I began toying with the concept of contextual commerce in a white paper that was published back at the turn of the millennium. My initial construct balanced on the notion that we were moving inexorably towards a contextual economy in which enterprises would necessarily have to manage context to maintain competitive advantage. In short, contextual commerce was predicated on the evolution towards every person, every enterprise and, ultimately, every machine, becoming massively connected to each other. From moment to moment, an individual’s or an organization’s needs might change based on a unique and rapidly evolving set of circumstances - in other words, their context. The notion of context dependency has tremendous ramifications for developing and maintaining competitive advantage for enterprises. Monitoring context, developing an offer and delivering it in a timely manner are fundamental to success in contextual commerce.
Eight short years later, we have achieved a semblance of a context-based economy. Incredibly connected and massively wireless, we find ourselves reinventing business models and delivery models and discovering that the old ways of doing things just don’t work. One function really feeling the effects is marketing.
The preponderance of new marketing channels that have emerged as a direct result of the growth of social media and mobile/wireless technologies is radically altering the traditional concept of integrated marketing. The world of advertising is already struggling with how to operate in this new environment and every other traditional channel is dealing with an increasingly fragmented marketplace. Navigating such a dynamic and challenging environment will require some tremendous reinvention, innovation and agility on the part of marketers if they hope to remain relevant and deliver a viable ROI.
One emerging concept to help marketers meet this challenge is the notion of ubiquitous marketing. Ubiquitous marketing represents an integrated marketing mix that is highly contextual, relying on the omnipresent access to the customer that is available using a broad combination of both the wired and wireless technologies in use today. By understanding where a customer is both physically and in their decision-making process, marketers can deliver timely, relevant products/service offers that resonate strongly and create an increased potential for a sale.
Critical to success in this new model is a recognition of the power of the consumer and a respect for their time and privacy. The critical competency for enterprises will be to understand what the customer wants, when they want it and where.
For more on ubiquitous marketing, see the work that Mary Beth Kemp, of Forrester Research, is doing here.
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