I was lucky enough to begin my doctoral thesis in 1996. Lucky, because when my colleagues made their proposals they always added a word… INTERNET. So, I felt that it was compulsory to learn about it. At that time, I was (and still am) lucky enough to work/play with an internet developer (An A+ player in Steve Jobs terms) that always repeats to me… If you, really, want to learn about Internet you’d better learn to code for the web. So, Java becomes a new friend!
I like to have these two visions about Internet (business model and technological scheme) it allows me to have a more holistic vision about its evolution. As you know I, strongly, believe that life is better describes as a circle than as a line. In the case of the Internet’s evolution, it is true that appears an ascendant line (Web 1.0, 2.0. 3.0) but there are mistakes and truths that repeat over and over and provoke in me a feeling of “déjà vu” (sometimes this feeling is wrong, the capacity to know when this happens make you a good Touristologist!!!)
I would like to discuss here two of these mistakes in the execution and interpretation of Internet related Marketing Research.
1) A classical mistake is when new technology/feature appears (web pages, social networking sites, mobile apps…) and some people analyze its use at the beginning and extrapolate this analysis in to the future.
I don’t see any mistake here- Jordi! Well, the fact of the matter is that the first users (or early adopters) are NOT representative of the average user. They are different; they like novelty, to try new things, some of them will forget about this feature when something new appears. You can call them trendy people who, very fast, try and use any new technologies/features. On the other hand, we have regular people that usually, stick with the things that they are used to.
Try to foresee how normal people will use the new new thing, analyzing the behavior of trendy people it is a like studying cats in order to predict dogs behavior!!!
This happened when, at the beginning of the web (web 1.0) people study the first users and try to foresee the evolution of how people will use Internet.
Something similar is going on with mobile and the debate about who will be the winner mobile apps or native apps. As I always say, mobile apps will be far more interesting when they allow departments inside an enterprise and enterprises inside a chain of value can work as a single organization. This capacity of integration is better achieved on mobile apps than in native apps.
I am not saying that they will be the winner in this battle. I only say, that from a Touristologists point of view, they seem more interesting!
When articles, studies, gurus claim that they can provide an answer and be sure that native apps are the way to go just for the way that first users deal with this new technology is… well, a mistake!
As this mistake is repeated over and over, it gains the category of a classic! Classics are classics because they are always true, they are timeless.
2) Another classical mistake is to analyze a new technology/feature in internet with a simple vision. Some people think that social networking sites (SnS) are only good to increase the number of visitors to your website then, they find/do a study /marketing research proving that SnS only mean a 2% of referrals to website of hotels. So, they conclude that it is better to expend your budget elsewhere (Search engines, OTAs, you-name-it…).
Do you really, think that SnS are only good for improving your web positioning? What about awareness of your brand? What about service management and service recovery? What about increase the feeling of belonging of your customers and employees?....
Do you want to avoid these classical mistakes? You’d better seek the advice of a Touristologist! They know the behavior of the new generation (sometimes called native digital) and also the old ones. They know about trendy people and the regular ones. They have the business model vision and the technological one. They have a holistic vision about tourism. They have a holistic vision of ALL the operations and processes of tourism enterprises… They are Touristologists AND they don’t make classical/silly mistakes!!!!
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