organisation.
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Chapter 5 Digital business strategy
Dell Dell listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services they
trust and value.
eBay eBay pioneers communities built on commerce, sustained by trust, and
inspired by opportunity. eBay brings together millions of people every day on a
local, national and international basis through an array of websites that focus on
commerce, payments and communications.
Facebook Facebook is a social utility that helps people communicate more
efficiently with their friends, family and co‑workers. The company devel‑
ops technologies that facilitate the sharing of information through the social
graph, the digital mapping of people’s real‑ world social connections. Anyone
can sign up for Facebook and interact with the people they know in a trusted
environment.
Google Google’s mission is to organise the world’s information and make it univer‑
sally accessible and useful.
Vision statements can also be used to define a longer- term picture of how the channel will
support the organisation through defining strategic priorities. The disadvantage with brief
vision statements such as those shown in Box 5.2 is that they can be generic, so it is best to
make them as specific as possible by:
●
referencing key business strategy and industry issues and goals;
●
referencing aspects of online customer acquisition, conversion or experience and
retention;
●
making them memorable through acronyms or mnemonics;
●
linking through to objectives and strategies to achieve them through high- level goals.
Dell expands on the simple vision outlined in the box to explain:
Our core business strategy is built around our direct customer model, relevant technolo-
gies and solutions, and highly efficient manufacturing and logistics; and we are expanding
that core strategy by adding new distribution channels to reach even more commercial
customers and individual consumers around the world. Using this strategy, we strive to
provide the best possible customer experience by offering superior value; high- quality,
relevant technology; customized systems and services; superior service and support; and
differentiated products and services that are easy to buy and use.
Here’s a real example of a digital vision statement for a multichannel company that I was
working for, summarised to staff as:
1 × 2 × 3
●
Largest online audience share (No. 1) in Europe by XXXX
●
By XXXX, 1 in 2 of total sales will be generated online
●
1 in 3 of our people and our customers love our online services and will recom‑
mend them to a friend
●
2 in 3 customer service contacts will be electronic by XXXX
You can see that this is simple yet specific enough to link to future targets, unlike many vague
mission statements. More generic ‘calls to arms’ I have heard companies use are ‘Digital by
Default’, ‘
Digital First’ and ‘
Digital DNA’.
A more detailed vision statement for a multichannel retailer might read:
Our digital channels will make it easy for shoppers to find, compare and select products
using a structured approach to merchandising and improving conversion to produce an
experience rated as excellent by the majority of our customers.
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Different aspects of the vision statement (underlined) can then be expanded upon when dis-
cussing with colleagues, for example:
●
Digital channels = the website supported by email and mobile messaging.
●
Find = improvements to site search functionality.
●
Compare and select = using detailed product descriptions, rich media and ratings.
●
Merchandising and improving conversion = through delivery of automated merchandis-
ing facilities to present relevant offers to maximise conversion and average order value.
Additionally, use of structured testing techniques such as AB testing (see Chapter 12) and
multivariate testing will be used.
●
Experience rated as excellent = we will regularly review customer satisfaction and advo-
cacy against direct competitors and out-of-sector to drive improvements with the website.
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