Can Ecosystems go beyond‘Positioning’

You ?

Leveraging the power

Of

Communities

Evolution of MarketingRelationship between Products/Companies and Community Engagement

Marketing 1.0

• Creating demand / Leveraging latent demand

• Pushing ‘use’ of products through creating events/imagery

Evolution of Marketing…Relationship between Products/Companies and Community Engagement

Marketing 2.0

• Consumer becomes prominent : His events, his stars are endorsed by brands to create link with him• Market research becomes critical tool – to understand customers and adapt

Evolution of Marketing…Relationship between Products/Companies and Community Engagement

Marketing 3.0

• Evolution of ‘Instant Community Outreach’ – providing power of instant feedback / Viral marketing getting critical• Pushing a brand is dead : Creating Brands is about creating opinions• Market Research : Engaging customers in candid conversations without telling them the intentions

Coke Facebook page is number one page – just after US President Barack Obama

• 3. 3 Million Hits• Not created by company : but by its two fans – Dusty Sorg and Michael Jedzrejewski• Coke actually brainstormed with them and took them through entire Coke facilities to help improve the page

What Next

Companies

Products

Price

Community

Marketing 3.0

Defining demand and creating

markets

Community has so far supported the

business;

Can they Create

Businesses?

INKFRUIT – T-shirts by community

• Anyone can design and sell a T-shirt • The community designs, votes and purchases T-shirts

Idea ConnectionCommunity solving problems together

• GE announced USD 200 Million rewards to ‘Community’ to solve problems related to renewable energy; grid efficiency and Eco buildings• BP invited community to solve ‘Oil Spill’ Challenge

KIVA – Peer to peer lending

• 19, 387 people lended USD 1.423 Million to potential entrepreneurs• 1 loan every 13 seconds

RANG DE – Removing India’s poverty

• INR 2.21 Crores raised so far, having impacted 4,362 borrowers

Believers’ Fund : Making customers pay for your product development

• Potential end-customers get not only to review new products : but also pre-buy it at special rates : thus funding product development

Grow VC : Crowd-Funding new start-ups

• Anyone with just INR 1,000 can now invest in a new emerging enterprise• A marketplace is created to bring together start-ups, investors and experts

Points to ponder

• The ‘Community’/ ‘Interactive Ecosystem’ is today more stronger than any product or brand : Not only supporting business, but ‘creating’ solutions

• A brand today not only has to compete with its competitors : but also keep a track on what community can generate

• Besides making it difficult to push products – a responsive ecosystem also creates the challenge of cluttering/fragmenting possible points to capture target audience’s attention and way of tracking his evolving needs

• The advantages it offer is quicker feedback; strong referal power amongst the community and shorter product cycles

Marketing ‘Ecosystem’ based businesses

• Social Media Marketing : Where opinions are defined today

• Providing personal usage rewards/experiences : The end-user is still individual

• Physical manifestation of results : Delivering beyond the online /media space

• Managing ‘Ecosystems’ will get more challenging : Innovative platforms

Marketing 4.0

• Your customers/ecosystems will become your ‘Strategists’

• ‘Opinions’ could become great ‘levelers’ of brands : It will be battle of ‘Brand Attributes’ and ‘Opinion Attributes’ ; Both will need to be tracked and evolved at much faster pace

• Participative communities would continue to create new platforms : Brands would have to adapt to be kept engaged and relevant

Thank you !

Satish Kataria

Managing Director

Springboard Ventures Private Limited

Mumbai

satish@springboardventures.co.in