The Content – Context Diarchy

August 13, 2009 at 11:02 · Filed under Marketing and tagged: Business, business development, internet, marketing, online, strategy, web 2.0

A diarchy is a form of governing by two rulers, diarchies are known for instance from ancient Sparta and Rome and is one of the oldest types of government.
The Spartan diarchy is suggested to be a solution for: a struggle between two Spartan families or to stay away from an absolutistic ruling.
The distribution of power amongst content and context is meant to prevent a struggle between two forces and meant to avoid focus of attention and power of either content or context exclusively. Emphasis, focus and importance on both intertwined is the key.
When reflecting on diarchies and thinking about it in relation to the current phase of the Internet evolution, not only the Content is King (as often is written), but the Context needs to be acknowledged and treated equally influencing as the second valid King in the diarchal rulership over the Internet and business landscape.

This evolution is certainly not new, business already undergo these transitional phases.
First there was the production oriented era, then the sales oriented era (think of Ford and his quote in his autobiography “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black“). Then came the realization and insight that marketing management was needed to have a clearer understanding of the context (marketing oriented era).
Marketing evolved from inward focus (organization) to outward focus (consumer), this is exactly what the Internet evolution is going through as well and forcing businesses to adapt.
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The 3 Fundaments of Online Strategy

July 16, 2009 at 09:45 · Filed under Marketing and tagged: Business, marketing, online, strategy

The Online Strategy encompasses those elements of the business- and marketing strategy that must be employed to contribute efficiently and effectively to its goals.

As for all strategies, the Online Strategy should consider the brand, the target audience, products & services and the positioning of the brand. ( read also The Content – Context Diarchy to understand the relation between offer and context in the online landscape )
Be it on an overarching level or on execution level (see the three parts below), consistency is key to achieve brand recognition.
It’s tempting to divert from this focus because the Internet offers lots of possibilities which can be applied, but not neccesarily relevant and this non-relevancy might cause a distanciation of the target audience.

 The online strategy for your business can be divided in three main fundaments:
* Website Strategy
* Internet Strategy
* Social Strategy
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