从Etsy的成功看膜拜自我潮流的商机

- 利用消费者数据来预测未来的消费者需求，不光是解决他们目前想要什么。市场研究公司Gartner将“情境和社交用户体验”列为2012年最重要的科技趋势之一。这也许听起来太术语化了，但想想Gartner的定义，这很有意义，特别是在“膜拜自我”时代。Gartner 表示，“情境和社交用户体验”指的是利用个人数据“预测用户需求，主动提供最适合和定制的内容、产品或服务”的软件系统。不光是注意到，比如，消费者正在购买比以往更多的无线键盘，或许你的公司可以用这些系统预测他们希望下次采购键盘时能增加哪些特色，从新的色彩到更符合人体工程学的外型等等。Gartner预测到2013年底，这样的预测系统将大行其道。使用这些系统的企业也会蒸蒸日上。

- 鼓励所有员工进行创造和分享，供内部研究。要知道，你的员工也是变身创作者的消费者。了解他们的业余习惯和个人兴趣，能快速获得洞见，用于产品开发。这可以很简单，让来自各个部门和各个层级的员工在内部或外部博客上、甚至公司的Facebook页面上贡献自己的原创想法——不限形式，鼓励员工分享自己原创的想法。在Frog，我们推出了一个“酷爱”计划，鼓励员工创造和分享视频、网络文章以及他们个人感兴趣的各种主题的信息。我们常常会衡量这些个人创意计划的受欢迎程度和可行度——比如一个员工在业余时间创作了一个精美实时的Twitter统计数据可视化软件，可以反映人们是通过何种方式、于哪些地点在Twitter上说了些什么。如果我们觉得有价值的话，就会动用公司的营销等资源支持这样的原创作品。这样，我们能找到具有潜力的新产品，而员工也能获得回报，这种方式非常有吸引力，并深具激励性。

    总之，要更好地理解“膜拜自我”，关键是要关注普通人如何对创造感兴趣以及对哪些感兴趣。看到和注意到DIY的原创潮流是一方面。明智的管理者还需要在仔细观察消费者如何创作体现个人“膜拜自我”的基础上，学会将这一理念灌输到如何指导公司给市场带来新产品和服务上。

    译者：老榆木

- Use consumer data to anticipate consumers' future needs, rather than merely address what they want now. Market researcher Gartner named "contextual and social user experience" as one of 2012's biggest tech trends. If you think that's a jargony term, it is. But consider how Gartner defines it, and it makes sense, especially in the Cult of Me era. "Contextual and social user experiences" refers to software systems that use data on individuals to "anticipate the user's needs and proactively serve up the most appropriate and customized content, product, or service," according to Gartner. Rather than note that consumers are buying, say, more wireless keyboards than ever before, perhaps your company can use these systems to predict they'll want certain types of additional features for their next keyboard purchase. This could range from new colors to more ergonomic shapes. Gartner predicts that through 2013, such predictive systems will thrive. Businesses that use these systems will, too.

- Encourage all employees to create and share for internal research. Remember, your staff is made up of consumers-as-creators. Learning about their extracurricular habits and personal interests can garner proprietary and quick insights that can be used for product development. This can be as simple as having employees from all departments and levels contribute their own, original ideas to internal or external blogs, or even the company's Facebook page—all formats that encourage the sharing of ideas along with an employee's direct ownership of these ideas. At frog, we've launched a "passion" initiative, where employees are welcome to create and share videos, online posts, and other materials about subjects they are interested in personally. We often gauge how popular and feasible some of these personal creative initiatives are—such as a beautiful, real-time data-visualization on how, where, and what people post on Twitter, created in an employee's spare time. Then, if it makes sense to, we help support such original new work with our company's marketing and other resources. It's a fascinating and motivating way for us to seek out potential new products that's also rewarding for employees.

    In conclusion, it's key to pay attention to how and what everyday people are interested in creating to get a better understanding of the Cult of Me. It's one thing to simply observe and note the current trendiness of DIY ingenuity. But the smartest executives will also learn to channel Cult of Me thinking to guide their companies in bringing to market new products and services based on keen observations of what consumers create as they fashion their own, individual Cults of Me.