Ralph Crosby's
Lessons Learned In A Lifetime Of Marketing
About
Ralph's Book
Businesses often are started by entrepreneurs with an idea, a product or service, or an expertise. Many of them fail, not because the idea or product isn’t good, but because their attention is overwhelmingly directed internally – e.g., what goes into the product – when they should focus externally, always reminding themselves:
“It’s The Customer, Stupid!”
That’s the premise of Ralph Crosby’s new book, “It’s The Customer, Stupid! Lessons Learned in a Lifetime of Marketing.”
From Chapter 10 – The Internet Turns Marketing Topsy-Turvy
The growth of social media has added a whole new dimension to online marketing. It has intensified online participation of the customer in an organization’s communications and public relations. The number of worldwide Internet users visiting social networks exceeds 500 million. As social network activity expands, so will social network marketing. For marketers, social networking allows them to join customers’ conversations in a space the customer already occupies. You can talk to customers, listen to them, teach them, learn from them. You can even have them selling for you.
For organizations, the added value of participating in social networking is what they can learn by listening. Customers’ thoughts and ideas about products, services, or activities can help organizations modify their marketing strategies or tactics – even their product design. Dell, the computer company, when following customers’ Twitter feeds, noticed complaints about certain of its laptop computer keys being too close together. Dell fixed the problem on its next generation laptop.
