ISSUE 611: New economy
Strategic marketing
JUDY BISHOP
Power of wireless technology extending to business world
Pity the poor business owners. Just when they appear to have a handle on their Web sites, the landscape changes.
Seems like yesterday that a business Web site was cutting edge. Now it appears that "destination" Web sites may become obsolete, sucking up much of the money and effort expended to make them work in the real world.
Although corporate Canada has spent big on Web sites, the strategic payoff has been rather thin. Waiting for customers to find Web sites isn't working well enough for the financial realities of business today.
With notable, well-positioned exceptions, most business Web sites are unable to drive enough customers to their sites to pay off the investment. Either they fail to gather enough meaningful information on their customers' needs to tailor their offerings accordingly or they fail to deliver content to customers at their point of need.
Two key factors dovetail to usher in this change.
The first is the misguided notion that having a business Web site equals having an Internet strategy. The second is the role of wireless devices in engineering the demise of the "destination" Internet site.
Wireless devices are the ultimate in "point of need" delivery. I agree with industry watchers who believe that the advent of wireless, "always-on" technology may be the real product of the Internet: within three to five years, the Internet's many choices will be accessible from almost anywhere on the planet.
The more obvious wireless devices in this scenario are personal digital assistants (PDAs) such as the Palm Pilot, Ipaq or Pocket PC and cell phones. There's also interactive TV, always-on cable and laptops with wireless modems such as the Aircard from Sierra Wireless.
The coming power of wireless is already extending beyond the personal realm -- encouraging such diverse groups as car-makers, shopping mall operators, airlines and airports, even bus station managers, to start considering how to provide wireless Internet access to customers.
In Japan, the advent of this personal digital environment is already entrenched and profitable. The success of NTT Docomo's Imode has been well-documented in business and technology press and is welcomed by 20-million consumers who depend on applications delivered by wireless technology in their daily lives and work. Wireless technology in Japan works in highly personal, relevant ways, proving that Docomo is a genius at the new discipline of "contextual marketing."
First discussed in the Harvard Business Review, contextual marketing is a simple, powerful concept that maintains that wireless technologies are emerging which will enable business to reach customers, wherever and whenever they are ready to buy or interact.
Thus, the focus of e-commerce will shift from content to context, knocking many corporate Web sites into irrelevance.
Several B.C. companies are riding the front of the contextual marketing wave, developing innovative applications that will surely be relevant in this personal digital environment. Two were recently recognized at the BC Technology Industries Association's 2001 awards: Webtech Wireless offers PDA-delivered vehicle tracking and location services aimed at car owners and vehicle fleets and Responsetek Networks' software enables companies to determine in real time exactly where their products and services are failing or satisfying their customers.
Many small, relatively unknown companies are trying to carve out market share.
Richmond-based Microsage Wireless recently drew serious attention at a Monaco wireless conference with its sophisticated applications whose slick user interfaces conceal the real horsepower under the hood.
Delivering location-based services wirelessly is another hot area for a handful of B.C. companies. For example, last year Via Vis Mobile Solutions launched Gastogo, the first price-sensitive, location-based service delivering gas price updates to consumers and corporations. It combines voice recognition, wireless and Internet technologies.
Getting content into context is the focus of contextual marketing, demanding new corporate competencies. Companies will have to become "learning" organizations, leading to tinkering and experimenting with new approaches to everything.
So although technology changes, the song remains the same: know your customers' needs and behaviour, serve them in as many ways -- with as many types of technology -- as they're willing to use and you will win sustainable market share and revenues.
Judy Bishop is principal - strategic marketing at KPMG's Information, Communications & Entertainment Group. Some companies mentioned in her column may be KPMG clients. She is also a former director of the BC Technology Industries Association. E-mail her at judy@bishop-co.com. Her column appears monthly and her opinions are her own.
