60 Percent of Online Consumers Consider Environmental Consciousness an Important Company Trait

DoubleClick Performics, the performance marketing division of DoubleClick Inc., announced the results of a survey gauging online consumer behavior and attitudes regarding “green” marketing.

In the survey of 1,087 adults, consumers indicated the most attractive type of environmentally-conscious marketing is that which focuses on such “specific user benefits” as saving money on bills or longer product lifespan. Consumers, when choosing between two similar products, prefer environmentally friendly products; 83 percent indicated they are extremely or very likely to choose the environmentally friendly option.

Additional data from the DoubleClick Performics’ “Green Marketing Study” revealed factors reported by consumers to influence their attitudes toward online buying:

--Of all online advertising sources, search engine results pages had the highest influence, with 32 percent of consumers reporting their impact on the purchase decision.

--Most consumers (65 percent) provide feedback about an online purchase at least some of the time.

--Approximately three fourths of those who make online purchases say a recommendation from a friend, family member or co-worker is valuable when purchasing online.

--Respondents ages 18 to 34 find recommendations to be particularly valuable compared to older respondents.

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More Than 50% of U.S. Companies Want to Go Virtual in the Next Five Years

An increasingly large number of American companies are considering taking their business completely virtual in five years. A survey of C-level executives at U.S. companies reveals that more than half of these executives (53.4 percent) said they want to shift to a completely virtual company in the next five years.

Moreover, 80.8 percent of the executives said they were familiar with the advantages of e-commerce, and 30.1 percent said that if their business could afford the cost, they would be ready to go virtual right now. The survey was conducted by TIE Commerce, Inc., a provider of Business-to-Business eCommerce software, and The Mishra Group, a Waltham, Mass.-based marketing and public relations firm.

Given the major advancements in electronic business collaboration, it is now possible for a company’s internal operations, processes, and applications to remain current and connected with external trading partners. With each passing day, up-to-date, accurate company, customer and vendor information plays a greater role in the way they conduct business. Consumers demand instant results, and with a dedicated electronic framework, a business can boost sales, improve supply chain integration and exceed customers’ expectations, says TIE.

The survey also found that 83.6 percent of respondents cite their comfort level with technology as being a major factor in their willingness to go to a completely virtual business. According to TIE, major advancements in technologies such as Software as a Service (SaaS) alleviate the pressure of in-house software management, in turn making the transition to virtual business that much more obtainable.

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Mobile SFA: Empowering the 24/7 Road Warrior

Empowering the sales force with tools to work remotely has evolved dramatically since the first wave of smart phones hit the streets nearly ten years ago. Sales reps have grown adept at basic applications such as email and web browsing, but often still wait for an end-of-day laptop session to access their CRM system. A recent study conducted on mobile SFA conducted by Aberdeen reveals that companies are increasingly turning to mobile SFA tools in order to boost sales force productivity, shorten customer response time, and increase executive insight in sales activities. Best-in-Class companies are 3.8 times more likely than Laggards to reduce the amount of downtime for field personnel through the use of mobile SFA devices.

The top pressure causing all organizations to focus resources on mobile SFA stems from the most fundamental sales goal: to increase sales productivity. Best-in-Class companies indicated that they currently perform on-the-spot customer demos (63%) and have access to centralized repository of accounts, history, contacts, tasks, inventory, and pipeline (53%).

The report demonstrates the value of collectively leveraging organizational practices in process, performance measurement, knowledge management and technology to provide a foundation for sales effectiveness. By utilizing mobile access to sales management tools and linking customer records with incoming correspondence, Best-in-Class companies are able to positively affect both sales productivity and customer satisfaction.

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Online Sales To Climb Despite Struggling Economy

According to The State of Retailing Online 2008, the 11th annual Shop.org study conducted by Forrester Research, Inc. of 125 retailers, online retail will continue to be a bright spot in the industry with retail sales* rising 17 percent this year to $204 billion. Apparel ($26.6 billion), computers ($23.9 billion), and autos ($19.3 billion) will be the three largest sales categories.

As the number of people new to the Internet begins to wane, online retailers are constantly struggling between investing in strategies that retain current customers or those that attract new ones. According to the report, online retailers allocate 53 percent of their marketing budgets to online customer acquisition and 21 percent of marketing dollars to online customer retention. However, retailers are finding that traditional acquisition programs such as search engine or affiliate marketing may also serve as retention tools that attract existing customers as well as new shoppers.

According to the survey, retailers report that search engine marketing continues to be the most effective way to reach prospects, citing 35 percent of sales come from that initiative. As a result, nearly all online retailers surveyed (90 percent) use pay-for-performance search placement, and 79 percent said they will make this tactic an even greater priority this year. Companies are also using offline marketing tactics to drive customers to the Web, with catalogs and other direct mail pieces taking priority over methods like television and newspaper advertising.

Though free shipping offers have proven to get some consumers over the obstacle of shopping online in the past, the study revealed that retailers' are less interested in promoting free shipping options this year. While 85 percent of online retailers said they used some shipping with conditions promotions in the past, just 35 percent said that they would focus more on these types of promotions in 2008. Instead, retailers are eager to experiment with Social Computing initiatives to attract customers — 65 percent and 55 percent of retailers respectively said that social network advertisements and widgets would be categories of increased focus this year. However, Social Computing efforts to this point have been considered more effective for brand-building and less proven for driving revenue or sales conversion. Therefore, the report advises retailers to continue investments in proven techniques like email marketing and free shipping promotions to drive sales.

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IT Leaders Must Prepare for the Industrialization of IT

Many organizations are failing to exploit falling prices in products and services that should accompany the commoditization of IT, according to Gartner, Inc. In 2007, 25 percent of IT spending was on unnecessary and redundant customization and although this will decline, it will remain at least at 10 percent overspending through 2010.

The need to move ever faster and at a lower cost is driving a shift from ‘integration’ activities toward greater interoperability and interchangeability with the direct result that many IT product and services markets are becoming commoditized. Gartner likened this ‘industrialization of IT’ to the two earlier industrial revolutions (of mechanization and electrification) calling it the third industrial revolution: that of digital business in the cloud.

For most organizations, the shift from buying and building IT to accessing IT as a service is not new, but the trend is set to accelerate as traditional delivery models are augmented by a range of new, alternative delivery models that rely on a combination of technology and business advances to delineate and define the extent of the service. Increasingly, these are being used both internally and externally to deliver scalable IT software and hardware functions. These alternative delivery models often make irrelevant the governing principles that worked with the traditional models.

At the same time, the giants of the software and services industries are building the facilities to deliver these services. They are building the capacity for mass production: platforms for industrialization. These new mega data centers will form part of the new "mass production" capabilities companies need for IT.

To deliver these applications in a readily configurable and customizable manner, with the promised advantage of scale, will require Web platforms. In a Web platform ecosystem, a service provider uses the facilities of a Web platform provider to build, host or deliver the service. At a minimum, the service provider will use hosting services of the Web platform and may use additional platform services (compute, storage, security, application management, ecosystem management, information, component, application and business process) to build and deliver its services.

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Cutting Back on Green PC Initiatives Leads to False Economies

Organizations that are tempted to cut back on green PC initiatives as part of wider IT cost-cutting efforts may find themselves out of pocket in the near- to mid-term, according to Gartner, Inc. For most companies, being green actually saves money and alleviates some of the pressure on IT budgets.

Companies should continue to move forward with green PC initiatives that began in 2007 and accelerate certain programs, particularly those that deliver power savings, so that organizational efficiencies can have an impact on the budget as soon as possible.

Gartner’s has identified four key areas where green PC initiatives can lead to cost savings:

1. Look for Eco-Friendly Labels on New PCs
Switching to a more eco-friendly model can reduce power consumption by 20 percent or more and usually carries only a very small premium (typically less than $20 per desktop). If an organization cuts back on new PC procurement, then switching the remaining new purchases to systems carrying these new eco-credentials will usually have no negative impact on operations but will lower energy costs.

2. Green Really Can Save Money
Putting machines into a low power state when not in use is a low risk, but a highly effective change to a PC fleet because it costs little or nothing (typically less than $10 a year) to implement and reduces energy costs from more than $75 a year to approximately $18 a year. Concerns about patch installation are easily addressed by modern power-state management tools.

3. There’s Gold in Old Machines
Good PC disposal programs become even more critical in the event of a business downturn. When properly disposed of, older equipment has value that can help pay for newer, more-efficient systems. System recycling is the preferable solution but even machines beyond refurbishment will have value based on parts and embedded recyclable materials.

4. Efficient Users Tend to Be Green Users
The most-efficient way of fulfilling a business process can often be the "greenest." Programs that encourage the reduction of travel and commuting may require a minor uplift in technology spending, but are also likely to improve workers’ productivity and attitudes. Reducing the printing and distribution of paper will not only reduce environmental waste but typically will speed up business processes.

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Report Reveals Consumer Awareness and Attitudes about Behavioral Targeting

A new report by consumer privacy organization TRUSTe indicates a high level of awareness that internet activities are being tracked for purposes of targeting advertising, and a high level of concern associated with that tracking, even when it isn’t associated with personally identifiable information.

Behavioral targeting has become a hot button issue recently, as industry enthusiasm for delivering customized experiences and improved marketing metrics runs up against consumer privacy concerns and calls for greater transparency around emerging tracking and targeting techniques. Based on the results of the survey, lack of transparency may factor into privacy concerns. 71 percent of online consumers are aware that their browsing information may be collected by a third party for advertising purposes, but only 40 percent are familiar with the term “behavioral targeting.” 57 percent of respondents say they are not comfortable with advertisers using that browsing history to serve relevant ads, even when that information cannot be tied to their names or any other personal information.

An overwhelming majority (91 percent) of respondents expressed willingness to take necessary steps to assure increased privacy online when presented with the tools to control their internet tracking and advertising experience, suggesting a need for added education, transparency and choices for behavioral targeting. Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) would choose to see online ads only from online stores and brands that they know and trust and 44 percent of respondents would click buttons or icons to make that happen.

To the contrary, a similar proportion of consumers (42 percent) say they would sign up for an online registry to ensure that advertisers are not able to track browsing behaviors, even if it meant that they would receive more ads that are less relevant to their interests. This division poses a serious dilemma for BT practitioners and industry privacy advocates, because consumers say they want more relevant advertising, but don’t want to be tracked in order to get it.

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