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This issue of the Business Intelligence Program (B-I-P) Bulletin is the last that you will receive. As of 1 March 2003, the Business Intelligence Program will become the Scan program, and the B-I-P Bulletin will become Scan Monthly. Our transformation from B-I-P to Scan is a response to the needs that you, our clients, have expressed to us in the past several years. Our new focus is on early awareness of changes in the business environment and on more interaction with you to convey the relevance of these changes for your organization. We're also addressing your expressed needs for timelier access to our analysis and findings, more easily digestable content formats, and increased flexibility and variety in access options, including the Web. Insights
Aside from interinstitutional electronic transfers, only credit and debit cards have instigated major changes in the way we pay and process transactions. All other digital-payment methods have had to fight uphill battles and failed to gain widespread acceptance. When people began to recognize the potential of the World Wide Web for e-commerce, five kinds of digital-payment solutions already existed: point-of-sale systems, digital cash, prepaid solutions, electronic purses, and electronic billing. Still, these systems have not yet succeeded in the virtual world, let alone in the real world. Finally, some payment solutions are on the verge of breaking through the clutter and increasing transaction share to the point that commercial players cannot ignore them. This study discusses two forms of payment that could substantially change commerce in the virtual world and have implications for real-world applications: mobile and micropayments. The new payment solutions unlock opportunities that were not feasible before, and these opportunities will support new forms of commerce, such as location-based commerce, small-application commerce, opportunity commerce, and peer-to-peer commerce. An altered commerce environment will enable changes in service offerings. Moreover, these changes won't be optional: Service providers will have to respond and adjust their offerings to be in sync with the new business environment. Authors: Thomas M. McKenna and Martin Schwirn. 16 pages. Index Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Electronic Commerce; Financial Services; Infrastructure; Marketing.
In the 2000 census in the United States, nearly a quarter of the population identified their race as other than white alone. This finding has marketing implications for a wide range of companies. Indeed, the multicultural marketplace has reached a critical mass, and it continues to grow. The challenge for marketers is to pinpoint links between cultural identity and consumer behavior because, except in culture-specific products such as Mexican food, cultural identity rarely predicts most forms of consumer behavior. For this reason, companies cannot afford to throw away their usual approach to predicting consumer behavior, which calls for analyzing demographic patterns, psychology, attitudes toward product categories, and brand preferences. Nonetheless, analyzing the influence of cultural identity on purchase decisions can still be a useful exercise because some members of ethnic groups already have attitudes conducive to the purchase of certain products and services, and a culture-based message may provide the push they need to buy a company's products. Multicultural marketing, which leverages cultural identity in advertising messages and in the focus of product features and benefits, can be a powerful tool for reaching this set of consumers. Cultural knowledge can help marketers find the best way to create relevant product offerings, convey product benefits to specific cultural groups, determine which benefits of a brand drive these groups' purchases, and identify influence agents for them. This presentation highlights the key considerations for companies seeking to reach out to specific cultural groups, highlighting points that marketers must be aware of in positioning products for and gearing advertising messages to specific cultural groups. Author: Kristen Thomas. 19 pages. Index Keywords: Advertising; Consumer Behavior; Demographic Trends; Marketing.
To move forward in life-sciences research, scientists need better analytical research tools than they have today—particularly tools that allow further miniaturization, permit researchers to conduct experiments in parallel, and offer greater sensitivity. To meet this demand, tool developers are on a quest to increase the density of array formats—which allow the orderly arrangement of biological material—and to introduce more direct methods of detecting biological molecules. The development of nanoscale analytical technology platforms—the next generation of array technology—promises the ability to fabricate arrays with features more than 1000 times smaller than those in conventional DNA microarrays, thereby increasing array density and improving the speed and accuracy of analytical tools. The platforms will also offer direct-detection capabilities, eliminating many process and material costs. Next-generation technologies that provide more rapid, direct, and large-scale methods of detecting and analyzing DNA will find use in major genomics applications, such as de novo DNA-sequence analysis, DNA resequencing, gene-expression analysis, genetic-variation analysis, and disease diagnostics. Eventually, applications in personalized medicine will also require fast, accurate large-scale genotyping and whole-genome sequencing. With proof-of-concept and cost-performance benefits, nano-based array technologies will gradually migrate along the industry value chain and find broad application in the agriculture, food, and environmental markets. Author: Andrew Broderick. 11 pages. Index Keywords: Biotechnology; Nanotechnology; Technology Trends.
New and emerging technologies face manifold challenges during the commercialization process. Discovering valuable markets, successfully introducing a new product or service, and maintaining sufficient consumer pull are considerably more difficult than extending or improving products or services in established markets, where feedback and guidelines are available. This study provides a framework for exploring problematic areas in the market introduction of emerging technologies, particularly consumer-related issues and the resulting competitive elements in the marketplace. Using the recommendations in this study, companies can determine which marketplace-related issues they must tackle at an early stage to avoid prolonged commitment of resources to products that lack the necessary components to find acceptance in the marketplace. The author explores the major factors that influence the market introduction of emerging technologies, including all-important consumer issues, standards issues, potential threats to the revenue streams of related industries and businesses, and potential roles of interest groups. A hands-on analysis of the market for electronic-book readers—which people once hailed as a new high-growth opportunity—provides a real-world example of what happens when a new technology fails to live up to expectations because of disregard for important market forces. The study suggests reasons for failed market introductions and recommends action to identify roadblocks early and refocus limited resources or pursue more promising opportunities. Author: Martin Schwirn. 17 pages. Index Keywords: Competitive Analysis; Consumer Behavior; Marketing; Product Development; Technology Management. News Visit our Web site: http://www.sric-bi.com. 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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