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Speech Draft
International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation is a technology company which offers technological business solutions to its customers. IBM innovation studios are a center where the customers will get a chance to experience IBM and its innovations on site and also get a chance to interact with experts in the organization. The purpose of this business plan is to give IBM ideas which they can implement to ensure that IBM innovation studios add value to the organization through increased sales and profits.
The IBM innovations can assist improve the brand image of the company within the Gen Z. The Gen Z is made up of individuals that are between who are between the ages of 9 to 23 and according to research the Gen Z is made up of digital natives who are attracted to technology advancement. The best way to enhance brand image among this generation is explaining the brand values to the young customers. The company should find a way to explain to Generation Z what features they are getting from IBM that is not available in other brands. The company can explain brand values through demonstrations of the use of different technologies developed by the company (Appel et al., 2020). Usability demonstrations can be done through videos and on site demonstrations each time the customers walk into the innovation studios. Videos should be prepared by 15th January, 2022 and be made available online.
IBM currently has a positive image among the Generation Z. Among the generation, the company symbolizes the leading American technology organization. It symbolizes a company that offers secure technologies as stated in the brands’ promise. To Generation Z the company symbolizes dedication, according to IBM mission statement, the company is dedicated towards the success of each of its clients.
The IBM innovation studios can make the company more visible to the Generation Z in various ways. One, from research we can see that generation Z is made up of individuals that are always glued to the screens and the company should increase its digital presence by the end of December, 2021. Digital presence will help make even the customers that do not know existence of the brand to know it exists and understand the offerings that are available. Digital presence can be enhanced through various digital platforms such as the company website, social media accounts like Facebook and Instagram.
The innovation studios should also take advantage of email marketing where newsletters can be sent to the customers on monthly basis to update them on new products, any offers and also tell them more about the company structure and management of the company. Since this customer segment is more available online, then the company can benefit from implementing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques that will make the brand pop up each time a customer searches key terms such as technology or hardware. SEO should be implanted by 31st January 2022 through collaboration with Google which is a very popular search engine.
IBM innovation studios can attract young talent to work with the organization. Young minds are creative and very open minded and IBM should leverage this into the innovation studios. First, IBM needs to provide development stipends at the start of the coming year; in January 2022. Stipends will give this generation an opportunity to grow themselves and become better in their careers. The company should leverage Linked In in the coming year as well. This is a platform where most of the young people go to look for jobs and employment opportunities (Hanson & Kalyanam, 2020). Video content is also another way to attract more young talent online and this is because such content gets more interactions than any other type of content online. The company should hire experienced video content creators in January that will assist the company create more interactive videos online. The first step in hiring experienced young talent is advertising opportunities and openings online and through social media. Once the potential employees see that they will make applications after which the company can conduct interviews and select the best fit for the innovation studios. After interviews there will be need for development opportunities to help the young talent develop careers and this will help retain young talent in the company.
IBM innovation studios could be the light house for IBM which means that they can assist the company’s brand become more visible. The innovation studios will be very helpful to ensure that the sales of the company go up. The studios will fuel the sales because the customers get to experience the technologies before they can make an actual purchase. The company should use the innovation studios as a way to demonstrate features of products, prices and uniqueness to customers each time they walk into the innovation studios.
IBM innovation studios can drive business in the company through engaging clients in various ways. IBM innovation studios needs to host a company tour January and July of each year. A company tour will involve a lot of activities such as showing the customers around the firm, letting customers interact with different technologies and also giving the customers a chance to ask questions to developers and other staff on the efficiency of the products. The company tour will ensure that the customers can interact with the business and employees. In this company tours the customers should be allowed an opportunity to interact with and sample the company products. The innovation studios should create a community forum where the customers can interact and ask questions about the business. The community forum should be created immediately online.
The IBM innovation studios can inspire customers to do business with the company through various ways. The innovation studios should be used as an opportunity to introduce customers to new technologies they do not know about yet. The company should purpose to know about more about the customers themselves and make them feel valued and appreciated by the organization (Akan & Tevfik, 2020). The business should make the customers feel valued through ensuring that customer service is excellent and that all customers who will walk into the innovation studios are treated with respect and no special preferences are given to a few customers. IBM innovation studios should also inspire the customers to purchase by contacting even the customers that do not buy from the business.
The C suite customers are important to the organization and they can be engaged in various ways. The customer should be engaged through explaining the brand values to their organizations through the use of presentations. Presentations can be used to pitch to the C suite customers by making the presentations more about the benefits of products to the clients’ companies instead of focusing more on the sales (Deepak & Jeyakumar, 2019). C suite customers should be given high class treatment and should be engaged through tele-conferencing to show demonstrations of the use of the products. Tele conferencing should be implement on 1st February, 2022 to engage more c suite customers.
The innovation studio setting can be used to pass the company message across. The studio setting should be used to bring customers closer to the business by enabling the customers to ask any questions they have of the company and get responses immediately from the business. IBM innovation studio setting should be an avenue where the customers can get demonstrations of the new technologies through virtual reality (Akan & Tevfik, 2020). Virtual reality should be used at the start of January, 2022. Virtual reality will give customers the feeling that they are using the IBM technologies and experience all the related features.
An innovative setting will entirely focus on the physical demonstrations by the employees in the organization. A virtual setting is where the customers will have an opportunity to interact with the innovations by the organization and get a virtual experience. A hybrid setting is the best for the organization and will encourage customers to experience both an innovative and a virtual setting (Appel et al., 2021). The hybrid setting will help in creating a good customer experience through the use of human resources and virtual reality.
References
Akan, M., & Tevfik, A. T. (2020). Fundamentals of finance. In Fundamentals of Finance. De
Gruyter.
Appel, G., Grewal, L., Hadi, R., & Stephen, A. T. (2020). The future of social media in
marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48(1), 79-95.
Deepak, R. K. A., & Jeyakumar, S. (2019). Marketing management. Educreation Publishing.
Hanson, W. A., & Kalyanam, K. (2020). Internet marketing and e-commerce.(Student ed.).
Thomson/South-Western.