IBM On-Demand Services is Timely

IBM On-Demand services is a timely introduction. They are the company that defined the era we live in with the introduction of the IBM Personal Computer in 1981. They will work vigorous wreckage on the Microsoft, Sun and Oracle with this new foray into on demand services, defining the next era. IBM (2009, p 1) says the world is “Instrumented. Interconnected. Intelligent.” And that these on demand services are “Inevitable.” They report that there are now 1 billion transistors per human. Over a trillion things are networked. All those things have intelligent devices in them. “The time is right now.“ Who better to define the next era than the one who has been defining next eras for over a century.

You could look at On-Demand Services as outsourcing your IT function and keeping the backoffice part of it off-premise. This saves you the costs of the network (replaced by Infrasturcture as a Service or IaaS), server computers (replaced by Platform as a Service or PaaS), and software (Software as a Service or SaaS), and the people who maintain them. You pay for what you use, like the electric utility. It is a boon to small businesses because they might gain access to automation services they could not otherwise afford.

The pieces are already offered: GoogleDocs is an example of SaaS. So is the On-Demand CRM service discussed in the Carlson Marketing (2007, p 2) article. They reported that an On-Demand service that has already proven successful is Customer Relationship Marketing. All businesses need it and small businesses may consider it a luxury because of the cost and difficulty of implementing traditional solutions (see Doyle and Martin, 2003, p. 1). Amazon offers IaaS and PaaS with service level commitments.

The leaders are IBM and AT&T, according to Leong and Chamberlain (2009, pp 1-2), in a Gartner Magic Quadrant. Amazon and Google are niche players now. Even though Ray Ozzie is the visionary who invented Lotus Notes and sees cloud computing as the future, Microsoft is not considered even a niche player. They are trying to fight the trend with what they call Software Plus Services. In other words, you still pay for the software license up front and then again as you use it. According to Wainwright, the Microsoft Azure effort at cloud computing is really a defensive effort to offer a .NET version of the cloud to keep exisiting customers in the fold.

Here's an example of MS Software Plus Service he gives:

"A Microsoft spokesperson told me that customers will need to buy a SharePoint server, which ranges from $4,400 plus CALs, or $41,000 all CALs included, if they want to share documents using the online version of Office 2010."

$41,000 to get what Google offers for free with Google Docs, not to mention the pounding the prospects will take in buying Office. Azure only makes sense if you are an existing MS customer and already own the licenses.

References
Carlson Marketing (2007). No More Limits: On Demand CRM Goes Strategic. Oracle. Retrieved on September 17, 2009 from WVU IMC 626 Week 3 Readings.

Doyle, M., Starr D., and R. Martin (2003). Salesnet: Change or Die. Retrieved on September 4, 2009 from WVU IMC 626 Week Three Readings.

Leong, Lydia and Ted Chamberlin (July 2, 2009). Magic Quadrant for Web Hosting and Hosted Cloud System Infrastructure Services (On Demand). Gartner Research, ID G00168687. Also, retrieved on September 16, 2009 from http://www.rackspace.com/downloads/pdfs/GartnerMagicQuadrant.pdf

Wainwright, Phil July 20, 2009). Assessing Microsoft’s Cloud Intentions. EBiz. Retrieved on September 16, 2009 from http://www.ebizq.net/blogs/connectedweb/2009/07/assessing_microsofts_cloud_int.php

I Choose a New Star This Day

NeuStar is a sophisticated vendor to communications companies and to business customers of communication services (see their 10-K, Our Company Section). They just started a direct response campaign to direct marketers, an audience interested in efficient corporate communications with the world. Here is their online ad.

Please notice, this is a NeuStar ad (logo is at bottom right). I found it at DM News Online. For fear the ad will not be in rotation when you view the page, I made a picture of the page for you, so you can see and it is here - the DMNews Page.

The ad immediately grabbed my attention with “270 Million Customers,” while I was on the DM News Web site. It kept me engaged with “Free Nielsen White Paper.” Spiller and Baier (2005, p 126) tell us that words like free and new are attention getting. In addition, Nielsen is a name I know and trust. Finally, as Kostermans (2007, p 4) recommends the ad uses “fonts that are easy to read.” Okay, so I click the download link and this pops-up.

This quick registration, before getting the free gift, separates prospects from muffin men. It also gives permission to be contacted by the Common Short Code Administration, which I know, and/or NeuStar. Kostermans (2007, p. 2) says that we should make it clear what action we want readers to take. In this case, we want them to register with us to get the Nielsen report. Vanides (2009, p 2) reports using a similar technique in a Hughes 500D campaign to register interested prospects for follow-up, in her case at a later conference.

If I am interested in mobile marketing, I should know short codes and the CSCA. As Spiller and Baier recommend, the NeuStar body copy gives the benefits and ends with a call for action. The sentences are short and active. I type and submit. The Nielsen report appears and I save it (here at Nielsen Mobile Marketing).

Not surprisingly, the report mentions NeuStar. After the download, I have the option to connect to the NeuStar Web site, which I do. Here it is: their snazzy Web site Although, I have never heard of NeuStar, they have partnered with names I do know and trust. Moreover, I am interested in Nielsen’s views on mobile marketing, which is a free gift (if I register).

I watch the NeuStar produced video and its quiet clarity is professional enough to direct market to direct marketers. I now believe that NeuStar is an important player in corporate communications. I’d be willing to talk with them about Mobile Marketing as well as communications infrastructure topics.

In summary, I find this NeuStar direct response ad to direct marketers to be effective because as Kostermans (p. 6) recommends, it is “solving a problem for them – not touting how great your product is.” The solution is for mobile marketing. Helped by big names, Nielsen and CSCA, NeuStar registers prospects with an interest in the NeuStar mobile marketing, short code solution.

References

Kostermans, J (3/12/2007).Lead Generation Top Tips: 28 Ways to Optimize Direct Mail Design. LeadGenesis. Retrieved from WVU IMC 626 Week Four Readings on September 9, 2009.

Spiller, L and M Baier, (2005). Contemporary Direct Marketing. Pearson/Prentice-Hall

Vanides, Alexia (2009). Lesson 4: Proven Creative Strategies for B-to-B DM Implementation. Retrieved from WVU IMC 626 Week Four Lesson on September 9, 2009.

Push-Pull Strategies in Symbiotic Relationships

In symbiotic relationships in nature, one party provides an instrumental service to another that benefits both. The great Canadian anthropologist Anthony Wallace (1960, pp 31-8) analyzed instrumental and consummatory acts to model symbiotic relationships between groups or even individuals. His work applies really well to push/pull strategies.

By using an immersive mix of both push and pull strategies, you can revitalize your intermediary channel from a disorganized gang of the living dead, zombies clothed in rotted medical bandages to a crisp and professional new face for your company, one that ultimate customers hold dear. This, however, requires you to perform an instrumental act of training the channel intermediaries on the advantageous differences of your offering: Symbiotic on your part.

You may also need to create awareness of these advantageous differences with the ultimate consumer, another instrumental act. This will motivate the channel to become a better partner. Both intermediary and end consumers will also perform the consummatory act of buying your offering. Voila!

The alternative is to die a horrible death at the hands of the zombies and let them turn you into one of them when they eat your tissue or worse, turn your offering into a commodity that competes on price. Our assigned comment captures with attractive eloquence the purposes of push and pull strategies.

Spiller and Baier (2005, p271) give a more academic explanation of the concepts. In a push strategy, our sales efforts are directed at the channel to encourage intermediaries to buy our products. This is the “how [our] offering satisfies existing business customers’ desires….” A push strategy is part of supply management, making sure the channel provides our offering to the end users.

Vanides (2009, p 7) says that a serious barrier in reaching the “right prospects” is time deficit disorder. Proper preparation and understanding is a must for all would be Oxpeckers. In our readings, Omniture (2007, p 3) tells how to establish understanding through profiles or personas of our various intermediaries. So does Wallace but in 1960 personas were called modal personalities.

To continue with Spiller and Baier, a pull strategy is marketing activities directed at the ultimate consumer with the purpose of creating destination demand that pulls our offering through the intermediate channel. This is the “Sometimes demand patterns must be modified for the business customer…” in our comment. A pull strategy is demand management, making sure the end consumer demands the unique characteristics of our offering from our channel.

Two pull campaigns come to mind. “Intel Inside” and DuPont’s “Miracles of Science.” Or in a prior age, before having a chemical halo was unsightly, DuPont’s “Better living through chemistry.” Vanides (2009, p 2) lists general DM campaign objectives including money but also responsibility to community. DuPont has something to say about this.

According to Butler (2001, p 2), DuPont’s objective in this pull strategy is to inform the buying public “what products we make and how they are used, to demonstrate that these do improve the quality of life, and therefore that DuPont is a good and useful institution that deserves political consent and business patronage.” It is an umbrella for numerous product campaigns also.

The goal of these push/pull strategies is to make it easier for our intermediaries to sell their products by accepting our support from both ends, a symbiotic relationship. Here we are now with a few of our channel intermediaries trying to keep them healthy and presentable for the viewing pleasure of our ultimate consumers.

References
Butler, Steve (10/08/2001). DuPont. Chemical Market Reporter. Retrieved on August 28, 2009 from EBSCOHOST.

Omniture (February 2007). Online Marketer‘s Segmentation Guide. Retrieved Retrieved from WVU IMC 626 Week Two Readings on August 29, 2009

Spiller, L and M Baier, (2005). Contemporary Direct Marketing. Pearson/Prentice-Hall

Vanides, Alexia (2009). Developing OST for B-to-B DM Campaigns, About Lead Generation Management. Retrieved from WVU IMC 626 Week Two Lesson on August 29, 2009.

Wallace, AFC (1960). Culture and Personality. Random House