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Rating: 
Summary: A fast-track guide to predicting web success!
Review: An easy read, but contains some keys to understanding your customer base, and better yet, predicting who will actually purchase product off your website. This book, combined with your understanding of your customers, could save you a lot of wasted time and energy going after the wrong customer segment, or putting up content that is inappropriate for the people visiting (or not visiting) your website.The best e-Commerce book I've read, a must read for anyone in charge of setting e-Commerce strategy. Nice going, Mary!
Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended, absolute must for any IPS
Review: As an IPS, we work with many traditional brick and mortar companies as well as dot.coms'. Now or Never verbalizes many of the thing we have been trying to tell our clients and brings research and data to back it up. I am going to give a copy to all our clients.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: Clear, concise, easy-to-read, well-organized, and insightful -- this is an excellent e-business book for anyone involved in a dot com or in a b&m making the move into e-commerce. Great book.
Rating: 
Summary: Too easy to read
Review: Every marketing professional that is interested in the Internet and E. Commerce should read this book. Starting from people attitudes towards technology and their main motivations, it describes their behaviour regarding the Internet and e-commerce. Then, by adding a deep knowledge of IT, Internet, E-Bussiness and E- Commerce, it describes how markets and bussineses will be affected by this and how should bussineses do in order not to be left behind by the Internet revolution. It is a book on marketing strategy that should not be missed.
Rating:
Summary: Carpe Diem
Review: In my opinion, the title does a disservice to the extraordinarily valuable content of the book that bears that name. Those with extensive experience in the so-called E-conomy have learned (with the scar tissue to prove it) that words like "always" and "never" are irresponsible. So much for the title. Modahl writes with great skill. She has assembled a wealth of material which is Consumers (everything starts there...without such understanding, it probably ends there), Exploiting Internet Business Models (as Derek Bok once observed, "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance"), and then Defying the Gravity of the Old Ways of Doing Business (much easier said than done but imperative nonetheless). Modahl then provides an Appendix in which she examines "Technographics Methodology." I strongly recommend that, periodically, this Appendix be re-read in light of the certain and sometimes major changes which will occur in the E-conomy. Informed by what seems to be an avalanche of real-world evidence, Modahl identifies five "alarming" trends: -New pricing models that undermine existing revenues. -Higher customer-service expectations. -New ways to distribute products. -Unexpected market opportunities. -High rates of entry--even in very staid markets. Given these trends, what to do? Modahl offers all manner of options, in combination with specific suggestions as to how "the battle for Internet consumers" can be won while retaining long-term value in an Internet business. Some of the winners will be traditional companies; others will be dotcoms. Modahl asserts that "The past is not what will drive the future." Some may agree with William Faulkner who observed, " The past isn't even the past yet." In the final chapter, Modahl summarizes brilliantly the key points she has so carefully developed earlier. She then concludes, "In the end, the companies that win the battle for the Internet consumers will be the ones that really want to." At least in this context, for many of those unwilling and/or unable to engage in that "battle" now, tomorrow may indeed be too late.
Rating:
Summary: All you want to know on e-consumers, commerce, and business
Review: Internet is disturbing the "old economy", but we do not always understand what and where are the changes and how we can move to get a chance to compete in this new environment. Another question is about the urgency to take action. Now or Never is Mary Modahl's answer. She wants to convince us that each company needs to define its own Web strategy to keep contact with consumers.
In Information Age, customers are more than ever at the centre of each organization, and a preliminary is to understand them to be able to serve them products and services they want. Marketing people are using classical segmentation tools to do the job, but these one are no more valid to explain consumer's attitudes on the Web. It's why the author is sharing with us technographics segmentation developed by Forrester research. Aside income, two new dimensions are introduced: consumers' attitude towards technology and motivation to use this technology. Technographics divides consumers in ten different groups from early Internet adopters as "Fast Forwards" to "Laggards," people who will be very late or never buying on Internet. Knowing this consumers segmentation is a base to develop an adapted marketing approach and to develop a pertinent Web strategy. But it also gives confidence to every organization, when we learn that Internet mainstream customers are still buying outside Internet and will represent the real challenge and opportunity of coming years. That means it's not too late to define a Web strategy to gain Internet know-how and be ready for the arrival of these mainstream customers. But knowing e-consumers is not enough to understand all the challenges on the Web. Internet environment has its own rules and more transparency implies an increasing apparent supply with correlatively pressure on prices leading at the end to prices responding to demand. Forrester calls this environment Dynamic Trade, which requires Internet businesses to scale up fast with huge investments in marketing and technology to gain a necessary critical mass. It's a big change compared to industrial age economic conditions as we find there a typical Information environment presented by Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian in their book Information Rules where you need to invest importantly before arriving to marginal cost near zero. It also explains why start-ups needed so much money from venture capitalists to set up their businesses. If the first message we received is that moving to the Web is demanding important investments, we discover later that start-ups are creating a new revenue mix by focusing on new customers, new value, and new pricing structures, which undermine traditional revenue streams. Mary Modahl is illustrating this strategy by well-presented experiences she got in classified advertising, travel agents, and brokerage business environments. Dynamic Trade being so open to competition, is it possible to build some competitive advantage? The answer is yes through experiential branding, physical distribution control, and consumer information leverage. This part of the book is important because it shows how organizations can built a competitive advantage on the specificities of Web environment. We do not often see such ideas so clearly developed. But are traditional companies able to move to this new environment? The answer is also yes if they are able to defy the gravity of the old ways of doing business. First, the attitude towards technology must be changed. Because of importance of technology choices to gain market share, technology must be integrated in a "Whole View" including marketing and business strategy. It's also necessary to use the best technology and to integrate new technologies, which are ripe for consumer markets. That means that technology managers need to move from a mission critical to a mission re-defining. Traditional companies need also to solve their distribution channel conflicts to have chance to enter the Internet market space. Mary Modahl is explaining there that they have no choice and is developing in her book a strategy to solve distribution channels conflicts. Finally traditional companies need to find the best organization to move to the Web. Three different strategies: wholesale transformation, risk balancing, and venture capital participation are presented with sound examples. But the final word is that winners to gain the battle for Internet customers can be among either start-ups or traditional companies if they have the will to win. Mary Modahl's book is a well written, easy reading contribution to understand the Web environment and is going much further than how to win Internet consumers with a complete set of strategies for start-ups as for traditional companies. Mary Modahl's own experience is also adding to the interest of this book, which is illustrated all along the pages with pertinent examples taken in real life. I can only recommend this book to every executive, who wants to be part of the "New Economy".
Rating:
Summary: All you want to know on e-consumers, commerce, and business
Review: Internet is disturbing the "old economy", but we do not always understand what and where are the changes and how we can move to get a chance to compete in this new environment. Another question is about the urgency to take action. Now or Never is Mary Modahl's answer. She wants to convince us that each company needs to define its own Web strategy to keep contact with consumers.
In Information Age, customers are more than ever at the centre of each organization, and a preliminary is to understand them to be able to serve them products and services they want. Marketing people are using classical segmentation tools to do the job, but these one are no more valid to explain consumer's attitudes on the Web. It's why the author is sharing with us technographics segmentation developed by Forrester research. Aside income, two new dimensions are introduced: consumers' attitude towards technology and motivation to use this technology. Technographics divides consumers in ten different groups from early Internet adopters as "Fast Forwards" to "Laggards," people who will be very late or never buying on Internet. Knowing this consumers segmentation is a base to develop an adapted marketing approach and to develop a pertinent Web strategy. But it also gives confidence to every organization, when we learn that Internet mainstream customers are still buying outside Internet and will represent the real challenge and opportunity of coming years. That means it's not too late to define a Web strategy to gain Internet know-how and be ready for the arrival of these mainstream customers. But knowing e-consumers is not enough to understand all the challenges on the Web. Internet environment has its own rules and more transparency implies an increasing apparent supply with correlatively pressure on prices leading at the end to prices responding to demand. Forrester calls this environment Dynamic Trade, which requires Internet businesses to scale up fast with huge investments in marketing and technology to gain a necessary critical mass. It's a big change compared to industrial age economic conditions as we find there a typical Information environment presented by Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian in their book Information Rules where you need to invest importantly before arriving to marginal cost near zero. It also explains why start-ups needed so much money from venture capitalists to set up their businesses. If the first message we received is that moving to the Web is demanding important investments, we discover later that start-ups are creating a new revenue mix by focusing on new customers, new value, and new pricing structures, which undermine traditional revenue streams. Mary Modahl is illustrating this strategy by well-presented experiences she got in classified advertising, travel agents, and brokerage business environments. Dynamic Trade being so open to competition, is it possible to build some competitive advantage? The answer is yes through experiential branding, physical distribution control, and consumer information leverage. This part of the book is important because it shows how organizations can built a competitive advantage on the specificities of Web environment. We do not often see such ideas so clearly developed. But are traditional companies able to move to this new environment? The answer is also yes if they are able to defy the gravity of the old ways of doing business. First, the attitude towards technology must be changed. Because of importance of technology choices to gain market share, technology must be integrated in a "Whole View" including marketing and business strategy. It's also necessary to use the best technology and to integrate new technologies, which are ripe for consumer markets. That means that technology managers need to move from a mission critical to a mission re-defining. Traditional companies need also to solve their distribution channel conflicts to have chance to enter the Internet market space. Mary Modahl is explaining there that they have no choice and is developing in her book a strategy to solve distribution channels conflicts. Finally traditional companies need to find the best organization to move to the Web. Three different strategies: wholesale transformation, risk balancing, and venture capital participation are presented with sound examples. But the final word is that winners to gain the battle for Internet customers can be among either start-ups or traditional companies if they have the will to win. Mary Modahl's book is a well written, easy reading contribution to understand the Web environment and is going much further than how to win Internet consumers with a complete set of strategies for start-ups as for traditional companies. Mary Modahl's own experience is also adding to the interest of this book, which is illustrated all along the pages with pertinent examples taken in real life. I can only recommend this book to every executive, who wants to be part of the "New Economy".
Rating: 
Summary: Beginners manual
Review: Mary Modahl - recently named as one of the most influential people in e-space by Fortune (or was it Forbes) has produced a great guide for those in business who are not familiar with the impact the Internet is going to have on them. Step by step with great anecdotes and statistics (which you can pick up from the Forrester website if you do not have the book). Mary takes you through a categorisation process for your customers and delineates a simple structure not too dissimilar to that recounted by Geoffrey Moore (Inside the Tornado). She offers sound advice too and alerts you to some pitfalls. Her advice is particularly good when referencing the channel conflicts that Internet business can bring. However, this is not really for the advanced businessperson (who will be familiar with all this anyway) but her clearly articulated lessons are good listening on long journeys. It is ironic though, that the people who most need to listen to this tape will never have connected to this website and therefore will never benefit from these reveiews.
Rating:
Summary: Clear Primer on Internet Consumer Behavior
Review: Ms. Modahl has written a clear, concise, and (mostly) jargon-free primer that instructs business managers, strategists, and consultants in the basics of Internet consumer behavior. She bases her analysis on research done by Forrester Research, where she is VP of Research. The benefit she brings to the interpretation of Forrester's research is her clarity of presentation, and her ability to move from general statisitics to recommendations for the creation of competitive Internet business models. She also does a good job in expounding the factors that inhibit successful "brick & mortar" enterprises from migrating to the net. I gove it 4 stars rather than five because it is very high-level, without a lot of real implementation advice or underlying analysis. She presents a set of 3-5 'rules' in each section, but they are a bit glib and make it seem that implementation of her conclusions should be straightforward, but anyone who's tried to build an Internet enterprise knows it's not quite that simple. Not withstanding these minor criticisms, this book belongs in the library of every entrepreneur, manager, or consultant that must understand Internet consumer behavior and apply that to the creation of competitive advantage.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Now or Never is a very good book. The intuitive analysis of what Modahl terms 'technographics' provides an extremely sound starting point for the examination that follows. This detailed segmentation of the internet consumer is not only innovative but crucial to companies (bricks and mortar, startups alike)for the formulation an effective internet strategy. The analyses of internet business models, and the old and new economy are similarly pertinent, drawing on examples (notably eSchwab) and the extensive experience of the author. However, what is particularly interesting in this book is its measure of objectivity. In the section on technographics, Modahl effectively raises the question of whether the internet can penetrate all industries and lifestyles. And whether a company such as Unilever, should be investing in alliances with Net retailers given that its consumers are internet weary? Other internet books conveniently overlook this point. Undoubtedly, this book is a must for internet strategy. It is sound, detailed, and gets to the bottom of a subject that is prone to generalisation.
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