Dec. 29, 2010
BOOK REVIEW: 'The Network Is Your Customer'
What Every Company Needs to Know About Marketing, Communicating, Thriving in the Age of Social Networks
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
An incredibly useful and valuable guidebook to the new consumer economy. Buy it. Learn from it. Succeed with it. —Jeff Jarvis, author of "What Would Google Do"
How stupid can a company be? How about Hasbro, owners of the popular Scrabble board game, cited in David L. Rogers' "The Network Is Your Customer: 5 Strategies to Thrive In a Digital Age" (Yale University Press, 336 pages, index, notes, $24.00, Kindle edition available, per Amazon.com).
Rogers, on pages 264-5 describes how the Pawtucket, RI company that owns Monopoly, Scrabble and dozens of other board games, reacted in 2008 after two Calcutta, India fans of the board game, brothers Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, developed a Facebook application "Scrabulous, based on the game. The application allowed users to play Scrabble with friends online via the social network.
Rogers writes that "Hasbro had failed to capitalize on the potential for social network versions of its game properties, and it watched as Scrabulous quickly attracted hundreds of thousands of users, becoming the most popular application on Facebook."
So what did this supposed smart company do, you ask? "Rather than embrace the Agarwalla brothers or hire them to head up a new social gaming unit for the company, Hasbro slapped them with a lawsuit." The brothers withdrew their application, to the dismay and protests of online fans, Rogers writes. Hasbro tried to create a social network application, but it was a pale imitation of the brilliant Scrabulous from the Agarwalla brothers.
The hoary "Not Invented Here" (NIH) principle was operating here, whereby anything not from Hasbro or any other company, for that matter, isn't real to the company. Companies that operate under NIH rules are soon out of business in this fast-paced digital world of today. Of course, their excuse is they are trying to protect their intellectual property, a ridiculous claim in the case of the Agarwallas, since the two brothers weren't trying to steal Scrabble from Hasbro.
Jeff Jarvis, cited in the epigraph, in 2005 received terrible customer service for a new Dell laptop. The blogger, now an author and professor, started a post tiltled "Dell Sucks" which led other people online to create their own sites -- and a terrible image problem for the Texas-based computer company. Rogers notes that, to his credit, Dell founder Michael Dell used this experience to help spur a broad effort to improve customer relations and "focus on customer networks." Unlike the geniuses in charge at Hasbro, innovator Michael Dell was smart enough to learn from a bad experience.
Columbia University marketing expert David Rogers examines how digital technologies—from smartphones to social networks—connect us in frameworks that transform our relationships to business and each other. To thrive today, organizations need new strategies—strategies designed for customer networks.
Rogers offers five strategies that any business can use to create new value:
The book outlines a process for planning and implementing a customer network strategy to match your customers, your business, and your objectives—whether you need to drive sales, to enhance innovation, to reduce costs, to gain customer insight, or to build breakthrough products and services. Because today, whatever your goals and whatever your business, the network is your customer.
Find more case studies, videos, and interactive tools at www.thenetworkisyourcustomer.com.
About the author:
David L. Rogers, born in 1970, teaches at Columbia Business School, where he is executive director of the Center on Global Brand Leadership. He has advised many companies, including Visa, Eli Lilly and SAP.
Share This Story:
Make HNN Your Homepage (IE Users Only)
BOOK REVIEW: 'The Network Is Your Customer'
What Every Company Needs to Know About Marketing, Communicating, Thriving in the Age of Social Networks
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
An incredibly useful and valuable guidebook to the new consumer economy. Buy it. Learn from it. Succeed with it. —Jeff Jarvis, author of "What Would Google Do"
How stupid can a company be? How about Hasbro, owners of the popular Scrabble board game, cited in David L. Rogers' "The Network Is Your Customer: 5 Strategies to Thrive In a Digital Age" (Yale University Press, 336 pages, index, notes, $24.00, Kindle edition available, per Amazon.com).
Rogers, on pages 264-5 describes how the Pawtucket, RI company that owns Monopoly, Scrabble and dozens of other board games, reacted in 2008 after two Calcutta, India fans of the board game, brothers Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, developed a Facebook application "Scrabulous, based on the game. The application allowed users to play Scrabble with friends online via the social network.
Rogers writes that "Hasbro had failed to capitalize on the potential for social network versions of its game properties, and it watched as Scrabulous quickly attracted hundreds of thousands of users, becoming the most popular application on Facebook."
So what did this supposed smart company do, you ask? "Rather than embrace the Agarwalla brothers or hire them to head up a new social gaming unit for the company, Hasbro slapped them with a lawsuit." The brothers withdrew their application, to the dismay and protests of online fans, Rogers writes. Hasbro tried to create a social network application, but it was a pale imitation of the brilliant Scrabulous from the Agarwalla brothers.
The hoary "Not Invented Here" (NIH) principle was operating here, whereby anything not from Hasbro or any other company, for that matter, isn't real to the company. Companies that operate under NIH rules are soon out of business in this fast-paced digital world of today. Of course, their excuse is they are trying to protect their intellectual property, a ridiculous claim in the case of the Agarwallas, since the two brothers weren't trying to steal Scrabble from Hasbro.
Jeff Jarvis, cited in the epigraph, in 2005 received terrible customer service for a new Dell laptop. The blogger, now an author and professor, started a post tiltled "Dell Sucks" which led other people online to create their own sites -- and a terrible image problem for the Texas-based computer company. Rogers notes that, to his credit, Dell founder Michael Dell used this experience to help spur a broad effort to improve customer relations and "focus on customer networks." Unlike the geniuses in charge at Hasbro, innovator Michael Dell was smart enough to learn from a bad experience.
Columbia University marketing expert David Rogers examines how digital technologies—from smartphones to social networks—connect us in frameworks that transform our relationships to business and each other. To thrive today, organizations need new strategies—strategies designed for customer networks.
Rogers offers five strategies that any business can use to create new value:
* ACCESS—be faster, be easier, be everywhere, be always onRogers explains these five strategies, with more than 100 cases from every type and size of business — from shoes to news, and software to healthcare. In "The Network Is Your Customer", he shows:
* ENGAGE—become a source of valued content
* CUSTOMIZE—make your offering adaptable to your customer's needs
* CONNECT—become a part of your customers' conversations
* COLLABORATE—involve your customers at every stage of your enterprise
* How Apple harnessed a host of collaborators to write apps for its iPhone...and countless other cases from consumer, b2b, and nonprofit categories.
* How IBM designed a video game to help sell its enterprise software
* How Ford Motors inspired an online community to build brand awareness for its new Fiesta
The book outlines a process for planning and implementing a customer network strategy to match your customers, your business, and your objectives—whether you need to drive sales, to enhance innovation, to reduce costs, to gain customer insight, or to build breakthrough products and services. Because today, whatever your goals and whatever your business, the network is your customer.
Find more case studies, videos, and interactive tools at www.thenetworkisyourcustomer.com.
About the author:
David L. Rogers, born in 1970, teaches at Columbia Business School, where he is executive director of the Center on Global Brand Leadership. He has advised many companies, including Visa, Eli Lilly and SAP.
Share This Story:
Make HNN Your Homepage (IE Users Only)
