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Yes Johanna, WE ARE ON THE MAP, first Michael Murphy, now Forrester
AND this is only the beginning !
Here is some more of Forrester work from Business Week:
ARE TECH BUYERS
DIFFERENT?
Marketers say new consumer categories are needed
To the bright young founders of WebTV, it looked like a home run: hook
televisions up to the Net and tap into the vast market of couch potatoes curious
about this new thing called the World Wide Web. But after burning through an
estimated $50 million to advertise the new service during the 1996 holiday
season, WebTV and partners Sony and Philips Electronics counted a
disappointing 50,000 subscribers.
The problem, WebTV now acknowledges, was the wrong marketing message.
Couch potatoes want to be better entertained, while computer users are content
to explore using small PC screens. A revamped campaign now emphasizes
entertainment over education.
WebTV's marketing myopia isn't unique. As the $280 million consumer market
for technology soars, companies that sell stuff ranging from cellular phones and
computers to software and Internet services have some surprising blind spots
about who their customers are and what motivates them.
Enter market researchers, sniffing opportunity. Unlike soup or soda, technology
products are often complex and evolve rapidly. And the failure of a few well
publicized products, such as WebTV or Kodak's PhotoCD, to hit it big with a
mass market has convinced a growing number of companies that when it comes
to high tech, conventional marketing research doesn't go far enough. ''The
traditional approach pretty much always falls back on the ancient taxonomy of
early adopters and followers,'' says Peter M. Winter, president of Cox
Communications Inc.'s Interactive Media unit. ''That's not precise enough.''
MOTIVATION. The result has been a scramble among researchers to find out
what makes technology customers tick--and whether consumers behave
differently when they buy technology than when they purchase other consumer
products. Of course, consumer-goods makers figured out long ago the value of
understanding consumer habits, even for seemingly mundane stuff such as
toothpaste. But to gain similar insights into technology consumers, some
marketers argue, research must go beyond demographics and buying patterns--it
must capture how people really use technology day to day, and how they feel
about it.
Some market-research firms, such as San Francisco-based Odyssey Research
and pollster Yankelovich Partners' Cyber Citizen, are focusing on the way
consumers use the Internet. Others, such as SRI Consulting Inc., are using
traditional market-research methods that combine demographics information with
an analysis of consumer emotions to predict how tech buyers will behave.
But the most ambitious effort so far is a scheme from technology consultant
Forrester Research Inc., which contracted with polling and research firm NPD
Group to survey 131,000 consumers annually about their motivations, buying
habits, and financial ability to purchase technology products. Dubbed
Technographics, the first survey results won't be completed until later this month.
But already, some big-name clients, including Tele-Communications, Sprint, Visa,
Ford, and Bank of America, have signed up for a look. ''Technology is not just
changing the way consumers spend time,'' says Gil Fuchsberg, director of new
media for ad agency Interpublic Group, a Technographics client. ''It's also
changing the way nearly every company is making, selling, and delivering
products. We've got to understand that.''
Of course, plenty of technology companies have prospered without such tools.
But Jim Taylor, who ran Yankelovich before he became senior vice-president for
marketing at computer maker Gateway 2000 Inc. in 1996, thinks
technology-specific research will be increasingly critical as PC makers and others
learn to segment their markets to keep up growth. The difference, he says, is that
traditional consumer research will tell you who bought a computer. But it won't
tell you that four different people in a household use it--or how their needs differ.
Marketing to the wrong member of the household can sink a product, he says.
''In this business, you don't have to screw up much to screw up a lot,'' he says.
To help companies zero in on their target customers, Forrester's scheme
separates people into 10 categories. Some, such as career-minded ''Fast
Forwards'' who own an average of 20 technology products per household, and
their less affluent colleagues, known as ''Techno-Strivers,'' are at ease with
technology and use it at home, in the office, and at play. Others range from ''New
Age Nurturers'' who spend big bucks on technology, though primarily for family
use, to ''Hand-Shakers.'' These older, wealthy consumers--often managers--let
younger assistants handle computers and other technology in the office (table).
CLEAR TARGETS.<G> Some Forrester clients have already started identifying
products and services they're likely to rework. At Cox Interactive, for example,
Winter plans to use Technographics to identify more clearly the target viewers for
his Web sites. Once he has a stronger handle on who they are, he'll reshape
content to better draw them in.
To get a glimpse of how it will work, consider Cindy Williams, 46, an
administrative secretary for a health-maintenance organization in Tulsa, Okla. She
and her husband Gary, a 44-year-old maintenance supervisor, have one PC they
bought three years ago and no Internet connection. They are mulling an upgrade
since their sons, ages 11 and 12, want speedier games than their sluggish machine
can play.
Thanks to their family status and income--two traditional signposts--a
conventional consumer-research profile would highlight them as promising
technology buyers. But Forrester claims those factors are misleading and that any
tech company pitching sophisticated products to the Williams would likely be
wasting its money. Technographics pegs the Williams as
Traditionalists--family-oriented buyers who are relatively well off but remain
unconvinced that upgrades or other new techno-gadgets are worth buying. Why?
A key factor in the Williams profile is the age of their PC. Three years old is
ancient by tech standards.
So an online grocery service starting up in Tulsa might use Forrester's information
to bypass the Williams, despite their superficial demographic fit. Unlike other
family-oriented consumer groups such as New Age Nurturers or Digital
Hopefuls, Traditionalists ''wait a long time before upgrading. That's not a very
fertile part of the online market,'' says Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff.
But Technographics should also help a company find new buyers. Carol Linder,
46, is a customer-service manager for Ameritech Corp. in Milwaukee. She and
her husband Robyn, a 53-year-old CPA, already have three school-age children,
two pagers, and three PCs. By the end of the month, they plan to buy two more
computers. Robyn spends time online for work. Although similar to the Williams
family in income and family status, they are light-years away in how they use
technology. The Linders are classic Fast Forwards, using computers and other
gadgets for job, family, and individual pursuits. So a company selling ISDN
phone lines that speed computer connections might use the Technographics
profiles to target the Linders while avoiding the Williams.
Such distinctions should also come in handy as tech companies struggle with
marketing to a broader audience as they shift away from early adopters. That's
the challenge facing Tele-Communications Inc. The cable-TV giant wants to use
Technographics to help develop and sell new products as its cable-modem
business goes mass market. ''How we market the product initially, and how we
target and talk to our customers changes over time,'' says John Najarian, director
of consumer research for TCI.
TCI knows that speed and performance have been important to early users of
cable-modems. But that's not necessarily what will appeal to new types of
buyers. So Najarian says it might use Technographics to help create kid-friendly
Internet marketing targeted to family-oriented New Age Nurturers, for example.
Or it might develop ways to download TV clips that appeal to
entertainment-hungry Mouse Potatoes.
NEW BOTTLES? Similar plans are under way at Delta Air Lines. The
Atlanta-based carrier hopes that by analyzing its own customer database using
Technographics' categories, it can better target online ticket sales. Delta plans to
create marketing campaigns aimed at time-strapped Fast Forwards and New
Age Nurturers, for example. Just as important, it figures to save a bundle by using
Technographics to eliminate customers who appear to be technology pessimists
from its solicitations. High income or not, they're unlikely to use such a service.
''Traditional marketing research gives you a picture of the universe but doesn't
focus on the people more likely to book online,'' says Paul Lai, manager of
marketing research for Delta.
Despite the interest Forrester has sparked, more traditional researchers argue that
it's doing little more than putting old medicine into new bottles. ''Consumers are
consumers,'' says Bill Guns, director of SRI Consulting's business-intelligence
center. ''Nothing in the data we've seen over 20 years suggest that somehow
people are different beings when they are buying technology.'' SRI's research,
called Values & Lifestyles Survey, leans more on emotions, delving into whether
or not customers like technology or are intimidated by it.
But retail consultant Wendy Liebmann, president of WSL Strategic Retail, says
the slow start of Net shopping and the frustrated expectations of many consumers
new to online services clearly show the need for more targeted technology
marketing. Companies are providing services that consumers ignore. Meanwhile,
consumers sign up for other services and are disappointed. With a mountain of
data on tap, Forrester is hoping it can carve out a new category for itself:
techno-matchmaker.
By Paul C. Judge in Boston
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