Craigslist President and Chief Executive Jim Buckmaster was featured at the 34th UBS Global Media & Communications Conference. To this group of rabidly for-profit market strategists and communicators, he had a very simple message - it isn't about the money! Build something people want and they'll pay for value, and that value can be huge, even without focusing on how to wring the most money out of each individual consumer.
Craigslist has had numerous opportunities to capitalize on its popularity. But it has eschewed easy ways to monetize its traffic, instead focusing on asking customers what portions of the service would be of sufficient value for those customers to pay for them. The answer? Job listings in six major markets and apartment listings in New York.
Why is this so important? Because Craigslist figured out that if you develop something that people like, they'll tell you what's important enough for them to pay. This is customer-centered economics. Traffic statistics shows how valuable that customer-centricity is. With a ranking of seventh for monthly page views and forty-seventh in terms of unique monthly visitors, Craigslist demonstrates that good content and useful services will bring people back again and again.
This very customer-centric focus has erected an incredible barrier to competition. As a publisher or broadcast media outlet, how can you compete? As a new start-up, how will you drive traffic? The price per sale is low enough (mostly free) that no individual consumer/reseller is shut out of the Craigslist market, and the continuing involvement of the readership helps to develop new services, some of which should eventually generate revenue (based on the readership's articulation of value-add).
So how can your organization look to customers for direction? Do you have customer communities or guidance councils to give you honest advice about what you are doing? Do you have processes in place to capture all customer-generated feedback both positive and negative and direct it to the people who can act on it? Do you even acknowledge customer comments when they are captured? If your sales and marketing efforts are focused on pushing stuff at customers, then maybe you should rethink your whole strategy. Asking customers what they want can be a very powerful differentiator.
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