In my last blog I talked about Feedback 3.0, which makes me think about Twitter and it’s opportunities for marketers. That is why I analyzed the comments on Starbucks’ Twitter page. Following I will tell you if Twitter is a suitable tool for conversational or community marketing.

Four activities used by Starbucks

While reading messages on Starbucks Twitter page and related pages I identified 4 categories of microblogs:

1) Broadcast

Starbucks is posting messages using Twitter to make announcements and promote corporate news such as new products and services (for instance their blog “My Starbucks Idea”)

2) Feedback 3.0

Next there are two ways of sharing new ideas. First, customers are actively “contacting” Starbucks by Twitter. They make suggestions that might be interesting for Starbucks or comment on products. Now the company can ask for more comments and reply, which leads to an exchange of ideas with an unlimited number of users.

Starbucks benefit: The company is building brand loyalty and is generating ideas that might be useful for their strategy or future product development.

3) After-Sales-Services

But conversation can also be based on customers’ questions about the company and complaints. Then, Starbucks is able to answer them by giving more information. In case of negative feedback Starbucks has the opportunity to react and solve the problem.

Starbucks actually offers support for any kind of stakeholder and promotes news at the same time.

4) Crisis management

Another kind of posts deals with “rumors” and negative statements about Starbucks that are published in other media. The company is able to correct these rumors by presenting facts.

Tips for using Twitter for business effectively

These activities are only possible because Twitter is dynamic. Nevertheless a company needs to know better how to use it effectively. I found an interesting article about improving your marketing activities on Twitter. I think that these are the most important tips:

            1. Avoid spam (write about relevant things)

            2. Stimulate conversation (raise interesting questions)

If you do so, people get the chance to learn more about your company. But here’s another important fact: seek “quality” followers. You should communicate with people that are relevant for your business.

Twitter seems to be not appropriate for all industry sectors

I read articles, which talk about the limits of using Twitter for conversational marketing and the changing value according to industry sectors. Firstly, the Twitter community represents just a small part of the population and an even smaller part of a companies target group. Secondly, the relevance depends also strongly on the industry sector. Internet-related businesses and companies closest to the end consumer are most likely to be using Twitter and to find value in Twitter.

What companies should avoid doing

To conclude, Twitter is definitely an opportunity to meet people. Nonetheless companies should avoid trying to sell only their products. It might be helpful for businesses to make a difference by supporting, inform and inspiring the Twitter community. Only true conversations built on respect and honesty are real conversations.

 Interesting links:

http://Twitter.com/Starbucks

http://www.twitip.com/be-a-super-hero-save-the-day-with-your-Twitter-super-powers/#more-1153

http://www.twitip.com/10-tips-to-be-effective-at-marketing-on-Twitter/

http://www.clickz.com/3631612

http://www.clickz.com/3632175

http://pistachioconsulting.com/featured-articles/Twitter-for-business/

http://pistachioconsulting.com/company-Twitter-usage/

Since I want to be a product manager, I thought about finding blogs that deal with product trends.

http://trendwatching.com/trends/halfdozentrends2009/ is a very useful webpage for people who are interested in latest trends, product innovations and marketing.

You can find articles and tips about consumer trends that you can also download as PDF file. Moreover the “2009 Trend Report” is available. If you are interested you can purchase the full report for 599€.

Consumer trends for 2009

I strongly recommend their listing of 2009 consumer trends “Half a dozen consumer trends for 2009”.

First the titles of the trends are creative and describe each trend very concisely.

Furthermore I like the way the author presents the different trends. The articles are very well structured and easy to read due to subtitles and enumerations.

Internet feedback is changing

I especially like trend no.3 “FEEDBACK 3.0”. In the first part of the article, the author explains how feedback developed during the last years. In the first place, people were posting reviews, feedback and complaints, which was helpful for other consumer but remained ignored and unexploited by companies. Currently, we are in the FEEDBACK 2.0 decade. Consumers sharing their opinions and experiences, but there is not yet conversation between corporations and consumers. Nevertheless companies pay attention to these reviews in order to learn from customers.

But why do they not reply? I totally agree with the author when he notices that a “quick and honest reply or solution can defuse even the most damaging complaint”.

And that’s what FEEDBACK 3.0 is about! Companies could join the conversation by posting solutions alongside customer reviews. The same works for inaccurate reviews where companies are able to disprove complaints.

In order to support his ideas the author uses examples and links in the second part of his article. 

Bad times for corporations, so ask customers for help!

Finally, the author offers criticism because companies could try to “prove” with all kinds of material that complaints were unfair. Still, I believe that companies need to “prevent” reviews by providing solutions and better performance.

In addition, even these days, corporations ask customer for help. In my opinion companies are exploiting user suggestions and ideas. The author states that companies are desperately seeking for feedback in bad times. This is not the right reason! Since brands neglected customers before, people have become indifferent. 

Involving customers – a new concept?

http://www.userdriven.org/ is a blog that is about product management involving the end-user. At a first glance I thought that the concept of user-driven product development is nothing new. But we have to take a closer look to see how innovative it is.

New ways to get feedback from your target group

Nowadays consumers have more possibilities to give feedback about products they use. Thanks to the Internet, consumer can share their comments on products, contact the producer easily online or simply dial special telephone numbers that are indicated on the product packaging. The provided opinions can help producers to rework their products.

Customers’ role in market research

Furthermore, a part of market research is traditionally based on the ultimate buyer. For instance Haßloch is a test market in Germany, where companies are able to test their products and marketing measures before the market entry. The obtained data help to better analyze and segment the relevant market. Since companies already incorporate consumer’s opinions with the help consumer panels, I asked myself what the user-driven product development would be.

Created by product developers, tested by customers

If we take a closer look at this proceeding, we recognize that companies often start getting feedback when the development of the product or service is completed. That means that the most expensive and time-consuming part is already over. By contrast, user-driven development

involves the actual buyers and users of a product or service in its creation and ongoing development through open-ended customer interviews, problem definition, paper prototyping, user testing, rapid iteration and continuous feedback.

The author stresses that companies need to incorporate user feedback as early as possible in order to ensure the acceptance of their products and satisfaction of consumers needs. As a result companies reduce costs by eliminating possible redesigns and re-launches of the product.

Don’t look at your competitors!

Secondly, user-driven product development revolutionizes in my view the importance of a competitive analysis. I remember when I was running a project during my dual apprenticeship. Actually, I had to develop a new product. My team did not win the pitch because the jury found that we did not talk enough about our potential competitors. In fact, we decided to focus on the unique selling proposition of the product.

Therefore I was very astonished while reading the blog post about ignoring competition. The author agrees that a competitive analysis is an ordinary product management task. For instance it might be useful to have checklists that help you positioning your brand when your product is comparable or substitutable to another.

But why not focus only on your product? My impression is that it’s better to concentrate on market needs rather than competitive checklists. I will explain why: First, you will not be as innovative as you could be. Secondly, it’s very likely that you offer similar features (customers could see you and your competition in the same way). Therefore the main objective should be: offer better products than someone else! Concentrate on the creation of products that will solve your customers’ problems and your product or service will succeed!

So don’t be better than the competition. Be great.

I knew that I want to work in the marketing sector since I was in high school. But my interest for product management came up during my internship in 2007.

All-rounder

The blog http://allaboutproductmanagement.blogspot.com/ gives advice on various aspects of Product Management and Product Development including also career tips. Even if the author addresses mainly Hardware, Software, Online, IT and Technical Product Managers, I think that the posts are also relevant for product managers (PM) in general. And I will tell you why.

The latest blog post deals with the book “The art of product management” by Rich Mironov, who has been writing the Product Bytes newsletter on product management, technology and start-ups since 2002. Certainly there is a strong connection with technical products. The book is however relevant for PM’s in general. In my opinion every PM is involved in the whole process of a product’s development. The product can be more or less technological; still the PM is implicated from the conception, through design and manufacture, to service and disposal. That is why a PM should always get along with his engineers.

Where does a PM stand in a company?

Nevertheless a PM’s role depends on the company. He often represents the connection between the marketing department and the engineering teams. Therefore he has to link technical aspects with marketing and communication. That’s what’s so interesting about this job. The tasks are various and the PM is involved in a product’s creation from A to Z.

Where will I stand?

Finally, the blog’s author gives career advice for future PM’s. In his opinion PM’s should apply horizontal success. That means he is no longer satisfied with promotion. He wants to take more responsibilities, master a wider range of products and so on.

Candidates shouldn’t give the impression that they only want to climb the corporate ladder but persuade the interviewer that they add value to the company.

This Harvard Business Blog by John Quelch deals with marketing and its effects on various areas of life.

Mr. Quelch is an expert in his field. What I like the most about his posts is that he doesn’t talk about funny ads and the latest product launches. Instead of presenting marketing only as a tool for companies to promote their products, he relates marketing to other topics such as the presidential election or the financial crisis.

Marketing is mean

For instance he acknowledges that marketers are partly responsible for the financial crisis:

A barrage of commercial advertising encourages people to focus on the acquisition and consumption of goods, to be consumers first and citizens second.

He criticizes marketers for encouraging consumption even if people can’t afford it. A higher level of marketing leads to higher consumption. If people consume more than they can afford, they buy on credit. But at a certain point of time they aren’t able to pay back the loan. That’s what happenend with the subprime credits.

The American Dream

In his opinion, the American Dream should be redefined. People related life, liberty and happiness to consumption of goods, which is a wrong conclusion. In my opinion marketing can be very manipulative but you should never go beyond the pale.

Tips

But this blog is not only about denounciation. Mr. Quelch gives constantly advices for professionals and people who are interested in marketing. Furthermore he analyses different business cases and provides solutions at the same time. Therefore one can learn a lot by reading his posts. 

Therefore I wanted to find some interesting English blogs about ballet and jazz dance. First I found blogs where people are talking about the technique and how to improve one’s dance style. I realized that this was not what I searched for. Then I found http://atimetodance.wordpress.com/. It seems to me that Maria, the author, relates their interest in dancing to other topics. And that’s what I like The links are just great (my favorite deals about “Scrubs”) and I can’t wait to read more.

To conclude, it can take time to find good articles, blogs and so on. But if you have found an interesting text, something about your passion, it was definitely worth the time you spent to find it!