This is not surprising since most corporation as still operating on a 20th century command/control business model that focus on internal efficiency not adaptability to rapidly changing external forces and dynamics.

In the upcoming Social Business Executive Summit, I will describe a framework that will dramatically increase organizational adaptive potential. My talk

Social Business Strategies for Adapting to the New Normal in Business

is in the opening session on May 25th.

There are 9 other speakers who will also shed light on the challenges. This is a free online event sponsored by CustomerThink.

Click to register.

On May 25-27 CustomerThink will host six free webinars on Social Business. Join us!

Register Now!

You can pick and choose from the sessions that interest you the most, from strategy to online communities to using social media to boost your marketing, sales and service operations.

Session Topics:
* The CEO’s Challenge: Creating and Leading a Profitable Social Business Strategy
* Transforming Marketing to Listen, Influence and Drive Sales-Ready Leads
* Best Practices to Create Online Communities to Engage Customers and Increase Loyalty
* Transforming Sales to Align with Social Buyers and Close More Deals
* Best Practices to Create a High-Performance Organization with Employee Collaboration
* Transforming Customer Service/Support to Profit from the Wisdom of Crowds

Each session will be conducted in an interactive panel format featuring experts from the Founders Council of our new community, SocialBusinessOne.com. Bring your toughest questions!

I will be speaking in the first session on “Social Business Strategies for adapting to the New Normal in Business.

Registration is FREE, and all attendees are eligible to win an iPad.

To learn more and sign up, please visit:

Register Now!

Hope to see you online next week!
Regards,
John Todor

Our topic:

Winning Profitable Customer Relationships.

More information…

May 6, 2010

Sponsor by Loyalty 360 and VeraCentra.

Free Registration

For at least the past 5 years, the tried-and-true formulas to boost sales and market shares of brands have been become increasingly irrelevant and losing traction with customers.
(John Gerzema and Ed Lebar, The Trouble with Brands)

To understand what is relevant and does get traction with customers, it is critical to recognize that the pursuit of market share and commodity sales are not the same thing. Germane to this distinction are the two buying personalities I have discussed elsewhere. Here is the short version that makes it especially relevant to this differentiation.

When customers are not emotionally involved or indifferent they are usually seeking a means-to-an-end. For example, gasoline is gasoline to me. I go to the filling station that offers the best trade-off between price and convenience. I am loyal to this heuristic, not a brand name. Sure, there are people who seek out a name brand gas station and are willing to pay more per gallon. For them, the brand either has meaning or they are mindlessly hung up on an old habit. Both are proving to have a tenuous hold on loyalty and profitability.

In contrast, when customers are emotionally engaged in the experience enabled by the product they are much more willing to pay more and come back often. The message here it that it is the experience or outcome of the customer, not the label that has an impact on profitability and advocacy.

Recently, Geoffrey James blogged about this distinction. To bolster his case he referred to a New Yorker magazine article that cited the iPhone as a good example: “the iPhone generates as much profit for Apple as Noika’s entire cell phone business, even though Noika sells 20 times as many units.

Back to Gerzema and Lebar. Their research indicates that beginning in 2004, consumer attitudes about all sizes and segments of brands were in serious decline. Trust in brands had dropped from 52% in 1997 to 22% in 2008.

That was before the recession. A Nielsen survey (see James) now indicates more than 60% of consumers think that store brand products are equal in quality to brand name ones. The indifferent buying personality, not seeing any meaningful differentiation, is leading customers to switch to the lower prices generics.

The notion that the brand name and visibility will generate sales and profits is generally a pursuit of diminishing returns. It is not however, true for all brands. Gerzema and Lebar shed to light on this. According to their research, what sets successful brands apart is Energized Differentiation.

This energy comes from 3 sources ( I quote):

• the vision the brand presents to consumers, often originates from leadership, conviction and reputation of the company.
  was the invention consumers perceive in the brand through product or services innovation, design or content.
• The dynamism consumers feel – how the brand creates a persona, emotion, advocacy and evangelism among consumers through marketing and other forms of conversation with them.

Brands that rank high on the energy metric are: Adidas, iPhone, Nike, JetBlue and Virgin Atlantic. These brands don’t focus on logos and visibility – they do focus on communicating and delivering a differentiated experience that is meaningful to customers. Think of it as a focus on mindshare not market share.

Over a three-day period, CustomerThink will host six webinars focused on social business strategy, customer communities, employee collaboration and how social computing will transform marketing, sales and customer service.

This will not be “death by PowerPoint.” Each session will provide plenty of time to get your specific questions answered. Bob Thompson, Founder of CustomerThink and SocialBusinessOne, will chair the Summit and serve as moderator for all webinars.

In the opening session John Todor of The Whetstone Edge will be discussing:

Social Strategies for Adapting to the New Normal

Register now

http://www.veracentra.com/briefing.html

CustomersRecent events have reshaped customer behavior causing marketers to re-evaluate their retention and acquisition strategies. Understanding the buying behaviors of the twenty-first century customer is critical for companies looking for sustainable and profitable growth. This briefing will help you calibrate your strategies to new customer behaviors and will provide practical tactics you can quickly deploy.

Discussion topics include:

Competing with Differentiated Customer Experience
New Approaches to Building Customer Relationships
Overcoming Organizational Roadblocks
Adapting Quickly to Change

RSVP here for the Executive Briefing and Complimentary Breakfast with John Todor, Ph.D. and Constance Hill.

Friday, February 5, 2010
7:30 to 9:00 a.m.
Hyatt Regency Hotel
1333 Bayshore Highway
Burlingame, CA

There are always winners and losers coming out of an economic crisis. Winners are characterized by taking actions to see and seize new opportunities. A new strategic alliance between Whetstone Edge, LLC and Del Langdon and Associates will help client companies gain insights into what has changed and to see how this creates unique possibilities. Its incubation process enables a company to quickly identify and pursue new opportunities, but its lasting impact comes from the optimism and adaptive potential it creates within the organization.

Pleasant Hill, CA (November 19, 2009). The economic crisis has brought many things into focus — it is clear that some things will never be the same for customers, companies, employees and other stakeholders. Many of the forces of change have been at work for some time but now businesses face a tipping point that cannot be ignored. The Whetstone Edge, LLC and Del Langdon & Associates have formed a strategic alliance to help business thrive amidst a new normal in business.

The alliance directly addresses two conditions of the New Normal as spelled out by Ian Davis, managing director of McKinsey & Associates.

The business landscape has changed fundamentally; tomorrow’s environment will be different, but no less rich in possibilities for those who are prepared.

Executives preparing their organizations to succeed in the new normal must focus on what has changed and what remains basically the same for their customers, companies and industries.

Del Langdon states, “The alliance of The Whetstone Edge, LLC and Del Langdon & Associates was developed with one primary premise at the forefront. In the New Normal, what is valuable and meaningful must be viewed from the customers’ perspective. Businesses are now challenged to take an outside-in perspective to developing products, processes and business practices.”

John I. Todor, Ph.D., managing partner of The Whetstone Edge, LLC adds, “Since the underlying forces have been at work for some time, many businesses have already started to adjust. Some have clearly chosen to deploy coping strategies; others have reacted with initiatives that narrowly focus on parts of the underlying shift in business dynamics. We have been jointly taking a hard look at the forces at work for over a year. Our conclusion, businesses who expect to thrive will need to face up to four interrelated challenges in the new normal.”

• There is a profound shift in customer buying patterns. Overall they will buy less but they also have new priorities.
• There is an urgent need for businesses to shift from PUSH to PULL business practices. To win customers who buy on value, not price, 21st century businesses need to ATTRACT customers to the potential of a better outcome or experience.
• The influence of social media on purchases decisions is strong and growing. Customer-to-customer conversations now operate without the sanction of companies. Businesses must become a credibility part of the conversation.
• Change and innovation is a continuous and accelerating reality. To thrive, a company must build the adaptive potential to understand the new challenges and deliver value. To do so, they need to take the lead in creating a highly cooperative and collaborative business ecosystem.

The Whetstone Edge, LLC and Del Langdon & Associates bring together strategic insights into customers with a systematic methodology that will help companies turn the new challenges into opportunities. Their incubation process is an in situ program that mentors a business through an accelerated process of seeing and seizing new business opportunities. It also engages the organization in a process of learning to be adaptive. It is this learned adaptive potential that will generate the “can do” optimism and know-how to face a fast-changing and increasingly uncertain future.

To learn more download Perspectives on a New Normal in Business.

The partners in the alliance believe they can best serve client companies as coaches or mentors. A full description of their methods can be found at: www.TheWhetstoneEdge.com. A resource section is also available to help gain insights into the challenges, opportunities and possibilities of today’s business climate.

The Whetstone Edge, LLC is a customer-centric consulting firm that applies research on human behavior to buyer-seller dynamics including customer loyalty, trust, retention, customer service, CRM, Customer relationship management, customer experience management and marketing strategy. They offer clients insights in how use Web 2.0 and social media and online communities to strengthen customer relationships and advocacy. www.TheWhetstoneEdge.com.

Del Langdon and Associates is a team of seasoned consultants who help corporate executives and management teams to significantly improve organizational performance. They guide business transformation through the definition of integrated enterprise strategy (business, customer, channel, organizational capability, learning, technology) and alignment around its execution. The goal is to help client companies to define and implement differentiated customer/client relationship experiences.
www.TheWhetstoneEdge.com.

The Social Media Academy Tools Week is a unique opportunity to learn how business are using social media in all aspects of their organizations. This is an online event so you don’t have to leave your desktop. If you register before November 10, the entire week is free. There are 28 speakers address a diverse set of topics.

Here are the topics day by day:

Monday 16th
The Impact of Social Media on Businesses of Sizes & Industries

Tuesday 17th
Social Media Sales & Marketing Tools

Wednesday 18th
Social Media Support & Product Management Tools

Thursday 19th
Social Media Reporting & Analytic Tools

Friday 20th
Social Media Career Development & HR Tools

To register or for a complete list of topics and speakers go to the

Social Media Academy website