Time To Change Strategies
Historically strategies were created based on assumptions made about how the markets respond and to what. The aim of a strategy was to create market differential, awareness and value that the market would respond to.The strategic process included market research to understand the markets behavior, what competition was doing and the subsequent data would help organizations to think through what it should do differently.
Markets have dramatically changed and thus old strategic thinking and related methods are no longer relevant to the market.
What Has Changed?
“Clients of an organization, whether they are citizens or customers, now have ready access to these tools. For all the supposed decisiveness of managed organizations, by relying on legal and PR departments to respond, most companies now react more slowly than their customers. In the new world we’ve entered, you can only stonewall things on your side of the wall, yet most media is no longer on that side of the wall.”
Strategy is Now Driven From the Other Side of the Wall
Creating a road map of how your organization will succeed is now a process driven by the conversations from the market. Previously strategy did include an assessment of the market but limited by the perspective and terms of how one defines “the market“. The definition of market has changed in that consumers and business are now engaged in defining the market more than ever before. The definition and sentiment of a market are being framed by real time conversations about anything, everything, anyone and everyone.
Market sentiment used to be contained within the walls of a corporation. Complaints were reviewed as were compliments. Compliments were added to the marketing mix while complaints were buried until results reflected the need for change.
Today both complaints and praises are in real time and out in the open for everyone to see. Anything placed on the web enters the digital library and the more content that references your business the more visible it is the Google. The higher the visibility the easier it is to be found by others.
Before making a purchase or taking a job what do people do? 95% go the web to gather references and intelligence. Said references and intelligence are no longer driven by your media rather they are driven by media created by your market.
If you understand the power of a network then you know that three satisfied customers may tell three friends and those three friend may tell twenty seven then you know the power of the coice of the customer has just been accelerated by the web. The same is true about angry customers. One angry customer can reach 3,000 people at the click of a mouse. Those three thousand can reach over 100,000 given the power of networks.
The web works based on a rate of change and a rate of interest. Which gets you the highest rate? Satisfied or angry customers? Do the math.
Strategy is critical for any business but if you are following old strategic methods then you will fail critically. Today failure is instantaneously spread at the click of a mouse. The markets of conversations spread faster than most organizations can react. Building a strategy from the outside in is vital to your future success. When markets change so must your strategy. Much has to change starting with your thinking. Get it?
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