The Custom Enterprise.com [Paperback]

Before industrialisation, this book's first chapter claims, the goods people bought were customised. When you needed shoes, you went to a shoemaker who made them to fit your feet. Industrialisation changed all that, but the Internet and e-commerce can bring it back. Indeed, it is a key contention of Wiegran and Koth that if e-commerce enterprises don't give customers more freedom to choose, they won't be in business for the long haul.

Customisation as far as e-commerce is concerned is not just about letting purchasers choose precisely what goods they want. It is also about knowing what they want before they do, letting them know what you have to sell that they might want to buy, and not bothering them with irrelevant information. In modern e-speak, it is all about carefully targeted marketing. So subsequent chapters of Custom Enterprise.com look at all kinds of ways e-tailers can make individuals feel special. Loyalty schemes, user generated site content, targeted advertising and e-mailings, for example. Wiegran and Koth also raise possibilities such as customised pricing--selling the same goods to different people for different prices. If this sounds unethical, their example of how it works in today's airline industry shows that it is already accepted practice.

There are lots of ideas in Custom Enterprise.com, and the book provides plenty of food for thought. Perhaps its most significant point is something that many other textbooks on e-marketing pass over. Marketing can be most effective when the targets think it is personal service. --Sandra Vogel

Re-imagine your business for the age of e-Commerce When you walk through the door of a high-street bookshop, are they able to re-arrange the entire store to reflect your preferences? Amazon can. Since the dawn of mass production, the people who make things have communicated with their customers only indirectly, and it shows. Products lack the personal stamp of the people who buy them. The internet age has given companies the means to communicate more directly with their customers and to incorporate their ideas in the design, manufacture and pricing. The custom enterprise has been born. Custom Enterprise.com outlines the concepts of customized communication, products and pricing and explains tools like online auctions, user generated content, mass customization and online market research, and looks at those companies which have been customization pioneers.

Back cover:Suppose your son tells you at breakfast one morning that your competitor has just launched a customized web site?You get into the office and you log onto your competitors new web site. At first it looks just like any other good web site. And then you start playing around with it and suddenly you realize what this site actually does. Everything about it is customised. From designing your own products, checking warehouse information, to tracking every aspect of your customers" behaviour. So you sit there, stare at the screen and slowly it dawns on you. They are going after the most profitable customers. After your most profitable customers. Your agenda has just completely changed.Inside flap:Since the dawn of mass production, the people who make things have communicated with their customers only indirectly, and it shows. Products lack the personal stamp of the people who buy them. Now, however, the Internet age has given companies the means to communicate more directly with their customers, and to incorporate their ideas in the design, manufacture, and pricing, creating customer value and a competitive edge. Drawing on their experience with major companies around the world, the authors cite innumerable examples of firms that have pioneered the building blocks of e-commerce. With its straight forward, good-humoured style, Custom Enterprise.com is a user-friendly guide to e-business which conveys an explicit message. You have the chance to become a custom enterprise now. In a few years" time you may not only be "not custom", but also " not enterprise".Re-imagine your business for the age of e-commerce…the custom enterprise has been born. Back flap:

Gaby Wiegran is project manager at Booz Allen & Hamilton, focusing on electronic commerce. She has acted as a consult for semiconductor and smart card manufacturers, computer retailers, software training centres and online banks in the USA, Europe and Australia. Her main interest is market entry strategies and the development of internal processes and systems that fulfil the requirements of the new economy. She wrote her PhD on customization and has published numerous articles on both that topic and on customer retention in electronic commerce.

 

Hardy Koth is a principal at Booz Allen & Hamilton and is leader of the European Electronic Commerce Group. His main consulting focus is in guiding companies through the process of the strategic transformation that is triggered by new customer requirements and competitive shifts. Before graduating with a Masters degree in Business Administration and International Relations from the University of Chicago, Hardy occupied management positions in various industries around the world. He is a frequent guest speaker on the implications and impact of the Internet on organizations.