Challis Hodge’s UXblog

HBR recently published results of a year long study, conducted in collaboration with eBay Germany, that involved 140,120 eBay customers. The study was aimed at determining whether or not there is business value in Customer Community Marketing Programs. The results are quite fascinating.

Over the course of a year, we compared the behavior of community enthusiasts and lurkers with that of the control group. The differences were astonishing. Lurkers and community enthusiasts bid twice as often as members of the control group, won up to 25% more auctions, paid final prices that were as much as 24% higher, and spent up to 54% more money (in total). Enthusiasts listed up to four times as many items on eBay and earned up to six times as much in monthly sales revenues as the control users. The findings on first-time sellers were even more impressive: Compared with the controls, almost ten times as many lurkers (56.1%) and enthusiasts (54.1%) started selling on eBay after they joined and participated in customer communities.

What the study doesn’t tell us is why the program worked for eBay and how it can be replicated. Many have learned the hard way that building community online is not as easy as it would seem. A deep understanding of your customers is a must. Followed by careful planning and implementation of community tools that meet their wants and needs.

On December 7-8 at the Museum of the City of New York, IDSA, Symbol Technologies and BusinessWeek will demonstrate the impact of innovation meeting investment. Hear from powerful industry speakers such as Jim Wicks, IDSA, Motorola’s vice president and director of consumer experience and design, who will share his insights about Motorola incorporating industrial design into its corporate infrastructure.

Registration is now open here!

Learn from Philip Thompson, IDSA, Whirlpool’s design director, global consumer design, where innovative design has helped spearhead profits and set Whirlpool on a strong path of differentiation from others in the home appliance category.

Hear from Dev Patnaik, IDSA, principal of Jump Associates, about how he helps visionary business leaders discover new opportunities for growth and then translate their vision into reality.

Microsoft’s Steve Kaneko, FIDSA, design director of the Entertainment and Devices Division, and Bill Buxton, principal researcher in Microsoft’s Research Division, will share what is important to Microsoft and their corporate strategies.

Rinat Aruh, principal of aruliden, will share insights she gathered as global strategy manager for MINI Lifestyle at BMW Group AG and vice president of marketing for Forth & Towne. And as always, the perspectives shared by Bruce Nussbaum, H/IDSA, assistant managing editor of BusinessWeek, will be invaluable.

Don’t miss this influential line-up moderated by Alistair Hamilton, IDSA, Symbol’s VP of corporate innovation and design, and Ray Martino, Symbol’s chief technology officer, as they share their key learnings in fostering a culture of innovation.

IDSA will also share the corporate effect of the Design and Business Catalyst Awards, which demonstrate how various designs have impacted the market with sound business and financial results. Hear from the winners of this prestigious design award that is gaining even more traction in the industry.

Download the registration form here.

“The designer has now moved from the studio to the boardroom, a transition that will change the way companies think forever.”
–Paul Hatch and Deana McDonagh, REALIZE: Design Means Business

Penn State researchers have “taught” computers how to interpret images using a vocabulary of up to 330 English words. The new system, which can automatically annotate entire online collections of photographs as they are uploaded, means significant time-savings for the millions of Internet users who now manually tag or identify their images. It also facilitates retrieval of images through the use of search terms.