cover image Now or Never: How Companies Must Change to Win the Battle for Internet Consumers

Now or Never: How Companies Must Change to Win the Battle for Internet Consumers

Mary Modahl. HarperCollins Publishers, $27 (237pp) ISBN 978-0-06-662012-1

Modahl, an analyst at Forrester Research, has spent the past several years researching the impact of the Internet on business, using questionnaires, focus groups and interviews. To make sense of the marketplace, she has developed a concept she calls ""Technographics,"" an approach that examines and ranks computer users by their comfort level with technology and how likely they are to use the Internet. This scheme yields three basic users: Early Adoptees, Mainstream Users and Laggards. These groups can be further broken down into such subgroups as ""Handshakers, successful professionals with low technology tolerance""; ""Gadget Grabbers, lower-income consumers focused on tech-based entertainment""; and ""New-Age Nurturers, affluent believers in technology for family and education."" Understanding this segmentation model, argues Modahl, is vital for companies eager to remain profitable. Asked how companies should organize their Internet efforts, Modahl says the answer ""depends on a company's consumer Technographics, on the speed and nature of business model change in their industry, and on the ability of the organization to fund Internet set-up costs."" Writing with the authority gained from her research as well as common sense from her viewpoint as an online consumer, Modahl offers persuasive arguments for both Internet startups and existing bricks-and-mortar companies to rethink their approach to online service. 25-city-radio tour; author tour. (Dec.)