miércoles, 29 de diciembre de 2010

Abre tu empresa con todas las de la ley

Entre los factores con los que se mide la competitividad de los países se encuentra los trámites empresariales, uno de los más destacados es el relacionado con la apertura de una empresa.
Durante los últimos meses el gobierno mexicano se dio a la tarea de eliminar algunos trámites para alcanzar una mayor competitividad y eficiencia administrativa, además de contribuir con el crecimiento de las empresas.
De acuerdo con el Banco Mundial "la inversión productiva atrae capital nuevo y más comprometido, introduce nuevas tecnologías y estilos gerenciales, ayuda a crear nuevos empleos y estimula la competencia al reducir los precios locales".
La pregunta del día es ¿resulta tan complicado abrir una filial extranjera en el país? ¿cuáles son los pasos que debe seguir una empresa externa para ingresar al mercado mexicano?
Si bien la mayor parte del proceso para abrir una empresa extranjera es similar al que debe ceñirse cualquier empresa mexicana, es importante que conozcas el proceso de apertura:
1. Cualquier sociedad mercantil debe ser constituida ante un Notario Público o Fedatario Público. Para ello, se crea un instrumento notarial denominado "Acta Constitutiva" en donde se le da nombre y razón social a la entidad, se definen los estatutos sociales y se establecen quiénes serán los socios y participaciones de los mismos.
Además, en este paso se define el órgano de administración así como los apoderados y los poderes específicos que se les conferirán, duración de la sociedad y otros elementos importantes.
En caso de que la sociedad tenga accionistas extranjeros, ésta deberá ser inscrita en el Registro Nacional de Inversiones Extranjeras y cumplir con la presentación del Cuestionario Económico Anual así como los reportes trimestrales (en caso de estar obligada).
2. Luego de la constitución se debe tramitar la inscripción en el Registro Federal de Contribuyentes (RFC) a fin de obtener la cédula de identificación fiscal con el RFC correspondiente.
Si el notario contaba con autorización de emitir cédula provisional, prácticamente desde el día de la firma del acta constitutiva la empresa podrá contar con un RFC y con esto estar en posibilidad de abrir cuentas bancarias, imprimir facturas e iniciar operaciones.
3. Obtener las licencias "de acuerdo a la actividad de la empresa", por ejemplo: licencias municipales, salubridad, de uso de suelo, funcionamiento, ecológicas, entre otras. Pero cuidado, éstas varían en función del domicilio fiscal. Además, la empresa debe registrarse ante alguna Cámara de Comercio o, por ejemplo, en el Sistema de Información Empresarial mexicano.
4. Si la empresa busca importar y/o exportar bienes, debe ser inscrita ante el Padrón de Importadores y obtener el registro general, todo, en función del tipo de producto.
También es importante revisar aquellos activos que puedan estar protegidos ante el Instituto Mexicano de Propiedad Industrial (IMPI), dependencia gubernamental que tiene como principal atribución el proteger, fomentar la propiedad industrial y realizar los trámites que correspondan.
5. Es importante definir el esquema de empleo a través de un contrato de trabajo, así como los puestos y funciones a través de un organigrama. Para ello, la empresa debe gestionar su incorporación ante el Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS) y obtener su número de identificación patronal. Simultáneamente la empresa debe registrar por lo menos a un trabajador.
A partir de su incorporación, la empresa deberá pagar las contribuciones sociales en forma mensual y en forma bimestral las contribuciones al Instituto del Fondo Nacional para la Vivienda de los Trabajadores (Infonavit) y Sistema de Ahorro para el Retiro.
6. Por consiguiente, la empresa deberá expedir factura electrónica y abrir cuentas bancarias. Si efectúa operaciones de comercio internacional o por planeación estratégica es recomendable contar con una cuenta de cheques denominada en dólares americanos

Escrito por: Altonivel
28 de diciembre de 2010

viernes, 17 de diciembre de 2010

The Top Six Innovation Ideas of 2011

That's right. 2011. These six ideas emerged in 2010 as powerful "innovation invitations" and seem sure to intensify in power and influence. They'll increasingly be a source of, and resource for, innovation differentiation in 2011, if not for your organization, then for the firm you most dread competing against.
1. Contestification
Whether Google Demo Slam or Sprint's App Competition, digital media has become an innovation battleground for customers, clients, prospective partners, and young talent. Frito-Lay has already made competition the cornerstone of its Super Bowl advertising, and Toyota, desperate to remind people what a wonderful corporate citizen it can be, invites aspiring innovators to suggest how the firm's technology can be used for good in unexpected ways. Crowdsourced contestification is becoming institutionalized as a way firms can grow their own innovation nations. If you're not running an innovative innovation contest to invite participation and build brand, then you're reacting to your competitor's competition. Will your contest be competitive with their contest? Who's running it? Who's judging it? Who's winning it?
2. Keep Touching Me and I'll Screen!
Anyone who has an iPhone, iPad, or Kindle knows that media are no longer created merely to be viewed — content is designed to be touched, tapped, stroked, fingered, fondled, and pinched. Interfaces have gone tactile and haptic. The keyboard isn't dead or dying, but it's lost pride of place in defining onscreen interaction. Where professionals once wrote memos to be read, 2011 begins an era in which documents are written with touch both in mind and on fingertips. Designing documents to be a sensual physical experience and not just a visually cognitive one demands different aesthetics and sensibilities. This nascent transition will be as profoundly important for future interpersonal communications — and branding — as the transition from radio to television. Having the right touch to get the right touch will become a desirable communications competence.
3. WWWabs
If you explore their websites, you'll find American Express, Google, Intuit and scores of others have "labs" — not-quite-ready-for-prime-time alpha and beta versions of apps to explore and test. These innovation playgrounds vary wildy in quality, creativity and breadth. A few of these test-tube innovation babies are quirkily weird; others have the glimmer of interactive genius. These WWWabs will undoubtedly be reshaped by the seemingly irresistible rise of Facebook as an advertising and promotional vehicle. Indeed, Facebook's role as a third-party innovation platform is still a work in process. However, the economics of experimentation for both customer-facing and internal WWWabs is undeniably favorable. It's easy to marry a WWWabsite with a contest, for example. More important, WWWabs symbolize the substantial shift in one of the dying innovation anachronisms of the post-industrial era. That is, the importance of "research & development" to business innovation. WWWaboratories are about the real future of virtual value creation. Instead of R&D, what matters is E&S — Experiment & Scale. WWWabs go mainstream worldwide next year.
4. That's Quite A Coup, Onward Group!
Google's failed effort to acquire Groupon for a reported $6 billion (!) obscures the tectonic economic shift in global retail. Devices of all kinds have gone from advertising, branding, and marketing media to promotional platforms. The coup is in a new genre and generation of trackable couponing. Coupons have been redeemed as a "class" not just "mass" vehicle for luxury and high-status items as well as for everyday brands and staples. Digital coupons aren't just "smart," they can be "brilliant" — linked to recommendation engines, GPS, supply chains, etc. Once significant distinctions between coupons, coops, discounts, and promotional currencies are blurring into nothingness. Indeed, we'll see "pick your preferred promotion options" in Android and Apple apps next year. Facebook, Foursquare, and Twitter will dramatically expand both the reach and ingenuity of their promotional partnerships. Advertising will take a backseat to promotional offers as retailers and brand managers alike collectively decide that branding a promotion matters just as much as promoting a brand. Next year will be the first year that almost half of all American and European shoppers have a digital coupon in their device almost half the times they shop.
5. From Farmville to Pharmville: We Got Game in Business
I don't like Farmville or Call of Duty but tens of millions of loyal players do. The Kinect interface has made Microsoft as culturally cool with gamers as Halo once did. The Kinect's hackability has made that system even more appealing. Which means that, finally, social media-oriented games will finally cross the great divide from the living room and teenager's bedroom into the workplace. There will be a Farmville counterpart or equivalent that becomes a welcome teaching and/or business simulation and learning tool in the enterprise. Unlike the Sims or SimHealth (which I once thought would be the gateway to enterprise gaming), the pervasiveness and growing acceptance of social media as an adult activity makes an adult business simulation game a probability instead of a possibility. The emergence of haptic, tactile, and gestural interfaces similarly boosts the opportunities for adult-oriented games design. Will this new game go viral first in China, Japan, Korea, or Europe before America? I haven't a clue. Remember, it took over five years for texting to catch on in America. But the companies that succeed in gameifying their products, services, and brands will enjoy a certain Zynga in their step.
6. A Beautifully Designed Lobby
America remains the world's largest economy by far. But this is a country confronting fundamental changes in the largest sector of its economy (healthcare), the most troubled sectors of its economy (housing and finance), as well as big-ticket sectors such as energy, education and telecommunications. No matter which way a CEO turns, she faces the spectre and shadow of increased government regulation and/or oversight. Europe faces comparable challenges as the EU as a monetary union confronts the limitations of the EU as a political project. China isn't about to deregulate; India's bureaucratic raj may be loosening its grip on the subcontinent's marketplace but its influence is unavoidable. In other words, a charismatically innovative lobbyist may have a bigger impact on marketplace success in 2011 than the country's most savvy technologist or marketer. Even as the global financial crisis — and America's housing crisis — ever so slowly dissipate, state intervention and involvement in the marketplace is arguably the single biggest gating factor in innovation. From EPA cleantech regulations to net neutrality to marginal tax rates to quantitative easing to currency wars, innovative executives have to pay attention to government behaviors as closely as they do customer behaviors. In 2011, a marginal dollar invested in a lobbying campaign may yield far greater returns than a dollar invested in a brave new technology innovation. Then again, it's important for businesspeople to have the finest legislators that money can buy. Think of them as part of the global supply chain.
This is my call for the top six ideas to watch next year. Which two of these six themes will matter most next year? What would make it on to your list of top ideas in 2011?


Articulo por:

Michael Schrage

Michael Schrage, a research fellow at MIT Sloan School’s Center for Digital Business, is the author of Serious Play and the forthcoming Getting Beyond Ideas.

What is the starting point for customer experience strategy success?

In the second of her series describing 10 essential characteristics of customer experience, Lynn Hunsaker looks at strategic planning templates, consultants’ models, and business and marketing textbooks for the correct first step.

Ironically, most strategic planning templates, consultants’ models, and business and marketing textbooks begin with other topics and address serving a customer need much later in their prescription for success.

Customers make paychecks possible, so businesses exist to serve a customer need that results in a profitable revenue stream. Customer experience management iis a dedication to serving customer needs from their perspective.

Customer experience is defined entirely by customers, but the solution provider defines customer experience management (CEM). The customer is the judge of whether their experience was acceptable or stellar, or not; the customer defines the duration of their experience, as well as the context and the criteria. Therefore, CEM seeks to understand the gap between desired and current experience as seen from the customer’s viewpoint (not just the competitive performance gap, per se). Then CEM solves the gap holistically and anticipates the evolving needs of the customer to prevent future gaps.

Mis-matched priorities

While I strongly admire and advocate these organisations’ thought leadership, I beg to differ with their starting point for customer experience success. For example:

  • The Marketing Leadership Council’s five steps describing world class marketing capabilities are: 1) developing strategy and planning, 2) defining brand strategy and managing the brand, 3) understanding customers, 4) managing the marketing function, 5) executing the marketing plan. My view: How do you know the strategy and brand are right until you know your customer? A deep understanding of the customer drives better segmentation, SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, strengths) analysis, and branding.
  • In the landmark book Managing the Customer Experience (2002) by Shaun Smith & Joe Wheeler, the first steps are to determine "how do our customers need to behave to achieve our key growth plans" and "develop and maintain a differentiated point of view that is credible and relevant to customers". My view: How do we need the company to behave in order to achieve alignment with customers that naturally results in desired growth?
  • In a more recent book with great CEM advice, Customer Experience Strategy (2010) by Lior Arussy, the first step is "understanding the brand and its impact on the customer". My view: I agree with obtaining a deep understanding of the gap between the brand promise and reality from the customer’s perspective, and the resulting impact on customers. This leads to adapting the brand as needed to serve the customer’s need.

First things first

Why not start with the customer? What do they want? What is their reality? Some managers reply that the customer doesn’t really know; they’re not expert in the sophisticated product or service they buy. Some managers point out that what customers say they want and what they actually buy are often two different things. Other managers admit that they never thought about that because they assumed the purpose of a business is to create profit, and therefore, customers should automatically appreciate the offering or perhaps customers must be educated on why the organisation’s offering is desirable and superior. All of these hesitations to listen intently to customers can be overcome with the right approach to CEM.

 

I’m reminded of cake recipes that advocate mixing the dry ingredients first; while the end-product is edible when this advice is not followed, it’s less likely to win first prize at the county fair. Likewise, businesses that start with understanding the customer, rather than the other way around, become well rewarded financially for superior customer-centricity.

The famed professor Philip Kotler’s more recent textbooks such as Marketing: An Introduction, 9th Edition (2009), now put the customer first: chapter 1) Creating & Capturing Customer Value, chapter 2) Partnering to Build Customer Relationships, chapter 3) Analyzing the Marketing Environment, etc.

Paradigm shift

Some organisations do place voice of the customer as the starting point for their innovations, business processes, management attention, and resource allocation. As the diagram above depicts, certification to the international quality standard ISO 9001:2008 indicates which companies "demonstrate ability to consistently provide product that meets customer … requirements and aim to enhance customer satisfaction through the effective application of the system, including processes for continual improvement of the system and the assurance of conformity to customer … requirements".

Think differently! "To figure out what customers want and to successfully innovate, companies must think about customer requirements very differently", advises Anthony Ulwick in What Customers Want (2005). As innovation thought leaders have advocated since the late 1990s, Ulwick states: "Companies must be able to know, well in advance, what criteria customers are going to use to judge a product’s value and dutifully design a product that ensures those criteria are met."

This approach has been adopted for product innovations such as the Bosch CS20 circular saw, Motorola radios installed in vehicles, J.R. Simplot french fries, Pratt & Whitney jet engines, and many others. Ethnography, or observation research, is particularly useful in gaining a pure understanding of the customer’s world. Metaphors are also very useful for expanding your organisation’s customer-centricity. It’s time for customer experience management community to adopt the thinking that the innovation community has espoused for the past decade.

I wholeheartedly agree with Ulwick: "With the proper inputs in hand, companies dramatically improve their ability to execute all other downstream activities in the innovation process, including their ability to identify opportunities for growth, segment markets, conduct competitive analysis, generate and evaluate ideas, communicate value to customers, and measure customer satisfaction." Re-examine your customer surveys to be sure you are allowing the customer to define the experience, and using their input for enterprise-wide CEM.

This post is second in a series describing 10 essential characteristics of customer experience.

Lynn Hunsaker is customer experience strategist and founder of ClearAction, which helps organisations get more value from customer feedback by applying it to daily decisions and processes enterprise-wide. Her specialties include customer experience innovation, customer-centric employee engagement, and customer relationship skill-building. She is author of three e-handbooks: Customer Experience Improvement Momentum, Metrics You Can Manage For Success, and Innovating Superior Customer Experience.

miércoles, 15 de diciembre de 2010

Más recursos de apoyo para Pymes en el 2011

Foto: Edgard Zuñiga./ elempresario.mx
Para seguir impulsando a las empresas de menor tamaño y promover su crecimiento, la Subsecretaría para la Pequeña y Mediana Empresa (Spyme) contará con alrededor de 10,000 millones de pesos para sus distintos programas en el 2011.
El Fondo Pyme, para el siguiente año,tendrá un gasto de inversión de 6,724 millones de pesos, lo que significa un incremento de 14.2% con relación al 2010.
Victor Sandoval, director general adjunto de Información Empresarial de la Secretaríade Economía, (SE) explicó que a través de este fondo se apoya de forma segmentada a diferentes actores como son: emprendedores, microempresas,pequeñas y medianas, así como empresas gacelas y tractoras.
Añadió que los emprendedores son beneficiados mediante las incubadoras de negocio, que otorgan capital semilla, capacitación y consultoría para crear o fortalecer iniciativas de negocios.
Víctor Sandoval expuso que para apoyo a las microempresas se crean programas específicos como Mi Tortillería, Mi Tienda, Mi Taller, Mi Cerrajería y Mi Panadería en los cuales se otorga consultoría,financiamiento y actualización tecnológica para incrementar su competitividad.
“Para el segmento de Pymes se trabaja mediante el Sistema Nacional de Garantías para que, a través de la banca de desarrollo, se les otorgue créditos en condiciones preferenciales; también, se cuenta con 1,000 centros de atención especializada como: incubadoras, aceleradoras y Centros México Emprende que les ayudan en su desarrollo”, expresó.

Fonaes

Para el Fondo Nacional de Apoyo para las Empresas en Solidaridad (Fonaes) se destinarán 2,103, millones de pesos, lo que significa un incremento de 16.4%,en relación al año anterior.
Ángel Sierra Ramírez, coordinador general de Fonaes, explicó que la atención que brindan se enfoca en la atención de personas con recursos menores a 90,000 pesos anuales, que vivan en zonas de marginación y cuenten con proyectos de valor agregado.
Puso en relieve: “La mayoría de los proyectos productivos que se solicitan se encuentran principalmente en el área de ganadería y agricultura controlada, seguidos por la industria textil, alimentos, artesanías y ecoturismo”.
Añadió que para obtener recursos para abrir o ampliar un proyecto, las personas deben de contar con un plan de negocios y verificar que el giro se encuentre en el catalogo de actividades económicas acreditadas por Fonaes.
Mediante el programa se puede acceder a recursos hasta por 80,000 pesos, para ello, las personas deben de integrarse a un proceso de incubación, es decir, a una serie de talleres y asesorías impartidos por el organismo.

Pronafim

El Programa Nacional de Financiamiento al Microempresario (Pronafim) se encuentra integrado por el Fondo de Financiamiento a Mujeres Rurales, (Fommur), que recibirá 253 millones de pesos, un aumento de 28 % con respecto al ejercicio del 2010; también, lo integra el Fideicomiso del Programa Nacional de Financiamiento al Microempresario (Finafim) que recibirá 220 millones.
María del Carmen Díaz Amador, coordinadora general de Pronafim, explicó que ellos apoyan las iniciativas productivas y emprendimientos de personas en situaciónde pobreza, que no tienen acceso a financiamiento de la banca comercial.
Añadió que a través de las microfinancieras integradas al programa, a lo largo de la república mexicana, se puede solicitar recursos para fortalecer negocios.
Díaz Amador explicó que el Programa hasta hace tiempo sólo se dedicaba a la conservación de empleos ya existentes, pero que a partir del siguiente año también se abocarán a la creación de negocios, a través de formar alianzas con organizaciones como el Banco Mundial.

Programa Nacional de Franquicias

Para el Programa Nacional de Franquicias (PNF) el 2011 permanecerá casi sin movimiento,con una asignación de la SE de 350 millones de pesos.
Diego Elizarrarás, presidente de la AMF explicó que el PNF apoya tanto a las personas que deseen adquirir una franquicia, como a las que quieran franquiciar un negocio exitoso.
“Para desarrollo de nuevos conceptos, la Secretaría de Economía apoya con 50% del costo de desarrollo y se paga hasta en 36 meses”, aseguró.
Agregó que para comprar franquicias, se otorga hasta 50% de la cuota de franquicia en marcas certificadas por el PNF y se paga 20% el primer año, 40% el segundo y 40% el tercero.
“Cada uno de estos programas va orientado a diferente tipo de necesidades y sectores y obedece a una estrategia nacional encaminada al crecimiento, innovación y desarrollo de las empresa que las Pymes mexicanas pueden aprovechar”, dijo Humberto León, director del Centro de Innovación Empresarial y Financiera, del Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM).
Añadió que resulta de suma importancia que cada vez más empresas lleguen a conocer los programas y participen en ellos para generar un mayor impacto, y para ello es menester que los empresarios hagan una mayor labor de investigación y el gobierno una mayor difusión, pues el éxito de los programas dependen de ambos.
amoreno@elempresario.mx
CRÉDITO: 
Alberto Moreno

martes, 14 de diciembre de 2010

Portal INTEGRAPYMES estrategia para las empresas Mexicanas

La  Corporación Financiera  Internacional  IFC,  miembro  del  Grupo  Banco  Mundial, la Confederación  de  Cámaras  Industriales  de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos CONCAMIN,  y el Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey se  aliaron para crear el portal INTEGRAPYME con el objetivo de  apoyar el desarrollo y la competitividad de las pequeñas y medianas empresas en México.

El portal cuenta con “SME Toolkit  Integrapyme”,  un  portal en línea gratuito para micro, pequeñas y medianas   empresas   que  permite  el  acceso  a  información  de  gestión empresarial  actualizada y a herramientas útiles como: preparación de un plan de  negocios,  acceso  a  información  legal,  contable,  financiera  y  de mercadotecnia, calidad entre otros temas.

“SME  Toolkit  Integrapyme  es la herramienta de gestión empresarial gratuita más completa, diseñada especialmente para las micro, pequeñas y medianas empresas.

CONCAMIN  y  el  Tecnológico  de Monterrey han desarrollado los contenidos y el formato del portal para  adaptarse a las necesidades gerenciales específicas de  las  empresas  con más de 1,000 herramientas y artículos especializados en el sitio web:  http://www.integrapyme.com.mx/.  El portal ofrece también foros en línea y conferencias para incrementar la integración e interacción directa entre las empresas participantes.

Es una gran herramienta que las empresas mexicanas pueden adaptar a su operación y apoyar a su estrategia. Puedes desarrollar con el software proyectos y gestionarlos así como integrarlos a Excel y otros programas entre otras aplicaciones de gestión checa los tutoriales un excelente esfuerzo de IBM, ITESM, CEMEX, e IFC para incentivar el crecimiento económico.

The 10 Most Innovative Viral Video Ads of 2010

Josh Warner is president and founder of Feed Company, which promotes and distributes brand videos, including campaigns such as Levi’s “Backflip,” Ray-Ban’s “Catch” and Activision’s “Bike Hero.” In four years, Feed has seeded more than 200 videos across the social web.
Everybody loves viral videos. That’s why they’re “viral.” Ad agencies have been trying, in their own way, to replicate the success of viral videos to help their campaigns get exposure and new fans. While some may miss the mark, there are some truly great and innovative viral video ads out there.
For this year’s top innovative viral video ads, advertisers and ad agencies split their goodness between web specific videos and great TV ads that did well online. Regardless of origin, the top 10 videos share several traits worth noting. Every creator knows his or her audience well and what executions appeal to them most. The videos are also inclusive in tone, making you feel like you’re a part of the brand’s message and experience.
This positive, inclusive tone and tight content/audience match make this year’s social videos worth sharing. Let us know your favorites in the comments below.

1. NSFW. A Hunter Shoots A Bear!


 
 
Click HERE for the full interactive experience.
Advertiser: Tipp-Ex
Ad Agency: Buzzman
Why It Works: What if you were a hunter and had to choose between shooting a bear or dancing with it? With a seemingly infinite number of responses to anything clever or dirty you might think of, this video from Tipp-Ex, a white-out tape, takes choose-your-own-adventure style videos to a whole new level. A distinctly old-school product does something brand new on the YouTube() platform.

2. Embrace Life


 
 
Advertiser: Sussex Safer Roads Partnership
Ad Agency: Alexander Commercials
Why It Works: One of the most innovative videos of the year is a British PSA that encourages people to wear a seat belt. You expect it to be boring, right? But it takes your breath away with simplicity and emotion. It is a welcome respite from traditional scare-tactic PSA’s.

3. Guy Walks Across America


 
 
Advertiser: Levi Strauss & Co.
Ad Agency: Conscious Minds Productions
Why It Works: Walking across America should take more than two minutes but this imaginative stop-motion-film from Levi’s definitely makes you want it to last even longer. The 2,770 still photos of a hipster footing it through America’s byways and landmarks clearly strike patriotic chords for a country in search of good news. It even comes with a Google map that traces the route of the filmmakers.

4. Old Spice Responses


 
 
Advertiser: Procter & Gamble
Ad Agency: Wieden + Kennedy
Why It Works: Not having this as our number one ad is the same reason why you pick someone other than Arcade Fire as your favorite band. It’s just too obvious. But Isaiah Mustafa is, hands-down, this year’s social superstar along with W + K for the Old Spice response videos. All 200+ of them.

5. The Puma Hardchorus


 
 
Advertiser: Puma
Ad Agency: Droga5
Why It Works: Millions of men had to choose between soccer and their loved one when major matches fell on Valentine’s Day this year. So Puma put the toughest European footballers in a video to sing a romantic song that would help soccer fans out of their scheduling jam — a brilliant example of doing something nice for your customers. Take a look at the video comments on YouTube for a peek into the psyche of European football.

6. Google Chrome Speed Tests


 
 
Advertiser: Google()
Ad Agency: BBH / Google Creative Lab
Why It Works: This video shows a race between Google Chrome() loading a web page and a potato getting shot through a gun on its way to becoming a French fry. It’s a video for everyone that’s sick of waiting for web pages to load in their browser, which is, well, everyone.

7. Swagger Wagon


 
 
Advertiser: Toyota Sienna
Ad Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi LA
Why It Works: One of the best ways to find an audience online is to know exactly who you’re looking for — and then make them feel good. Toyota and its ad agency did both with a video that makes any parent in search of a minivan feel cool and hip.

8. There’s A Soldier In All Of Us


 
 
Advertiser: Activision
Ad Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day
Why It Works: Kobe Bryant and Jimmy Kimmel join us regular folk (the concierge, short-order cook, businesswoman) in playing real-life soldiers in this spot for Activision’s “Call of Duty: Black Ops” video game. The video’s inclusive message does a great job showing us the new game is for everyone.

9. Write the Future


 
 
Advertiser: Nike Football
Ad Agency: Wieden + Kennedy
Why It Works: This epic video takes you through make-or-break moments of three soccer greats and how their lives change either way. Shot by Mexican director Alejandro Inarritu (“Babel”), it got millions of web views in its first week and was a great promotion for both the FIFA 2010 World Cup() and Nike.

10. Master of Business Card Throwing


 
 
Advertiser: Samsung
Ad Agency: The Viral Factory
Why It Works: Viral video trick ads are dated, but this execution for Samsung’s new digital camcorder makes you want to toss business cards for a living. You can’t watch it without trying to do it yourself, or at least film it. Hopefully with a Samsung Digital Camcorder H205.
Thanks to Matt Koskela for research assistance.

ARTICULO DE MASHABLE.COM

miércoles, 8 de diciembre de 2010

How Much Will You Spend on Social-Media Marketing Next Year?

Next year, 80% of companies with 100 or more employees are expected to use social-media tools for marketing, up from 73% in 2010 and nearly double the usage rate in 2008, according to eMarketer. Surely that means big budget increases for next year, right?
Businesses remain torn over whether the best strategy is to manage social media through their corporate communications group, their marketing department, or a separate social-media group. Adding to the complexity: marketers are inundated with pitches from ad agencies, PR agencies and social-media vendors -- all hungry for new projects for 2011.
Social media is free, right? In some business sectors, the thinking still holds that social media is free, or nearly free. Although earned media -- the value that companies get when their marketing messages spread virally -- is indeed free publicity, there is almost always a cost associated with it, whether it be staffing, creative development or monitoring the results.
The good news is most marketers say they are increasing social-media spending next year. But the actual dollar amounts are all over the map.
In a worldwide survey by SEOmoz, a search-marketing company, more than half of the 9,000 respondents said their budget for outsourced social-media marketing was zero. Only 2.9% said they spent more than $5,000 per month.
On the other end of the spectrum is Altimeter Group, which surveyed 140 social-media strategists at major businesses for a report on the corporate social-media strategist function. One-third of respondents indicated that their company was spending between $100,000 to $500,000 in 2010, and 23% had a budget of $500,000 or more. These companies can be considered among the leading adopters of social media.
There are few benchmarks. Marketers don't agree on how much of their marketing budgets they should spend on social media. Surveys indicate that marketers spend 4% to 11% of their online marketing budgets on social media. This wide divergence is indicative of the fact that social-media marketing budgets are spread across multiple departments and groups, and that some types of companies and industries are more advanced than others.
What does this mean? Even if companies find it impossible to set a specific budget for social media, they can still take a holistic approach, incorporating it into their marketing planning from the start. At General Motors, budgets for social media next year will come from the brand marketing groups, according to social media chief Christopher Barger.
That means GM will do a better job of aligning its social strategy with the rest of its marketing strategy. And by shifting management to the brand groups, it does something more important: it gives social media a place at the adults' dinner table, not the kids' table.
That, in the end, may be a better strategy. Maybe marketers should worry less about how much they are spending on social media, or whether there should be a separate budget, and more about whether those dollars are working as hard as they can, producing real, quantifiable results.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Debra Aho Williamson is a principal analyst at eMarketer.


Articulo de ADVERTISINGAGE

viernes, 3 de diciembre de 2010

Column: Good Decisions. Bad Outcomes.

by Dan Ariely

If you practice kicking a soccer ball with your eyes closed, it takes only a few tries to become quite good at predicting where the ball will end up. But when “random noise” is added to the situation—a dog chases the ball, a stiff breeze blows through, a neighbor passes by and kicks the ball—the results become quite unpredictable.
If you had to evaluate the kicker’s performance, would you punish him for not predicting that Fluffy would run off with the ball? Would you switch kickers in an attempt to find someone better able to predict Fluffy’s involvement?
That would be absurd. And yet it’s exactly how we reward and punish managers. Managers attempt to make sense of the environment and predict what will result from their decisions.
The problem is that there’s plenty of random noise in competitive strategic decisions. Predicting where the ball will go is equivalent to deciding whether to open a chain of seafood restaurants on the Gulf Coast. The dog running off with the ball is the BP oil spill. When the board reviews the manager’s performance, they’ll focus on the failed restaurants. The stock is down. The chain lost money. Since the manager’s compensation is tied to results, he’ll incur financial penalties. To save face and appear to be taking action, the board may even fire him—thus giving up on someone who may be a good manager but had bad luck.
The oil spill example is an extreme case. In the real world, the random noise is often more subtle and various—a hundred little things rather than one big thing. But the effect is the same. Rewarding and penalizing leaders based on outcomes overestimates how much variance people actually control. (This works both ways: Just as good managers can suffer from bad outcomes not of their own making, bad managers can be rewarded for good outcomes that occur in spite of their ineptitude.) In fact, the more unpredictable an environment becomes, the more an outcomes-based approach ends up rewarding or penalizing noise.
In the last year I’ve asked many board members how much of a company’s stock value they think should be attributed to the CEO’s strength, and the answer is surprising. They estimate that you’ll get about 10% more stock value, on average, from a good CEO than from a mediocre one. Implicit in that estimate is the understanding that many outcomes are outside a leader’s control.
We can’t entirely avoid outcome-based decisions. Still, we can reduce our reliance on stochastic outcomes. Here are four ways companies can create more-sound reward systems.
1. Change the mind-set. Publicly recognize that rewarding outcomes is a bad idea, particularly for companies that deal in complex and unpredictable environments
2. Document crucial assumptions. Analyze a manager’s assumptions at the time when the decision takes place. If they are valid but circumstances change, don’t punish her, but don’t reward her, either.
3. Create a standard for good decision making. Making sound assumptions and being explicit about them should be the basic condition for getting a reward. Good decisions are forward-looking, take available information into account, consider all available options, and do not create conflicts of interests.
4. Reward good decisions at the time they’re made. Reinforce smart habits by breaking the link between rewards and outcomes.
Our focus on outcomes is understandable. When a company loses money, people demand that heads roll, even if the changes are more about assuaging shareholders than sound management. Moreover, measuring outcomes is relatively easy to do; decision-making–based reward systems will be more complex. But as I’ve I said before, “It’s hard” is a terrible reason not to do something. Especially when that something can help reward and retain the people best able to help you grow your business.
Dan Ariely () is the James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University and the author of Predictably Irrational (HarperCollins, 2008).

Articulo publicado en la edicion de diciembre 2010 de HBR.