The B2C2C Model

Back in the days business was either making money from consumers (b2c) or from other businesses (b2b).

Keeping myself within the frames of the World Wide Web I’ll present two new types of business models that would suit today’s businesses and information flow better.

The first one: B2C2C simply means that a company can sell one product to one consumer. The consumer can in turn either sell or share the very same product with other consumers without the company’s involvement. File sharing on illegal platforms is a great example of this. Consumer A buys a DVD from a company that sells DVD’s. Consumer A then uploads the DVD to a torrent site for instance and Consumer B and C downloads the very same content of the DVD. Consumer B and C then shares the content to Consumer D and E. And on it goes, it becomes a snowball effect that’s being controlled by the consumers rather than by the company. This can easily be implemented into various forms of media, just take sharing a Youtube clip on the social media platforms.

The power is not in the company’s hand anymore (But it will be if the cards are played right!). The company creates, the consumers distributes and shares.

The thousand-dollar question follows: How can a business make profit out of this? Since there only have to one product to satisfy a thousand people there must be a way to profit from that one sold copy. I’m talking advertisement, product placement and the whole shebang. By implementing watermarks and such into, for instance a movie you can make money out of that. Another way is to offer the most valuable consumers (the biggest sharers) an affiliate program where they can earn money and the company can control where their content is being distributed.

The B2C2C model - The originator and manufacturer provides their consumer with a product that's being distributed and marketed by the consumers.

Stay tuned for the C2B2C model!

The blog isn't dead- it's just resting

A small update to whom it may concern. I've been quite busy with marketing and non-marketing related activities lately so unfortunately the blog has been put aside for a bit.

New blogs will up and running shortly!

The company as a co-creator of value

It’s been said that the customer should be a co-creator of value for the company in order to help the company make the right products for the market.

I propose that the company, instead of the customer is the co-creator of value. The company is co-creating value with the customer who is the main creator.

Nowadays it is quite known that the company is a supplier of value propositions and the customer is a creator of value. Value is not defined as buying a sack of potatoes; value is defined as cooking a meal, having a dinner party with friends. Now think, who created the value? Was it the company who sold the sack of potatoes or the customer who invited his/her friends and cooked the meal.. The answer is pretty obvious isn’t it?

Back in the days a product or a service was something that the company made and threw out on the market. “Take it or leave it, this is what we’ve done for you”.

Then it got turned upside down, “Hey, would you like to be a part of developing new products? We’ve got some ideas but we’d sure love if you’d test em’”.

Now I turn it upside down again.

The companies should ask themselves: “What do the customers want us to do?” How can we make their lives better? How can we be a part of helping them create value?  Customers are the value creators and we assist them, we are co-producers of value!”

Of course the company’s got the machines, the funding the people and all that, BUT there’s something they don’t have. The company don’t have the WANT. The WANT is the property of a customer and is why you do something at all, the machines, the funding the people are merely tools to reach the WANT.

A little story about a small cleaning company in Tennessee:

-What do you want, how can we make it, how can we try to help you in your pursuit for value?

We can sell you a vacuum cleaner!Oh, you don’t want that?

We can provide you with a maid who cleans your house, Oh, you don’t want that?

Hmm.. We can… sell you carpet that keeps your dust away! Oh, you don’t want that either?

WHAT DO YOU WANT THEN?

The customer answers -I just want a clean house.

In this case value for the customer is a clean house, not a vacuum cleaner, a maid or the super carpet. These are only tools to reach value. By buying the vacuum cleaner the customer can reach joy and piece of mind that’ll eventually transform into value but the company’s role in this is to CO-Create value for the customer.

This of course isn't rocket science. These are obvious facts, but again that's what marketing is all about. Sometimes one just can't see the forest for the trees...

To be continued….

Creating customer value through social networks

As a continuation to my previous blog on why a company should enter the social media platforms this post will discuss some of the essentials on how a company can create value through networks. 


The purpose of a social network is quite simple, to connect humans. Though the core purpose of the networks remain there's been millions of added services to the networks in order to engage and connect the users on a deeper level, social games, photos, specific groups and pages, events that eventually has made the previous impossible things possible, or at least a lot easier.

As I already discussed in my previous post a social network requires communication, it's not a bulletin board. The mission for a certain company entering the social networks is to provide added value to their customers, something that can't be provided in the company's product or service. The customer needs to feel special and selected. The social networks is an excellent and fairly cheap place to satisfy and give their customers something more. By engaging the customers into discussions, treating each customer as a key-customer by listening and answering them makes the customer feel special and as a part of the company. This in turn will generate added value from the customer's point of view and strengthen their view on your brand. It's a social exchange really, customers get added value and the company gets a stronger brand, Win-Win!

By engaging the customer into your product-, or service development you'll get an insurance. The insurance consists of a risk reduction from a potential failed product or service, by working with the customer there'll be a risk reduction since the customer provides you with information on what he or she wants, not what you want to make for your customers (Ask not what you can do for them, ask what they can do for you) ! Not only do you get a risk reduction but also free labour to your company, instead of having a team of engineers figuring out what you actually should produce you get the customer to do the job. A concrete example for this is are the Angry Bird cakes (Count the comments and likes and you'll be amazed) that their fans have produced which in turn have opened up new market-opportunities to the brand (The official Angry Birds bakery is yet to be seen). But you get the point, by engaging your customers on the social networks a satisfied customer will become a brand-ambassador for your company.

You should really see your customer as a co-creator of value, the days when the company produced a product and threw it out on the market are over, finito, loppu-slut, sayonara. Finnish professor Christian Grönroos even went so far as to call the company something that only made value propositions for their customers, the actual value is created by the customers.

By engaging your customer in the development process and listening to their feedback the customer will feel valuable and special, or as Rovio's Mighty Eagle said, "Good things will come to good people" meaning that it pays off for the customer to provide you with feedback.


Food for thought...

Facebook as a business platform

Facebook is the place to be for everyone- or is it?


Think back a couple of years when Facebook pretty much was about sharing occasional vacation photos, sharing a cool memory, joining groups and inviting friends to your birthday-party. Those days are long gone..

Social gaming, Social Marketing, Liking, putting some of your friends to limited profile because you don't have the guts to completely erase them are some of the trends that have emerged on the book of faces. Last year the dominating social-game developers made more money than Facebook itself, so indeed the trends and our behavior on the platform have changed rapidly and radically.

I stumbled across a discussion at a group on Linkedin about smaller companies entering Facebook, I took part in the discussions and eagerly read the comments. Pretty much 90 % of the comments were encouraging small businesses to join Facebook without any kind of hesitation. Below I shall try to explain why a small business should or shouldn't enter Facebook.

Think small companies that are included in your everyday life; your local grocery store, hairdresser, the small candy store just down the street... Now Facebook them. What you might discover is that they can be found on Facebook which is good... or is it? I've seen hundreds and hundreds of small businesses, either B2C companies with direct access to their customers or the small B2B companies selling bolts and screws to the local tire-dealer. Now, what a lot of these companies has got in common is that they entered Facebook some one year ago, managed to get 20 likes or followers (mostly friends and family) and made one text entry: "We made it to Facebook!!!!!!!" or "We're finally here to assist you"... And that's it, the page is dead, passwords forgotten and the people who liked the page one year ago completely forgot that they ever liked it in the first place. Now that's social suicide. Either you're in or you stay out in the cold, or as the proverb says; Can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen!

Some basic, yet quite essential guidelines before entering Facebook:

-A small business should have a clear strategy on WHY they want to be on Facebook
- Do we have a clear goal, Are we trying to track down potential customers and HOW?
-What do we intend to share?
- How can we get more likes?
- How can we engage our 'fans' to share our page?
- How can we engage the users to comment and share multimedia on our wall?
- How can we use their feedback in order to make better products and services?
- How can we use other social media platforms to make our content interesting (Youyube, Picasa, Blogs etc.)?


Now this very first blog is more of a checklist and a hand break for smaller businesses that intend to join Facebook.

This is a great example of a  Social Suicide, the company is an advertisement agency that among others specializes in social media marketing.. Quite the irony...

Happy Facebooking and good luck!