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Now or Never: How Companies Must Change to Win the Battle for Internet Consumers
 
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Now or Never: How Companies Must Change to Win the Battle for Internet Consumers [Hardcover]

Mary Modahl (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)


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Book Description

December 8, 1999

The battle for the 21st century is now clear: inside, traditional brick and mortar companies are digging in for the fight of their lives; outside, a tightening circle of dot.com upstarts threaten to transform every feature of the economy. Is the war over already?

Mary Modahl thinks not; instead, she anticipates that the coming five years will be decisive--which is why companies that want to stay alive and thrive must act Now or Never.

The key to success in the brave new world of e-commerce is a deep and nuanced understanding of how consumers think about and use the Internet. Forrester Research--the world's most respected technology research firm--has developed that understanding in a groundbreaking model of consumer behavior called Technographics. For the firsttime ever, Now or Never shares the Technographics model with business people outside Forrester's exclusive client list.

Built on interviews with more than 250,000 Americans, Technographics divides consumers into ten sharply identified segments based on differing attitudes toward the Internet. That means each segment will use e-commerce in a different way and dive into buying on-line at a different pace.

Using Technographics, businesspeople--from companies that are small or large, established or brand new, traditional or dot.com--will be able to plot a well-reasoned, robust Internet strategy.

Beyond Technographics, the book also identifies and explains the startling, counterintuitive new business models that drive competition on the web. Now or Never introduces the concept of Dynamic Trade, a term that Forrester coined to describe the disruptive new way business gets done on the web.

With engaging prose that is chock-full of real stories, Modahl describes how Dynamic Trade changes the balance of supply and demand, requires companies to ramp up to scale faster ever, and zeroes out marginal cost.

As the battle for Internet dominance reaches a crisis, Now or Never stands apart. Written by a straight-talking business practitioner who knows and understands the Internet as well as anyone working today, this groundbreaking book confronts the most pressing business issue of our time with reasoned answers to the questions on the mind of every informed executive:

When will the Internet change the way I do business?

Why is the Internet transforming everything about the economy and competition?

How exactly will my industry and company change, in terms of customers, competitors, cash flow, and the bottom line?

AND

What should I do about it right now?



Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The hype and market valuations surrounding certain Internet stocks may lead one to conclude that the e-commerce race is over--or nearly so. Clearly, the Internet has caught traditional companies off guard, giving the more nimble dot coms a huge head start. But the race is far from over, says Mary Modahl, a vice president at Forrester Research. In Now or Never, she argues that we are in the first year of a "ten year transition in the way consumers shop and save," and that winning in the Internet space not only requires identifying consumers that are most likely to take their shopping online, but exploiting the new and different business models made possible by online commerce.

Modahl believes that conventional demographics, which segment populations according to their income and education, is a poor predictor of online behavior. As an alternative, she advances Forrester Research's work on "technographics," which measure consumers' attitudes toward technology. Forrester has found that 52 percent of the population is optimistic about technology and is "marching happily towards online shopping," and she shows how companies can better target their marketing strategies to meet this growing legion of consumers. In addition, Modahl considers the "post-Internet competitive environment," which she thinks will be "far more fluid and responsive to changes in supply and demand." Using examples of traditional industries that have had their business models turned upside down by Internet economies--newspapers, travel agencies, and brokerages--Modahl offers ways that the old guard can better cope with technology change, channel conflict, and their own inertia toward this new marketplace.

Well written and presented, Now or Never is a concise distillation of Forrester Research's approach to e-commerce. Anyone whose livelihood is connected to--or threatened by--the relentless march of the Internet would do well to read and consider this book. --Harry C. Edwards

From Publishers Weekly

Modahl, an analyst at Forrester Research, has spent the past several years researching the impact of the Internet on business, using questionnaires, focus groups and interviews. To make sense of the marketplace, she has developed a concept she calls "Technographics," an approach that examines and ranks computer users by their comfort level with technology and how likely they are to use the Internet. This scheme yields three basic users: Early Adoptees, Mainstream Users and Laggards. These groups can be further broken down into such subgroups as "Handshakers, successful professionals with low technology tolerance"; "Gadget Grabbers, lower-income consumers focused on tech-based entertainment"; and "New-Age Nurturers, affluent believers in technology for family and education." Understanding this segmentation model, argues Modahl, is vital for companies eager to remain profitable. Asked how companies should organize their Internet efforts, Modahl says the answer "depends on a company's consumer Technographics, on the speed and nature of business model change in their industry, and on the ability of the organization to fund Internet set-up costs." Writing with the authority gained from her research as well as common sense from her viewpoint as an online consumer, Modahl offers persuasive arguments for both Internet startups and existing bricks-and-mortar companies to rethink their approach to online service. 25-city-radio tour; author tour. (Dec.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 272 pages
  • Publisher: HarperBusiness; 1st edition (December 8, 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0066620120
  • ISBN-13: 978-0066620121
  • Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,854,684 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Average Customer Review
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63 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Carpe Diem, January 7, 2000
This review is from: Now or Never: How Companies Must Change to Win the Battle for Internet Consumers (Hardcover)
In my opinion, the title does a disservice to the extraordinarily valuable content of the book that bears that name. Those with extensive experience in the so-called E-conomy have learned (with the scar tissue to prove it) that words like "always" and "never" are irresponsible. So much for the title. Modahl writes with great skill. She has assembled a wealth of material which is Consumers (everything starts there...without such understanding, it probably ends there), Exploiting Internet Business Models (as Derek Bok once observed, "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance"), and then Defying the Gravity of the Old Ways of Doing Business (much easier said than done but imperative nonetheless). Modahl then provides an Appendix in which she examines "Technographics Methodology." I strongly recommend that, periodically, this Appendix be re-read in light of the certain and sometimes major changes which will occur in the E-conomy.

Informed by what seems to be an avalanche of real-world evidence, Modahl identifies five "alarming" trends:

-New pricing models that undermine existing revenues.

-Higher customer-service expectations.

-New ways to distribute products.

-Unexpected market opportunities.

-High rates of entry--even in very staid markets.

Given these trends, what to do? Modahl offers all manner of options, in combination with specific suggestions as to how "the battle for Internet consumers" can be won while retaining long-term value in an Internet business. Some of the winners will be traditional companies; others will be dotcoms. Modahl asserts that "The past is not what will drive the future." Some may agree with William Faulkner who observed, " The past isn't even the past yet."

In the final chapter, Modahl summarizes brilliantly the key points she has so carefully developed earlier. She then concludes, "In the end, the companies that win the battle for the Internet consumers will be the ones that really want to." At least in this context, for many of those unwilling and/or unable to engage in that "battle" now, tomorrow may indeed be too late.

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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable, Readable, Accurate and Timely, March 8, 2000
This review is from: Now or Never: How Companies Must Change to Win the Battle for Internet Consumers (Hardcover)
This book is a rarity. It is a book that deals with and discusses technology, research and marketing in a very readable manner. I sat down and blasted thru 60-65 pages in no time. The content makes sense. For anyone interested in tapping into the untapped market of online cutomers Forrester are the pros. They have been THE Internet research company for years. I have met Mary Modahl and have seen her present. She knows what she is talking abut and it comes through in this book. The first 65 pages are worth the price of the book alone. All of us who are in 'the business' think we know the business. Not true. We are in the forest and much step back and get fresh ideas, a fresh perspective. We don't really KNOW who are customers are and how to reach them This book can give us a clearer understanding of how to attract them and where to find them. Running banner ads all over the place isn't going to cut it anymore. One of the fun things about the book is how she defines Internet users. I laughed when she described my habits. They were 100% accurate, dead-on! Scary when you think about it. And I wasn't even one of the 250,000 people they interviewed. Spend the money, read the book, keep it in your library and share this information with your boss
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars INTERNETIZE, February 8, 2000
This review is from: Now or Never: How Companies Must Change to Win the Battle for Internet Consumers (Hardcover)
Well written book. The 1st part does get a bit boring with too much information and too many charts and graphs. Also, the research is very US based. The net is supposed to break boundaries.

But parts 2 and 3 are excellent. This is better than Customers.com. Very well thought with the exact amount of data and information. A must for anyone who is still sleeping and has not figured out how to leverage and profit from the net chaos. Over all a great job and the book is well worth the price.

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