informarketing

[informarketing]

1台もクルマが売れなくなった社会で、自動車会社は何を売るか？/ What will car companies sell in a society where they can no longer sell a single car?

最近、WEB3.0、ブロックチェーン、NFTといった新しいワードをよく耳にするになった。1年前から、この言葉自体を知ってはいたものの「取りに行かなかった」。WEB2.0で落ち着いてしまっていた自分は、新しい社会に飛び込む心の余裕というかチャレンジャースピリットが弱かった、と反省している。

　しかし最近、ひょんなことから、積極的にこのコンセプトに触れ、新しい人達に会うようにしていたら、学生の就活時代~新卒の時の熱狂に近いものを感じることができた。僕は15年前の学生時代に、梅田望夫著の「ウェブ進化論」という本に出合って衝撃を受け、デジタルを軸にしたマーケティングの世界に入ってきた。当時はWEBのマーケティング領域は、ビジネスとしては弱く、重要性はみんなが感じつつも、オタクの集まる、まさに「出島（デジマ）」だった。僕はその時代からGAFAの「デジタルが主戦場」時代までをひたすら第一戦で走ってきた（と自分では思っている）。今はようやくWEB2.0がメインストリームになり、それなりにビジネスも評価されてきてこともあって、冒頭の「WEB3.0を取りに行かなくなっていた」という反省につながっている。

さて、先日も、Tokyo NFT weekで、様々な人に会い、強い刺激を受けた。Decentralizedな社会の中で、企業がどうやってRight target/cutomerと出会うのか、を色々な人と議論したが、まったく答えは出ていないし、海外事例を見ても、マーケティングのフレームワーク上、決定的な成果はまだ見つけられていない。個人的な体験で言うと、2003年のNECのProject「ecotonoha(エコトノハ)」のような、感動的なコンテンツに出合っていない。

最近は少しずつ、ラグジュアリー、プレミアムカー業界でも、WEB3の事例は見れるようになってきており、とても興味深く拝見している。まだ、PRが先行している感があるが、実際にラグジュアリーの「価値ビジネス」やCRMとしてのデータベースビジネスにどこまでインパクトを与えられるか、という点でNFTは興味深い点だと思う。

ということで、WEB2.0でかなり落ち着いてしまっている自分に反省し、2022年は年明け早々から、WEB3を自分のビジネス・マーケティングに取り入れていく予定です。まずは、個人的に2022年のテーマをわかりやすく設定しておこうと思う。それは、「1台もクルマが売れなくなった社会で、自動車会社は何を売るか？」にしておく。

価値がモノから見えない何かに移行する中で、WEB3の社会でクルマ業界やラグジュアリーがすべきことは何か、1年後の今日には、色々試行錯誤した上での、すっきりした答えが出せるとよいと思う。

I've been hearing a lot of new words such as NFT, Blockchain, WEB3.0, etc in the business world, recently. Actualy, I've known these words for a year, but I didn't go for it actively. I've been easy to work at WEB2.0 society in the business. I'm strongly thinking move forward with challenger spirit this year.

However, recently, I am trying to touch the new concept by meeting new people who belong to WEB3.0 industry, and found myself feeling something similar to the enthusiasm which I felt in the age between my student and freshmen.

15 years ago, when I was a student, I came across the book titled "WEB Evolution (WEB Shinkaron)" written by Mochio Umeda, shocked me and brought me into the world of the marketing with digital focus. At the time,

At the time, the web marketing field was weak as a business, and while everyone felt its importance, it was a veritable "digima" where geeks gathered. From that time to the "digital is the main battlefield" era of GAFA, I have been running the first game (or so I think). Now that Web 2.0 is finally in the mainstream and my business is being evaluated to a certain extent, it has led me to reflect on the fact that I have stopped going for Web 3.0.

The other day, at Tokyo NFT week, I met a lot of people and was strongly inspired by them. In terms of marketing frameworks, I have yet to find any conclusive results even though I discussed with a lot of people in WEB2.0 and WEB3.0. In other words, in my personal experience, I haven't encountered any inspiring content like NEC's "ecotonoha" project in 2003.

Recently, little by little, we are starting to see examples of WEB3 in the luxury and premium car industry, which is very interesting to me. Although I feel that PR is still ahead of the game, I think NFT is an interesting point to see how much impact it can actually have on the luxury "value business" and database business as CRM.

So, after reflecting on the fact that I have settled down quite a bit with Web 2.0, I plan to start incorporating Web 3 into my business marketing early in the year 2022. First of all, I would like to set a personal theme for 2022 that is easy to understand. It is, "What will car companies sell in a society where not a single car is sold anymore?" I'll leave it at that.

As the value shifts from things to something invisible, what should the car industry and luxury do in the society of WEB3? I hope today, one year from now, we will be able to give a clear answer to this question after a lot of trial and error.

In Japanese -- > https://note.com/prkyo/n/nb65305ae0be1

[informarketing]

これからのクルマについて

この１ヶ月強の間、人生で初めてクルマについて調べ、思考し、体験をしてみた。

クルマは素晴らしい発明であり商品であることは誰しもが認めるものの、それを所有するという視点に立つと、それは合理的なものではなくなっている。一般的に、クルマの稼働率は５％と言われ、ほとんどの時間は使われることなく、駐車スペースに眠っている。さらに、１台あたりの平均乗車人数は1.2人しかなく、いざ、乗車すると、そのタイミングは他のドライバーと重なるため、多くの渋滞を発生させ、排気ガスをばらまいている。現代人、特に若い世代にとっては、クルマは非合理的なプロダクトという���識を持たれているといえよう。

　そんな非効率なスペースを埋めようと、シェアリングエコノミーという業態が発生し、様々な業種のプレイヤーが参入し、課題解決のサービスを展開している。タクシー業界に破壊的イノベーションを起こしているUberはもちろん、C2C事業のAnycaなど、空いている所有者を他者に貸し出すことでお互いメリットを受けられる仕組みである。こういったサービスは、今後も大きく拡大していくことが想定される。今後、クルマのデジタル化に伴い、閉じられた自動車業界に新規参入が相次いでくるだろう。

この構造を単純化すると、環境規制に伴うEV化の促進→クルマのEV/デジタル化→他業界の参入→モビリティにおける新しい価値の創出競争、であると言えると思う。

また、新しい価値の創出は、環境問題からくるものだけではなく、消費者行動の変化によってもその必要性が迫られている。若者がクルマを買わなくなったことから、どうやってクルマに目を向けさせようか、という点で車業界は必死（？）にそのアイデアを練っているところだと思う。

　ただ、一生活者として自動車業界を見ると、既存の自動車会社は、「運転・乗車の楽しさ＝モータースポーツとしてのクルマ」というものに囚われすぎているように感じる。新時代のクルマの楽しみ方はもっと別のところにあるのではないか、というのがモータースポーツをルーツとしていない新世代ドライバーの心境でないか。

一つ面白いアイデアがAudiから出た。AirBnBとコラボした企画でCMとしてオンエアもされたが、アメリカの砂漠エリアで存分にクルマの走りを体験出来る場所におしゃれな宿泊施設を作った。その施設以外は全面砂漠である。そんなところで旅とクルマをセットで体験する、というのは新しい時代のクルマの楽しみではないか。遠くに行って思い出を残すこと、それがクルマの醍醐味である中、車じゃないといけない場所に行き、特有の思い出を残すことができる。これは、面白いな、と膝を打った。

--------------------- ・Audi and Airbnb Offer Up a Crazy House in Death Valley, and a Great Ad to Go With It http://www.adweek.com/creativity/audi-and-airbnb-offer-crazy-house-death-valley-and-great-ad-go-it-173541/ ---------------------

このAudiの例は個人的にしっくりきた例だが、そもそもクルマの、ビークルを超えた存在価値は多様であるはずだ。よって、モータースポーツとしての付加価値があることも否定しないし、もっとユーザーに合わせたクルマの付加価値が提供されるべきだと思う。これが、一キャンペーンではなく、クルマの提供価値として継続的に伝え続けるメッセージは何なのか、考えを深めていきたいと思う。

例）

��動手段としてのクルマ→足の拡張

走り・スポーツとしてのクルマ→スポーツ体験

ステータスとしてのクルマ→ブランド所有

[informarketing]

勝手に選別される世界【MEMO】

マイケルファーテック著の「勝手に選別される世界」を読んだ感想。個人のレピュテーションマネジメントに対する警告と同時に、今後のB２Bマーケティングにおける未来についてもインスレーションを受けた。

■要約

・データが半永久的に蓄積し続けている世界において、個人の評判に関するデータも蓄積し、活用され始めている。それをレピュテーション経済と呼び、その経済圏が広がるとともに、これからのあらゆる意思決定に影響を与えるものであると説明している。

・背景としては、���ジタルデータ・ストレージが実質タダになったことで、企業は、データ削除というタフな判断を下す必要がなくなり、ひたすらデータを永遠に蓄積し続けている。（データセットをまるごと保存するほうが削除するよりも安い）

・企業は、個人に関する膨大な情報から、「レピュテーションエンジン」を開発し、個人のオンラインとオフラインの活動やつながりの足跡を把握し、レピュテーション・スコアに基づき顧客を判断・対応していく。統計処理によってユーザーのランクと対処法が決定される。

・全てのデータが保管され、それをレピュテーションエンジンが点数化し、全ての個人がランクづけされる。さらにそれらが統計解析によって互換性を持ち、あらゆる意思決定に影響を与える。（自動あるいは、手動において）

ex_1) 例えば、とあるダイエットのバナー広告をクリックしたことが、その人の健康に関するレピュテーションスコアに影響を与え、保険料が上がる、といったこともありえる。

ex_2) 正しい「キーワード」のない履歴書は即ゴミ箱へ。

ex_3) データがリアルタイム化・ロイヤリティの点数化が高度化し、「上顧客」を事前に見抜く

上記は今までもありそうなものですが、それが個人情報を無視して、収集される世界が膨大に蓄積・活用される社会になってくるだろうというのが筆者の予想である。

■感想・B２Bマーケティングへの適用

今後、B２Bの企業においても、プロモーションプラットフォームとしてのDMP構築が必須である。組織購買であ���ても、個人の意思決定・行動の集積であるから、あらゆるデータを駆使して、組織購買を攻略できる。

個人のデータとして、サイト内での行動・売上・購買権限等のデータ蓄積・連携は当然として、第3者広告配信企業からデータを収集し、個人が外部サイトで何をクリックしているかを把握し、統計解析によって、（例えそのユーザーが非会員であったとしても）最適な対応を行うことが重要である。

＜参考文献＞

勝手に選別される世界、マイケルファーテック著

http://amzn.to/1Obt28I

[informarketing]

両面性市場（プラットフォーム）について

近年、両面性市場というものが活発に研究されているようだ。

両面性市場（EC等のプラットフォーム）の特徴として、異なるグループ間に「間接ネットワーク効果」（ネットワーク外部性）というものが存在する。

ネットワーク効果とは、相手の存在が自分の効用を高める、という効果が存在することであるため、異なるグループを仲介するプラットフォーム事業者は、ネットワーク効果を最大化させるための施策が必要になる。

ちなみに外部性とは、経済学用語で、ある経済主体の意思決定や行動が、取引活動の主体ではない第三者の経済主体に対して影響を与えることを言う。

「両面性市場におけるプラットフォーム戦略に関する研究」は、ネットワーク効果に関する先行研究を整理しており、プラットフォーム事業をする上で、非常に有益な情報を提示してくれている。

論文によると、プラットフォームには、以下の２通りが存在している。

1．会費型料金体系

収益構造は「参加者数」依存であり、参加インセンティブ問題が存在

2．取引手数料型料金体系

収益構造は「取引量」依存であり、取引インセンティブ問題が存在

モノを仕入れて、プラットフォームを通じて販売する事業者（ミスミVONA、アマゾン、モノタロウ等）は、２の取引手数料型であり、プラットフォーム場所貸しで収益を得る事業者（楽天等）は１の会費型だと言えるだろう。

事業特性をふまえて、取引量（ないし参加者数）を最大化する施策を検討する必要がある。実務上、頭の整理に役立った。

＜参考文献＞

・両面性市場におけるプラットフォーム戦略に関する研究（海野大）

・「Why do intermediaries divert search?（Hagiu and Jullien(2011)）」

エンドユーザーの探索行動を意図的に迂回させることで、プラットフォーム全体の売り上げを高められることを示した

[informarketing]

スノーボール・サンプリング調査

購買行動は多様であるため、統一して説明できる汎用的なモデルを構築することは難しい。PDCAを回しながら最適解を求めていくマーケティング実務においては、購買プロセスの（AISAS等の）フレームワークが役に立つ側面もあるが、アカデミックな研究分野においては、購買に関する各種行動を分類化することは困難である。

そんななか、「ネットが変える消費者行動：宮田加久子・池田譲一著」を読んで、生活者の購買行動に影響を与えうる口コミやソーシャルについての分析において、スノーボール・サンプリング調査という新しい分析手法を知ったので、メモしておく。

＜スノーボール・サンプリング調査＞

「当の消費者行動のターゲットである調査対象者（主回答者）に消費に関す会話をする他者（スノーボール他社）を複数挙げてもらい、これらのスノーボール他者に対して主回答者への調査とは独立調査を行う。」

・3つの利点 1．主回答者が認知していないスノーボール他者の実際の知識や態度の測定が可能になる 2．2者関係における相互作用の形態をとらえることが可能になる 3．2者関係を越えたネットワークを単位とした分析が可能になる

＜方法論＞

【調査結果】 スノーボール他者に対する影響は説明できる数値にならなかった 商品やサービスについて語る他者は、必ずしも消費の文脈で選ばれているわけではない

【まとめ】 1．消費者行動における情報環境において、インターネットの役割が、マス広告や商品知識を持つ他者の存在と代替関係にある可能性が示唆された

2．消費者の情報環境のタイプによって、そこで接触する他者との関係だけでなく、その他者のメディア利用が異なっていた。

3．情報環境によって購買行動が異なるのではなく、情報環境によってメディア接触が購買行動に及ぼす効果に違いがあることがわかった

＜参考文献＞ ネットが変える消費者行動、第1章-第2章：宮田加久子・池田譲一著

http://amzn.to/1c4fpFb

[informarketing]

New Internet Trend; NOWISM

The Internet Trend 2013 was published by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers last month.

  I was surprised by the fact that Snapchat is expanding their business rapidly according to the white paper.

Snapchat is the photo-sharing service that is popular among teens in the USA, and surprisingly, 6 million photos will be posted a day by the end of 2013.

  The difference between Snapchat and conventional photo-sharing services is that in Snapchat , users can share their photos for only 10 second, and, after that, the photo disappear.

(Similarly, Twitter vine is a movie-sharing service seen for only 6 seconds)

  Currently, in the USA, photo-sharing among teens is receiving a great deal of attention as a social issue because of Sexting, which is coined word from "Sex" and "Texting", and refer to the act that girls for the most part share their naked photos to their friends to show their trust.

  ex）I share a photo（Youtube）

    The idea of preventing the spread of a photo that are not be shared further is really supported by teens.

This phenomenon in which contents with only momentary value are consumed is called NOWISM.

  For example, somebody’s comments such as "I'm hungry now" or "I'm sleepy", on Twitter has only momentary value and soon, its value will be gone.

This momentary value content, which instantly become worthless, has increased rapidly.

When billions of NOWISM content is consumed in a single day, we must plan on how to connect our businesses to NOWISM.

NOWISM is the new concept that differs from the conventional concept, such as "STOCK" and "FLOW". We cannot look away from NOWISM.

    >References

・Mashable

http://mashable.com/2013/03/25/canadian-ad-dangers-of-sexting/

  ・Advertimes

http://www.advertimes.com/20120907/article83672/

  ・Snapchat

http://www.snapchat.com/

  ・How to uee twitter vine

http://www.socialable.co.uk/10-ways-to-use-twittervine-for-your-business/

[informarketing]

Sociology, Ushijima

The comic, "Ushijima, the Loan Shark" (http://amzn.to/120QQHW), has been sold more than 6 million copies, and became the object of public concern.

The bad impression of the book is due to the realistic description of modern society which is said to sway the reader's emotion addictively.

"Ushijima, the Loan Shark" is the story of the dark hero who lends money to debtors at excessive (high interest) rates.

This story includes pathological elements such as crime, violence, poverty and social disparity. Many of the characters are people who want to borrow money from the loan shark with excessive rate.

This time, however, what I would like to introduce in this blog is "Sociology, Ushijima", well respected ethnography of modern society in Tokyo, analyzing some social phenomena.

In my eyes, the main attraction of this book is that it analyzes a variety of Social problems from the stand point of Sociology.

For example, there is a section concerning the formation of social class in Urban Society.

In the below chart, we can see the tendency that children's educational background will exceed their parents’ has been shrinking.  

 (Refering:http://kikkawa.blog.eonet.jp/default/files/lecture.pdf )

*This issue is explained in the book "Social Class Divided by Educational Background (Literal translation)"

http://amzn.to/kmX03x

These days, the growing social disparity is a serious political issue not only in Japan but also in the USA and many other rich countries.

Generally speaking, because there is a correlation between education and income, creating equal social opportunities is critical.

Over the last some decades, social mobility has significantly declined, as children’s level of education is inherited by their parents’.

Current discussions focus on improving higher education (universities and graduate school) and pre-school care. After reading "Sociology Usijima", however, I realized we should focus on improving compulsory education in public schools (primary school and junior high school).

<In Japanese>

「闇金ウシジマくん」という漫画が販売累計600万部を超える社会現象になっている。闇金ウシジマくんは、法律違反の暴利で金を貸す「闇金」が主人公の話である。闇の金融機関に金を借りにくる人々が登場するので、このストーリーには、犯罪、暴力、貧困、格差等、都市における病理的な要素が多く含まれている。

この人気の理由の一つとして、読後感の悪さと現代社会の闇に対するリアルな描写が、中毒的に読み手の心をゆさぶるのだとも言われている。

さて、今回紹介したいのは、漫画の闇金ウシジマくんではなく、このコンテンツを、現代社会のエスノグラフィとして高評価し、この題材を社会学的見地から分析した書籍「社会学ウシジマくん」についてである。

闇金ウシジマくんで描写される、様々な社会現象を社会学的に分析するという手法をもって、社会学の多様性と魅力をうまく説明していると思う。

その中で1つ興味深いテーマとして、都市社会学を扱った章において、登場人物のストーリーを通して、社会階層の形成について触れている箇所がある。

学歴分断社会（http://amzn.to/kmX03x）という本に詳しくまとめられているようだが、下の表を見ると、現代になっていくほど、「親より子の学歴の方がより高くなるという希望」がシュリンクしていく、という趨勢が見て取れる。

  (参照：http://kikkawa.blog.eonet.jp/default/files/lecture.pdf )

近年、日本やアメリカ（その他多くの国）において格差是正が大きな政治的問題になっている。

一般的に学歴と収入は相関関係にあるため、学ぶ機会の平等化が重要になるが、現在、親の学歴が子の学歴に継承されて、社会的階層が固定化し格差が拡大する、という好ましくない状態に陥っているようだ。

現在、日本の成長戦略として、高等教育（大学・大学院）の高度化、育児問題の改善等が重要視されることが多いが、社会学ウシジマくんを読んで、義務教育における国公立の教育レベルの是正にももっと目を傾けるべきだろうと思った。

[informarketing]

Internet business trends 2012

KPCB Internet Trends 2012

View more presentations from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Kleiner Perkins, who was an analyst of internet business at Morgan Stanley, presented "Internet trend 2012" which was really popular with established customer.

  Her presentation's outline is below,

  1. Internet growth remains robust, especially mobile adoption still in early stages.

  2. Most of our activities are Re-structured by technology such as new devices and SNS.

  3. Regarding the economy, she sees mixed trends, with negative bias.

49% of Americans view current economic conditions as "poor" in reply to the question "How would you rate economic conditions today?"

  4. In the USA, there is a lot to be excited about in the tech industry / market, but a lot to be worried about in other areas.

  5. Regarding recent internet IPOs, the situation is not favorable now.

While they may be compelling in market value, they have not been compelling performance-wise.

  This presentation was well-organized and easy for me to understand.

And I particularly noted one point which was potential of the mobile market.

  Perkin pointed out in her introductory remarks that the period of transition for advertising to shift to mobile media from other media will take a long time.

  And she said that, the possibility of a monetization model similar to the sales of virtual goods selling in Japanese market will be seen in USA market in 1-3 years.

  She referred to model cases, such as Gree and Cyber Agent in Japan, as good example of mobile monetization.

  I am not sure whether she considered the “CONPGACHA issue” in her assessment, though.

  http://www.scribd.com/doc/95259089/KPCB-Internet-Trends-2012

[informarketing]

Amazon launches B2B marketplace

Amazon had the launch of a B2B business in the pipeline for a while, before announcing last week their new service for machinery industries.

  The new marketplace is called Amazon Supply for Industrial, Scientific, and Business Customers.

  Although this could be a strong competitor to Mcmaster Carr,Grainger, MSC, Fastenal and Misumi USA, this new entrant has been much criticized. One person said this can be big threat to existing players. Others said Amazon will fail in this business field due to the difference between B2C and B2B market.

  I could understand the negative opinions about this new challenge because they have no knowledge or experience of B2B business, in which purchase processes are made by innumerous people in an organization, and not as an impulsive act by one individual.

  In my opinion, however, Amazon Supply will be strong in the marketplace in the view of their Platform strategy.

(http://amzn.to/anq38q)

  They are not planning a customary strategy as many B2B companies do, but they will bring a platform strategy from their B2C experience.

  We should remember they are not a manufacturer but Platformer. Therefore, if a lot of information related to our products appears on their web, we will miss out on first-time customers.

  Winning over first-time customers means ruling the Platform. If existing players must now contend with Amazon in the EC field, I think they will likely be at a disadvantage.

  Anyway, we should keep our eye on Amazon Supply for now.

    >>References

>Web pro news

>Cop tool.com

>Tech crunch Japan

[informarketing]

Possibility of domestic SNS platform

Gree Inc, a Japanese SNS platform, has been growing rapidly over the past few years.

Their achievement is below,

The total number of registered users globally has reached approximately 190 million and 9 offices opened globally, each strengthening development , alliances with carriers and content providers.

  Moreover, another remarkable fact is their high profitability.

Their net sales was approximately 80 billion yen, on the other hand, their profit was more than 40 billion yen.

Surprisingly, their monster platform generates more than 50% profit rate.

This high profit-generating company is second to none in the domestic social network field.

  You can see the following comparison table in order to understand this situation.

It has been successful not only in comparison with Japanese companies but also with overseas firms, such as Zynga, which is the biggest social game platform company in the world.

  The big difference between Gree and Zynga is its profit from premium users.

For Global SNS, it's important to gather a great number of users because advertising is its main source of revenue.

On the other hand, Gree generate a lot of profit as they sell a SOCIAL ITEM in their platform.

  This tactic often is criticized.

Gree uses “GACHA”, a lottery ticket, in their game platform to generate revenue.

  Many people buy a lot of GACHA they can use in their game field.

In itself, GACHA is not bad, but some people, particularly children, spend a lot of money on GACHA.

  This is a big concern for Gree, so they are struggling with this issue.

But it's also true that Gree make a big profit from GACHA.

  In my opinion, it is important that we consider this matter from the point of view of social responsibility and its significance.

  As for me, I'm not satisfied that I’m not able to see the clear CI (Corporate Identity) from Gree right now. Regarding other entertainment companies such as Nintendo or Sony PlayStation, for example, they focus on making family life fun, or making their friendship strengthen. So we can more easily embrace their platform. On the other hand, I can’t help seeing Gree’s tactic as just profit-centered attitude.

  I don't mean to say this from a moral standpoint, but I think they need to show clearly their social responsibility in order to keep growing in the global field, if they have a clear principle, they should publicize about it more.

  According to Gree’s proposal to shareholders, they will create a new platform specializing SNS and make it their main business field.

  They might create a system which generates profit mainly in the social platform with a "connected friendship" at the center of their business domain.

  If so, they will avoid being seen as similar to companies such as Pinball Salon or Slot Salon. But the doubt remains whether they can keep a highly profitable business model even if they turn domestic mobile platform into a social media platform.

  Anyway, recently, large enterprise such as Google have begun supplying social game.

2012 will be a competitive year for Gree and other social game platformers.

[informarketing]

Amazon.com the Hidden Empire

 I read a good document about Amazon's business review which is titled "Amazon.com the Hidden Empire".

  I realized Amazon's business filed besides retailers.

They are also launched the following business,

  This document is well-organized and well-researched so that I could get the inspiration from it. As everybody knows, Amazon is the biggest e-retailer good at selling a huge number of products by their huge web platform. But beside this, they have different fields of their business as follows;

  > Amazon Basics which sells Private-brand.

> Amazon Fresh which sells Groceries like vegetables.

> Amazon Studio which is online social movie studio.

> Amazon Warehouse Deals which offers discounts on refurbished products.

  Before I read this, I thought Amazon was a Tech company and they were trying to focus on tech business field. Amazon, however, has been engaged in a lot of business fields in order to broaden their platform.

  The key point is that they not only don’t care about their competitors but also they don’t care about their partner companies, because they just focus on their customers. As Joff Bezos says, “Amazon is Earth's most customer-centric company."

  After I read this summary, I understood this idea is not a lie or flattery.

  I’ll pick up 1 point to share here, Amazon's case study of delegating the Long Tail.

  Amazon has 3 categories of product strategies.

The first is Stocked Products, which are the best-selling products they earn a high profit from. This is because Stocked Products are the goods that Amazon buys from other companies like book publishers.

The second one is Long-tail Items that are provided by third-party sellers.

The last one is their private brand that is produced by Amazon themselves.

  This report says, ten years ago, experts thought Amazon was crazy for cannibalizing their own sales. However, it was a way to offer Long-Tail items at a lower cost.

  This business strategy is really sophisticated and also simple for me.

  On the other hand, M*** has a big platform in the mechanical industry and involves a lot of retailer and manufactures’ in their sales, but I can't help doubting that M*** can't avoid cannibalization. I can't understand M*** strategy yet…

  >"Amazon.com the Hidden Empire" by Slide share

http://www.slideshare.net/faberNovel/amazoncom-the-hidden-empire

[informarketing]

Next Generation Communication Planning (Book review)

"Next Generation Communication Planning (literal translation)" written by Norihiko Takahiro is the best book I have read recently.

This book is not for business people who want to solve a momentary problem but for those who wish to solve long-term problems by developing thinking skills, very important for every business person.

  In this age flooded with superficial methods for digital marketing or solutions, academic consideration about marketing and advertising is really attractive.

  This book also teaches us the importance and joy of learning Sociology, Social psychology, among other topics.

This view gave me great insight and motivation to study Information Sociology which I have now started studying.

  Mr. Takahiro is a very powerful, influential ad-man in the marketing field in Japan.

After working at Hakuhodo, Dentsu and Google, he started his own marketing company "SUKEDACHI".

  We could learn about his findings of study and his achievements through his experience told in this book. It was very interesting and thought-provoking.

  I’ll reproduce only 1 story in this book. That is the story about "offer" and "order".

When Mr.Takahiro worked at Ad agency, he was told by his client, "There are only 2 things that a client gives an agency. One is Order. Order is thing has already defined what to do, so that client want agency to create well-designed. On the other hand, Offer is thing has not defined what should they do clearly, so that client want agency to think new idea to solve them with client.

  After this lesson, he always distinguished his work whether Order or Offer.

If client give us Order, and we give the presentation as offer, it's not appropriate. On the other hand, when a client gives us Offer, we give only artifacts to create it, it's either appropriate.

  This is communication skill to create the ideal job for the client’s requests.

For every single work, we need to make them clear to keep high performance job.

[informarketing]

Funny marketing idea in an Indian night club

Today, I'd like to share an interesting marketing activity in engaging with customers as dealt by the "Turquoise Cottage", the most popular night club in India. 

Turquoise Cottage used unique QR codes for every customer as entrance stamps on Christmas Eve.

Although we often see the stamping of a customer's hand as permission of entrance, the overseas night club Turquoise Cottage stamped customers’ hands with QR code stamps. This stamp is called a "Buddy Stamp".

This promotion is not only for getting coupons by reading the QR code, but also for providing information that changes according to the time that the customer reads it.

For example, between 20:00-22:00, when the club is crowded, a customer’s QR code, shows contents recommending food or discount information.

However, later in the night, 22:00-6:00, a customer can call a taxi by one touch to the mobile phone. (This can prevent drunken driving)

And, then, the following day, 6:00- 16:00, the customer gets recommendations on how to recover from a hangover.

In the end, this campaign gave rise to great effects.

Surprisingly, 85% of customers who have smart phones read the QR code or shared this information on the internet.

I think this marketing activity - that Changeable QR code depends on reading time - is very simple but radical. I think this can be applied to other promotions like theme parks, sport events, movies and so on. Or we can segment the promotion further, for example, add information about late night hotel reservations near the club. It can be have more impact.

Look at YouTube.

Reference:

/Turquoise Cottage

/ADSECTOR

[informarketing]

Understanding sociology, not technology

I read the book "GROUPED" written by Paul Adams who is a User - experience designer at Google + (Currently, he's working at Facebook Inc), and he became very famous for this great presentation "REAL LIFE SOCIAL NETWORK".

This book "GROUPED" is about social networking, not only the online form but also offline social networks based on Sociology.

This book was very nice and thought-provoking for me because I got tired of books on social media marketing which only focus on web, marketing, Facebook or business.

That kind of book is very superficial when it comes to insights into business and contents. "Society" has existed for thousands of years, On the other hand; "social webs" have only existed for 20 years.

Therefore, I think if we wish to tackle social media marketing deeply, we need to study Sociology. In Japan, there is no book like this based on Sociology, except for "Facebook Impact" written by Norihiko Takahiro.

Paul Adams said, Facebook does not sort groups of relationships. Facebook recognizes relationships only as FRIEND or Not FRIEND. But he says this is not enough. In view of People's motivation of expression, privacy, and identity, we need to sort relationships according to friends from hometown, work, school, family or some similar type of grouping. He says a person’s identity is not singular, but consists of many identities (profiles).

I like 1 point that may be effective to our marketing strategy: "People influence each other in complex ways, and the role of "influentials" in society is over-estimated".

When we are planning social or buzz marketing, we target influentials and expect them share our contents with a lot of friends.

But he says Influential people may bring in many people, but it isn’t always enough. We are actually most influenced by the people around us, and we need to understand how people influence each other. This may not be so simple to determine, but we must bear in mind that we don’t make decisions alone.

I think this is the point for marketers in Japan.

Relying on a PR person and letting them share is not effective enough. We have to research how to influence our customers through people in their social relationships. What drives them to spread the word about our business or products?

I really want to try it and find a great way with social media marketing in order to make more profit in my business field.

---Reference---

>>>Grouped

http://www.amazon.co.jp/Grouped-groups-friends-influence-social/dp/0321804112

>>>Think Outside IN by Paul Adams

http://www.thinkoutsidein.com/blog/

>>>The Real Social Network by SlideShare.

http://www.slideshare.net/padday/the-real-life-social-network-v2

>>>Facebook Impact

http://amzn.to/w76FfW

[informarketing]

In the Plex of Google

The other day, I went drinking with a Googler at a party in Roppongi.

This Googler said to me she often participates in this sort of the party in order to find skillful business person who want to work Google Inc.

(A party as part of her work is awesome.)

I'm not so interested in working at Google but I was quite curious about this Googler's party duties, when I happened to read about it in the non-fiction book about Google.

The book’s title is "In the Plex" written by Steven Levy who is a writer at Wired.

We could see "How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives" through this book.

This was really interesting and a thought-provoking for me, because this is a rare book written by a veteran technology reporter who had unprecedented access to the Google Inc. 

I had a lot to learn from this book but, I'll pick up only 1 point to write about here.

Google’s social networking system relation to its search engine.

Google believes their search engine is the best way to search information.

The search engine can be AI (=Artificial Intelligence) that will support the human brain. Therefore, they are always considering how to optimize the algorithm of the search engine.

When SNS first began to grow, Google basically ignored them because they assumed network was a secondary way to get information at that time.

Even when one of their engineers developed their own SNS, whose name is Orkut (This system was good enough and was getting market share all around world), C-level of Google Inc didn't invest in this project very much.

As everybody knows, now, however, is the age of social networking. People tend to get information from their friends more readily than searches because the excess amount of information has made information less valued.

In the past, Google recruited geniuses who wanted to change the world by technology but recently a lot of Googler geniuses have gone to start-ups like Facebook.

I think this is ironic.

Once geniuses came to Google because of their love of Google's principles, but now many geniuses have left Google because of their principles.

Although now they created Google+ as a rival to Facebook, It's very clear for everybody that Google lost the chance to a big market at that time.

I don't think Google’s attempt is too late because the concept of Google+ is very sophisticated. I think the key is how simple and interesting but a big challenge for them.

>>>In the Plex

http://www.amazon.co.jp/Plex-Google-Thinks-Works-Shapes/dp/1416596585

[informarketing]

By using technology primarily for different purposes

I’ve just finished reading the book “In the Plex” written by Steven Levy, which is about how Google was started. It also gives us a peek of what technology supposedly will be like in the near future.

This was interesting book for me, with too many pages, though.

—»”In the Plex”

(I will write an blog on it next time.)

And today, I read an interesting interview article about Amazon written by the same Journalist of “In the Plex”.

The title is ”Jeff Bezos owns the web in more ways than you think”.

The point which I felt was interesting was, the difference between the business strategy of Google and Amazon’s, which are totally different, but are misunderstood by some business people in Japan as being similar business strategies. Both companies have been working under different principles and focus on different stages. 

Most technology companies, such as Google, have been concentrating on earning high profit rates through sophisticated technology to maintain the dominance in their markets.

On other hand, Amazon has been concentrating on delivering cheap products (=contents) to customers quickly. They have achieved this through sophisticated technology that reduces operational costs, and, as a result, increase their market inevitably.

The strategy toward to increase the profit rate and the strategy toward to decrease the cost is really the opposite. Moreover, the profit is created by the dominant position and the result of cost-cutting generates profit, and these are also the opposite.

Nowadays, at the same time as many people see Google and Amazon as a competitor, some people see as if they follow the same business strategy led by technology.

But this is not exactly true.

Regarding the book “The war of platform”, the author wrote that Google, Apple and Amazon have great platforms which allow them to dominate in their markets. 

Japanese companies, therefore, need to develop their platforms to sell their products. 

This is not about a business strategy led by technology, but about a platform to sell their products. Many people, however, confused this as being the same.

Regarding the interview article, I can shape the idea in the following as a summary.

By using technology primarily for different purposes – Google for greater profits and Amazon for improving their services – these two companies are not as similar as they may initially seem. This false impression is possibly, however, simply due to the fact that they are both trying to maintain their dominance in their respective markets through ceaseless high-tech improvements.

I think that M***** strategy might be a bit more similar to Amazon’s.

M***** innovated with its catalog and has kept improving its logistics.

By constantly improving its service, M***** gets competitive advantage, as they can decrease unnecessary costs.

As for marketer in me, I think it is very difficult to improve the sales by using digital marketing. 

Still, in order to advance the marketing in this company, we need to improve our technology and way of promotion by using our platform.

In my view, technology for us refers to our database which is how to connect consumer’s behavior and history with our goals.

So, I don’t know how to advance the marketing in this company exactly, but I have to keep thinking about what role of technology marketing supposed to play in my company and how to connect it to digital marketing.

*Article and Photo images if referred to;

Jeff Bezos Owns the Web in More Ways Than You Think