Telecommunications industry representatives gathered in Melbourne recently at the Communications Alliance’s annual Broadband and Beyond conference. TWNetwork shares some insights for those who were unable to attend.

Consumers redefining global telecommunications

The CEO of Social Intelligence Lab Ross Honeywill told the conference about research he has conducted into consumer behavior and how the new economic order is changing the way we live, work and play.

Honeywill stated that society can be split primarily into two segments: New Economic Order consumers (NEOs) comprising 24 per cent of the population, and Traditionals, who make up around 50 per cent of the population.  A third category is known as Evolvers, who are around 26 per cent of the population and are on their way to being NEOs.

His research shows that the eight million Traditionals respond best to low-margin, high-volume product offers. Meanwhile, the four million NEOs are responsible for 92 per cent of discretionary spending in the economy.

According to Honeywill, some of the characteristics of the NEO consumer segment are:

• they are more interested in themselves, not status and prestige
• quality and style are the oxygen they breathe
• they start new trends and adopt new services
• they are prepared to pay a premium for value-added products and services
• they use mobile phones more than others
• they insist on services which will make their lives easier
• they expect innovation and will influence others.

Honeywill stated that what a Traditional consumer regards as discretionary spending is seen as essential for a NEO.

The key message to companies is to think small, not big if you want to target these consumers.

You can find more information on the work undertaken by Ross Honeywill in his book ‘Neopower: How the new economic order is changing the way we live, work and play’.

Innovation

Also presenting at the Broadband and Beyond conference, Google’s Engineering Director Alan Noble spoke about innovation on the web.

In his view, there are two major trends stimulating web innovation: open source (including applications such as Google’s Android) and open data, which is about opening up access to information from external sources.

Noble told the conference that a lack of infrastructure in Australia is inhibiting the growth of applications. He said the average Canadian watches two or three times more Youtube videos and uploads four to five times more data than the average Australian.

According to Noble, two technologies are changing the face of the internet:

• applications programming interfaces (a set of routines, data structures, object classes or protocols provided by libraries or operating system services to support the building of applications); and
• gadgets which can be found embedded in websites (e.g. currency converters, real-time maps, etc.)

He said innovations drive better environmental outcomes, pointing to Google’s investment in “green” data centres and solar power.

You can find more information about the Broadband and Beyond conference at http://www.slatteryit.com.au/BroadbandandBeyond/index.html