social at the cost of consumers’ privacy. There is resentment, fury and actions full of venom contradicting the ‘fun’ that consumers find in Facebook. Nonetheless, sharing is becoming easier, more seamless with loads of lubrication. Google has started to promote Google+ by adding more features and advertising it as the Next Generation social network. Google realized that best way to pulverize the Facebook strategy is to cash on its own brand. One of the ways it is doing so is by attempting to divert users from Gmail. This is what prompted me to write this post. I think it is self explanatory. As soon as I signed out of mt Gmail, I saw this huge ad Google had dedicated to Google+ to attract consumer consent. One would say Google intends to retain consumer attention, traffic and time on Google products.

Will it be successful? Will Google’s advertising strategy bear fruit? Or will Facebook outdo the Google brand by its all social, sharing, caring and interacting strategy? I wonder, I wonder ….    

Spotify’s Magic Spell: Sustainable or Fragile?

Last Tuesday, September 28, 2010, Stockholm School of Economics received the visit of Anders Svensson, Sales Director (Sweden), Spotify AB, to deliver a seminar to inspire students. Students at Handels were psyched and looked up to the prospect. And why wouldn’t students behave in such a way or everyone else, for that matter? Spotify's uprising reputation and the way they have made an impact in the music industry in totally in line with the position they have earned themselves today. The guys down there have not only made a substantial impact in the way they have produced a service that has combated illegal music sharing but its image is still very much buzzed. The latter impression is likely to maintain the status-quo. It seems Spotify’s emergence to the limelight and its sharp rise to stardom is only going to rise. Just recently, they launched operations in the Netherlands which bears witness to the Spotify upsurge. Though Anders only shared information in bits and pieces regarding how they undertook the entire situation from conception, it was still very insightful. So, let’s talk the talk!

Inception of the Spotify idea dates back to 2005. Anders and Co. realized that music could be a prospective source of revenues. At that moment, music distribution was in chaos. Lots and lots of sites gave the consumer the probability to download music for free. This really concerned artists and different record labels. On the other hand, the consumers enjoyed the prospect of listening to free music. The guys at Spotify understood that unless they keep on providing music for free, no one would really care about their idea. At the beginning, Spotify comprised of good schools of thought that had a far-reaching vision. The way they went ahead with the venture was to promote their brand by building a product that is appreciated by the consumer. It was a huge challenge! Ander said they were lucky to have people who were really enthusiastic about the idea and decided to go ahead with the idea at all costs. It was hard work at the beginning. Anders depicted that it took half a year to construct the heart of Spotify which was one of the many obstacles they had to face. It was also important to convince record labels. It took Spotify 18 months to fabricate a business model that worked profitable on a mutual basis. And what a business model! Today, Spotify works with 80,000 record companies with a song catalogue that approaches 10 million hits.

As it is widely known that initially Spotify offered both the premium version and the free version of the service, there was reluctance to engage music consumers who were ready to pay. By looking at the number of subscribers Spotify has today, a mere 500,000, many would describe it as very small. This perception is contradicted by the fact that despite the small number of subscriptions, it is by far the biggest music subscription service in Europe. Anders asserted that one of the big grounds behind the success of Spotify is the surfacing of mobile devices. With these portable devices, people carry their music with them everywhere. As the buzz grew, Spotify executives forecasted that it would be extremely inconsiderate if they were to limit themselves to a product that provides the consumer with a streaming service only. The decided that they will correlate the service with something that is easy to manage and is user friendly, an excellent mode of attracting more consumers. Anders went on to discuss the role of social media in building the Spotify brand. Facebook emerged with roars and it was pivotal in building the Spotify brand. It allowed people to share content with their friends and disseminate it further. While the service reached the masses and gained appeal, it became a symbol of fashion within the young generation. Anders et al. understood the importance of sharing content over social networks. It was significant that the service should not hold technical facets but instead it should be easy to use which was also very advantageous for advertisers. Producing a combo that encloses music and ads was awesome. As Anders advocated, it was “FANTASTIC” for an advertiser. Music activates the sense of hearing which is very, very important in attracting consent and thus in building a brand in the online arena. Anders acquainted us with the concept that brands are not just about products anymore. A transition has taken place in the way brands are perceived, interpreted and positioned. Consequently, brands are more of an experience as we promote them online. To reach a point of critical mass, it is important that the brand experience canvasses around three other features as well namely emotions, exclusivity of the service provided to the consumer and the consequential engagement of the consent of the consumer. Once these four features are culminated together and are intertwined at each layer, it will ascertain the conquest of the consumer’s assent.

Anders concluded by saying that if you want to convince, Spotify is the way to go! I agreed on many aspects of his speech which contained humor, hard facts, entrepreneurship, branding and marketing. I would presume these traits should be enough to keep on growing and remain competitively advantageous as they plan to launch operations in the US. Will Spotify enter the US market with an alternating business model? Will it be able to cast its magic spell and reach the mainstream audience in the US the way it has done in Europe? Only time will tell!