Pre-Commerce vs. E-Commerce: Shifting Priorities

Most companies are still prioritizing E-commerce, which centers on the transaction and represents less than 1 percent of the time that customers spend online, however. So says Bob Pearson, chief technology & media officer at global communications agency WCG and author of Pre-Commerce: How Companies and Customers are Transforming Business Together, who contends that these firms are missing major opportunities to influence purchasing decisions and build brands. Join Bob as he kicks off BMA Chicago’s 2011-2012 Marketing Innovators Luncheon Seminar series on Thursday, Sept. 8 at the Standard Club.  Each attendee will receive a hardcover copy of Bob’s book.  Members will be invited to participate in a post-session with Bob once they have registered.

 

In his book, Pearson points out how the exploding use of social media channels has fundamentally changed the way customers make purchasing decisions, how they educate themselves, and why they choose to support certain brands above others. He contends that firms should be allocating resources to this other 99 percent of online activity—seeking information via search engines, following opinion-makers on Twitter, and visiting company Web sites for product and service information, for example.

 

“When you study online behavior, you find that only 1 percent of people’s time goes toward the transaction, but almost all of our resources go there—that’s a big mistake,” Pearson says. His book includes exclusive interviews and anecdotes Pearson has conducted or experienced with numerous influential C-suite executives during his time as leader of Dell’s global social media team and as a consultant to Fortune 1000 companies worldwide. It also offers a step-by-step process for leaders to apply the book’s findings and begin transforming their companies immediately.

 

To do this, Pearson says, marketers must understand the new online landscape. “One myth of online B2B marketing is that customers don’t talk much but, in fact, they leave major quantitative trails,” he says. “There is a chance to get more involved in conversations and cut costs in traditional media.”

 

Creative destruction of traditional marketing models is occurring every day, Pearson contends. Not long ago, paid media, i.e., advertising, was king. Now, marketers must use a mix of paid, earned (publicity), shared (social media), and owned (company Web site) media, or their firms will get left behind. Database marketing is not dead, Pearson says, but customer databases will lead to a more refined approach—nicknamed “the SocialCloud”—that utilizes all 10 channels of online and allows customers to opt-in socially. Marketing costs “drop like a rock” when customers’ preferred channels are identified, he says.

 

As large middle classes emerge in developing countries, more customers are available, too. Since 2006, when he started studying online behavior, Pearson says, about 500,000 people have being going online every day for their first time, mostly in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America. The Internet is constantly evolving due to these new entrants, meaning that marketers must become students of social media in order to reach customers consistently, Pearson points out. “Your brand’s reputation is being formed by people every day,” he says. “This presents a chance to become a relevant peer in the conversation, but it requires a level of conversation sophistication.”

 

Pearson will share examples of new forms of online commerce that have been developed by firms in the vanguard: Amazon, Facebook, and Google. Firms such as these are true students of social media and understand which language best resonates with customers. “B2B marketers need to be experts in how customers make decisions and align their efforts with that,” Pearson says.
 

To register online, go here.   Each attendee will receive a copy of Bob's book in hard cover or e-format.

 

Bob Pearson has served as chief technology and media officer for WCG, a leading independent global communications agency, since May 2009. He is also vice-chair of the Emerging Technology Fund Committee for the State of Texas. He has honed his social media, marketing, and communications expertise at three Fortune 500 companies over nearly 25 years.

 

He was most recently vice president of communities and conversations at Dell Inc., where he was responsible for developing an industry-leading approach to the use of social media—before the term even existed—and built a B2B/B2C marketing team from scratch. Before joining Dell, Pearson worked for Novartis Pharmaceuticals as head of global corporate communications and as head of global pharma communications, where he served on the Pharma Executive Committee.

 

Prior to Novartis, Pearson was president of the Americas for GCI and was responsible for creating and building the firm’s global healthcare practice. He was previously vice president of global public affairs & media relations at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer (now Sanofi Aventis) and worked at CIBA-Geigy in both communications and field sales.
 

Pearson is a frequent speaker and blogger on social media and shares his thoughts via WCG’s blogs wcgworld.com and precommerce.com. He has served on a variety of boards, including CancerCare, the Huntington’s Disease Society of America, and the Dell Foundation. He currently serves on the digital advisory board for Procter & Gamble and serves as an advisor to emerging technology companies such as MyEdu, Milyoni, and UserVoice.