Bugatti Veyron Super Sport

SAP, Oracle, check your rearview mirrors… Facebook is coming.

Sunday night on the popular CBS Primetime News Show, 60 Minutes, Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the new Facebook profile page.  Upon its airing, I decided to enable the functionality on my own Facebook profile to see if it’s an improvement over the existing interface.

The most striking element is probably the prominent presentation of my most recent photos.  The Facebook tour asked me to build out my profile further by asking me to fill information about where I work, studied, the languages I speak, my current city, my hometown and birth-date.  It even went so far as to ask me about my family and personal relationships with others on the site.

My immediate reaction was ‘Whoa! Supplying that much detail about myself is helping Facebook to learn about me, as well as those I have relationships with.” I backed off entering my Mom’s Facebook information (she’s a member too.).  Facebook just doesn’t need to have that level of detail about me.

The changes to the Facebook profile page are more evolutionary than revolutionary.  The key differences are the prominent display of a user’s personal information and Friends.  It’s telling people who you really are the moment they land on your page.  Imagine what co-workers or acquaintances might think.  I can see Facebook making a nice play for the LinkedIn crowd with this approach, however.

Facebook's New Profile Layout

To the unsuspecting Facebook user, Facebook’s underlying intent will probably go ignored.  Facebook, in my view, is building the mother of all CRM databases.  Let’s think about this…

Relationships

Through the user’s explicit definition of his/her relationships across Facebook, Facebook can now tailor its user experience and engagement at the individual and group levels.  It can also derive demographic data and sub-data regarding these relationships in countless ways.

1. Ethnicity
2. Age
3. Interests
4. Education
5. Income
6. Location
7. Frequency of interaction

Interests

I mentioned Interests in the previous section, but this component deserves its own description.  Facebook’s external linkages with many popular sites, through the Like, Share and Connect buttons, allows it to track user activity in and outside of its website.  The user is both actively and passively providing information about herself to Facebook ubiquitously.

Communication Preferences

With the launch of its Mail service, Facebook will have a better sense of how its audience prefers to communicate.  Is it SMS, Email, Mobile, or through Facebook, or other means of communication?

To Do What?

The question is what Facebook will do with all of this information?  The primary answer is to target users more relevantly.  First and foremost, it allows them to continue to evolve the Facebook community by making it as powerful an ecosystem as any family gathering at Grandma’s house, gameday at your college or university, or the conference room at work.

Facebook could be very well positioned to outmaneuver Google in Search by understanding its audience in countless ways.  Google is great at what they do, and have gone far to innovate the Web experience through its capabilities.  But, what Facebook appears to be positioning itself to do, could change the way we approach communication across the Web, Search, and Marketing in the most targeted and relevant ways via the Internet

The Monetization Factor

It’s widely understood that Facebook has not yet found a way to monetize via its content platform.  That will quickly change if the indicators are as I suggest.

Take my interests for example, Cars, Travel, and Photography.  Now, imagine if Aston Martin, United Airlines and Sony knew when, where, and how to target me because of the data it derives by leveraging Facebook’s ‘Mother Of All CRM‘ capabilities.  Each of these companies could target me more relevantly, in more places, than they have ever had the capability to do.

What’s more, what if Nikon, Ferrari and American Airlines decided that they wanted to garner my attention more than my direct interests?  The Ferrari 458 Italia is one of the most beautiful cars ever produced in the last 40 years.  Nikon makes great SLRs.   And, I’d fly American Airlines for the right price and benefits.  What if Orbitz decided to jump into the fold and offer me a photography travel excursion, where I might just get a chance to drive an Aston Martin or Ferrari?

Let’s take it further.  What if each of the companies I described decided to see who I’m connected to, and how I’m connected to them?  They then make my mom’s decision around what me to get me for Christmas much easier, they go after my friends to push their brand to them, “If Mark likes it, then his friends will probably like it too!”  The data will all be there for them to get a sense as to how successful their Marketing and Customer Acquisition plans will likely be.

Risk Factors

Of course, depending on who you ask, and who stands to benefit, Facebook’s new approach to customer profiles is a great thing. The flip side of the coin is the ongoing concern over user privacy.

Privacy, in the Facebook realm, is still a moving target.  Facebook has taken steps to improve its privacy.  How well this is understood by the average user is still a very big question.  There’s also the issue of the occasional uproar around Facebook and its privacy measures.

Will Facebook’s new approach to user profiles cause a stir among its community?  I was immediately leery of it from the moment I first interacted with it.  I’m also very cautious of connecting some of the sites I frequently visit to Facebook because of the information these sites indicate they will access.  Why does a site need access to my Friends list and Pages?  To me, that’s going too far.

The other question is will Facebook inevitably head down the path MySpace and lose the interest of a fickle audience?  Facebook isn’t particularly interesting to me anymore.  Why?  One,  it’s too pervasive.  I’m mildly fearful of it.  And, there’s nothing about my, or anyone else’s life, that requires me to spend that much time on Facebook; especially at the expense of divulging valuable personal information across it.

As an eCommerce practitioner, I am interested in seeing what evolves from Facebook’s new skin.  I do believe that there is quite a bit underlying this new maneuver.  The impact and its reach remain to be seen.

Way to go team! I am very proud to have been part of the effort that has led you to this milestone. All the best going forward!

In recent news, arguably the most extreme and blatant acts were committed against the Customer Experience.  DecorMyEyes.com deliberately committed heinous acts against its customers for the purpose of garnering negative reviews to boost its SEO rankings.  The motive behind this scheme was to manipulate the fact that customers have a number of outlets to post reviews of products or merchants, from blogs to shopping and review sites to Social Media communities.

The propagation of such reviews, the direct references both verbally and via links, and the resulting actions, from what could be regarded as normal human behavior in such instances, created the perfect formula for DecorMyEyes.com to improve its SEO ranking.  Unfortunately, it took the unearthing of countless customers being misled and abused for Google to catch on to what was happening.  In regards to the credit card companies, that’s an entirely different story.  Google has subsequently adapted their Search algorithm to prevent operations like DecorMyEyes from garnering positive Web results for its bad behavior.

I encountered a similar incident with a major Online Retailer two weeks ago during my purchase of the MacBook Air.  I reviewed a handful of online retailers who were selling the model.  I checked everything from pricing to availability to customer reviews of the merchant.  I finally settled on the Web merchant who I felt had the most favorable attributes.

I made my purchase early in the morning.  I decided to pay via PayPal because it was a large ticket item.  I felt that it was necessary to have an intermediary between myself and the merchant in case my MacBook Air was defective or Gray Market.  When entering my payment information, I became suspicious that the merchant did not offer the PayPal option to draw the money from my linked checking account.  I had to supply my Debit Card information, as I would if I chose to checkout directly from the merchant’s site.  I still proceeded with the purchase since I have a great deal of trust in PayPal initiated transactions.

Hours later, I receive an email from the merchant requesting verification of my credit card information.  I contacted them to inquire about the basis of their request.  The Customer Service rep answered and said that it was necessary to verify my billing and shipping address. I supplied the information requested.  She then requested that I provide some proof of the billing address.  Baffled, I responded with a warning that the transaction would be in jeopardy if such information was a requirement.  The representative stated that it was necessary for verification.  I replied that I would not supply this information to her.  She then asked me the name of my apartment community. I asked her why such information was necessary.  I then responded that I do not live in an apartment community, and that I live in a landlord-owned apartment building.  She then asked for my Landlord’s name.

At this point, I completely refused to offer up any of the information she requested and asked to be transferred to her supervisor.  After being transferred to the supervisor, I was faced with the same set of questions.  Agitated, I proceeded to reprimand the representative.  I told her that what she (on behalf of the merchant) was doing should not be the burden of the customer, that PayPal should be a sufficient means of customer and payment verification, and that there are other tools such as CyberSource and Verified by Visa, that could be utilized as customer and credit card transaction verification solutions.  I asked that my order be canceled and promptly hung up.

I was in disbelief and angered that a major online retailer would put a customer in such a position.  That was no way to treat a customer.  Any business, whether through Web or brick and mortar, should want to earn a customer’s trust and satisfaction.  Instead of saving a few dollars by buying the MacBook Air secondhand, I decided to purchase directly through Apple with no problem.

The same day, I decided to purchase a sleeve for my newly ordered MacBook Air.  I did my research and found a sleeve that looked to be ideal.  The merchant, SFBags.com, did a great job in describing the product in its ad copy, showing multiple views, and even including a video demo of the sleeve’s attributes and its differentiators from other sleeves on the market.

I again executed the transaction via PayPal.  Hours later, I received a follow-up email from the Merchant.  It came in the form of a personalized message…

“Thanks very much.  I just want to let you know that your order will ship fresh from our San Francisco factory on the evening of 19-Nov-2010 via US Priority Mail.  Your delivery confirmation number is … and you will eventually be able to track your order at www.usps.com.

Thanks for tracking us down and giving us a shot. We sure appreciate it. I hope we meet your expectations.

If there’s anything else I can do for you, just let me know.

Best regards”

Completely impressed by the personalized email, I replied to the email saying…

“Thanks for the order info.  I’m looking forward to receiving the SF sleeve for my super cool, new MacBook Air.  All the best!”

To think that hours earlier I was being asked for my Landlord’s contact information in a previous online transaction.  Talk about a 180 degree turn in the Customer Experience!

I received another email from a different rep from the merchant simply reinforcing the hope that I will be pleased with the product I ordered.  The message read..

“Hey Mark,

Yes, this is two-week old news at the time of this posting.  The entertainment / tech industry was eagerly anticipating news of something big from Apple.  I’m eager as well whenever Apple makes a major announcement.  It’s the -3 hour timezone difference that ends up distracting me in the end.  I usually catch up on the details after the fact by letting Engadget, one of my favorite tech / gadget blogs, cover the announcement end-to-end.

In this particular instance, I didn’t get a chance to check out Engadget’s latest update.  I’m in the market for the new MacBook Air, so I decided to pay a visit to Apple.com to drool over their shiny new offering.  “Do I wait until Black Friday / Cyber Monday, or do I pull the trigger now?” Decisions, decisions.

Once arriving at the site, I was greeted by this great hero image of the Beatles on their home page…

I was fixated on my screen in utter amazement.  I thought “Wowwwww!”  Seconds later, I took a screenshot and forwarded it off to a colleague, who happens to be a Creative, saying “Apple has done it again.”  She replied “Don’t get me started.  Their stuff is so great.”

Why is this relevant you ask?  It’s about brand.  It’s about making a statement.  It’s about making a statement about your brand.  This is what Apple does so well.  They don’t muddy the message by overwhelming you with content or messages.  From Apple’s end, it’s about simplicity.  The simplicity is the subject and the message.  The simplicity is the call-to-action without saying ‘Shop Now’, or ‘Learn More’.  They have a way of compelling their audience to act without explicitly saying it.

When planning email campaigns and creative, the Apple example is one of the inspirations I use in creating a campaign.  If it’s about a product, the question is whether the product itself can stand on its own. If it cannot, then what action are we trying to compel our audience to take?  Buy it?  Tell their friends about it?  Post it to Facebook?  Learn more about it?

How do we speak to the product while speaking to the audience?   How do we measure success?  Is it the number of opens, clicks or conversions?  Or, is success setting a creative direction that will inform the customer differently going forward?  Will this direction fundamentally shift their perception of the brand, the product and how we market to them?

Apple has the formula, as evidenced by the campaigns for the iPhone 4 and MacBook Air.  Although Apple is very unique in terms of how they market, and by being an immensely powerful brand.   That’s the whole point.  They are unique.  Their uniqueness has arguably birthed a culture, a community, and has elicited some personality traits that describe their audience.  Few other brands have such impact and influence.

The fun is the planning, building, the execution and the problem solving.  The appeal is knowing that the most subtle change can have the most powerful outward impact.  For all the cool things eCommerce is, it’s all about the customer.  After all, what’s the point without the customer?

In the spirit of the theme of this particular post, and to let you know that I’m not simply another know-it-all blogger, I bring you T-Pain!

I saw a cool Toshiba Laptop commercial while watching an NFL Football game this evening.  Toshiba brought T-Pain in as a consultant to tell them what should be incorporated into the design of their products so that they’ll be more appealing to the customer.

This commercial speaks to the basis of my previous post, “What Are You Saying?” To put it in T-Pain terms, and ultimately customer terms, it’s about your site’s offerings becoming Hexacore and having MegaGigabytes on it.  Maybe none of it makes sense to you.  But, gravitating toward the customer might give you a better sense of what the customer wants.  I won’t go so far as saying that your site needs T-Pains face on it.  Hopefully you get my point.

With that, I leave you with the Toshiba commercial.  Feel free to reach out to me if you have questions about how to T-Pain your business!

That’s been the question I’ve been raising repeatedly over the past many weeks.  It all goes back to the point of view.  We sometimes get so caught up in the technical elements of eCommerce; the precise placement of the ‘Add to Cart’ button on the product page, the ‘View Shopping Bag’ dropdown positioned prominently for the customer to see no matter where they navigate on our sites, and articulating the most important messages behind brand, that we’re often left scratching our heads over our daily, weekly and monthly Web Analytics reports.  We expected that our customer would do A, but ended up doing B, X and Z.

Instead of trying to figure out why they did B, X and Z, we spend days, weeks, months and quarters trying to get them to do A.  In my experience, I’ve found it rare that people will actually step back and say:

Perhaps we’re not saying enough.

Maybe our customers don’t like or want it.

Maybe they’re confused.

Perhaps we overcomplicated it.

Maybe we got it wrong.

Maybe it doesn’t work the way we expected.

But what if we stopped trying to steer the customer toward A and actually charted our course toward B, X and Z.   Okay, it’s unlikely that we can’t steer the vessel to each and every destination that the customer exists.  But, perhaps a more exotic destination (approach) or two is the way to go.  We’ll learn some things along the way, we’ll get better as we go, and we may potentially meet some new customers at these exotic destinations.

My view is that we’ll reap greater returns (translation, our customers will like us more) if we’re more in tune with their personalities, and the behaviors that result.  Even if a company is too big or unwilling to change course.  Check that, we’re in eCommerce, that simply will not fly.  Let’s just say that a business does not possess that aggressiveness or agility, it’s worthwhile to at least test out that approach by sending out some smaller vessels to these exotic destinations.  The tests could be anything from changes in landing page creatives, microsite development, SEO optimizations, and targeted Paid Search and Email campaigns.  Web Analytics would serve as the barometer that tells us whether what we’re saying better resonates with customers in these exotic locations.

Approaching it this way requires a healthy level of commitment, however.  There is no question that the top and bottom line are important for any eCommerce business model.  Testing alternative approaches to the model is something that is organic.  There isn’t one specific lever to be pulled to answer all of our questions.  It requires trial, thinking outside the box, and refinement of tactics throughout to understand which levers to pull and how much.

Even when we have drawn meaningful conclusions, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we become static after the transition to a new model. eCommerce is constantly evolving.  Your customer is probably the biggest instrument in that evolution.  Therefore, evolution has to be considered on multiple fronts; the perspective of your business, your competitors, the industry at large, technology and other influences yet to be discovered.

The thing that crossed my mind was all of the popular bloggers with their highly trafficked websites and visibility around the industry.  Who am I to step into such a realm?  What would I say?  Who would even listen?

My colleague often mentioned the phrase ‘point of view’ whenever we would have a conversation.  To him, the inspiration for just about everything comes from a ‘point of view’.  Little did I know that phrase would stick with me.  Many things are in fact inspired and/or influenced from a point of view.

Less than a year later, my point of view has been greatly inspired by an eCommerce project for a major apparel manufacturer.  The project involved the launch of a B2C eCommerce website.  The launch was full of its share of challenges.  The running joke at the time was that I should start a blog detailing my day-to-day experiences.  It’s no longer a running joke.  I have finally gotten around to starting a professional blog site!

I am sure the challenges that were unique to this client are no greater than they are at any other company.  That consulting experience, however, has really helped me to grow as a professional.  Much of the experience and knowledge I have acquired over the course of my career, both academically and professionally, are both relevant and applicable to what I deal with in my day-to-day.

It’s interesting how many questions I receive each week from the individuals that I work with, as well as my industry colleagues about what I’m doing, what the best approach to something is, or how I handle certain challenges, among other things.  Taking all of those things into account, as well as what I mentioned regarding the ‘point of view’, the end result is to share those insights via this blog.

I hope you will find this blog valuable and relevant to your interests.  This realm in which we operate, though exploding rapidly, is still very small.  There’s lots we can learn from one another, and there are many great examples of what and what not to do that we can all reference.  My point of view is intended to impart my knowledge, based on my experiences, and what I’ve referenced, to inform, educate and assist.  Feel free to contact me with any questions, to network, or to offer your specific point of view, as well as examples.  We all benefit in the end.

Thanks for following!

Mark W. – Consultant, M3 Digi