Communispace Corp.
Company: Communispace Corporation
Company Division/Group: Watertown, MA
Company Description: Communispace Corporation is transforming the way that companies listen to their customers. Founded in 1999, we have 40 people and have won several awards, such as Marketing Technology of the Year. Clients use our online community solution (often called a "focus group on steroids"), to get fast and continuous insight from customers, at 1/3 the cost of traditional methods.
Nomination Category: Stevie Awards for Women Entrepreneur Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Overall Company of the Year - Service Businesses
Nomination Title: Communispace Corporation
Tell the story about what the nominated company achieved during the eligibility period (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
Speaking to the American Marketing Association last year, guru Tom Peters remarked that there is little that will be more important for corporate success in the 21st century than to be continuously in touch with the needs and desires of consumers.
In June of 2003, Kraft followed Peters’ advice, committing to finding better and faster ways to deeply understand its core consumers. To start, Kraft invited 300 target consumers from all over the country to a room at headquarters and had fantastic conversations with them: so valuable that Kraft asked these consumers if they would be willing to stay in the room for the next YEAR, available to give their input whenever Kraft needed the insight. The response from the consumers was an enthusiastic “yes”, in return for about $100 worth of free product.
Is it possible that Kraft could convince consumers to stay in a room and help for a year? Yes, because instead of being physically there, the consumers were members of The Kraft Health Network, a private, secure online community created and managed by Communispace. The results? Fast, breakthrough consumer insights, at 1/3 the cost of traditional methods.
Kraft is just one among many blue-chip clients (e.g., General Motors, Colgate-Palmolive, Starwood Hotels, State Farm, Whirlpool, Unilever, the Chicago Tribune,
Hallmark) which are using Communispace as a highly innovative means of connecting to consumers. If a focus group is “10 people in a room for an hour”, a
Communispace community is “hundreds of key consumers in a room and available all the time.”Whereas many companies have used the internet simply to automate something that used to be done offline, Communispace literally could not have been done before the web. Just last week, an executive at Unilever needed to get fast information about what dermatologists are telling consumers about skin care. Communispace asked consumers at noon, and by 1:30, 43 people had responded, allowing Unilever to accelerate their own innovation process. Normally this would have taken 6 weeks. Moreover, at a time when marketers are at a loss for how to get consumer attention, Communispace has demonstrated that companies can build customer relationships by just “shutting up and listening for a change.”
In the 12 months between July 2003 and June 2004, Communispace has experienced a near doubling of revenues, a move to positive cash flow, a 100% client retention rate, and the achievement of profitability. This is particularly significant in that just 18 months ago, the company was experiencing what many start-ups were going through: a tough, competitive environment with barely any cash available. A SWAT team of employees analyzed the marketplace and created a new way to position the company. Then, a team of developers and cultural anthropologists (experts in creating trust online) revised the software, piloting an innovation that responded to something truly mission-critical for organizations. Although the initial software was built before the eligibility period, the last year has been a time of vast improvements in the software and in the creation of a wide array of new services where Communispace does community facilitation, member management and reporting for all of its clients.
We are submitting this nomination because there is no group of 40 people anywhere with a better group of clients or which feels more proud of what we have accomplished.
List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: List each link on a separate line, begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.website.com]: NOTE: You may submit supporting materials for your nomination offline, but only judges who request them will see them:
http://www.communispace.com
http://crm-daily.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=Web_Necessary_Apps_To_Bloom_in_____&story_id=22882#story-start
http://www.communispace.com/documents/OnlineCommunitiesarticle.pdf
http://www.communispace.com/aberdeen_form.asp
Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography of the leader of the nominated company:
Diane Hessan, President & CEO, is an acknowledged thought leader in the sales and marketing arena, having pioneered the concept of consumer communities. Since getting her Harvard MBA in 1977 (youngest in her class), she has led various fast-growth organizations. Most recently, after 15 years at The Forum Corporation, a leader in the corporate training industry, (sold to Pearson in 1998), she joined the founding group of Communispace in 1999. Diane also has written a best-selling book, Customer-Centered Growth, which has been translated into 9 languages. She serves on a range of non-profit boards, and is married with two teen-aged daughters.