Customers Rule! Why the E-Commerce Honeymoon is over and where Winning Businesses Go From Here [Hardcover]

Roger D. Blackwell (Author), Kristina Stephan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 19, 2001

Customers Rule! The high-tech honeymoon is over and customers are choosing the winners today — and it doesn't matter to them whether those businesses operate out of a storefront or reach them through a computer screen. Any company that's still debating whether the future belongs to traditional bricks-and-mortar stores or the dot-coms is probably already losing the battle.

Retail executives, consultants, and marketing firms alike have been jumping on the e-commerce bandwagon, proclaiming the end of retail as we know it. The numbers tell a different story. It's become clear that the Internet is not a revolution in retail — it's an evolutionary force and nothing more. No one can deny that the Internet has changed the way we live, communicate, and work, but the Internet is not where the retail war is being waged.

Today's battles are being fought supply chain against supply chain. The weapons are consumer-savvy sales, marketing and fulfillment organizations, multichannel retail, distribution and marketing operations, and yes, the Internet. The mission is complex and demands new skills and strategies, but the goal is a simple one: solving customers' problems better than their competitors and with better-than-current solutions.

Roger Blackwell and Kristina Stephan have spent years watching, analyzing, and advising the players. In Customers Rule! they offer case studies that reveal the inside story of successful operations like Victoria's Secret, L.L. Bean, Nordstrom's, Sherwin-Williams, and a dozen other corporations — companies that have created a blended strategy that combines the best of online and offline commerce. They also reveal the flaws that made companies like Boo.com, eToys, and Pets.com road kill on the information superhighway.

In Customers Rule! you'll learn about the crucial operational requirements for success in today's hyperaccelerated, hypercompetitive retail environment, discover how to reach online customers (and keep them once you do), observe successful online and offline branding strategies, and see how successful companies are creating customer satisfaction 24/7, 365 days a year. There's much more, but Blackwell and Stephan's principal message is that a blended strategy which preserves the best of the old and takes the best of the new is the surest way to success.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Customers Rule!, by Roger Blackwell and Kristina Stephan, is a back-to-earth management guide for the 21st century that emphasizes traditional business strategies incorporated with--but never overshadowed by--the Internet. Blackwell, an Ohio State University marketing professor, and Stephan, vice president of a consulting firm that bears her coauthor's name, note that even after the dot-com shakeout, many firms still place too much emphasis on the "e" side of e-commerce, giving short shrift to basics that connect them with consumers and suppliers. Dissecting companies that failed because of this (like Boo.com, the erstwhile sportswear e-tailer), along with those appearing to prosper by recognizing it (including Victoria's Secret and L.L. Bean, which both learned the ropes through conventional catalog operations), the authors emphasize that business fundamentals remain the key to success. Adding value for customers, establishing vendor relationships, controlling costs, and conserving cash are all important elements. They discuss specifics that combine traditional and New Economy ideas in original ways, like using omnipresent bricks-and-mortar establishments such as Kinko's for third-party distribution of online orders. No matter the business, the authors contend, the optimal result is a "blended strategy" that enhances customer and supply-chain relationships, decreases inventory and expenses, increases efficiencies, and reaches new customers.--Howard Rothman

From Publishers Weekly

Despite some outdated conclusions, Ohio State University marketing professor Blackwell and Stephan, a vice-president of Blackwell's consulting firm, convincingly assert that e-commerce represents an evolutionary step, not the death of traditional retail. Retailers must incorporate the Web's best with other good business practices. The last chapter outlines strategies to make one's company appear everywhere that consumers seek retail products--the secret, they argue, to future retailing success.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Crown Business; 1 edition (June 19, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0609608657
• ISBN-13: 978-0609608654
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,351,099 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Customers ( continue to ) Rule!, July 9, 2001

By 

Jiten V. Ruparel (Columbus, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Customers Rule! Why the E-Commerce Honeymoon is over and where Winning Businesses Go From Here (Hardcover)

The title, though provocative and tantalizing, is accurate.Authors Blackwell and Stephan are unabashed celebrities of the art and science of consumer behavior. It is no surprise whatsoever that the arguments and conclusions in the book are academically sound, intuitively resonant and empirically valid. It is no coincidence, either, that the style is personal, engaging and authoritative without being authoritarian. The resarch shows; practical current examples are used to cut through media hype and Wall Street analysts' obsession with trendy, flashy technology. Jump on the train, they say: the next e-business train leaving the station- all of them will take you to profits and increased market caps. WRONG! The book asks the difficult questions: Does the e-business integrate with the bricks and mortar reality of creating value for the customer? Does it make for a delightful experience? Does it make the customer want to keep coming back again and again? All this is necessary, but not sufficient. Does your e-business strategy create profit? Can this profit stream be sustained? Does it complement your current channels of supply chain management and does it lead you towards trhe new world of demand chain management? Does your strategy differentiate you from your competition? Can you sustain your advantage? The authors are technology savvy, but not mesmerized by it. The book offers insights into what strategies will work and which ones will fail and why. I recommend this book to MBA students everywhere. It is a survival handbook. Business persons will find the book practical and relevant.It will save them a lot of grief. The authors have their feet planted firmly in reality. They remind us: " e-business is no substitute for knowing what works in business and why." I learnt from this book and am giving copies to my colleague business profesors.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended!, June 19, 2001

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Customers Rule! Why the E-Commerce Honeymoon is over and where Winning Businesses Go From Here (Hardcover)

Roger D. Blackwell, a professor of marketing, teams with Kristina Stephan, a VP at his consulting firm, to dissect the dot-bomb crash - a phenomena they blame on a lack of solid business fundamentals. While they affirm that most pure-play dot-com business plans don't work, Blackwell and Stephan emphasize that businesses can benefit from incorporating new technologies with traditional methods of appealing to customers. In other words, don't use technology for technology's sake; use it to improve your logistics, financing, sales techniques and service to do a better job of providing what customers want. Although we are certainly at the beginning of a deluge of post-bubble books, we [...] strongly recommend this early entry, which resonates with simple common sense.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It seems so obvious in retrospect, April 23, 2002

By 

Michael G (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Customers Rule! Why the E-Commerce Honeymoon is over and where Winning Businesses Go From Here (Hardcover)

Blackwell and Stephan apply their considerable experience in buying behavior to the reality of the last several years and find most e-commerce endeavors wanting. Their message is simple: focus on providing a smooth, trouble free experience end to end and you will be far ahead of the pack. Sounds simple, and it isn't. Implementing this concept takes serious capital and serious experience.

This book is a good read for B2C companies online and offline. Its treatment of B2B is thin, and not really worth digging out. It already feels a bit dated, but it is still an absolute "must read" for retailers.