CIO — Customers don’t care what time it is when they do business?companies make them care. If you want to win them for life, be there whenever and wherever they want you to be.
Robert Woodruff, the man who took brown, bubbly sugar water?Coca-Cola?and turned it into a global cash machine, had a famous saying: "I want Coke to be within arm’s length of desire." With that simple statement, Woodruff set out to make Coca-Cola the first ubiquitous product in the world.
Today, Coca-Cola is the best example of what I call a three-dimensional marketer. The three dimensions are who, where and when. Coca-Cola does a pretty good job of knowing who buys Coke, and making it available wherever and whenever customers want it?mostly through vending machines and an extraordinary distribution network.
Until the Internet came along, this "anywhere" strategy seemed relevant to just a narrow range of marketing companies like Coca-Cola. Yet with cheap, ubiquitous technology available to any company today, there’s no reason why everyone can’t try to be a 3-D leader with an anywhere, anytime strategy based on clear customer knowledge and targeting.
We’re already seeing market leaders such as AOL and Fidelity follow Coca-Cola’s lead. You can currently get AOL via its own ISP, over the Web, through the television, and on cell phones and PDAs; the company has plans to put AOL in physical locations such as schools, ATMs and Kinko’s. Fidelity was one of the first companies to make trading and financial information available to customers on all forms of wireless devices. Recently, it announced a joint effort with GM to offer access to Fidelity accounts in all GM cars.
Why are AOL and Fidelity heading this way? If all people will have the potential to be connected at all times in all settings through the Internet and wireless phones, then you always want your product or service available to them. Imagine the power of taking a category of valuable products, such as financial transactions, and making it available all the time, everywhere. Not only will products and services be accessible at the consumer’s moment of greatest interest, but the potential exists to stimulate further demand and alter patterns of usage.
Product or service ubiquity is a race where being first means everything. The company that reaches far beyond its nearest competitor in terms of anywhere and anytime access will gain virtually unshakeable market share. Pepsi has been chasing Coca-Cola for 80 years and has not yet made a significant dent in Coke’s market share. Likewise, those financial services companies that try to compete with Fidelity will lose if Fidelity makes its way to everywhere status.
