Web as Service Platform. Marketing with an SD-logic?

stuck in the spider's web by looking at the web as a marcomm channel.

I often hear and read marketers about the opportunities brought along by social media. Now, I don’t want to dismiss these opportunities. Those are certainly there. The type of opportunities however are often misunderstood by marketers. They tend to see this as nothing more than a new marketing and communication channel. Consequently, social platforms are tools to push messages towards potential customers. Of course, social can be used for the purpose of lead generation or just mind-blowing advertising, but it won’t bring the benefits expected by marketers. My point here is that the ‘Web’ and the ‘social web’ in particular ought to be looked at from a Service-Design logic instead of a Good-Design logic. I believe it will help marketers realize there goals by deploying the web and social platforms in the correct manner.

SD-logic versus GD-logic: basic principle

In the industrial age, the dominant logic about economic exchange was based on the exchange of “goods”. As a result, a GD-logic focuses on tangible resources, added value and (monetary) transactions. Over time however new perspectives emerged. Those new visions look at intangible resources, co-created value and relationships. This new perspective is commonly known as a SD-logic or service design. I believe that marketing should start thinking from this perspective. A perspective in which service provision is fundamental to economic exchange rather than goods.

Marketing logic: SD-logic versus GD-logic

A GD marketing logic limits marketers in creativity for seeing opportunities in value co-creation with customers and other stakeholders. What’s more, this focus on transactional exchange ignores aspects like customer loyalty and puts constraints on developing the lifetime value of the customer for the company at stake. The S-D logic on the other hand broadens the logic of exchange – both socially and economically.

Web as Service Platform

The internet and the web are well-known and mostly deployed as a mean to share information. Or: the web is seen as just another marketing communication channel.

That’s actually a pity because the web also brings along loads of opportunities for process optimization. And process optimization is often about service design thinking, which I believe is at the core about ‘servicing a.k.a. making things easier’.

Improving a business process is making things easier. And what’s more, it often means that you build strategic competitive advantages – as you’re able to get the same (better) result at lower costs.

To overcome overlooking the options when developing a digital-enabled enterprise and/or marketing strategy, one better investigates and lists down the options for process integration.

Who’s in for an exercise on process optimization through the web and the social web?