* POPUNET

Despite the over-hype, it is true that we are moving towards becoming a networked society, the Internet is the early sign of that, fast on its heels we have WAP-enabled mobile telephony and interactive television, and soon we will have near invisible networked appliances throughout our home and business environments. This is not just a market opportunity to sell more devices and services to more customers, but is a transformation of the nature of the society in which we live and work. Consumers have more information about our products and have more opportunity to interact. Even more important, we can design soft products (software, services, information) that not only lives within this electronic world, but also changes it. Although this is perhaps true of previous communications technologies, such as the introduction of television, the richness of the new networked world means we are facing an unparalleled situation. Product design and marketing have to change equally radically.

* THE FIRST LAW OF GROWTH

All growth comes through feedback. In traditional markets this comes through money. You spend on advertising, PR and sales teams, you get more customers, who pay you more money that you can spend on more marketing … In the Internet this is also true, but in addition we have feedback due to communication. Take electronic greetings cards, the recipients like them and then send them to others. Look at Apple's web site — only 7 tabs and one of them iCards.

* MARKET ECOLOGY
Traditional marketing treats the market rather like a monoculture farmer — put in more fertiliser, get more crops. Market ecology transforms this view and says: look at the market as a collection of interrelated groups who communicate with one another, deliver services to one another, pass information to one another. That is an attempt to understand the ecology on interactions within the Internet marketplace. By understanding this ecology we are able to better serve our customers, who do not live in isolation, better able to sell to our customers, because we understand how they relate to the networked world, and better able to design products that work in this complex world. Most important, by understanding interactions we can use the feedback between and within these groups to allow our products to grow.

* MARKET ENGINEERING
Human intervention in biological ecologies has not had a good press! Humankind has been slow to realize that anything, a new plant or animal, introduced into a native ecology, not only feeds off that ecology, but also transforms it radically and often for the worse. Only recently has it become possible to carefully introduce species that have specific desired effects — biological pest control, for example. Similarly, in the market ecology, many products introduce new or change the nature of existing communication channels and thus affect the relationships of people. By understanding the nature of the existing relationships, we can plan these transformations and design products that not only fit their desired market niche, but transform the structure of the market itself.

* SHARED VALUE
Once we understand the interrelationship between our customer groups we can design products that enhance their relationships and introduce new opportunities for interaction. Critical to this is the design of mutual value into products. They need to be of value to us (we want to make a profit), of value to our customer (else why should they want it), and of value for that customer to use with others. Often we find this is not about a single product, but instead a family of products acting together. This gives rise to feedback as our customers market for us, encouraging others to use our products. Again, this has happened before - a telephone is far more useful when all your friends have one - but now it happens faster and it is easier to introduce 'virtual' products than new physical ones.

* IN SHORT

understanding our customers + understanding how they interact + mutual value in products

leads to: feedback loops between customer groups

leads to: satisfaction and growth.