By M H Ahssan
The purpose of communication technology is to allow humans to interact more efficiently and effectively. At it's best, technology will extend human communication models; for example, creating the means for an on-going dialogue, which allows businesses to communicate with a greater level of intimacy with customers in order to serve them better.
Consumers prefer that businesses use the mail to communicate with them over the telephone, email and other channels. As mail finds a new niche as a communication channel, technology will be developed to help make it more efficient and effective. This column is about emerging technologies in the mail industry.
Karen is the marketing manager for the communications vertical with Pitney Bowes Business Insight, and she has for years now created well-written, concise marketing brochures that explain how products work both separately and in concert to deliver enterprise value.
I have known Karen since we both were hired by docSense to form a formidable marketing team under the direction of Sheila Eletto (Women of Distinction class ‘07) and Lenore O’Connor. docSense was an innovative software company founded by Karl Schumacher that had a big impact on the parent company in its brief life.
For example, to sell some of our more big ticket items, such as enterprise e-billing software, docSense had to devise a way to gain mindshare in the C-suite, where decisions to purchase such items are made. We initiated several programs, including a very exclusive Customer Conference at the PGA National Golf Resort in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. To reach CIOs, we started an Analyst Relations program, which garnered us excellent reviews in reports by Giga, Doculabs, Gartner, Aberdeen and Killen and Associates. We began a customer-focused newsletter and invited customer participation. Last, we began a Thought Leadership program that positioned our team as experts in our many fields of interest, including CRM, ERP and marketing---which would later take on a life of its own when adopted by corporate marketing.
With regard to strategic marketing, many of our key messages are still being used by the big company; it’s also fair to say that the acquisitions and strategic partnerships made by docSense strongly influenced the kind of acquisitions the company has made over the past six or seven years, which includes, among others, Group 1 Software and MapInfo.
Which brings us back to Karen Hansell. As each acquisition was successfully merged into the body politic, Karen has been called upon to create new marketing collateral that placed the new company in the larger context, and which offered clear insight into the kind of value these mergers and their new product lines promised customers. Over the years, Karen has supported high-speed inserters, e-billing software, the data quality suite of products, customer communication management solutions and now the Pitney Bowes Business Insight portfolio. She knows more about these products than many of the so-called subject matter experts. While others on the Marcom team have stayed with one set of products for years, Karen has restlessly moved forward to support the companies’ most innovative offerings.
So, as I continue to muse in this space about new ways to deploy technology in order to better communicate with customers, it occurred to me that Karen would be a good person to interview about new technologies that help her MarCom efforts. In this tough economy, the group needs to justify its own existence by monetizing MarCom projects and needs to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it is more teeth than tail.
“It’s all about your value add,” she said. “If you aren’t generating leads and proactively answering objections--before they are voiced---you aren’t doing your job. Return on investment is top of mind; every process and result is scrutinized.”
I asked Karen to name a technology for MarCom that she thought had real promise and her answer surprised me: digitized brochures. When I think of brochures, I mainly think about handouts at trade shows and conferences, or collateral to be left behind by sales reps after a call. However, according to Karen, the Internet continues to alter the way we conduct business, and customer collateral is no different from any other communication vehicle. The market for digital brochures will likely catch up with her.
“Human beings have a need for interaction that can best be satisfied online,” she said. “Hyperlinks that lead us to more customer insight; rich media that can graphically underscore major features and benefits; metrics that enable us measure usage patterns, customer reach and that facilitates viral marketing…these tools are newly available to us now and marketing operations need to embrace them.”
As an example, Karen went with me to www.zmags.com and digitized a brochure she had designed. Using this site, she could now add rich media, including video of the product developer walking though a list of features and benefits. She could include links to more information than she could fit on a printed page for prospects that desired a deep dive. The site provided metrics for tracking end user behavior related to the piece. And the entire process took three fairly simple steps.
“Research tells us that a multi-channel approach to communication is the most effective if you can reinforce the message in different modalities and media,” she said. “Web-enabled tools can enhance the customer experience and make each communication more fun to explore---and it can compel a reader to forward the piece to colleagues in a kind of viral marketing. And when you can measure customer reactions to the piece---how long they spend reading it, what links they click through for more information, whether or not it drives some kind of action---these are tremendous tools that strengthen Marcom’s position in the marketing mix.”
Karen wants to leverage the power of web analytics in the same way that the company webmaster does to prove that her collateral gets results. “To increase our understanding of what works and what is or is not effective is the most important benefit, in my opinion, since the digital piece is always live and can always be altered. Like direct marketers, we are always testing. After all, delivering a poor customer experience can lead to the loss of a customer, so it’s not an option.” She also said that the delivery options available for digital brochures could extend her reach and readership and therefore generate more revenue for her business unit. Posting the brochure on a targeted Social Networking site, for example, increases the readership dramatically.
Perhaps most importantly, given the current and future economic climate, there is a cost savings component to creating digital brochures. “Communicate ineffectively and you waste business cycles, waste increasingly scarce resources and squander new revenue opportunities,” Karen said. “I compete for budget with other members of the marketing team. I have to understand how my messages are resonating with readers, how much of my audience I’m able to reach and how customers respond—including using tools like click-path tracking, instant notification and reporting to know which ones require follow-up from sales or additional marketing material.”
Karen’s main theme in our conversation was marketing optimization---how she can make each marketing brochure more effective by embedding rich media--video, audio, hyperlinks, and more---directly into the collateral, always testing it for effectiveness. “With digitized brochures marketers can go beyond traditional, two-dimensional printing into a virtually limitless multi-media world in a single document,” she said. “This technology is very exciting. Every piece can serve as a doorway into every customer-focused service and all the information our company can provide on the web.”
“Technology has moved way beyond PURLs. There are no limits to the customer experience that marketers can now provide. Customers can access all the information they need to make informed decisions; in addition, they can access customer service, sales, case studies, news releases---and if the piece is interesting enough---it tends to be viral, which extends our reach.”
This has opened my eyes to a new initiative in the optimization of customer communications: with all my emphasis on Transpromo and Dynamic Enveloping and VDP, I had overlooked the importance of customer collateral. Nevertheless, even I can see the value of interactive digital brochures.
And Karen Hansell continues to strive for strong returns on her marketing investments. HVTO—take notice.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
India Independence Day – Revive the fighting spirit
By Jaya Shankar VS
India is a nation with a very rich historic background. The Independence Day, India (Swatantrata Divas) is celebrated on the 15th August to commemorate its independence from the 150 years British rule and its birth as a sovereign nation on that day in 1947. It is one of the 3 national holidays in the country. Flag hoisting and distribution of sweets is done all over the country. This is a proud day for the Indians. The prime minister raises the national flag at the Red Fort in New Delhi, and delivers a nationally televised speech from its ramparts, which is viewed by millions of nationals. He highlights achievements of the government, important issues and gives a call for further development through his speech.
Every Indian out there knows that the country achieved independence from the British rule on August 15, 1947 and this year marks the 62nd year of independence! Many of us also know from the history books in our schools the recorded sacrifices that were made to regain the sovereignty of our motherland! Equally familiar is the fact that on this day the country celebrates this landmark achievement in its usual customary and colourful ways! The National flag is hoisted in the national capital of New Delhi, and at the various state capitals and union territories. The Prime Minister lists the achievements of the country since the last Independence Day, raises the current and important domestic and sometimes international issues, and urges fellowmen to come together to solve it! Various cultural events are held, and special shows to honour the martyrs and the surviving freedom fighters are staged.
And so another Independence Day quietly comes to an end, the very day our forefathers and great leaders of pre-independent India dreamt of. But for us it is just another national holiday, a mere show of pomp, special shows on television, everything but an occasion to celebrate the spirit of independence, and relive and revive the spirit of fighting!
Why should we fight today? And against whom? Or what is there to fight for? Well, in my opinion we should ask ourselves why we have stopped the fight! After all, we have so many nagging problems, big and small, around us! Isn’t? Unfortunately, today we have ‘learnt to live’ with these problems and as long as they don’t ‘severely’ make a dent on our personal lives, we just don’t care! But have we ever wondered where we went wrong! I know this will kick start the blame game! There is corruption, red tapism that slows down development, and there are no good politicians, no leaders, no vision, no resources, and so on! But do we also realise that we too are responsible for this dismal state of affairs? Everyone knows that there cannot be a change overnight but I hope we will agree that there has to be some beginning somewhere!
Independence vs freedom
What is independence and what is freedom? For most of us political independence is freedom enough! The term ‘independence’ and the sense of ‘being independent’ has outshined the freedom struggle fought by our leaders and countrymen. What they sought was an independent India and more than that the ‘freedom’ to govern ourselves and to be dictated by some foreign force! Sadly, we have achieved the political independence but only some degree of real freedom. Real freedom is what will turn our country into a strong and united India! And every one of us should be fighting for it now!
Take for instance the personal freedom, a freedom that can be exercised by one individual without violating the other person’s freedom. In a nutshell, the freedom to express my views, do my own things without hurting others’ sentiments, and feelings and sentiments. It is a part of the civil liberties that protect an individual from the government of the residing nation setting limits for it so that it cannot abuse its power and interfere unduly with the lives of its citizens. Now how many of us can proudly say that we enjoy complete personal freedom in our ‘independent’ country?! I am not questioning here the rights of the government in upholding the law of the land or punishing the guilty and extending protection to its citizens.
Every government has the right to do that! But this is more about the apathy, of the government and a few individuals and groups, in the name of caste, religion, tradition, and gender that directly or indirectly violates my personal freedom to express my views or do my own things! It is an irony that only a select few have personal freedom which is only misused in restricting the freedom of others. There are more unwritten and unspoken laws being followed here than the customary written ones on bound books, which are almost never followed! Many of our laws are only ‘said’ in the right spirit but not ‘done’ in the right way.
Rights are not allowed to be fully exercised
Similarly we do not fully enjoy the civil rights, social rights, cultural rights and the rights to quality health, quality education, and defence to name a few. Even the right to vote has often been not allowed to exercise in the way we want it to, and needless to say the right to education is dictated by castes and money! Quality health services are denied to many. Everything comes with a heavy price tag! There can be several reasons for this but unfortunately our ‘muted mumbles’ is only making things get worse!
How many of us can proudly say that we enjoy all these rights to the fullest! Right from getting a birth certificate for our babies, to admissions in schools and colleges, and to get the jobs that we deserve, we compromise on everything. This compromise is not ‘ahimsa’ that Mahatma Gandhi stood for; this is typical ‘meek’ surrendering to the apathy of the few bad elements in the society! Of course, there will be a very few out there who would have not experienced the apathy of the officials at some point in time! But that’s only a handful of the population! A majority of us are still in the dark about our rights even on everyday issues! Even after 62 years of self-governing independent India we cannot get to exercise our rights and get things done in the way it ought to be done! Superficially, India has improved leaps and bounds in many fields. The quality of life has improved but sadly the quality of ‘living’ has not! Many of us do not even realise that in some parts of the country, far from our busy cities and our so-called social consciousness, some people are still fighting for some basic things, not with the British Empire but with the Indian government.
Wake up, India!
It is startling that we have failed to realise the gravity of the situation we are in. Or is it like we have meekly surrendered to the official apathy and gone numb to issues around us? Or is it simply because we have lost the spirit of fighting that our leaders and millions of citizens in pre-independent India displayed against the British? May be, it is a bit of all of them. The freedom struggle for independent India was not scripted by Gandhi and Nehru and other leaders alone, there were millions of people who stood up at that time to fight. The only reason was they wanted to be the masters of their own destiny, to help themselves and the country, the single most important persona that each one of us is missing today! What we need today is freedom, freedom across all spectrums and at all levels and the political independence is only just a beginning. If this happens, India will be a real force to reckon with!
India is a nation with a very rich historic background. The Independence Day, India (Swatantrata Divas) is celebrated on the 15th August to commemorate its independence from the 150 years British rule and its birth as a sovereign nation on that day in 1947. It is one of the 3 national holidays in the country. Flag hoisting and distribution of sweets is done all over the country. This is a proud day for the Indians. The prime minister raises the national flag at the Red Fort in New Delhi, and delivers a nationally televised speech from its ramparts, which is viewed by millions of nationals. He highlights achievements of the government, important issues and gives a call for further development through his speech. Every Indian out there knows that the country achieved independence from the British rule on August 15, 1947 and this year marks the 62nd year of independence! Many of us also know from the history books in our schools the recorded sacrifices that were made to regain the sovereignty of our motherland! Equally familiar is the fact that on this day the country celebrates this landmark achievement in its usual customary and colourful ways! The National flag is hoisted in the national capital of New Delhi, and at the various state capitals and union territories. The Prime Minister lists the achievements of the country since the last Independence Day, raises the current and important domestic and sometimes international issues, and urges fellowmen to come together to solve it! Various cultural events are held, and special shows to honour the martyrs and the surviving freedom fighters are staged.
And so another Independence Day quietly comes to an end, the very day our forefathers and great leaders of pre-independent India dreamt of. But for us it is just another national holiday, a mere show of pomp, special shows on television, everything but an occasion to celebrate the spirit of independence, and relive and revive the spirit of fighting!
Why should we fight today? And against whom? Or what is there to fight for? Well, in my opinion we should ask ourselves why we have stopped the fight! After all, we have so many nagging problems, big and small, around us! Isn’t? Unfortunately, today we have ‘learnt to live’ with these problems and as long as they don’t ‘severely’ make a dent on our personal lives, we just don’t care! But have we ever wondered where we went wrong! I know this will kick start the blame game! There is corruption, red tapism that slows down development, and there are no good politicians, no leaders, no vision, no resources, and so on! But do we also realise that we too are responsible for this dismal state of affairs? Everyone knows that there cannot be a change overnight but I hope we will agree that there has to be some beginning somewhere!
Independence vs freedom
What is independence and what is freedom? For most of us political independence is freedom enough! The term ‘independence’ and the sense of ‘being independent’ has outshined the freedom struggle fought by our leaders and countrymen. What they sought was an independent India and more than that the ‘freedom’ to govern ourselves and to be dictated by some foreign force! Sadly, we have achieved the political independence but only some degree of real freedom. Real freedom is what will turn our country into a strong and united India! And every one of us should be fighting for it now!
Take for instance the personal freedom, a freedom that can be exercised by one individual without violating the other person’s freedom. In a nutshell, the freedom to express my views, do my own things without hurting others’ sentiments, and feelings and sentiments. It is a part of the civil liberties that protect an individual from the government of the residing nation setting limits for it so that it cannot abuse its power and interfere unduly with the lives of its citizens. Now how many of us can proudly say that we enjoy complete personal freedom in our ‘independent’ country?! I am not questioning here the rights of the government in upholding the law of the land or punishing the guilty and extending protection to its citizens.
Every government has the right to do that! But this is more about the apathy, of the government and a few individuals and groups, in the name of caste, religion, tradition, and gender that directly or indirectly violates my personal freedom to express my views or do my own things! It is an irony that only a select few have personal freedom which is only misused in restricting the freedom of others. There are more unwritten and unspoken laws being followed here than the customary written ones on bound books, which are almost never followed! Many of our laws are only ‘said’ in the right spirit but not ‘done’ in the right way.
Rights are not allowed to be fully exercised
Similarly we do not fully enjoy the civil rights, social rights, cultural rights and the rights to quality health, quality education, and defence to name a few. Even the right to vote has often been not allowed to exercise in the way we want it to, and needless to say the right to education is dictated by castes and money! Quality health services are denied to many. Everything comes with a heavy price tag! There can be several reasons for this but unfortunately our ‘muted mumbles’ is only making things get worse!
How many of us can proudly say that we enjoy all these rights to the fullest! Right from getting a birth certificate for our babies, to admissions in schools and colleges, and to get the jobs that we deserve, we compromise on everything. This compromise is not ‘ahimsa’ that Mahatma Gandhi stood for; this is typical ‘meek’ surrendering to the apathy of the few bad elements in the society! Of course, there will be a very few out there who would have not experienced the apathy of the officials at some point in time! But that’s only a handful of the population! A majority of us are still in the dark about our rights even on everyday issues! Even after 62 years of self-governing independent India we cannot get to exercise our rights and get things done in the way it ought to be done! Superficially, India has improved leaps and bounds in many fields. The quality of life has improved but sadly the quality of ‘living’ has not! Many of us do not even realise that in some parts of the country, far from our busy cities and our so-called social consciousness, some people are still fighting for some basic things, not with the British Empire but with the Indian government.
Wake up, India!
It is startling that we have failed to realise the gravity of the situation we are in. Or is it like we have meekly surrendered to the official apathy and gone numb to issues around us? Or is it simply because we have lost the spirit of fighting that our leaders and millions of citizens in pre-independent India displayed against the British? May be, it is a bit of all of them. The freedom struggle for independent India was not scripted by Gandhi and Nehru and other leaders alone, there were millions of people who stood up at that time to fight. The only reason was they wanted to be the masters of their own destiny, to help themselves and the country, the single most important persona that each one of us is missing today! What we need today is freedom, freedom across all spectrums and at all levels and the political independence is only just a beginning. If this happens, India will be a real force to reckon with!
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