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• By Stephane LEE
• on Jun 19th, 2006

Innovation and marketing mix

I have come back to my roots since a little over a year:  graduated in Computer Expertise as well as possessing a Master in International Marketing, I started programming and conceiving offers again.

It is only today that this double expertise reveals its value!  When working on a Web 2.0 project (sorry 2.1), it is particularly important and here is why:

On the Web, depending on the ruling standards, it is easy to become an expert. Any engineer, professional or amateur, may become an expert in a particular field within few months. If he has a new idea, he has the possibility to decide to apply it with the help of only a few means:  hosting and tools are accessible to all. In the case his idea meets demand and the public, he can become a star and resell to Yahoo/Google within few months (at least that’s what we want him to believe).

It is the crowning of the Do It Yourself (DIY). The DIY rule will create a spin of innovations, since you no longer need funds to start up and competencies are easy to get. Let’s add the network effect (all is visible, shared and reusable) and the spin can become a true tornado.

Just take a look at the pace in which new services Web 2.0 pop up.  And that’s only the beginning, the unions and APIs allowing ‘creative recombination’ of these services into new ones.

What grabs my attention when looking at all these services popping up is not so much the technological feat than the obvious lack of minimum decent market positioning. I am not the best qualified to give out lessons but when I look at the difficulties we encounter in finding an efficient mix in relation to such a simple concept as the customer feedback I am bewildered with regards to the clarity of the proposal of value concerning other Web services.

Some sell blogs, others sell wikis, aggregation portals, services of collaboration or management of knowledge…. that’s great, I understand the functionalities, and I can imagine what purpose it will serve. But the editor of the service usually does not offer me a clear marketing message in regards to the purpose of the product.

All happens as if the DIY concept was pushed to the limit. It is up to you to figure out the purpose of my product (that is if you can call that a finished product, I would rather call it technologies). ‘I developed quite a cool thing, after that you are the one who has to do my marketing!’ In some cases it may work:  how many consultants explain to companies what a blog can be used for

Personally, it may sound “old school”, but I prefer having the service editor do his job and explain how to benefit from his product and under which conditions. It might not be very Web 2.0 like but it reassures me to think that the creator thought about his customers or users before selling.

We cannot deny that doing marketing is a very difficult innovation:  we keep on discovering our market and messages have a tendency to chance frequently. Each new customer’s appointment is an opportunity to discover a new facet of the product, to take into account a new approach.

But it is not an excuse for not having any positioning at all. If you let the power users define the positioning, don’t be surprised if they are the only ones getting it.

And that’s when we come back to the dual expertise:  of course, not everybody has completed marketing education. In that case, you have to carefully choose your partners, exchange with people with a marketing sensibility. Admit one cannot know it all, admit real life is not only made of geeks, admit Mrs. Doe has a right to understand what you do.

Understand that ‘consensus engine’ will be understood differently by a mechanic than by Yahoo’s staff. That ‘Customer Insight’ will sound serious when addressing a marketing executive but will mean nothing to the passing Internet user. That a ‘technology supplier’ cannot sell to end-users. That a business model (useful to pay one’s rent) has to be understood by the buyer. Etc, etc.

To make a long story short, pleaaaase use a little more marketing in your Web 2.0 services!

PS: Now that we place the bar higher, let’s live up to it!  We will try out different marketing messages, up to you to let us know what you think ok?

1. On Jun 26th, 2006 at 21:34 by

Voila du bon sens. Est-ce que c’est ca le 2.1 au lieu de 2.0.?

Enfin j’imagine que le public du site est different de celui des WCM. J’apprecie l’engagement de l’entrepreneur. Les clients apprecient la ‘responsabilite’ en general. C’est un preambule a la ‘confiance’, non?

Just une petite remarque en passant. Vu la tronche de La Nouvelle Orleans apres le passge de Katrina, parler de tourbillon et de trombes comme tu le fais pour le web 2.x pourrait etre mal interprete

Jean-Louis

2. On Sep 18th, 2006 at 9:02 by Manu

Oui et non Jean-Louis, le web 2.0 va effectivement tout balayer. Certains vont s’enrichir, d’autres vont se retrouver sur le carreau… même si je reste persuadé qu’il n’y aura pas de bulle 2.0.

Sinon Stéphane, article très intéressant, je découvre ton blog. Ce qui me vient en premier à l’esprit à sa lecture est que malheureusement dans beaucoup de domaines et beaucoup de startups ou “projets d’entreprises”, il manque du marketing, du positionnement, de l’analyse de marché, ce n’est pas une caractéristique spécialement web 2.0. Il est facile de rencontrer des copains qui ont eu dans la nuit l’idée du sciècle sauf qu’il leur manque un élément qui met tout par terre.
Au moins avec le web 2.0, les frais engagés dans un projet sont effectivement aujourd’hui très faibles, la casse l’est donc tout autant.
Alors amusons-nous et si Yahoo ne passe pas dans notre rue cette fois-ci, au moins on se sera amusé !

3. On Oct 11th, 2006 at 20:45 by Franck BRUNET

Bonjour,

Je suis tout à fait en accord avec le fait de “mettre une couche de marketing” car il n’y a rien de pire que d’avoir un très bon produit/concept et de ne pas être capable de le vendre, de communiquer. Avoir un projet à fort potentiel et d’être quasiment le seul à le savoir ou à en être convaincu.
Le confort que peut apporter cette double compétence informatique + marketing est loin d’être négligeable car je pense qu’elle peut fortement orienter la conception et permet d’avoir plus de recul, d’anticipation.
Je suis régulièrement confronté à ce type de problématique : apporter de la clarté, prendre de la hauteur, rendre lisible et accessible le concept. Ne serait-ce qu’écrire clairement le positionnement : la première pierre. A quoi sert ce que je créé ? A qui je m’adresse ? Qu’est-ce que cela apporte ? En quoi je suis différenciant ?.....

Bref créer, concevoir, développer c’est bien, mais le web 2.0 ne génèrera pas que des réussites.
Alors amusons-nous, vivons cette belle aventure en évitant les erreurs du passé.
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