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Reports
New marketing messages and strategies for Boomers' later years Boomers—the U.S. cohort born between 1946 and 1965—are approaching their later years. By 2015, all living Boomers will be at least 50 years old. Many will be reaching retirement age, if they have not already retired, and most Boomers with children will be empty nesters. Given the huge impact of this group of consumers—the group is currently 78 million strong—companies are eager to continue selling their products and services to Boomers as they age and as their needs shift. As a result, marketers and planners are spending considerable time and money trying to anticipate how this group's marketplace behavior will change. Relying on the patterns of past generations is unwise because Boomers' effect on society is unprecedented: Never before has such a large group passed through age and life-stage transitions in such a condensed time frame. Though researchers have brought many perspectives to bear in predicting the marketplace behavior of aging Boomers, SRI Consulting Business Intelligence's VALSTM consumer psychographic segmentation system looks beyond traditional demographic and attitude surveys to consider the psychographic orientation of Boomer consumers, formulating fleshed-out profiles of consumer groups that are of strong practical use to marketers and planners. Indeed, VALS research shows that Boomers will carry a rich collection of resources into their retirement years and will increasingly shift their focus from achievement and external rewards to self-fulfillment, cooperation, and other subjective concerns. For this group, quality, integrity, and tradition are more likely to sell products than are flashy, image-conscious messages. Author: VALSTM Program. Executive Contacts and Report Recipients will receive this document automatically. Insights
In the crunch to cut costs, consultants often tout the advantages of outsourcing. Typical strategy includes focusing on core competences and outsourcing ancillary business functions such as payroll and electronic mail. To meet the outsourcing demands in the information technology arena, a number of application service providers (ASPs)—companies that deliver hosted or managed applications and storage resources over the Internet—have cropped up offering to manage everything from a firm's Web site to its human-resources software. When ASPs appeared in the late 1990s, they received a great deal of funding and press. At the end of 2000, the top ASPs received an average of $6.5 million more in funding from venture companies than did other industry counterparts. Yet, only about 500 of the 1200 ASPs in the United States during the first quarter of 2001 will be in business at the end of 2001. The shakeout among ASPs has a host of implications for firms that contract with or are considering starting a relationship with an ASP. This study explains the ASP market segments, explores the benefits and drawbacks of ASPs, offers firms an outline for performing due diligence on providers, and analyzes the major players in this market. Authors: Miguel de Figueiredo and Jonathan Newman. 15 pages. Index Keywords: Computer Services; Computer Software; Information Management; Information Technology; Internet Technologies; Intranet; Knowledge Management.
Because customer-relationship management (CRM) facilitates the all-important customer interface, it is the darling of enterprise software. Companies generally approach CRM implementations with some trepidation because nobody wants to bungle the effort. If CRM represents a new paradigm for marketing—by parting with the old days of unused customer data—not investing in it could seriously weaken a firm's competitiveness. This study discusses various conceptions of CRM implementation strategies and some of the dynamics of value propositions that drive CRM software investments. Although many versions of CRM come with a "customer is king" tag line, implementations that lack clear objectives can alienate customers by aggressively exploiting CRM technology beyond its effectiveness. Striking a balance between cost-reduction and revenue-generation goals in a CRM strategy can avoid such a fate, making it truly customer centric. What is essential is for any company implementing CRM to have a clear vision of the company's goals for the system and a way to measure them. The objectives can range from a highly integrated CRM system capable of driving corporate strategy to an analytical CRM system that can drive marketing strategy all the way down to a stand-alone CRM system that can cut costs in the call center. Authors: Jee Wook Han, Paula Lubreski, and Margaret Pak. 12 pages. Index Keywords: Computer Software; Information Technology; Marketing.
Although storage demand roughly doubles every year, most large companies currently use only 40 percent to 50 percent of their storage capacity. To increase storage use and to provide remote backup, a host of storage firms have offered networked storage products. Two networked storage products—storage-area networks (SANs) and network-attached storage (NAS)—emerged, offering block-level storage and file storage, respectively. Storage vendors and customers are now seeking solutions in which SAN and NAS—once competing technologies—can work together. When the two function together well, businesses will benefit from reduced storage administration costs, increased storage capacity use, accessible data backup, and less storage complexity. The study describes the changes taking place with SAN and NAS and evaluates market issues relating to the demand and competition in the networked storage space. Authors: Matt M. Henneberg and Miguel de Figueiredo. 7 pages. Index Keywords: Computer Hardware; Computer Networks; Data Management; Information Technology.
Christmas 2000 was supposed to mark the breakthrough of electronic-book (e-book) readers, or e-readers, into the consumer-electronics market. However, sales were sluggish, and the devices failed even to establish a foothold in the broader market for books. The sluggish sales are not surprising given that e-book readers are neither fish nor fowl. The consumer market, which focuses on leisure reading, has a perfectly working model in place. The traditional book provides all the benefits that broad segments of consumers currently seek. Additional features provide no benefits because leisure reading does not require searchability and similar applications. The professional and student market, which is likely to make use of the added features, already has high penetration rates for laptops and personal digital assistants. E-book readers thus compete with two superior technologies, depending on use, market segment, and context. E-books will in the long run be able to carve out valuable market niches, but a high penetration of the general-interest market seems unlikely. But even these niches require better service. Standards and copyright issues also preclude a fast entry, even to niche markets. Penetration of market niches will require overcoming a number of challenges, and penetration of broad consumer markets will take decades. Author: Martin Schwirn. 12 pages. Index Keywords: Consumer Electronics; Display Devices; Electronic Commerce; Entertainment Industry; Internet Technologies.
As the first shock waves of the 11 September attacks on the United States dissipate, companies need to take a hard look at the possibility of future attacks and the implications of new antiterrorist legislation for their strategic planning. No one questions the need to be more vigilant, but finding a way to build vigilance into corporate operations will be difficult. The U.S. government's actions will drive many of the steps that companies take. Notably, the recently passed USA Patriot Act of 2001 increases law-enforcement agencies' access to customer and employee information. It also gives them permission to expand wiretapping and other forms of electronic surveillance. Clearly, this legislation will change the ground rules for doing business in the United States, though it will affect some companies more than others. It will create new security challenges for some firms, open opportunities for firms that provide security-related products and services, and hurt some emerging business models. Nonetheless, surveys indicate that few companies are moving security to the top of the list in their strategic planning. Clearly, firms need to devise contingency plans for possible cyberattacks, prepare to handle law-enforcement requests for information on their customers and employees, assess their vulnerability to lawsuits if they turn over personal information against people's wishes, enhance their insurance coverage, and generally build greater vigilance into their operations. Author: Paula Lubreski. 13 pages. Index Keywords: Data Management; Information Management; Internet; Political Trends; Risk Management; Security Industry; Strategic Planning. News The summaries below describe current activities and programs not included in the B-I-P membership but of potential interest to members. SRIC-BI's Explorer Are you familiar with SRI Consulting Business Intelligence's (SRIC-BI's) unique evaluation of commercial opportunities arising from technology developments? Explorer—a technology-monitoring service—has a methodology that enables you to identify and understand how and why technologies will develop and see commercialization. It does so realistically, without the hype so prevalent in today's technology-focused environment. Using Explorer, you will receive global, objective, real-world analysis, not hype; identify new business opportunities; validate internal knowledge and communicate ideas; improve your technology portfolio decisions; and achieve and maintain competitive advantage. Do the following technologies affect your organization?
If so, contact your local SRIC-BI office or visit Explorer at http://www.sric-bi.com/Explorer. Current Watch-List B-I-P's scanning and research processes identify areas on the periphery of your business's focus area that constitute potential opportunities or threats. The areas that we decide bear watching go on B-I-P's watch list of defining forces that are transforming the business environment. Current watch-list topics include:
The Bulletin will periodically highlight each defining force, listing related B-I-P publications. |
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