eve-olution: the 8 truths of marketing to women
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Reviews The M-bomb Geoff Webb Capstone Publishing; 2001; paperback 188pp; £15.99; ISBN 1-84112-139-8 The new competitive challenge for companies is to reorganise themselves to touch existing and new customers in both traditional and online channels at a high level of ef®ciency. In this new book, Geoff Webb calls this the M-bomb, which represents the multi-channel challenge which is forcing businesses to equip themselves to deliver products and services ef®ciently to the home or high street, online or through traditional channels. This is not a stunningly new concept. Since the demise of the young kids with their school satchels puffed with venture capitalists' monies, real businesses have begun to take over the Internet mantle. There is a general appreciation that the new economy is different and customers want access to a company through any channel at any time at any place in any currency. The Internet has spurred the streamlining of the supply chain (now demand chain) and the ability to personalise/customise products and services. CRM vendors and major consultancies have jumped on the customer relationship management bandwagon, but the problem has been that successful implementation of CRM systems has eluded most businesses. The technology is there, but often the end result of millions of dollars spent has not created the foreseen customer value and return on investment. The author rightly argues that the key skills over the next three years will include the way a business drives its customer relationships, integrates its marketing (brand contacts across in-store, TV, online, telephone) and integrates its product innovation and service (managing partners and end-to-end delivery and performance). Having pored through many tedious and poorly written CRM and Internet technology books, what is so refreshing about this book is that it is packed with practical experience. Not only is the text full of useful examples of those brands that have successfully ridden the `multi-channel whirlwind' but it is written in a very readable and fast-paced style. Central to the text is the premise that businesses must begin to build a set of ef®cient and convenient multi-channel operations and routes to market that blend of old economy skills of product innovation and retailing with the recent lessons of multi-channel Internet innovation. Rightly, the author believes the brand is king Ð that only a small number of the major brands will be able to secure `share of voice' in the multichannel world and survive independently over the next ®ve years. The text is conveniently divided into four parts. Part One, `Hearing the M-bomb Ticking', encapsulates the overall philosophy of the book, with particular reference to examples of where partnerships between companies have supplemented specialist internal skills (such as Toys R
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