How firms use new technogies like machine learning to develop their consumer behavior's understanding

This very interesting article tells us how to predict consumer behavior using machine learning and human insight. Firms have developed machines that can analyse feedbacks from users to better understand customer preferences and this process is clearly powerful for every company able to use it correctly. At first glance, this new method of consumer behavior analysis is a perfect opportunity for companies to sell more products but we can notice some issues in this way of using our customers' data.

First, machines lack the human qualities that are so essential to develop a great business. They can learn to recognize feelings but they will never (or maybe will?) learn to feel. Excitement is essential to drive individual and organizational changes. With this clear lack of emotions from computers, they aren’t able to empathize and create this state of excitement.

Also this emotional deficit from machines is why we tend to treat machines as tools and not as colleagues. We will see in the upcoming years how this will evolve.

Second, with those new ways of using and analysing data, few people are skilled enough to make a good and viable use of this technology. You have to see Machine learning as a tool to explore new option and new possibilities, not as a ‘final solution’.

Finally the ethical aspect has to be considered in this case. Indeed it could be unethical to analyse so in depth your consumer data that you could then predict everything your customers will do, buy, say... I’m sure nobody wants to let firms control all our choices just because they “exactly know what we want the most”.

Arthur Philipon 

https://hbr.org/2017/10/understanding-customers-by-blending-human-insight-and-machine-learning

How Small Businesses Can Take Advantage Of Mobile Marketing In 2017

How Small Businesses Can Take Advantage Of Mobile Marketing In 2017

The chosen article deals with the opportunity that small companies can have to improve their results through mobile marketing. This can give them a push to get closer to their target and improve the relationship with them.

Bassem Saber begins by talking about how we access the Internet today, fascinated by the number of people who enter the Internet from their mobile phones and not only by computers. That is why he sees the mobile as a marketing tool and something that small companies should take into account, to have a better interaction with users. He facilitates some trends that can help:

• Space for only responsive design 

The writer gives importance to the design in the network, because if it is not suitable for mobile, laptop or computer, there will surely be a lose of customers. Now many companies use a way to adjust to the devices. Mr. Saber advises to adjust and adapt to the devices. Also the emails must be adapted for mobile, since now more people open them from the mobile instead of their desktop.

• Stick to simple web design

The design must be well done so that the users who enter and are converted without distractions, so that they then recommend the website.

Try to reduce the content to be direct and put in one side sections the rest of things that you want to add on the web.

Take care of the spaces between buttons so that even the most clumsy can navigate easily without clicking on wrong buttons.

• Simplify mobile payment

Although online sales are not mostly by mobile (30%), the number each year grows more and more, so in the future the terrain of e-commerce will be in the mobile.

The author of the article recommends a software like Controlpad when preparing the payment within the web, eliminating all the barriers that are seen as an impediment for the users at the time of purchase. This way the client can find a product and buy it in just a few minutes.

• Master Facebook video

Facebook video views were 8 billion per-day in 2016. Something that shows the opportunity to reach people by making videos also with the help of Facebook's rapid evolving ad platform. Of course, the video must capture the attention of users, so it is worth investing the money, time and effort necessary.

• Explore Facebook Live

It is important to evolve and be updated on Facebook. For example with facebook live: a tool that serves to have a relationship with the users in a live way without editions, something that gives confidence to the clients about the company. This trust gives value to customers.

• Go mobile-only 

Today, infuencers control mobile applications such as instagram or snapchat. An opportunity for any company is to agree to talk about the company.

Taking into account that instagram has more than 500 million active users, it is also a good option to use paid ads, which if they are well designed they are usually very effective.

In conclusion, Bassem Saber offers several tips for small businesses. His advices are very interesting because according to what we have seen in class, mobile marketing is part of the future. And companies that want to be well positioned in the mind of the consumer must be present on the web, taking care of the content through a good investment of money, time and effort. With all this, the results of the companies will probably be better than before entering mobile marketing.

For further information read: 

https://digitalagencynetwork.com/how-small-businesses-can-take-advantage-of-mobile-marketing-in-2017/

What crowdsourcing is and what its main challenges are nowadays ?

Crowdsourcing is outsourcing a particular task to a virtual crowd. Nowadays we identify three main crowdsourcing campaigns: Problem solving network, collective creation and crowd voting. This solution is more and more commonly used as actual market become competitive and companies have to distinguish themselves through innovation in order to gain competitive advantage. Crowdsourcing provide additional advantage; indeed, this helps companies cutting their cost, increasing their speed in production and the most important is that it creates a huge buzz effect around the company name.

We have in mind several examples of effective crowdsourcing campaigns as NETFLIX’s one who get more than 44 000 subscriptions to find improvements on their recommendation algorithm or the campaign driven by Doritos named “crash your Super bowl”. On the contrary, we have other examples of campaigns which failed in the past as what happened with the Germany’s pirate party who only had 22 subscriptions. Therefore, it would be interesting to see in a first part which are the steps to respect in order to launch an effective crowdsourcing campaign and then in a second part, have support this article taken from the Harvard business review to identify what are the 4 main challenges that we can face today when launching such a platform.

First of all, you have to decide effectively which type of information we are looking for and choose the appropriate type of crowdsourcing campaign (Problem solving / collective creation or crowd voting). Then it is really important to decide which crowd you want to target; do you want to be 100% sure to get as much precise information as possible and therefore target only an expert crowd or are you open minded and ready to receive ideas from a general crowd? In addition, the type of incentive you decide to use to engage people in your campaign is a crucial step: do you prefer to offer intrinsic reward as recognition or extrinsic as financial rewards (Netflix offered one million dollars to the winning team)? Before launching your campaign, you also have to key evaluation criteria that are going to be managed internally, follow them and be ready to play as the dictator. Finally, the last two steps to respects gave to be taken into account once your campaign is launched. Indeed, you will have to pay both a proactive and reactive attention to your potential users. Proactive meaning that instead of waiting for people to publish ideas on your topic, you should start publishing before them. This shows that you are engaged in this campaign and this is also an opportunity for you to show which type of ideas you are waiting for. You will also have to be reactive, meaning that you have to show that what the participants wrote cares to you. The best way to do this is to publish a comment on every idea offered. This is really positive, because it increases motivation and it also enable you to show which ideas are valuable for the following users.

By following the article taken from the Harvard business review, we learn that nowadays, crowdsourcing campaigns are facing 4 main challenges nowadays.

The first one is that even we have some examples of really effective campaigns, the overall percentage of heavy contributors is not so high. Therefore, companies have to find some ways to attract more and more users in order to increase the amount of new creative concepts coming from that type campaigns.

The second challenge is based on which platform structure you decide to build your campaign on. Some brands decide to build their campaign on competition using platforms as Kaggle but other brands try to find an equilibrium between cooperation and competition promoting a new wave of work organization called coopetition driven by the platform Openideo. This new format shows better results, indeed 62% of the ideas coming from coopetition platforms are judged as exploitable versus 50% for the competitions.

In my opinion, the most important challenges companies are going to face is the idea evaluation and the legal definition of the relationship between companies and users . Indeed, ideas evaluation are currently based on participants, however this method is not the most accurate. In fact, different users can have different ideas, particularly different the company’s ideas, and therefore grades are not homogeneous and really relevant. This stake here is to improve this grading system.

Finally, the last challenge is to legally articulate the relation between the user and the company in terms of working hours or intellectual property. The ideas for the future is to recognize users as employees of the company and to establish contract between both parties and why not with a salary?

To conclude, I would say that companies really have to keep using crowdsourcing as driver of innovation, however, I agree with the author on the fact that some points have to be improved if this type of campaigns wants to persist in the future. As I wrote before, the most important stakes are the evaluation of the ideas and the legal definition of the relationship between companies and users.

Julien Fraysse & Arthur Phillipon.

è Article:

https://www.hbrfrance.fr/chroniques-experts/2017/08/16457-quatre-defis-plateformes-de-crowdsourcing-idees/