SignonSanDiego.com,
May, 2005
Companies tap into trendsetters
Input from cutting-edge customers finds way into products
BY KATHRYN BALINT
High-tech companies are looking beyond consultants and focus groups
for advice on their products.
They’re turning to their loyal and often tech-savvy customers
for suggestions on how to make their software or gadgets better.
These customers are considered “influencers” because
they’re trendsetters who are sought by friends and family
members for advice.
“People are looking to people they know for information,”
said Deirdre Davi, senior vice president of strategy for Sterling
Brands, a marketing consulting company. “They always have
one friend that’s the techie, one friend that’s the
fashion geek. They’re looking to these people as their influencers.
Every company can find these influencers and utilize the information
from them.”
And, increasingly, companies are heeding the advice of these cutting-edge
customers.
Software giant Microsoft scours books, message boards on the Internet
and Web sites for individuals who are exceptionally well-versed
and helpful to others in answering technical questions about the
company’s products. In addition, the company accepts nominations
for its elite group of insiders known as MVPs, which in Microsoft’s
parlance means “Most Valuable Professionals.”
Each year, a new group of MVPs is recognized. This year, there
are 2,600 MVPs in 81 countries, each with an expertise in one of
Microsoft’s 75 products or technologies.
“These individuals are recognized as very important or heroic,
in some cases, to many customers out there,” said Sean O’Driscoll,
director of Microsoft’s MVP program and technical communities.
The MVPs are flown to Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond,
Wash., where in closed-door meetings they get peeks at products
in the works and are asked for their thoughts.
MVP Scott Mitchell, a Pacific Beach consultant, trainer and writer
whose expertise is Microsoft’s Web development tools, said
many of his colleagues don’t mince words.
“In one sense, the people that are MVPs are very vocal and
are not afraid to say what they’re thinking,” Mitchell
said. “If there’s something Microsoft is not doing right,
they’ll call Microsoft on it.”
Last year, when Microsoft set out to release an update that allowed
its software for Tablet PCs to be used in foreign languages, MVPs
chided the company for sending the update only to retailers. The
MVPs complained that customers who already have Tablet PCs would
be limited to English only. In response, Microsoft made the software
available to everyone on its Web site.
Microsoft also credits MVPs for improving its search folders and
junk mail features in its Outlook e-mail program.
“There are many examples of situations where suggestions
from the MVPs end up being learning opportunities that really do
change Microsoft’s products,” O’Driscoll said.
Much like Microsoft’s MVPs, Intuit has the TurboTax Inner
Circle.
Scott Gulbransen, spokesman for Intuit’s San Diego office
where the popular tax-preparation software TurboTax is made, describes
the Inner Circle as “an internal roundtable of customers.”
“We have ongoing dialogues with them and they are in constant
contact ith us,” he said. “They’re influencers,
and they have a wide net of people they communicate with. We use
them to really find out what’s going on out there.”
Mark Lindsey, a businessman from Encinitas, has used TurboTax for
15 years. As a member of the Inner Circle, he has answered e-mail
questionnaires from the company and has beta-tested TurboTax software.
Aside from a T-shirt and coffee mug, Inner Circle members receive
no remuneration.
It sometimes takes some effort for companies to identify the kind
of savvy customers they need to offer valuable pointers about products.
Kyocera Wireless, a San Diego maker of cell phones, hired Sterling
Brands to help.
Sterling interviewed 600 cell phone users to pick out the influencers
from the rest. It used a series of questions, such as “Do
your friends or colleagues ask you about wireless phone purchases?”
Specifically, the company looked for people who are inquisitive
and open to new experiences, who are seen as experts by others and
who stay on top of trends.
“It’s more about finding what people in your own group
perceive you to be an influencer,” said Davi, Sterling’s
senior vice president of strategy.
In the past three years, Davi said, the nature of the influencer
has changed. No longer are they necessarily celebrities or trendsetters
who frequent chic clubs in New York or London. Advertisement.
“Increasingly, it’s someone you know through a friend,”
she said.
Today’s influencers also gain status through expertise in
a specific area.
“The reason they’re an influencer is that they care
about that category, they find it entertaining and they have done
their homework,” Davi said. “They’re using the
products and are leading the way. But they probably aren’t
on the leading edge in other areas. The definition of the all-around
influencer or all-around trendsetter doesn’t apply.”
Mad Catz Interactive, a San Diego maker of video game accessories,
sought experts when it was designing its new line of controllers.
It needed advice on what to do with one of the controller buttons.
Should the button be a “macro” button, in which game
players can program a specific set of commands, such as run, jump,
shoot or run? Or should it be a “turbo” button, which
boosts the players’ speed?
The company sought avid game players (and Mad Catz customers) who
frequent the company’s GameShark.com Web site.
“We don’t work with, say, a traditional focus group,”
said Randy Lee, senior manager of online for Mad Catz. “One
of the nice things about having GameShark.com is that a lot of our
customers are on there. It’s a really good way for us to get
feedback from them. Most of the people on there are hardcore gamers,
and they’re very anxious to give us feedback anytime we ask
for it.”
In the case of the controller button, 97 percent of the experts
wanted a turbo button.
As a result, all of Mad Catz’s new controllers now come with
a turbo button instead of a macro button, Lee said. And for Mad
Catz, having the right button on a controller can translate into
more sales.
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