Getting closer to customers in an indirect channel

Being customer focused in the digital age means knowing and interacting with customers as individuals rather than as market segments. Unfortunately, the current electronics distribution model makes customer intimacy difficult. Due to the indirect sales model that dominates the consumer electronics industry, most manufacturers are not directly involved in the sales transaction with the end user.

The combination of analytics and connectivity will enable electronics companies to establish a relationship with the end consumer – regardless of channel – and use that connection to gain significant insights and drive future growth.

https://www-304.ibm.com/connections/blogs/electronics/resource/BLOGS_UPLOADED_IMAGES/BlackHole.bmp?lang=en_us

Via Growth through analytics, Burak Kircali, IBM Electronics Blog

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Video is the Social CEO HotspotMore than ever, CEOs are using video to promote their company narratives and connect. In  2010, video was used by only 18 percent of CEOs. Today, the rate of video usage has more than doubled, with 40 percent of CEOs now appearing in corporate videos. Growth in video is nearly evenly divided between CEOs appearing in videos on company websites and on corporate YouTube channels.  via Weber Shandwick

Video is the Social CEO Hotspot
More than ever, CEOs are using video to promote their company narratives and connect. In  2010, video was used by only 18 percent of CEOs. Today, the rate of video usage has more than doubled, with 40 percent of CEOs now appearing in corporate videos. Growth in video is nearly evenly divided between CEOs appearing in videos on company websites and on corporate YouTube channels. 

via Weber Shandwick

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The C-Suite. We know who they are, but do we really know what they do? In the era of empowered employees, the chief executives are either working for you or against you.  First in a series, this article features the CEO and insights from IBM’s CEO Study (via Meet the C-Suite: Understanding Their Impact on Social Business)

The C-Suite. We know who they are, but do we really know what they do? In the era of empowered employees, the chief executives are either working for you or against you.  First in a series, this article features the CEO and insights from IBM’s CEO Study (via Meet the C-Suite: Understanding Their Impact on Social Business)

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How content marketing is replacing advertising

The bottom line is that there is only one true branding mechanism online and that’s content marketing. What makes me so certain? Well, for starters, content marketing enables brands to share their story in long form and in their own words. An incredible sea of change in the way information is shared and distributed online means that for the first time ever, any brand can create its own content affordably and at scale. The story can come in the form of blogs, articles, reviews, ebooks or videos. It can be low-cost or it can be professionally produced. But let’s be clear: we’re not talking about ads! It’s real, interesting content that delivers informational or entertainment value.
Content marketing is a strategy with two obvious pillars: content and marketing. ‘Content’ means the creation of original content or the curation of content for the benefit of your audience. ‘Marketing’ means getting people to discover and engage with your content.
The good news is that there’s already plenty of inspiration to draw from. Just check out some of P&G’s content sites, such as BeingGirl.com, Man Of The House and Home Made Simple. Browse the great recipes at General Mills’Tablespoon.com or Kraft’s KraftRecipes.com. Get some quality advice from Liberty Mutual’s Responsibility Project or the Allstate blog.

Just like search was a decade ago and social was five years ago, content marketing is the next digital media revolution.

Via Forbes

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A beginner's guide to socializing your CEO

Every day, new studies arise that make the case for why your CEO needs to get social – and the benefits to employees, shareholders, customers and influencers alike. 

The relative anonymity of social media – which some suggest may be the very thing that is making the C-Suite socially shy – provides an opportunity for the kind of candid, authentic discussion a CEO may be hard pressed to find in a corner office. Via Social Media Week

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Magazine Luiza, a retailer with over 700 stores in Brazil, has been discovering how to unify channels since 1992, when it created a stock-free virtual store using videocassettes. Now, more than 40% of the company’s online customers visit a real-world store as well — and are treated exactly the same in either channel. More on the CEO study. 

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IOD 11 Dispatch: IBM redraws the starting line - IBM Software Blog There’s a line that’s been forming over the past few years – a line dividing what technology did for us in the past and what it will do in the future. A line dividing the certainty of the past with the uncertainty of the future; a line between those who will lag and those who will lead the way on our instrumented, interconnected and intelligent planet .Today, IBM made that line clear and present for all to see.We saw that line in today’s news that Ginni Rometty will succeed Sam Palmisano as our President and CEO. An exceptional leader, a forward-thinker as steeped in our values as she is committed to our customers, Ginni will lead IBM into its second century fully aware of its ability to change the world. She knows that a company focused on the future must never stop changing. We saw the line in this morning’s general session, in which Steve Mills led us through a litany of success stories across such volatile industries as retail, financial services, energy, telco and energy. In each example, we saw how organizations use IBM analytics technologies and expertise to manage and master the overwhelming volume, variety and velocity of their data. In each example, we saw these organizations translate data-driven insights into confident, meaningful action that brings them closer to their customers, replaces costs with revenues and even maps the real-world impact of weather in the sky.

IOD 11 Dispatch: IBM redraws the starting line - IBM Software Blog

There’s a line that’s been forming over the past few years – a line dividing what technology did for us in the past and what it will do in the future. A line dividing the certainty of the past with the uncertainty of the future; a line between those who will lag and those who will lead the way on our instrumented, interconnected and intelligent planet

.

Today, IBM made that line clear and present for all to see.
We saw that line in today’s news that Ginni Rometty will succeed Sam Palmisano as our President and CEO. An exceptional leader, a forward-thinker as steeped in our values as she is committed to our customers, Ginni will lead IBM into its second century fully aware of its ability to change the world. She knows that a company focused on the future must never stop changing.

We saw the line in this morning’s general session, in which Steve Mills led us through a litany of success stories across such volatile industries as retail, financial services, energy, telco and energy. In each example, we saw how organizations use IBM analytics technologies and expertise to manage and master the overwhelming volume, variety and velocity of their data.

In each example, we saw these organizations translate data-driven insights into confident, meaningful action that brings them closer to their customers, replaces costs with revenues and even maps the real-world impact of weather in the sky.

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