Web 2.0 seems to be the latest buzzword, everywhere we go we hear about MySpace and Flickr, YouTube and mXit. Many marketers are recognising that their audiences are consuming web 2.0 offerings and that if they are to remain relevant, they need to get onto the web 2.0 bandwagon. Starting in the obvious place, they have advertised on large community networks like Facebook or bolted blogs onto the existing website and ticked the web 2.0 box.
Whilst there is some merit to advertising to segmented communities of interest, and creating a feedback mechanism for customers who go to the site, this is not the real advantage that web 2.0 has for marketers.
The future of web 2.0 is more closely aligned to innovation, creating open, transparent conversations and achieving business agility. In other words the advantage that web 2.0 brings to bear is in the brand, communication, service delivery process and even, in some cases, in the value proposition. Web 2.0’s value is very strategic when it comes to marketing, and goes beyond marketing tactics to create awareness or a call to action.
Peter Drucker is credited with saying that “Business has only two basic functions marketing and innovation”. Web 2.0 is has the potential to enable Marketing to take up its rightful place at the boardroom table as it becomes the driver of the organisation’s business strategy.
In this series of articles we will examine each of the functions of marketing including the Brand, Communication, Advertising, CRM and Public Relations and look at how marketing potential is enhanced by the addition of web 2.0. In this edition we start by looking at the various definitions of web 2.0 and the power it confers on the marketing function in the organisation. In articles to follow we will look how 2.0 can augment the Brand Equity, the Value Proposition, Profitable Relationships and Revenue.
So, what is web 2.0?
As with any disruptive technology, there is a plethora of definitions, mostly influenced by the background of the person defining it. Technical people will define web 2.0 in the context of the tools, such as wiki’s, blogs and vlogs. This is like describing a car as an engine on wheels that you sit on and guide with a steering wheel.
The role of extracting value from these tools lies with the business people who define web 2.0 in terms of strategy, based on the competencies that it enables, a car therefore becomes an extension of your personal brand which confers the ability to go places and meet people.
Wikipedia describes Web 2.0 as “a term describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.”
While this definition goes beyond describing the types of technologies that enable web 2.0, it does not describe its strategic potential. The Gartner Group describes web 2.0 as a “transformative force that is propelling companies across all industries towards a new way of doing business characterised by harnessing collective intelligence, openness and networking effects.” This is the crux of the matter; web 2.0 doesn’t just provide a more cost effective channel to markets as web 1.0 did, through eMail and websites. It actually provides the opportunity to enhance relationships, delivery mechanisms and create new value propositions for organisations that recognise the opportunity. This in turn delivers bottom line results and increases organisational productivity including return on employee and return on invested capital, depending on the nature of the organisation.
Web 2.0 facilitates a dialogue by enabling user generated content; we are now building marketing tools and applications, rather than websites. These tools enable audiences to engage with each other and collaborate to the benefit of the business. Imagine a virtual boardroom on your Intranet, where employees from all over the organisation are working together to develop better ways of doing business and enhance the value of the brand, without the constraints of geography or time. Another example could be virtual focus groups where your customers help you design products they want, or improve your service delivery mechanisms. Search mechanisms enable you to track and respond quickly to what consumers are saying about you on their blogs.
Now is the time for Marketing to take its rightful place at the sharp point of the Corporate Strategy and we need to re-evaluate our role in the organisation given the power of web 2.0 at our disposal. It is also time for marketing to bridge the divide between IT and the business and collaborate with them to develop the systems that enable marketing to put the business well and truly on the path of unassailable competitive advantage.
