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"We are moving increasingly to an online society. Online communication, including through social media is a must and can even unleash revolutions - look at Tunisia. Second, communication on paper is far from dead and buried. The prediction of the paperless office of twenty years ago has never come true. We live in an and-and-world. Today everything is a medium. Even on coffee cups and shopping bags, consumers and buyers are overwhelmed with messages that can influence their purchasing decisions.
Not to mention the complexity of each channel separately: iPhone apps are only usable on an iPhone, same for the applications on Android and Blackberry. Thus, any brand or mobile operating system becomes its own separated channel. We see the same in social media. Facebook applications are not usable on Netlog. Each brand has its own platform and plug-ins. Data are not interchangeable, with all its consequences. So there's a growing gap between the needs of marketers and the opportunities that IT can offer in order to fulfill these needs.
Both in B2C and B2B, customers seem to become increasingly elusive. They move like a slippery eel on an equally slippery surface.
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Consumers eat caviar and sleep in five star hotels, but they also go to the flea market to buy a cheap piece of furniture to take home. Only a few years ago, marketers could neatly segment their targets.
Customers now get their information from anywhere: They read the tweets and Facebook messages from friends, they are informed of promotions via email and SMS, and so on. They take purchasing decisions based on information that is extremely fragmented. In short, there is a real channel chaos, from which the B2B segment also cannot escaped. Cloud computing and cloud marketing are interesting views to offer a solution. Likewise, managers should build up a 'cloud' of specialists who can help them to reach specific goals. I am convinced that openness and transparency are more than ever the key to success. In the United States, Australia and recently the Scandinavian countries crowdsourcing and open innovation are growing. Box thinking in an ivory tower has now finally had its day. Perhaps managers in this country should take the lead to make this also clear to the politicians..."
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