Marketing & Innovation

Editor’s note: Benedetta is a 3rd year student who spent a week at Visionary Marketing as an intern to discover the world of business. As part of this internship, I asked her to use her linguistic abilities (she is Italian and speaks three languages ​​fluently) to build an overview of net neutrality through the Italian, English and French-speaking press in Europe. In spite of her young age- she is only 14 years old- Benedetta showed a great maturity and her analysis of this extremely complex subject of free internet is relevant and pertinent. So, I decided to publish this article for the benefit of our readers.

As the United States is one of the most powerful countries in the world, the question whether Trump government’s decision on the Internet will affect Europe and the rest of the world is a fascinating one to look at. I have looked into how net neutrality is approached in different countries, namely France, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium and Switzerland.

What is net neutrality?

Net neutrality ensures that all traffic on the Internet is treated in the same way, so that Internet service providers do not act with favoritism over content that passes through their “pipes” [i.e., physical (telecom) networks]. Blogs and newspapers have been focusing on this topic since the Trump administration decided to remove this neutrality in the United States. Le Figaro even called it “Christmas gifts to telecom giants”.

But why?

This decision has indeed favored the interests of ISPs (Internet Service Providers) such as Verizon, AT & T and Sprint. Since December 14, 2017, US Internet service providers have the right to encourage the traffic of companies that have the means to pay and leave all others on a slow lane, thus creating a two-speed network. Verizon has stated, however, that it will not use this right.

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Product, Placement, Price, and Promotion were the 4 Ps that served as a base for marketing until now. But the prevalent Internet boom has caused these principles to change and evolve. Anne Launois , Head of Audencia Business School’s digital major, and Yann Gourvennec , Head of the Specialized Master of Digital Business Strategy at Grenoble École de Management, shed light on these changes.

With Internet, businesses have to navigate their way through this plethora of sites and social networks. For Anne Launois, the new key to success in marketing is the process that puts the user at the heart of everything. “Digital has revolutionized the marketing approach. Nowadays, the customer expects added value from companies. To deliver on customer expectations, marketers develop content which facilitates relationship building with the consumer, and hopefully, ends with a sale. By putting the customer back at the heart of the process, enables the company to gain an overview of the customer journey.”

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Since the publication of the book ‘Leading Digital’ in 2014, there has been a lot of water under the bridge. In order to have a look into the updates of his findings and discover more about digital transformation, I interviewed Didier Bonnet, one of the authors of the book.

In terms of business maturity with respect to digital transformation, what has and hasn’t changed in the past 5 years?

First of all, I think a lot has changed in terms of the way companies have approached digital transformation. Five years ago, only a few companies were doing really well. Today it’s pretty much common parlance in company terms, as almost everyone has launched some form of digital transformation program.

Some companies like Nike are really making a big headway in this area. There are new technologies appearing on the scene such as AI, IoT and others, which are fairly complex. So, the difficulty of creating value out of these has increased tremendously, and therefore, what we see is a polarization of companies that have mastered digital transformation and are continuing to adopt and experiment with this technology very effectively.

 

 

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In 2017, 87% of marketers reportedly used social networks in their companies : we can therefore infer that social media have established a foothold in the marketing strategy of companies. They use social media for several business reasons: generating leads (45%), obtaining customer recommendations (32%) or employing them for social selling (27%) . Defining a social media strategy is not always easy, so in order to get an expert opinion on optimizing the Web presence, Claire Sorel of Visionary Marketing interviewed Anthony Rochand, social media expert and CEO of LEW.

5 key steps for defining your social media strategy

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Over the last twenty years, the Chinese digital market has been growing and evolving very fast and China has even become a worldwide leader in digital transformation today. However, China’s digital landscape is quite different from that of the West. Let’s discuss a few questions which would help you comprehend this intriguing market: What are the key characteristics of Chinese digital market? How could a brand succeed in E-marketing in China, especially a French or a Western brand?

 

First of all, what are the key characteristics of the Chinese digital market?

Firstly, the Chinese digital market has been growing very fast over the last 20 years, and China has even become a worldwide leader in digital transformation.

 

The total number of Internet users in China has exceeded Europe’s population, i.e., 772 mn in Dec. 2017, representing 56% of Chinese population. China is also leading the mobile payment revolution. In 2016, the mobile payment volume (in $) in China was already 11 times that of the USA. Apart from that, China has become a worldwide leader in e-commerce and New Retail. It’s also in the global top three countries for venture capital investment in some key technologies, like Virtual Reality, AI and machine learning, Autonomous driving, Robotics and drones, 3D printing, Big data, etc.

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