[Collaborative Economy is next phase of social. Social networks share ideas, yet collaborative economy shares products & services]
[The next phase of Social Business is the Collaborative Economy; Brands will enable customers to share, trade, lend, gift products and goods using social technologies]
| Phase | Department Impacted | Notable Examples |
| Phase 1 | PR and Brand | Dell Hell incident, Kryptonite Lock |
| Phase 2 | Marketing realizes an opportunity to conduct outreach | Corporate blogs: Fast Lane by GM, Microsoft blogs, IBM Blogs |
| Phase 3 | Customer Support | HP massive online communities, Home Depot Communities, Comcast Cares |
| Phase 4 | Product Innovation | Starbucks Ideas, Dell Ideastorm |
| Phase 5 | The Business model, supply chain, various other departments | Using social tools, customers are sharing, selling, and renting your goods to each other |
Caveat: There are many broader impacts inside of a company that also impact HR, recruiting, supply chain, IT and other departments. Those cited above are just a sample of the most often publicized impacts.
Brands Already On Board: Toyota, Barclays Card, Avis, BMW, Walmart
What are some examples of companies that are already taking advantage of this new social business trend ? Here are a few from the Master List of Brands Participating in the Collaborative Economy: Toyota, OnStar and BMW are allowing cars to be rented so that they can stay current with car sharing or lending services like Lyft, RelayRide, Zipcar and Uber. Barclays Card sponsors and supports bicycle sharing in the city of London, associating their brand with the movement. Retail giant, Wal-Mart, is considering competing with TaskRabbit and Amazon by allowing customers to deliver goods to each other.
[The first phase of Social Business impacted branding and PR, then it shifted to support and product development. The next phase impacts core business models]
What are the immediate business opportunities? There’s a long list, and the report will probe them in detail, but it will include sponsorships, partnerships, investments in startups, building branded communities that enable renting and gifting, customer advocacy programs, and more. I’m seeking a “Software as a Service” (SaaS) startup that would enable this for brands and dedicate an entire post outlining the market opportunities. For example, on just the retail vertical, yesterday I met with Neal of Sharable Magazine, and he shared many opportunities for retailers.
[Social Business + Sharing Economy = Collaborative Economy]
So there you have it, the next phase of Social Business goes beyond marketing and customer support. It changes the fundamental business models and relationships that we have with our customers. The big change that brands will have to face is that they will have to care about the relationship between customers as they trade and rent your products between themselves.
| Company Mindset: | Traditional Mindset | Social Business Mindset | Collaborative Economy Mindset |
| How they think: | Brands are in charge. Deal with it. | Brands are in charge. Deal with it. Customers are in charge. We are listening, and we will engage. We care about your current experience with our goods. | We must now care about extended life of good after we sell it, and the relationship between customers. |
| Strategy they deploy: | Brand Experience | Customer Experience | Marketplace Experience |
Stay tuned for Altimeter’s report on the Collaborative Economy in just a few weeks. I’ll be presenting the findings at LeWeb, which is themed on the Sharing Economy. Thank you, Vivian Wang and Neal Gorenflo for the inspiring interviews these past few days.
Similar thoughts on maturation curves by Augie Ray http://www.experiencetheblog.com/2012/04/past-of-ebusiness-and-future-of-social.html
There’s a conversation happening on Twitter about the drivers of this space. Many assert (and I agree) that it’s not social.
https://twitter.com/techguerilla/status/331748002878332929
Thanks Jeremiah. The big question for me is what is the role of marketing (the function) in this future? But you can take the other question too: what is the role of marketing (the activity, messaging, content) in this future? Can’t wait for the report…
This is a great preview and excellent subject Jeremiah. Much of the buzz about the providers in this space is their being a threat to “classic” services (Lyft vs taxis, Airbnb vs hotels, etc). Would be interesting to see some research about the threat to these new platforms of disintermediation. In essence…they get showroomed. Nobody seems to be talking about this…would give some unique perspective perhaps. Looking forward to your findings.
Jeremiah, look forward to the full report. The share economy is poised for continued growth. Brands that capitalize beyond the sale will pioneer a whole new meaning to the term product lifecycle.
Great post by @Cybersoc who reminds us the Collaborative Economy is not new. Don’t forget The Dead http://bit.ly/13jEZT1
Thanks Jose. Let’s do this together.
There are certainly threats and I expect a new class of enterprise software to emerge that will enable brands –and the startups –to be part of one movement.
Thanks, I’m looking around, and I don’t see anyone else focused on this topic for the business audience in depth, so I’m going in full speed.
I have the answer, but it will emerge in detail in the report. At the high level, CMO wants a “Sustainability message’ and this is part of the answer. The bigger impact is to sales and COO.
Hey Jeremiah,
You talk describe a situation “where brands will rent, lend, provide subscriptions to products and services to customers, or even further, allow customers to lend, trade, or gift branded products or services to each other.”
My comment is that in order for to brands to conduct these types of activities and give control to the customers, won’t they need to first identify brand advocates who will be interested in conducting these activities on their behalf?
Would love to better understand their research, because I disagree with the positioning and find the 2×2 they used/labeled to be off in a significant way. Bike’s in particular are coming to even more cities every year- the program in Mexico City was over subscribed, so a new one was created. SF will have a bike share really soon too.
I agree broadly with the underlying premise about collaborative consumption and the more efficient distribution and utilization of stock resources (atoms/physical matter), but something is off, I just can’t put my finger on it… wish I could offer more constructive criticism.
Hi Chris, I agree. The grid is a couple years old. The bike thing is off, but not off for p2p bikesharing. That’s a tough one.
And we viewed the research as exploratory, meant to open a dialog. That’s what I’m really happy Jeremiah is picking up the beat.
-Neal Gorenflo
Publisher, Shareable
thanks for the clarification Neal, that makes sense now, and I do agree then about the P2P bike sharing. Though my bike has been sitting in the garage not getting enough use, so maybe if it was on older bikes instead of active bikers, that might skew differently.
Happy to read that on LeWeb London, findings will be present about this research. At OuiShare Fest in Paris on 2+3 May, a whole afternoon was devoted about the Sharing Economy and the impact on legacy businesses. There was a great presentation and strategy workshop by Javier Creus from Ideas for Change. It learned me that there are many more opportunities for companies to step into the Sharing Economy than at first sight.
We at Toogethr, a social rideshare app, have learned that carpooling/ridesharing is a great way to provide value to a brand’s community, when there is traveling involved. Therefore we’ve introduced the concept of groups: smaller communities going to the same event (for instance music festival or musuem) or sharing the same interest (for example kitesurfing). A brand can adopt the social traveling and integrate it own their own online properties through widgets and API. They may loose a bit of money on parking tickets, but gain recognition in their community as they provide value and promote a sustainable lifestyle. These are small and painless steps. Deeper integration into their core product/services are for legacy businesses of course more difficult to take and require business models to change as well as culture change within an organization. Remember the music industry when sharing started?
I am interested in
looking for more of such topics and would like to have further information.
Hope to see the next blog soon.