#BocaApp: Sport Digital Marketing Betting to Mobility?

The fascinating World of Sport Digital Marketing Industry is in complete mutation. Big players are betting on the next move to increase consumer engagement through Intelligent Mobile & Interactive Communication Platforms.

If we now focus on Football, we will discover that this sport moves 70% of the Sport Marketing Industry total turnover in Latin America. Football Fan are very special consumers; their level of commitment and loyalty is hard be found anywhere else.

“You can change your name, religion, nationality but you will not pull out from the Football Club you support.”

In order to convert this opportunity into a sustainable business, we have designed  as a tool to connect the Fan with CABJ from any place and at any moment.

Over 9 month of hard work were necessary to develop this world class application. Thanks to the participation of an international  and multidisciplinary team + the strong support of CABJ we could launch  on October 21st. 2014:

– Android: http://goo.gl/CtXosU
– Apple Store http://goo.gl/0bZzlm

#BocaApp has been designed to interact dynamically with Boca Juniors Fans Community: + 18.000.000 people owners of + 6.000.000 smart phones in Argentina.

The first goal was to conquer a massive audience of active users in a minimum time. Thanks to an intense promotion/communication on CABJ digital network, we were able to reach 170.000 downloads and 57% Weekly Active Users in only 8 weeks …. adding up over 9.000.000 screen view!!!

The monetization strategy will be implemented soon through an Intelligent Mobile & Interactive Communication Platform. #BocaApp as a user interface (commodity app) will transform itself into a mobile tool to improve Boca Fans Lifestyle, offering geo fenced products or services, all accessible in a one click action.

The main objective of #BocaApp  is to contribute in changing paradigm of actual advertising from Branding campaign to Products/Services focused experiences.

Pitch App Oficial Boca Juniors from ★ Herve DELHUMEAU, MBA

Good Reading !!!

HOW TO PUT A VALUE TO YOUR WEB SITE

The market is ultimately what determines the value. When you sell something at a certain price, that value becomes what you sell it for. International valuation standards defines market value as ”the estimated amount for which a property should exchange on the date of valuation between a willing buyer and a willing seller in an arm’s-length transaction after proper marketing wherein the parties had each acted knowledgeably, prudently, and without compulsion.” where property in this instance can be exchanged for website or web business.

 

1.       WHY VALUATIONS ARE TRICKY

As value is derived from a sale, there is no true correct answer, only opinions. Only the opinion of the valuing party can alter value. Value can vary based on the buyer, market conditions, valuation methodology applied, purpose of the valuation, presentation of the assets and more. There is no “set criteria” nor is there rules of thumb that apply in everyone scenario. In this article I will try to help you on how to form one.

 

2.       HOW VALUATION CAN VARY

The purpose of a valuation and the model that you apply to a website will result in drastically different values. Let’s say, for simplicity you had a website making $10 million dollars a year in sales and $9 million in expenses. Making the total net profit of the business $1 million. If you applied a multiple of earnings model at say 3 times earnings the business would sell for $3 million dollars. However if you applied a liquidation valuation to the business and the business had $7 million dollars in assets on the books at auction value you would get $7 million dollars for the business. A drastic difference!!! A public example of this is Digg.com. which had about $10 million dollars in revenue per year and a similar amount of expenses. According to TechCrunch the sale value of Digg was about $16 million, Washington Post Co. paid about $12 million for the Digg team; LinkedIn paid $3.75-$4 million for patents; and Betaworks bought Digg’s remaining assets for $500,000-$725,000.

 

3.       WHAT IS MARKET VALUE TO WEBSITE BUYERS

The reason that a website has a market value to a buyer is because of a potential profit from it. Buyers are solely motivated by return on investment, so if you are thinking “my website has so much potential” by economics you are wrong. But hang on, Instagram was sold for $1 billion dollars and it hadn’t even made a cent! Well i’m sorry to say your website is no instagram. And when you are dealing in the private markets (which is what you are dealing in), value is determined by what someone is willing to pay for your website which is determined by its ability to make a profit and present a reasonable rate of return for its purchaser.

 

4.       WHAT DOES NOT ADD VALUE

The assets that make up a website (like domain name, trademarks, copyright, graphics, programming, databases, email lists, form, content and traffic) are what determine the revenue (more specifically profit) of the website, and it is that profit that will determine value to buyers. Some website owners struggle with the idea that, just because they’ve put all this effort into creating content and doing SEO, their website inherently has value. I’m sorry to tell you this, but in terms of valuation 1 + 1 doesn’t equal 2.

 

5.       HOW DO WEBSITE BUYER DETERMINE VALUE

Let’s have a look at some general facts about valuations

• Valuation is a combination of objective and subjective tasks
• A valuation is really only an opinion of what something will sell for
• Real value only materializes when something is sold
• Website sellers generally over value their website
• The higher quality data (proof of income, traffic stats etc.) the higher quality valuation
• There are always macro factors out of the control of the buyer and seller that affect value
• Valuation models vary and there is no one “correct” valuation for a business

Website buyers typically pay a multiple of earnings for a website. That is they pay a multiplication of how much net profit the website makes per year. For example if your website makes $100,000 per year. A buyer may adopt an earnings multiple of 1.5X thus they will offer you $150,000 for the website. Generally the higher the risk the website holds, the lower the multiple they will offer. The basic valuation method used to value websites: Net Income x A Multiplier = Your Website Value

Here is a breakdown of the two:

a)      Net Income (profit) is calculated by taking revenues and adjusting for the cost of doing business, depreciation, interest, taxes and other expenses, or in accounting speak EBITDA. Generally speaking there are less expenses for a web business as you don’t normally have things (rent, office expenses and general normal business expenses). So there is normally less calculation to do than in a normal business valuation. A lot of money can be saved by understanding the actual profit that you are really making. That is why bigger companies pay ridiculous multiples for companies. They can see the synergy and economies of scale by cutting costs and expenses to bring the overall profit level up.

b)      A Multiplier A simple multiplier will be based on a Rate of Return. If we use the following: 12 Times Month Multiple = 100% return – and your money back in one year / 24 Time Monthly Multiple = 50% return – and your money back in two years / 36 times Monthly Multiple = 33% return – and your money back in three years. You are beginning to see why internet businesses are becoming a good investment as an investor. With minimal staff and expenses to worry about, the business starts to look quite attractive. Much better than putting your money in the back and getting 1-5% interest, depending on what country you are in.

 

6.       DETERMINING THE TRUE INCOME

Let’s take this simple example: A blog that is monetized through advertising.

 

Explanation:  This business makes a total of $300,000 per year. The business has expenses of $172,500 giving a net profit of $127,500. However when we add back in the expenses that the new owner will not inherit the true net profit turns out to be $167,500. Now if that site sold for a multiple of 2X. That would mean the difference between sale prices of $255,000 versus $335,000 is $80,000.

Why do you add back those items? Repairs/Maintenance is added back as it is considered a discretionary expense to Directors. (This expense is for repairs and maintenance on assets owned by the directors and thus is not an expense the new owner would inherit). Auto Expenses is added back as it is considered a discretionary expense to Directors. (This expense was for a vehicle owned by the director and is not included). Meal, Travel and Entertainment is added back as it is considered a discretionary expense to Directors.(this is a discretionary expense of the Director and should not be inherited by the Director.) Interests – has been added back to achieve an adjusted EBITA for the year (this expenses was for a loan the Director had on a property they owned and is not inherited by the new owner). Add backs are expenses that are added back into the profits. The theory behind add backs is that they are deemed one off, extraneous, and/or owners expenses.

Some examples of legitimate add backs include:

• owners compensation
• personal expenses (of the owner)
• tax and benefits

 

7.       WHY YOU CAN’T TRUST ONLINE TOOLS

If I go and see the value of Google.com using the following tools I get the following results:

• http://www.dnscoop.com: $2,246,400,000
• http://www.worthofweb.com: $ 78,650,521,400
• http://sitevaluecheck.com: $710
• http://digsitevalue.org: $1 365 751 473

With a range between $710 and 78 billion you can appreciate why automation doesn’t equal accuracy. That range is a factor if 100,000,000%. Why such a disparity? Because many of these online tools operate the mathematical and scientific foundations of “ tarrot cards or astrology”.

What Multiples Do Buyers Pay?  Multiples vary based on market sentiment, supply of sites coming up for sale, number of buyers in the market, the synergies that buyers may recognize, timing, location of listing, credit offered by seller, form of payment, or the buyer’s mood on the day!

• First Timers – 1.5x – 2.5x multiples
• Financial Buyers – 1x-2x multiples
• Strategic Buyers – 1x-3x multiples
• Investors – 1x-3x multiples

What Types Of Sites Sell For More?  I don’t believe there are “common valuation multiples” or that it would be a helpful figure if it were calculated. Each site is individual and each buyer has his own perspective on what he can do with the site and what he’s willing to pay for the revenue streams and risks he envisages. But it is common to throw around the multiple of 1-2 years of net income as a starting base and things go up and down from there. I don’t think it’s really a question of an AdSense site gets 1-2x yearly net and an ecommerce site gets 2-3x. It all depends on the site and who’s buying it. Big dumb companies buy up companies at insane multiples to gain market share or push out the competition. There are two major value variables that can alter value:

• The consistency or scalability of revenue 
• The quality and reliability of website traffic 

The strength of these two factors can be affected by the following variables

a)      Industry

• How competitive
• Low barrier to entry
• Future of the market
• Any vertical or horizontal integration

b)      Income

• One source of income? Stable?
• What is the ratio costs to profit
• Active customer base
• Clean finances

c)       Traffic

• Multiple sources of traffic
• Referral traffic
• Reliance on Google

d)      General

• Age of Site
• Unbroken Whois history
• Brand and goodwill
• Previous owners
• Technical Knowledge required
• Solid earnings
• Positive growth trend
• Processes automated
• Defensible Market (a site on CD’s has little value today)
• Room for growth
• Strong Brand
• Diversification (of revenue and traffic)
• USP (some type of unique asset)
• Key assets (like email list, premium domain, supplier contracts etc.)
• Legal Liabilities
• Quality evergreen content
• A commercial demographic (10,000 doctors is better than 100,000 teenagers)

e)      Other factors:

• Can the owner make money from day one?
• What level of input does the current owner have in making the site function (are they too close)
• Is location a factor in earnings
• Are there special requirements (licenses, certificates) to run the business
• Are their any special needs of vendors or suppliers
• Any debts
• Documented Operations Manual
• Seller involvement post sale

8.       HOW TO GET HIGHER VALUE WHEN SELLING

• Performance Goals:  pay on certain milestone or goals achieved.
• Seller Financing:  finance the acquisition as seller financing or some type of payment plan.
• Ongoing Support:  provide ongoing support this can reassure the new buyer.
• Part Ownership:  take a monetary interest in the future of the website can help increase price.
• Non-Compete:  sometimes a clause about not competing will tip the sale in your favor.

 

9.       CASE STUDY “A”:

Why some people can afford to pay more for a website:  Let’s say you see a site that you already own in a similar market and that this site converts at 10%.  The site you are looking to purchase converts at 5%. Let’s imagine that site has been valued at 36 times monthly earnings for a total of $300,000 (Buy It Now Price). If you were an “unfair” buyer in that particular market you would happily pay the 300k and get your money back in three years. However as an “fair” buyer, you can afford to pay twice the money $600,000 giving it a 72 times monthly earnings multiple and outbid any “unfair” competitor, knowing that by improving the conversion rate from 5% to 10% you can get your money back in the same amount of time and thus can afford to spend more on the site to secure it. You can now see how one person can value a site at X, then another person value a site at Y. That is why at the end of the day the market tells you what a site is worth.

10.   CASE STUDY “B”:

Same income different value:  This should give you a better understanding of why similar businesses sell for completely different amounts.

Although the two websites have the same annual profits, the above data suggests that company 789 will probably sell for more than company 123, maybe even twice or three times the amount. This highlights how “rules of thumb” and “industry standards” are useless in some aspects and value is such an individually past aspect.

 

11.   VALUATION METHODS

Below is a list of valuation models that can be applied to a business.

a)      Valuation Models

• Capitalisation of future maintainable earnings
• Discounted cash flow
• Nett asset backing
• Net realisable value
• Replacement cost
• Liquidation value
• Capitalisation of dividends
• Return on investment
• Industry rule of thumb
• Comparable market transactions
• Cost to create
• Multiple of earnings.

b)      Common Methods

• Asset Valuation: buyers may make their valuation based on the assets of the website (traffic or customers), they will look how to leveraging those assets to get a quicker return on investment.
• Future Maintainable Earnings: buyers might look at the rate of return they can expect from the website by capitalizing future earnings multiplying the average profit by the desired RoR.
• Earnings multiple: buyers may apply earnings multiple to your website (1.5X…)
• Comparable sales: buyers may search for similar sales to find comparable sales data and use this as a basis for making an offer.
• Discounted Cash Flow: Buyers might look at the cash flow received for the investor discounted at a return on investment rate required form the investor. This valuation model takes into account the time value of money.

12.   CONCLUSION

As you can see there are a multitude of things that can come into factor in the eyes of the buyer. Understanding them as a seller will enable you to sell better your site. Depending of all these factors, you might get to the conclusion to hold onto the sale of your website for another year, because you will likely get double or even triple the money at that time. It is important to remember that the market is made of thousands of buyers and each and every one of those people will have a different point of view and methodology to value your web site.

I hope you will be able to build this complex framework when trying to put a value on your site. Never assume that the price you think you can get is what you will get. You will be surprised the creative ways people come up with to get their hands on your website. At least you’ll have a tool to help you to defend a price where both parties will be happy at.

GOOD LUCK !!!!

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

 PDF DOCUMENT AVAILABLE @  http://www.scribd.com/doc/139423395/HOW-TO-PUT-A-VALUE-TO-YOUR-WEBSITE-2013

Leave your questions and comments to:  herve@delhumeau.com

6 MARKETING METRICS YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT

As marketers, we work tirelessly to move the needle on what often seems like a laundry list of metrics. We look at website visits, conversion rates, generated leads per channel; engagement on social media platforms, blog post shares, email click-through rates… and the list goes on and on. When the time comes to present the impact of your marketing efforts, you can’t present everything you measure.

While many people understand that a solid marketing team can directly impact your company’s bottom line, a lot of them don’t believe that marketers are focused enough on results to truly drive incremental customer demand. If the majority of executives think marketing programs lack credibility, it simply doesn’t make sense to bombard them with metrics that don’t indicate bottom-line impact.

When it comes to marketing metrics that matter to your execs, expect to report on data that deals with the total cost of marketing, salaries, overhead, revenue, and customer acquisitions. This document will walk you through the six critical marketing metrics you should care about.

1.      CUSTOMER ACQUISITION COST

• What It Is: The Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is a metric used to determine the total average cost your company spends to acquire a new customer.

• How to Calculate It: Take your total sales and marketing spend for a specific time period and divide by the number of new customers for that time period.

• Sales and Marketing Cost = Program and advertising spend + salaries + commissions and bonuses + overhead in a month, quarter or year New Customers = Number of new customers in a month, quarter, or year.

__________________________

Formula:   

Sales and Marketing Cost / New Customers = CAC

__________________________  

• What This Means and Why It Matters: CAC illustrates how much your company is spending per new customer acquired. You want a low average CAC. An increase in CAC means that you are spending comparatively more for each new customer, which can imply there’s a problem with your sales or marketing efficiency.

 

2.      MARKETING % OF CUSTOMER ACQUISITION COST

• What It Is: Marketing % of Customer Acquisition Cost is the marketing portion of your total CAC, calculated as a percentage of the overall CAC.

• How to Calculate It: Take all of your marketing costs, and divide by the total sales and marketing costs you used to compute CAC.

__________________________

Formula:  

Marketing Cost / Sales and Marketing Costs = Marketing % of CAC 

__________________________

• What This Means and Why It Matters: The Marketing % of CAC can show you how your marketing performance and spending. An increased ratio of CAC can mean:

a)      You are in an investment phase, spending more  to provide high quality leads and improve your sales productivity.

b)      Your marketing team is spending too much or has too much overhead.

c)      Your sales team could have under performed.

3.      RATIO OF CUSTOMER LIFTIME VALUE TO CAC

• What It Is: The Ratio of Customer Lifetime Value to CAC is a way for companies to estimate the total value that your company derives from each customer compared with what you spend to acquire that new customer.

• How to Calculate It: To calculate the Lifetime Value / CAC you’ll need to compute the Lifetime Value, the CAC and find the ratio of the two.

• Lifetime Value (LTV) = (Revenue the customer pays in a period – gross margin) Estimated churn percentage for that customer

__________________________

Formula:   

Lifetime Value / CAC

 __________________________

• What This Means and Why It Matters: The higher the Lifetime Value / CAC, the more ROI your sales and marketing team is delivering to your bottom line. However, you don’t want this ratio to be too high, as you should always be investing in reaching new customers. Spending more on sales and marketing will reduce your Lifetime Value / CAC ratio, but could help speed up your total company growth.

4.      TIME TO PAY BACK CAC

• How to Calculate It: You calculate the Time to Payback CAC shows you the number of months it takes for your company to earn back the CAC it spent acquiring new customers.

• How to Calculate It: You calculate the Time to Payback CAC by taking your CAC and dividing by your margin-adjusted revenue per month for your average new customer.

• Margin-Adjusted Revenue = How much your customers pay on average per month

__________________________

Formula:

CAC Margin-Adjusted Revenue = Time to Payback CAC 

__________________________

• What This Means and Why It Matters: In industries where your customers pay a monthly or annual fee, you normally want your Payback Time to be under 12 months. The less time it takes to payback your CAC, the sooner you can start making money off of your new customers. Generally, most businesses aim to make each new customer profitable in less than a year.

 

5.      MARKETING ORIGINATED CUSTOMER %

• What It Is: The Marketing Originated Customer % is a ratio that shows what new business is driven by marketing, by determining which portion of your total customer acquisitions directly originated from marketing efforts.

• How to Calculate It: To calculate Marketing Originated Customer %, take all of the new customers from a period, and tease out what percentage of them started with a lead generated by your marketing team.

__________________________

Formula:

New customers started as a marketing lead New customers in a month = Marketing Originated Customer % 

__________________________

• What This Means and Why It Matters: This metric illustrates the impact that your marketing team’s lead generation efforts have on acquiring new customers. This percentage is based on your sales and marketing relationship and structure, so your ideal ratio will vary depending on your business model. A company with an outside sales team and inside sales support may be looking at 20-40% Margin Originated Customer %, whereas a company with an inside sales team and lead focused marketing team might be at 40-80%.

 6.      MARKETING INFLUENCED CUSTOMER %

• What It Is: The Marketing Influenced Customer % takes into account all of the new customers that marketing interacted with while they were leads, anytime during the sales process.

• How to Calculate It: to determine overall influence, take all of the new customers your company accrued in a given period, and find out what % of them had any interaction with marketing while they were a lead.

__________________________  

Formula:

Total new customers that interacted with marketing Total new customers = Marketing Influenced Customer % 

__________________________

• What This Means and Why It Matters: This metric takes into account the impact marketing has on a lead during their entire buying lifecycle. It can indicate how effective marketing is at generating new leads, nurturing existing ones, and helping sales close the deal. It gives your CEO or CFO a big-picture look into the overall impact that marketing has on the entire sales process.

 

7.      CONCLUSION

As marketers, we track so many different data points to better understand what’s working and what’s not that it can become easy to lose sight of what’s most important. Reporting on your business impact doesn’t mean you should no longer pay attention to site traffic, social shares, and conversion rates. It simply means that when reporting your results to your executives, it’s crucial to convey your performance in a way that your C-suite can get excited about.

Rather than talking about per-post Facebook engagement and other “softer” metrics, use the six metrics we detailed to report on how your marketing program led to new customers, lower customer acquisition costs, or higher customer lifetime values. When you can present marketing metrics that resonate with your decision makers, you’ll be in a much better position to make the case for budgets and strategies that will benefit your marketing team now and in the future.

 

PDF AVAILABLE @ http://www.scribd.com/doc/138259173/6-Marketing-Metrics-You-Should-Care-About

CROWDSOURCING & CUSTOMER SERVICE – STRATEGIC ANALYSIS

While the growths of the Web, social media and online communities have dramatically changed how companies and customers connect the 4 fundamental drivers of business have not. Companies still need to:

a)    Build

b)    Market

c)    Sell

d)    Support their products & services

New technologies have helped to simplify processes and reduce the cost of those four drivers. To succeed in today’s competitive market corporations must now meet five new business imperatives:

a)    Do more with less

b)    Increase profits while dropping cost

c)    Implement systems for better ROI, and strategically…

d)    Inform, engage, enlist & reward your customers, making them active copartners in your business

e)    Become a “Social Business”

The conventional definition of “ROI” as “Return on Investment” is still valid, but the spread of social media and the adoption of new Social CRM tools, ROI should be considered as: “Return on Interaction”.

Analyzing this situation drive us to the following conclusion: by listening, observing, asking, involving, and interacting with customers (partners, and employees too), a truly social business could build better products and services, that are increasingly designed, sold, and even supported by customers.

Every day, more and more customers go to internal or external forums and online communities in search of answers from people like them.  Unfortunately, on virtually all of today’s online communities, the process of resolving problems and issues is poorly handled, if not entirely unmanaged.

In order to face this new challenge, companies need to integrate platforms able to listen, involve and interact with their clients in real time. The best way to reach this target at a minimum cost is to crowd source their own customers. If your company is not already crowdsourcing its customer service and support, it’s time to consider doing so. Why? Smart businesses are looking more and more for ways to help their clients.

 I.  What is Crowdsourcing?

Crowdsourcing is using the “crowd” of users as the “source” to help other users. It allows the number of customer issues to be handled to grow without needs to incur in relevant additional labor costs. By letting users participate in the customer service and support process, it puts them center stage, engages them with the company, and increases loyalty.

Today, customer loyalty is considered as a key element for the success of a company. It determines whether or not it is a prosperous organization and the growth of the loyalty customer base is becoming a more and more relevant KPI.

Why a client is loyal? The most important element for him to be faithful to a brand is the quality of the product or service provided to him and how the enterprise provides it.

II.        Main Challenges:

The biggest challenges companies are facing in customer service today are:

a)    The growing operating cost of customer service

b)    Providing quick answers to questions from many communication channels if not your customer will start to abandon you

c)    Monitoring social media where you customers speak about you

d)    Operating and extending the number of communication methods that your customer wants to use

e)    Distribution of product/service knowledge internally and externally

f)     Growing your customer loyalty base

 

III.        The Solution:

Developing a business solution that helps the company to improve the customer service and tackle the challenges of today is the only way and should be sustained by the following three pillars:

a)    Create an expert community to provide peer to peer support customer (crowd-sourcing) deflecting requests from internal customer service

b)    Settle forums you can control for discussions on your products and services

c)    Improve and reuse the knowledge gained from requests/answers to make them easy and accessible with the help of a semantic natural language search engine

IV.        Basic Rules:

• This platform has to allow the company to listen, monitor and engage with its customers on social communication channels from one single interface.
• Customers have to be able to choose to communicate from a portal or through a social channel and the answers have to be provided in the customer preferred channel.

V.        Secrets for Success:

The company needs to setup and align its peer-to-peer support with the already existing operation model to use or customize the flow that fits the preferred customer experience.

The community has to be animated and/or integrated to other communities. In order to boost peer-to-peer support, a reward engine has to be built in to motivate the experts

VI.        Key Benefits:

a)    Cost reduction of operation (Normally between -30 & -40%)

b)    Increased customer satisfaction and customer loyalty

c)    Improved knowledge distribution

d)    Higher customer retention

e)    Brand protection

f)     Being seen as an innovative company

VII.            Examples:

The following summary table shows examples of Key benefits of online service and support communities:

VIII.            Conclusion:

Crowdsourcing can reduce drastically the burden on the staff, save money, and engage customers.

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PDF AVAILABLE @  http://www.scribd.com/doc/132461479/CROWDSOURCING-CUSTOMER-SERVICE-STRATEGIC-ANALYSIS

Content and analysis of this post is drawn principally from an article which originally appeared on March 12, 2013 on the CrowdEngineering website titled “Crowdsourcing Customer Service: Top Biz Imperative” at http://www.crowdengineering.com/news/industry-news/crowdsourcing-customer-service-meets-top-biz-imperatives/ and also incorporates content and graphics from CrowdEngineering’s presentation at Crowdopolis 2013.

This content is posted here with the approval and consent of CrowdEngineering, Inc.

LATIN AMERICA STRATEGIC PEST ANALYSIS 2013

 LATAM  SOCIAL & ECONOMIC OUTLOOK 2013

Even if the economic outlook for Latin America shows a relatively positive picture for the coming year 2013 it is important to know that the General Regional Economic Forecast was trimmed from 4.2% to a 3.9%, by the FMI.

An assessment of spillover risks showed that Latin America would be one of the regions to be hardest-hit from a sharper-than-expected slowdown in China. The region could also suffer more than others if the United States fails to avoid the ‘fiscal cliff’, a tightening in fiscal policy in 2013.

Looking to specifics, Brazil will lead the region domestic demand and growth was seen picking up to 4% in 2013. Mexico’s outlook was trimmed slightly to 3.5% in 2013. Peru was expected to grow the fastest, at 5.8% in 2013. (Except Paraguay 11%). Chile and Colombia are both forecasted to grow 4.4% in 2013. Venezuela and Argentina are particularly at risk of upside pressure on inflation, although this remained above the mid-point of the target range in many countries.

Latin American small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can become catalysts for productivity growth. The heterogeneity of these SMEs has to be considered, since different firms have very different development needs and potential.

While the region is vast and heterogeneous as a whole, four main key challenges that affect each country differently can be highlighted:

• Weak institutions with high costs associated and lack of physical security
• Poor development of infrastructure
• Inefficient allocation of production and human resources; and, increasingly
• Lack in innovation vis-à-vis more developed, but also emerging, economies

Addressing these challenges in the next decade will be crucial to ensure the economic and social progress of the following countries that lead the region:

Mexico has one of the highest improvements in the region. The country’s efforts to boost competition and its regulatory improvements that facilitate entrepreneurial dynamism are contributing to an improvement of the business environment. This development, coupled with the country’s traditional competitive strengths such as its large internal market size, fairly good transport infrastructure, macroeconomic policies, and strong levels of technological adoption have led Mexico to improve its competitive edge. However, the country still suffers from organized crime; security concerns. Adopting and implementing policies to boost ICT, energy, and retailing, along with additional reforms to render the labour market more efficient are still needed to increase the efficiency of the Mexican economy. The current overall poor quality of the educational system, insufficient company spending in R&D, and limited innovation capacity can jeopardize the future ability of the country to compete internationally in higher value-added sectors.

Panama, has remained relatively stable in most competitiveness drivers. Overall, it benefits from important strengths in its efficient financial market, solid transport infrastructures, and very good technological adoption, especially through FDI. Except these advantages, the country still faces important weaknesses in terms of education. Panama also struggles with rigidities in its labour market, low levels of public trust of politicians, insufficient judicial independence, and favouritism in the decisions of government officials a situation that has deteriorated in the past year.

Venezuela continues to fall because of quality of the country’s public institutions. This dismal showing, coupled with severe weaknesses in its markets efficiency and deterioration in the macroeconomic stability have led the country to feature at the bottom of the region and among the least competitive countries in the world. Despite being at the forefront in its tertiary education enrolment rate, the overall quality of the educational system is weak. This, added to a lack of sophisticated businesses and poor innovation potential, critically constrain the competitiveness performance of the country

Colombia experiences an improvement based on its competitive strengths clustered around a stable macroeconomic environment; an improving educational system with a high level of enrollment and a large domestic market. On the other hand, despite the sustained efforts of the government to improve social pacification and eradicate organized crime, security concerns remain very high on the list of factors dragging down its competitive potential. In addition, improved regulation to foster domestic competition and facilitate a more efficient allocation of resources, as well as further investments to improve the transport infrastructure, are needed.

Peru improved its macroeconomic stability and strengthened its competitive edge thanks to a better control of inflation, a reduction of the government deficit, coupled with a friendlier environment for entrepreneurship. The country still faces a number of important challenges to solve as a weak public institutional environment, an educational system in need of higher quality, and the very low level of innovation. The impressive economic outlook for the next years, with GDP growth rates forecast of 6% in 2012 thanks to high mineral prices, provides a good opportunity to undertake the necessary investments and reforms to address its pending competitive limitations.

Chile: remains the most competitive economy in the region. Early measures to open and liberalize its markets by introducing high levels of domestic and foreign competition, a relatively flexible labour market, and one of the most sophisticated and efficient financial markets  have also helped the country to maintain its long-term growth prospects in the past decades. As Chile moves quickly toward higher levels of rent and the next stage of development, companies with low investment in R&D and a weak capacity for innovation act in an innovation environment characterized by relatively low-quality scientific research institutions and weak university-industry collaboration in R&D. Making sufficient progress on this front is the major challenge that Chile will face in the next decade.

Brazil benefits from several competitive strengths, including one of the world’s largest internal markets and a sophisticated business environment. Moreover, the country has one of the most efficient financial markets and one of the highest rates of technological adoption and innovation in the region. On a less positive note, Brazil still suffers from weaknesses that hinder its capacity to fulfil its tremendous competitive potential. The lagging qualities of its overall infrastructure despite its Growth Acceleration Programme (PAC), its macroeconomic imbalances, the poor overall quality of its educational system, the rigidities in its labour market, and insufficient progress to boost competition are areas of increasing concern.

Uruguay leverages its traditional competitiveness strengths thanks to its transparent and well-functioning public institutions, its high rates of education enrolment and its stable policies that encourage FDI. However, despite this progress, inflationary pressures and the reduction of the national savings could bring significant macroeconomic distress if not properly tackled. Moreover, as Uruguay keeps growing and moves steadily toward a higher stage of development, policies to increase domestic competition that would incentivize higher business-sector investment in R&D and innovation capacity will become increasingly important.

Argentina is getting more and more unstable. The extraordinary competitive potential of the country that benefits from a large domestic market size and a population that has a high level of education remains unfulfilled because of both a lack of trust in its institutions and the large inefficiencies in its allocation of goods, as well as labour and financial resources. Excessive red tape that benefits the expansion of the informal economy and high barriers to trade bring a lack of confidence in the financial system. The progressive deterioration of the country’s macroeconomic stability and a two-digit inflation rate, casts additional worrisome uncertainties about the sustainability of its economic growth. Unless these weaknesses are addressed, this situation could lead the economy back into the erratic fluctuations of the past, characterized by high expansionary periods followed by deep recessions.

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PDF DOCUMENT AVAILABE @ http://www.scribd.com/doc/131305717/Latin-AMERICA-STRATEGIC-PEST-ANALYSIS-2013

MOBILE APPLICATIONS: ACTORS & BUSINESS MODEL REVIEW

MOBILE APPS: ACTORS & BUSINESS MODEL REVIEW

Mobile applications are commonly made available through aggregators with online stores. However, due principally to the increased availability of smartphones and faster broadband on 3G mobile telecommunications networks, mobile applications are a major growth sector of the information and communications economy.

The mobile service business model has changed dramatically in recent years. In particular, the role of handset and OS providers has become more prominent, and the reliance of third-party developers on network operators for delivery of revenue streams has decreased.

Apps Stores revenue-sharing arrangements with developers, has led to other changes. They reshaped the revenue model with its 70/30 revenue split in favor of developers and the exclusion of network operators from revenue-sharing arrangements for mobile applications, attracting large numbers of new independents software developers (ISV).

1.    Developers

Developers are creators of mobile applications programs who do not work directly for the app store, device manufacturer or network service operator.

There are several kinds of third-party developer:

• Hobbyists developing mobile applications in their spare time for recreation and profit

• Professionals those developing mobile applications as a main source of income, either alone or as part of a business centered on mobile application development

• Contractors developing mobile applications on behalf of another entity or individual.

The number of third-party developers has increased significantly as the improved revenue arrangements and increasing client base attract more developers to app stores.

 2.      App Stores

Applications Stores are divided today in the following families:

• Device manufacturers including Apple’s App Store, Nokia’s Ovi, and Blackberry’s App World. These stores can be used only by consumers with the appropriate manufacturer’s device and proprietary software.

• Operating system developer including Android Market and Microsoft Windows Mobile. These stores can be accessed by consumers with devices from multiple handset manufacturers via the proprietary operating system software (OS).

• Mobile network operator including Telstra, Verizon and Optus. These stores can only be accessed by consumers with service contracts with the network operator. Consumers can use multiple handset brands to access these stores.

• Independent including app stores operated as independent commercial concerns, or by developers such as GetJar and Mobango. Access to these stores is not dependent on the brand of device used, service provider or proprietary software.

The mobile applications market exhibits a number of common characteristics across all app stores, including:

• Low barriers to entry: Apple, Android and Blackberry all have development registration schemes with software development kits (SDK) offered free or at low prices with additional support mechanisms. Mobile applications can be developed with SDK for low fixed costs.

• Strong competition: there are a large number of sellers and mobile applications available to consumers (more than 300,000).

• Low barriers to exit with few sunk costs, developers may enter and leave the market quickly.
• Extended value chains with multiple players mobile applications delivered through various platforms complicate the supply chain to the end-user. The responsibility for aspects of customer service can consequently fall across several different organizations or individuals. This increases the complexity of the relationship between service providers and end-users.

• Global nature app stores are accessible from smartphones and other devices globally, and have a global consumer base, although most of the major market players have managing companies based in North America (Apple, Google, Blackberry, Microsoft Windows and Palm). As a result, there are associated cross border and trans-jurisdictional market implications.

• Unpredictable revenue the financial viability of mobile applications is variable. The top 10 per cent achieve about 75,000 downloads and there are huge successes, such as Tap Tap Revenge’s reported revenue of $1 million per month. However, 50 per cent of mobile applications achieve about 1,000 downloads and, after the app store has taken its cut, developers may expect to earn up to $2,500 on average.

Most people agree that Apple’s opening of iPhone to third-party developers via the App Store in July 2008 was a key turning point in the adoption of smartphones and the use of mobile applications.

By 2009, combined platform revenues were $4.2 billion; today, some analysts are expecting revenues to reach $29.5 billion by the end of 2013.

3.      App Stores Developers Programs

The majority of app stores provide programs and support to encourage third-party development in their platform.

There are a number of components to this support:

• Distribution of revenue is weighted to favor developers the revenue split in the largest app stores is 70 per cent to the developer and 30 per cent to the store
• There are no access restrictions or qualifications in place

• Developer support includes access to SDK in the native code (software language) of their app store, developer forums, developer guidelines and other support mechanisms

• Start-up costs are low three of the largest app stores provide developer support programs for $200 and under 21

• Marketing information and user analytics are also available

• Secure payment mechanisms are provided

• Access is provided to a ready-made customer base

• Advertising of the app stores to consumers is provided by device manufacturers and, in some instances, network service providers

• Advertising of individual mobile applications in an app store is also available for example; developers can pay a premium to have a mobile application placed in the featured section in the Apple App Store.

Third-party developers may also operate across more than one app store. This means that the mobile applications can either be written in the native code of each platform or written in a higher level software language, which can run on all platforms the developer is selling on. The choice of developing language is complicated by restrictions proprietary platforms may place on using programming tools or controlling certain device features and by fragmentation across device platforms.

 4.      Consumer Access Models

The concept of online stores for consumers to download software applications is continuing to expand. The devices used to access app stores vary, and the numbers and types of device used are increasing. App stores and other platforms can be considered access points that allow consumers to obtain and use mobile applications, distributed by multiple app developers.

Pre-installed mobile applications can increase the commercial viability of devices. Pre-installation of mobile applications from other commercial entities method for device manufacturers to defray production cost, and increase the attractiveness of their device to consumers. It is also a useful method of creating additional revenue streams for carriers who preload the device to consumers.

Mobile applications may be downloaded and installed by consumers in several ways:

• Via the device, consumers can directly access the device manufacturer’s store through a menu on the device Access may be enabled through 3G or Wi

• Via the internet, consumers can access the device applicable, the network provider’s and then download and install mobile applications. Access to the internet may be enabled through 3G networks or Wi applications Smartphones Tablets Multiple access points for the mobile applications market

Mobile applications may be obtained by end-users in two main forms as pre-installed applications or downloaded applications. Pre-installed mobile applications are selected by device manufacturers and usually include: calendars, alarm clocks, camera/photo apps) weather mobile applications, Google maps, a compass, a music, video, games) for example, web browsers, texting and voice installed mobile applications can increase the commercial viability of devices.

The mobile applications from other commercial entities on devices are a method for device manufacturers to defray production cost, and increase the attractiveness of their device to consumers.

Consumers can access the device manufacturer’s app store (or, if applicable, the network provider’s app store) via the web browser on their device, and then download and install mobile applications.

5.      Business Models

Prior to the introduction of smartphones, telecommunications network operators were the main suppliers of mobile services (and fixed-line services). End-users’ choices were influenced predominantly by network coverage, pricing, provision of handsets and value-adding services (such as voicemail, text, email and limited 2G web access via GPRS). Hardware and software component suppliers had only an indirect relationship with end-users, and third-party suppliers provided complementary goods and services.

While not all consumers directly obtained their handsets through their network operator, operators still controlled service subscriptions. Further, with the initial introduction of web browsing and email capabilities, network operators launched ‘walled garden’ application platforms to maintain their centrality in the value chain.

It has also driven the proliferation of non-network operator app stores as handset manufacturers and OS providers seeking to capitalize on alternative revenue streams.

Today network operators are no longer the primary source of revenue for app developers, and consumers of mobile applications are not reliant on the walled gardens of their network operator to access mobile applications.

The growing popularity of smartphones and tablet devices has continued to fuel this shift in the market, and access to third-party applications via a variety of devices is now being dominated by device and operating system manufacturers (through their app stores),

The Wholesale Applications Community (WAC), an alliance of 48 telecommunications providers, device manufacturers and sponsoring businesses (for example, Alcatel Lucent) has launched a wholesale app store. In response to the current success of non-operator app stores, the WAC model allows network operators to sell mobile applications to their subscribers independent of the device being used via an open platform, and charging them via their phone bill. Network operators capture a percentage of the mobile application purchase price as well as the revenue raised from data use.

At present, many network operators are only receiving revenue from data use for mobile applications or are reliant on partnerships with device manufacturers to obtain a share of mobile applications sales revenue.

The current contest for market share in the application market is now primarily between the opposing business models of operating system and device manufacturer app stores.

Operating system business models offer an open source system, with consumers able to access mobile applications from multiple sources. Device manufacturer models are closed proprietary environments limiting distribution of mobile applications to consumers via a single source their app store.

Mobile applications range in price, from free to over USD 999.

The average cost is under $10, with over 50 per cent of all mobile applications across all the app stores priced at $2 or less.25 Payment for paid mobile applications is made through one-off transactions or ongoing subscriptions in the following ways:

• Credit card; is the most prevalent method. The interface is established through a consumer account (for example, an iTunes account for Apple or a Google account for Android).

• Carrier billing; this method is common for mobile commerce transactions. Payment appears on a consumer’s bill or in the form of a call-credit deduction or charge. This is similar to current payment arrangements for mobile premium services. The revenue split in this situation may incorporate a percentage to the carrier. For example, Nokia’s Ovi store provides for a revenue split of between 40 and 50 per cent of the end-user purchase price to the carrier, with the remainder divided between the developer and Nokia on a 70/30 basis. For a mobile application costing $1.19, this would result in a distribution of approximately $0.59 to the carrier, $0.42 to the developer and $0.18 to Nokia.

• Voucher redemption; app store-specific vouchers are available at multiple commercial outlets. These may be redeemed for credit via a user account. Credit card companies also provide gift vouchers that may be used for the same purpose.

Closed proprietary app store business models offer systems integration for consumers and a seamless user experience.

App store business models that use an open source operating system may not be able to offer as efficient systems integration due to the fact that multiple players may be involved in the provision of devices to access the App store. However, the open source operating system business model allows consumers more choice in terms of sourcing mobile applications and greater transferability of information between platforms.

Both business models have inherent advantages and disadvantages for consumers, who will ultimately choose which is more significant to them.

Meanwhile, network operators are seeking to offset the costs of increasing demands on their networks in terms of speed and resources from mobile applications. The WAC’s commercial app store is one method of doing so, as it allows network operators to once more access the mobile application revenue stream. The success of this business model is dependent on the experience it can provide for the user.

The different app store business models highlight the inherent differences in approach to access and control on different platforms.

In the longer term, the success of each business model may depend on consumer attitudes to these differences.

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Leave your questions and comments to:  herve@delhumeau.com

ITC ADOPTION 2013: THE TOP 9 COUNTRIES IN THE LATAM REGION

Latin America continues to suffer from an important lag in adopting ICT and technology more broadly. This is reflected in the rankings, as no country manages to reach the top 30 and only a handful of small economies manage to be included among the top 50 the exceptions are Chile and Uruguay. Although the region is vast and heterogeneous, three shared reasons for this lag can be identified: these countries all exhibit an insufficient investment in developing their ICT infrastructure, a weak skill base in the population because of poor educational systems that hinder society’s capacity to make an effective use of these technologies, and unfavorable business conditions that do not support the spur of entrepreneurship and innovation. Addressing these weaknesses will be crucial for improving the region’s competitiveness and shifting its economies toward more knowledge-based activities. Information and communication technologies have an important role to play, both in reducing education’s costs and in organizational innovation to optimize the allocation and distribution of human resources.

1. Chile – 38th position:  the country clearly depicts the strongest performance in Latin America. Benefiting from an entrepreneurial-friendly and well-functioning legal framework, recent efforts to improve the overall innovation system, while still insufficient, have paved the way for this top position within the region. Notwithstanding these important merits, the country still suffers from a series of weaknesses that do not allow it to benefit from the potential benefits of ICT and technology more broadly. Although its ICT infrastructure achieves good scores in certain dimensions, notably mobile network coverage, the technological preparedness of the country is severely hindered by the excessive costs of accessing ICT and above all the poor quality of an educational system that requires improvement and that fails to provide the necessary skill base to fully optimize the use of ICT. Therefore, despite the government effort to leverage ICT with one of the widest offerings of online services in the world, the penetration rates in individual households still lags behind. In addition, the business community needs to invest in upgrading its capacity for innovation in order to facilitate the achievement of further economic impacts and shift the national economy toward more knowledge intensive, higher-value-added activities.

 
2. Uruguay – 44th place:  Uruguay is one of the leading countries in the region that has recognized the importance of ICT. This process has been led by the government, which has made important efforts to build a good ICT infrastructure in the country and grant wide access to ICT to school pupils with its one computer per student policy. Despite these efforts, the technological readiness of the country still needs improvement, especially in terms of raising the quality of the educational system that presently hinders the ability to seize the full benefits of the opportunities that ICT and technology more broadly, can offer. Moreover, weaknesses in the innovation system, especially at the corporate level, hamper the capacity of the country to move toward more knowledge-intensive activities. Addressing these weaknesses would represent the next step to fully leveraging ICT deployment for competitiveness and social well-being.

3. Panama and Costa Rica – 57th and 58^th:  both countries respectively, clearly stand out from the rest of the countries in Central America a region that suffers overall from an important connectivity lag, a low skill base, and weaknesses in its business environment. Despite obtaining similar scores and levels of ICT usage, Panama and Costa Rica face different challenges to improving their level of preparedness to leverage ICT for competitiveness and well-being. In the case of Panama while by regional standards the country benefits from a fairly good ICT infrastructure, especially in terms of international Internet bandwidth the very low skill base hinders its capacity to achieve higher ICT uptakes and stronger economic impacts. Conversely, Costa Rica benefits from a strong skill base thanks to a well-performing educational system, but the country suffers from an ICT infrastructure lag that thwarts its ability to achieve higher ICT uptake rates. In both cases, improving their overall innovation systems would allow them to benefit further from the ICT efforts and contribute to shifting their economies toward more knowledge intensive activities, especially in the case of Panama.

4. Brazil – 65th place:positioned narrowly above the middle range of the ranking, Brazil benefits from strong levels of business ICT usage. These, combined with fairly advanced levels of technological capacity in particular segments of its industry, allows the country to achieve one of the strongest performances of ICT enabled innovations in the region, both in terms of new products and services and more efficient processes. Notwithstanding these strengths, its overall business environment with its burdensome procedures to create new businesses and its high tax rates, in addition to its high mobile cellular tariffs and poor skill availability, hinder the potential of the Brazilian economy to fully benefit from ICT and shift toward more knowledge based activities at a faster pace.

5. Colombia – 73rd place: right below the median, Colombia presents a mixed picture in terms of ICT development and uptake. On the one hand, the government offers a large number of public services online and the information it provides through its websites encourages citizens’ participation. Moreover, Colombia benefits from a relatively skillful population. On the other hand, the country still suffers from important challenges that hamper its capacity to leverage ICT to boost competitiveness and raise well-being. The lag in terms of ICT infrastructure and digital content, coupled with unfavorable framework conditions for entrepreneurship and innovation, result in a low ICT usage by businesses. In addition, the uptake of ICT by individuals is still low, with less than 20 percent of the population accessing the Internet at home.

6. Mexico – 76th place: the government has made important efforts to increase the number of services online and boost the e-participation of citizens through useful, high-quality, and relevant websites that provide information, thus enhancing public governance. However, the country still faces significant weaknesses. An insufficient development of ICT infrastructure, especially in terms of international Internet bandwidth, coupled with the high costs of telecommunications and poor educational standards negatively influence the effective and productive use of ICT by individuals and businesses. Moreover, despite the recent improvements that facilitate entrepreneurship by reducing the number of procedures and time to open a business, the functioning of some public institutions and the development of a strong innovation system are still pending challenges to creating a conducive environment for higher ICT impacts. Addressing these weaknesses in a holistic manner will determine the success of the country in benefitting from the opportunities that ICT has to offer.

7. Argentina – 92nd position: the country benefits from a fairly well developed ICT infrastructure, especially in terms of international Internet bandwidth and high levels of adult literacy that could pave the way to a high and effective ICT uptake by all members of society. However, while individuals reach acceptable usage rates, businesses seem to lag behind, and the perception of the business community is that the government is not prioritizing the use of ICT sufficiently. In order to further leverage ICT usage, reducing the high costs of accessing ICT would be beneficial. In addition, addressing the enduring shortcomings in the political and regulatory environment as well as in the framework conditions to boost entrepreneurship and innovation would allow the country to increasingly shift its economy toward more knowledge-intensive, higher-value-added activities.

8. Peru – 106th place: despite the economic growth, Peru has experienced in the past year, at the country still lags significantly behind in terms of ICT. An insufficiently developed and expensive ICT infrastructure, coupled with a low-quality educational system hinders the preparedness of Peru to make an effective use of ICT. As a result, the use of ICT by all three actors individual, business, and government is still low, and despite relatively good framework conditions for entrepreneurship, the potential economic impacts are not yet accruing.
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Leave your questions and comments to:  herve@delhumeau.com

Top 10 Digital Trends for 2013

The web has been in a state of flux since its inception, and this year is no different. Here’s what trends are expected to take off in 2013.

1. Personalized Products for each Customer

Organizations will move towards involving the customer when creating their products as opposed to a “one size fits all” mentality. The key action to take here is to evolve from the now ‘traditional’ social media marketing activities of buying display ads and pushing products, to buying social listening research, with the goal of product development personalized for the ‘individual’ consumer.

2. Demographics is out, now it’s about Behavior

In 2013, it’s no longer about targeting an audience that you THINK has an interest in your product based on age, income, gender, education, historical data, etc… It’s about targeting the audience you KNOW has an interest in your product by focusing on a more niche area of interest such as fan groups, societies, cults, that already engage in your product/service.

3. Quality over Quantity.

Having large amounts of data is invaluable to a company, but in the process of having all this data, it creates a lot of pains in discovering insights and actionable items. Brands need to move away from tracking overall sales each month; instead they need to look at ‘live’ sales. Track them by time, SKU, location, retailer, attribute, etc… This ground up approach will give the real insights from a small to large scale.

4. Fall of the PC looks to Responsive Design

The purchase of desktop computers are on the decline, so what are consumers buying? Mobile devices, i.e. smart phones and tablets. A website built in responsive design basically figures out the resolution of the device it is being viewed on, and the images and fluidgrids will size correctly to fit the screen. This allows the website, no matter on what device, to have the optimal viewing experience – easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning and scrolling. The benefit – one website build, one seamless experience with thousands of screens.

5. Perceptive Media

Media, audio or video that adapts itself based on the information it has gathered on an individual user. Artificial Intelligence is the brain work behind this. The purpose is to provide media that target on a user-by-user basis. Imagine watching tennis on television with someone that doesn’t know the rules, perceptive media could show one user the detailed rules of tennis while showing the other user the current rankings of players and behind the scene footage. Creating democracy within the room by comparing the overall tastes of the group and reach the most compatible compromise.

6. Revolution of the 2nd Screen

•  80% of smartphone and tablet users use their devices while watching TV.
• 25% of U.S. smartphone and tablet users use their devices while watching TV multiple times per day.
• 51% of those who post on social media while watching

As consumers are engaging in one type of media, they are simultaneously engage in another. Imagine a consumer watching a television drama series, and at the same time shopping on the eBay app for the clothes that the main character is wearing. This revolution extends to mobile devices from the big screen, TV, and organizations are working to build on the relationship between screens.

7. Cloud Computing at the Forefront

Cloud computing is the storage of data online allowing access across multiple platforms simultaneously through consumer-based services such as email, social media, online file storage and corporate communication tools. A simple idea with a powerful effect, involving the fast growing mobile device Mobile cloud is a new way to create workflows. This will change the way we think about storage on our devices and instead think about storage in the cloud. Devices will then come with less storage, but be better equipped to access data.

8. Digital Convergence – Pulling it all Together

Forget about remembering where you left off in Season 2 Episode 3, 25 minutes and 32 seconds of The Walking Dead, think more about registering for an account via online cloud services and it’ll remember where you last left off and continue when you log back on via any compatible device. To give you even more, these services can make recommendations based on the content you have previously viewed. Nowadays, it’s not about finding the video, it’s about how fast your internet connection is so you can stream the video without lagging. Apps like HBOGo, UVideos, and HuLuPlus not only stream content to the consumer, they can measure the consumption, know the device used, connection speed, viewing history and purchase history; with this data they are able to personalize the ads, content and product recommendations a consumer sees.

9. All things Internet

It’s inevitable, and has been coming for a while – everyone will be able to connect to the internet via more and more devices – the refrigerator, the television, the car, etc… Everything will be automated. Companies like Ford have already begun opening up their APIs to developers to create new applications to use via computer systems in the vehicles. Computer chips installed in traffic lights connecting to GPS systems will provide the shortest travel distance with live data. One day we’ll live in a world where the toast is hot and ready on a plate the moment we step into our kitchen. It’s not really any stretch of the imagination, if you think about it.

10. Location, Location …..

2012 started this up, and now in 2013 with more and more mobile devices being produced (e.g. Sony recently released a competitor to the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy 4 – the Xperia Z), in conjunction with privacy being loosened by tech giants such as Facebook, Google, Instagram, etc, this means that locations of users by default will be tracked, provided users don’t disable the functionality. But at the same time, growing social relationships are encouraging friends to share their location for rewards, namely applications such as Foursquare, and also social recognition of having visited various locations via networks such as Facebook Places.

3 STEPS TO AN EFFECTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

 

Step 1: Assessment:

Start with a single question: “Why social media?” The answer will dictate everything you do in this first phase. Assessment is to evaluate where you are, where you want to go and what the wins will be along the way.

a.    Put Your Audience First

First things first: You need to clarify your audience’s needs, wants and challenges not to mention where they’re spending time online. Use tools like Survey Monkey or Google Docs to quickly and inexpensively survey your customers.

Each time I want to learn more about my audience’s behaviors, I create a quick survey and post it on my social networks to go straight to the source.

The five major benefits of knowing your audience are considerable:

1. Laser focus: You can create content that resonates instantly.
2. Break barriers: Confront pain points head-on to build trust.
3. Language: Increase engagement by being a person your audience relates to.
4. Empathy: The more you listen, the better you can respond to specific needs.
5. Positioning: You can become the go-to source in your niche.

b.    Define a Guiding Theme Strategy

Since you’ve identified your audience, the next step is to ask yourself what you want them to do.

What’s your theme? It’s usually one of three things:

• Awareness
• Sales
• Loyalty

Loyalty and awareness can both lead to sales, of course but stick to just one overarching goal for your strategy. Consistency and simplicity are key here.

Now it’s time to get really specific. This might be the hardest piece in the assessment process, and yet it’s critical to your success. Ask yourself, what does my business actually do? What do my fans say when they’re happy? What is at the core?

Talk it out with your team. Together you can hone in on your “One Thing” the heart and soul of your brand. Your “One Thing” will affect every content and posting decision you make.

As an example, if Disney = magic and Apple = innovation, what do you equal?

Your “One Thing” is the voice of your strategy across every network.

c.    Identify Metrics and Monitoring

How will you measure your strategy’s success? Depending on your theme, the metrics may change.

For example:

• If your theme is awareness, you’ll want to measure growth, engagement, brand awareness, sharability, likes and subscribes.
• If it’s sales, look at click rates, social e-commerce sales and conversion rates.
• For loyalty, look at engagement, sentiment and influence (Klout and Edge Rank Checker are good sentiment-measuring tools).

It’s useful to monitor some overall trends too, like mentions of key people at your company, your company name, brand names, product services, competitors and industry keywords.

And if you’re new to data measurement, take baby steps. Start with a simple free tool like Google Alerts.

d.    Put It All in Writing

Don’t wait for an emergency to nail down your communication policies. For example, what happens when there are negative comments? How should the company’s social sites be used? Are there guidelines for what fans and followers can post to a company Facebook page?

Drill down on the answers in a written editorial guide tailored to your business, team and goals. A good guide will address:

• Who is your team? Who is responsible for what?
• What’s the point? Identify why you’re using social media, and what you want to track.
• Where? Identify the networks you want to focus on.
• When? Be as specific as possible; e.g., blog at 8 am, post it to Facebook at 10 am.
• How—identify team tools and platforms. Including examples is great, especially when it comes to formatting of content. Your guide should enable anyone new on the team to know what’s going on.

Step 2: Implementation:

Next up: execution. The implementation phase is all about zeroing in on the details and day-to-day tasks you and your team are now responsible for.

a.    Create a Content Calendar

Now that you have an editorial guide, it’s time to translate policy into concrete actions preferably on an editorial calendar. The more information and detail you include, the better you can measure effectiveness. Consider:

• What is the theme or essence of your content?
• Who will create it?
• When and where will it be shared?
• How often will you create content versus share third-party content?
• How will you deliver content—as eBooks? Blogs? Video? All of the above?

b.    Have a Step-by-Step Plan for Promotion and Growth.

There are literally hundreds of ways to get your team promoting and sharing on the key social media sites you plan to use. Here are a few to get you started:

• Integrate social media on your website with plugins and icons.
• Run contests and promotions or offer rewards.
• Drive traffic by offering webinars, training programs, interviewing experts and create blog.
• Promote your networks consistently.
• Add networks to letterhead, email signatures and business cards.

c.    Identify Core Sales Campaigns

Visible social media icons and social plugins are some of the easiest ways to drive traffic to your social media networks.

Yes, social media is about relationships first. But the fact is, once you’ve built solid, genuine relationships online, you’re going to want to use your influence to grow your business. That doesn’t mean shoving it down fans’ throats or putting sales above the relationship. It simply means that you can and should promote what you offer to the people who believe in your mission.

Establish an action plan for the core campaigns you’ll use to collect and nurture leads, like:

• Outline promotional policy what is acceptable, and what is not allowed?
• Identify and implement opt-in opportunities like a custom welcome tab on your Facebook page.
• Determine where to direct leads for example, will you create an ecommerce platform on Facebook with a custom tab, or sell only on your site?

 

Step 3: Monitor, Measure and Get Momentum

After about two months of running your brand-new social media strategy, it’s time to hunker down with your team, evaluate your progress and fine-tune the details.

a.    Schedule an Evaluation Session
Don’t put off analyzing your results. Schedule your first evaluation meeting when you start phase one. I recommend scheduling a meeting about two or three months out from your start date. That’s just enough time to start seeing results and identifying weak spots.

Make sure you or your team members bring numbers and data to the table and are prepared to discuss them. Metrics, no matter how simplistic, will help you figure out what’s working and what’s not. Include time for brainstorming new ideas, too.

b.    Take Advantage of the Momentum

If you’re seeing traction with your strategy at this first evaluation milestone, consider mixing it up and adding some more advanced strategies into your plan. You have momentum building run with it!

Here are ideas for some “next steps” to take:

• Facebook ads are a good, inexpensive way to grow your fan base, increase engagement and collect leads. Try mixing up different ad types and destinations.
• Run a multi-level contest integrating multiple channels (like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube). Use a promotion, event or reward that will resonate with your audience. Word-of-mouth is a powerful way to leverage momentum.
• Live Q&As on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ hangouts.

Ultimately, everyone’s social media strategy will look different—and will get very different results. To be effective, know your business and the metrics that matter to you. A consultancy might need just 100 high-quality fans, whereas a company that sells a product might need several thousand to see financial results.

Does your business have a social media strategy in place?

What tips do you have for someone putting a strategy together for the first time?

 

PDF DOCUMENT AVAILABLE @ http://www.scribd.com/doc/130421364/3-STEPS-TO-AN-EFFECTIVE-SOCIAL-MEDIA-STRATEGY

 _______________________________

Contact :  herve@delhumeau.com

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Globalisation and Deregulation

Globalisation

The world is rapidly migrating to one very large network, whose attraction is irresistible. Improvements in distribution logistics and communications have allowed many local businesses to become global ones overnight–including discount distributors of everything from contact lenses to bathroom tiles. It is also now common for companies to draw on a global network of partners and suppliers. Customers, meanwhile, are happy to engage in border-less shopping for everything from entertainment to software to cars and electronics. So, competition has kicked into overdrive.

Meanwhile, for time-sensitive processes, organizations in industries as varied as manufacturing and high finance take advantage of the rotation of the earth by passing work back and forth between Asia, Europe and the Americas, allowing for true 24-hour operations. (Source: http://www.contextmag.com)

Again, the result is disruption on a scale that the traditional approach to strategy just can’t handle.

Deregulation

The current mania for deregulation reflects a belief by governments and regulated industries alike that the disease (open, international competition) is better than the cure (laws to protect local economies). This shrinking of government can be seen in the airline, communications, utilities and banking industries in the U.S. and Europe; in the passage of GATT and NAFTA; in the development of the European Union; and in the dramatic collapse of the highly regulated economies of the former Soviet republics. The open market, which adopts information technology more quickly than did industries with a legacy of regulation, is becoming a viable alternative for many activities. The change is contributing to the radical shrinking, outsourcing, and restructuring of traditional enterprises.

Impressive enough on their own, the New Forces feed off each other. Digital technologies make it easier to manage larger numbers of buyers and suppliers, thus speeding up globalisation. As the economy becomes more global, countries find they need to roll back more regulations if they want to participate profitably. As deregulation takes hold, previously protected companies find they have to step up sharply their strategic use of digital technology. And the whole cycle starts over again. What results is a fundamental redefinition of markets–and the pace of change is accelerating.

The international telephone market, for instance, was neatly segregated for decades among heavily regulated national carriers. But technological improvements led by leased data lines, satellites, and automated call-back systems gave customers a way around the high monopoly prices they were being charged. Governments responded by deregulating. Companies then began expanding internationally, as evidenced by British Telecom’s attempt to buy MCI. Now, with competition intensifying, telecommunications companies are investing more in technology.

One telecommunications expert was quoted in the New York Times as saying that customers will save $1 trillion in phone costs over the next 10 to 12 years because of increased competition. (Source: http://www.contextmag.com)

While commercial banking isn’t as far along, the pressure is building for a similar upheaval. Banks invested in technologies such as ATMs, telephone banking, and now Internet banking largely as means for cutting costs. As electronic banking improved, banks found that customers derived little value from in-person branch banking. So, two years ago, Security First Network Bank opened a bank that operates only on the Internet–becoming the first virtual bank. While banks are ferociously merging to reduce the number of branches they operate, Security First doesn’t have any. (Source: http://www.contextmag.com)

Deregulation will now pick up speed. Competition will spread throughout the U.S., then the world. Soon, your choice for basic checking may be the savings and loan down the street or your very own Swiss bank account.

No doubt the foremost difference between strategy in the Porter world and in the world of the New Forces is in the role of information technology. In the old world, technology was a tool for implementing change. Planners decided how they wanted the business to change, then tossed requirements over the wall to the I/S department. This approach largely fails today; in the future, the problems will get worse.

Technology, in other words, isn’t the solution. It is the problem

Shapiro and Varian explain in their book „Information Rules“ that the economical laws that apply to products and services cannot be simply transferred to the new category information good.