1:1 Marketing Pioneer!!!!
这是美国著名杂志1to1记者采访后的文章,推出4家优秀企业,第一家是美安公司
1.Market America
2.Hudson Bay Company
3.Blockbuster
4 USAA
1:1 Marketing Pioneer!!!!
Subj: Market America -- 1:1 Marketing Pioneer!!!! Date: 2/3/03 1:31:13 PM Eastern Standard Time ]
1to1 Magazine Publish Date: 01/31/2003Issue: January-February 2003
Profiles in Leadership1to1 Magazine(r) asked some industry experts known for teaching and delivering one-to-one thought leadership to name their favorite customer-focused companies. We spoke with mass-customization expert B. Joseph Pine II; Daniel Butler, VP, retail operations, for the National Retail Federation; Harvard Business School professor John Deighton, Ph.D., and Don Schultz, professor emeritus of Northwestern University and founder of consultancy Agora, Inc. We then contacted their selections-Market America, Hudson Bay Company, Blockbuster and USAA-to get the first-hand scoop on what they're doing right. Market America Hudson Bay Company Blockbuster USAA Market AmericaAs a company that got its start in network marketing, Market America, in Greensboro, N.C., has grown to produce mass-customized, market-driven products, breaking the mold in establishing customer-driven initiatives. Market America impresses B. Joseph Pine II-co-founder of Strategic Horizons LLC and renowned author- on many levels, but mostly for the organization's ability to build and cultivate relationships with its network of 90,000 distributors, as well as its customers; and to offer only products that the customers want and need. "It's a very interesting sales and marketing organization that reaches out to thousands of customers with what they want," Pine explains. "Its vision is built around one-to-one marketing and mass customization. If you read its annual reports and mission statements, you will find those terms in there." When president and CEO J.R. Ridinger founded Market America in 1992, it was a direct-sales company. Having since grown into a provider of mass-customized customer solutions, the company boasts a worldwide network of 90,000 distributor-sales agents and 366,000 preferred customers, with a projected 500,000 additional customers by the end of 2003. Market America's business paradigm centers on tracking what people want and need, then delivering it to them. "The company is founded on the belief that it's easier for our distributors to bring a product to a customer that they've requested, than one they may not be interested in. If we determine what they want to buy, we can develop a stronger relationship and everyone is happy," Ridinger says. "And, by tracking relationships with customers and bringing them what they want, we're able to find more things we can bring them; there's very little selling involved."
To accomplish this objective, Market America developed a multi-faceted strategic plan. First, its Internet strategies replicate and complement the company's core asset. Second, it uses the Internet as an additional sales channel. Lastly, it equips distributors with effective Internet tools to better sell to existing customers, attract new ones, and ensure that distributors are educated about one to one. For four years, the company has held meetings across the country with CRM strategists to explain to distributors how conducting one-to-one initiatives will enhance their business. "Now we have 90,000 educated entrepreneurs working for us, rather than 25,000 people upstairs or downstairs trying to implement a CRM strategy," says Ridinger. Kevin Buckman, VP of CRM, Internet development and one-to-one marketing, says an important part of the strategy was establishing conduits for customer feedback. "[Through the Web and email,] we maintain an ongoing dialogue for developing one-to-one relationships by allowing customers to contact [us], as well as distributing electronic surveys to learn what a customer wants, then finding a manufacturer to supply it." Ridinger says the surveys were helpful when recently developing a pet product. Sent to gain customers' thoughts about a newly released health and wellness nutrient, the survey found that customers actually wanted the product for their pets, rather than for themselves. Market America then developed a pet food with the desired ingredient. The firm plans to release roughly one mass-customized product per month. An anticipated release this year will be a customized blend of health products based on a Web-based survey. The research will determine which vitamins the customer needs most; then Market America will customize the right mix of nutrients in one bottle, producing an individualized product. "The whole idea is to develop a relationship that begins with our core products, then we'll find out what else customers want," Ridinger says. That philosophy has helped Market America grow its preferred customer base-- those who spend at least $300 quarterly-by 7 to 10 percent each month. Beginning with the second quarter this year, the firm will start measuring each customer's growth share and valuation based on a variation of the recency, frequency, monetary model, taking into account individual customer characteristics. The goal: To grow its share of best customers by 20 percent.
mass customization B what is it?
Definition: Mass production of goods with differing individual specifications through the use of components that may be assembled in a number of different configurations. Mass customization is a cost-efficient way of offering some of the benefits of customization.
More on mass customization
Mass customization is best defined as a delivery process through which mass-market goods and services are individualized to satisfy a very specific customer need, at an affordable price. Based on the public's growing desire for product personalization, it serves as the ultimate combination of "custom-made" and "mass production." And it is rapidly emerging as the organizing business principle of the 21st century.
Simply stated, mass customization is about choice; about giving consumers a unique end product when, where and how they want it. During the last 15 years, choice has become an important ingredient of consumer purchasing decisions. Within this timeframe, the number of automobile models has increased from 140 to 260; the selection of soft drinks from 20 to 90. Today, the U.S. market alone offers consumers 3,000 brands of beer, 50 brands of bottled water, 340 kinds of breakfast cereals, 70 styles of Levi's jeans and 31 types of bicycles.
With choice playing such a critical role in consumer buying habits, mass customization is becoming increasingly evident in day-to-day life. For example, internet-based e-commerce now makes it possible for anyone to order a computer designed to his or her exact needs and specifications. Or compile music CDs containing any combination of songs. Or obtain customized home mortgages. Or design a one-of-a-kind friend of Barbie7, complete with unique name, clothing and personality. Outside of the internet, the trend can be found in clothing, cars, furniture, college textbooks, signs, eyewear... even sailboats and golf clubs.
Unlike mass production, which produces some variety of an item in high volumes, mass customization is characterized by small volumes - in many cases, lot sizes of one. It is also characterized by competitive cost, timely deliveries and a move away from centralized manufacturing to more distributed production. Consequently, when combined with the very latest digital technology, such as e-commerce and robotics, mass customization not only benefits the consumer, it offers the manufacturer significant benefits as well: a high degree of product/service flexibility, reduced inventory risk, and a competitive edge in the marketplace.
Barbie is a registered trademark of Mattel, Inc.
