“On Customer Experience: Benefits. Best Practices. Truth.” On Customer Experience makes the case for adopting customer experience design as an enterprise level strategy. The white paper introduces the benefits of customer experience as a way to improve loyalty and improve brand performance. It includes a self-assessment checklist to learn if customer experience design is the right way to go and it includes a seven-step best practice approach to launching and sustaining customer experience initiatives. The secret, according to Wittenstein, is to design twice. First, design the experience in a way that benefits customers, employees, and shareholders. Second, design an adoption experience for the people in the organization to learn how to deliver it enthusiastically and on-brand.
About Mike
For two decades, Mike Wittenstein has helped business leaders around the world differentiate their brands by dramatically improving their customer experience. In the process, those clients have gained market dominance, increased their sales, and/or discovered new, unexpected revenue streams.
Now an expert in customer experience design and customer experience strategy, Mike is a sought-after designer, speaker, and consultant. He works in the hospitality, retail, technology, healthcare, and entertainment industries, as well as other service categories. He can be reached at http://www.mikewittenstein.com/ Follow him on Twitter: @mikewittenstein
Regardless what business you’re in, it is imperative that you look at all aspects of your business and see what can go wrong and try to minimize any possible disruptions for you or your customers. This may be as simple as backing up your hard drive to ensure that you aren’t down for a number of days while trying to recover the data and incurring the expenses associated with it.
Building on the hard drive example, it is important that you have contingency plans in place that can clearly articulate what has to be done in case something goes wrong to minimize any disruptions. These should be well documented and readily accessible to all of your employees. If plans aren’t in place, an unexpected event could actually be enough to put you out of business if you don’t quickly and correctly respond.
What brings this to mind is a recent trip I was on in SE Asia that involved a break down of a bus I was traveling on. The bus company had no contingency plans in place and there was utter chaos among the passengers in trying to find a way to get to their ultimate destination. Needless to say, it was quite frustrating and annoying. Furthermore, my trust in the bus company has been forever broken and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.
Most large companies invest a great amount of money in developing contingencies plans for their respective businesses and hire high priced consultants to assist them in this area. I’m not suggesting that you do the same, unless you have very deep pockets, but take the time to ensure that you’re covered and first focus on those items in your business that could have the greatest possible negative impact if something goes wrong. Start from there, list the items in descending order of risk and develop a plan to deal with each area. Don’t wait before it’s too late!
One of the most valuable things that any marketer can do for his or her firm is to help create a customer for life. With the cost of acquiring a new customer being so high this makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, most companies do not know how to do this very effectively and lose out on the potential for creating an ongoing revenue stream from a satisfied customer. One company that truly understands how to do this, and is quite effective at it, is Singapore Airlines.
Over the years, I have always had great experiences in traveling on Singapore Airlines. When it came time to choose an airline for a recent trip to SE Asia, my 1st choice was Singapore Airlines even though I had to go a little bit out of my way to get on a flight. I’ve always had such a positive impression that I knew that my in-transit time of almost 30 hours from Atlanta to Singapore would be as pleasant as possible even traveling in coach. It had been a while, but Singapore Airlines met and exceeded my expectations in many ways once I got on the flight to Singapore at JFK and on the return from Singapore, as well. So much better than so many other airlines. It’s a company that knows how to do it right from start to finish.
1)Website- extremely user-friendly. Post booking reminders from the airline.
2)Check-in- all counters opened simultaneously and on-time with each employee enthusiastically greeting each and every passenger.
3)Boarding- generally done on a very orderly basis even though they had to accommodate almost 500 passengers for the A380 aircraft.
4)Cabin staff- all meticulously groomed and dressed. Very attentive to the needs of each and every passenger.
5)Accessories- clean pillows and blankets, newspapers to choose from when boarding, hot towels for refreshing, great inflight entertainment including WiFi, as well as an informative and entertaining SilverKris magazine.
6)Food-excellent food and snacks throughout the flights.
6)Bathrooms- clean and well maintained by the staff during the long flights.
7)Baggage claim-the bags were quickly available after the flights.
It’s this type of execution in all areas that has given Singapore Airlines the outstanding reputation that it has as the world’s most awarded airline and has solidified it as being my 1st choice in airline travel. It’s no wonder that it has recently been given the following awards:
FEB 2012
DestinAsian (Asia’s leading luxury travel and lifestyle magazine – Jakarta)
Readers’ Choice Awards (7th time running)
Best Airline – Overall
Best Airline for Premium Class Travel (First & Business class)
Best Airline for Economy Class
Best In-flight Entertainment
Favourite Airline Frequent Flyer Programme
Asia-Pacific Airline Retail Conference (UK)
Best Airline for Inflight Food & Beverage
Best Inflight Retailer
JAN 2012
Hurun Report 2012 (China)
“Best of the Best” ranking
Best International First & Business Class Award
DEC 2011
JoonAng Daily Newspaper (Korea)
Highest Brand of the Year 2011
Best Airline
Best Airline in the World (22 of 23 years)
Best First, Business & Economy Class
Best In-flight service
Best Transpac Business Class
Best Business Class to Asia
Global Traveler (USA)
Best Airline in the World 2011 (8th consecutive year)
Condé Nast Traveller (India)
2011 First Readers’ Travel Awards
Best Business Airline, Overseas
2011 Travel Awards
Asia’s Best Airline for First Class
Asia’s Best Airline for Business Class
If you want to follow a model for creating a customer for life, consider emulating what Singapore Airlines does in its business.
Posted in Best Practices Customer Service Marketing Travel by .
I love LinkedIn and have been an avid user of it for 6 years. I have greatly valued it as a useful tool, but I’m now becoming extremely alarmed at the total disregard which some users have for it and how they’re abusing it. This is quite evident by those who are now gaming the system and loading it with repetitive keywords throughout their profiles to gain a competitive advantage at the expensive of more ethical individuals.
Sure, I could do the same, and I do use keywords in strategic places to enhance my own SEO, but I have respect for the tool and for the people that use it, so I don’t go out and add keywords like there’s no tomorrow. So-called Social Media Experts are among the most notorious for doing this, however, many from other professions have now jumped on the bandwagon. Something should be done by LinkedIn to clean up these profiles and return a bit of sanity to the platform, but, also, those of us in the marketing field should point out blatant violators. It’s time for some ethics within this field! I’m afraid that if there’s not some “self-policing”, or if LinkedIn fails to act in this area, LinkedIn’s usefulness as a search tool will be severely impacted as more and more people learn how to game the system and negatively impact the credibility of the search results.
To show some examples of what I’m talking about, I copied portions of a few profiles out of many that I looked at and pasted short portions of them below. I have edited the headlines and other information so as not to “expose” these individuals, but I wanted to share an inkling of what I’m seeing. Although the time frames for employment at the companies are the same, some are adding numerous titles for basically the same job functions at the same company and “stuffing” it with one or two keywords or keyword strings as shown below.
What do you think? Do you feel we need a code of ethics? Also, should LinkedIn police this practice and return some sanity to the use of keywords?
Examples Of Keyword Abuse
Example #1
2011 – 2011 (less than a year)
Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing Social media marketing
Example #2
Social Media Strategies | Social Media Content
XYZ Company
March 2007 – Present (5 years)
Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Marketing Twitter, Social Media Marketing Facebook, Social Media Marketing Linkedin, Social Media Marketing Strategy, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Marketing Content, Social Media Marketing Speaker, Social Media Marketing author, Social Media Marketing training, Social Media Marketing coach, Social Media Marketing CEO, Social Media Marketing Social Media Marketing Strategist, Social Media Marketing Strategy, Social Media Marketing
Social Media Speaker
XYZ Company
March 2007 – Present (5 years)
Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Marketing Twitter, Social Media Marketing Facebook, Social Media Marketing Linkedin, Social Media Marketing Strategy, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Marketing Content, Social Media Marketing Speaker, Social Media Marketing author, Social Media Marketing training, Social Media Marketing coach, Social Media Marketing CEO, Social Media Marketing Social Media Marketing Strategist, Social Media Marketing Strategy, Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing Producer & Video Content Marketing
XYZ Company
March 2007 – Present (5 years)
Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Marketing Twitter, Social Media Marketing Facebook, Social Media Marketing Linkedin, Social Media Marketing Strategy, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Marketing Content, Social Media Marketing Speaker, Social Media Marketing author, Social Media Marketing training, Social Media Marketing coach, Social Media Marketing CEO, Social Media Marketing Social Media Marketing Strategist, Social Media Marketing Strategy, Social Media Marketing
Twitter Marketing LinkedIn Marketing Facebook Marketing
XYZ Company
March 2007 – Present (5 years)
Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Marketing Twitter, Social Media Marketing Facebook, Social Media Marketing Linkedin, Social Media Marketing Strategy, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Marketing Content, Social Media Marketing Speaker, Social Media Marketing author, Social Media Marketing training, Social Media Marketing coach, Social Media Marketing CEO, Social Media Marketing Social Media Marketing Strategist, Social Media Marketing Strategy, Social Media Marketing
Youtube Marketing Video Marketing Internet Marketing
XYZ Company
March 2007- Present (5 Years)
Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Marketing Twitter, Social Media Marketing Facebook, Social Media Marketing Linkedin, Social Media Marketing Strategy, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Marketing Content, Social Media Marketing Speaker, Social Media Marketing author, Social Media Marketing training, Social Media Marketing coach, Social Media Marketing CEO, Social Media Marketing Social Media Marketing Strategist, Social Media Marketing Strategy, Social Media Marketing
Example #3
Plant Controller/Senior Financial Analyst/ Accounting Manager/Controller/Cost Accounting Manager
Plant Controller/Senior Financial Analyst/ Accounting Manager/Controller/Cost Accounting
August 2009 – Present (2 years 8 months)
Plant Controller, Senior Financial Analyst, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager.
Controller, Senior Financial Analyst, Accounting Manager, Plant Controller, Cost Account Manager
Controller, Senior Financial Analyst, Accounting Manager, Plant Controller, Cost Accounting Manager
August 2009 – Present (2 years 8 months)
Controller, Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager. Senior Financial Analyst, Plant Controller, Accounting Manager, Controller, Cost Accounting Manager.
Posted in LinkedIn Social Media by .
Feb 12
13
In This Social Media Era, How Much Of Your Business Is By Referral? Guest Post By Emile Paradis
Even in this era of so much emphasis on Social Media, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and other channels as lead generators, I often hear from people that their new business opportunities still come almost 100% by referral. This is particularly true for small businesses. While 100% may be the goal, usually the real number is significantly lower. Folks aren’t lying; they’re just operating under a misconception.
This misconception comes from the lack of a system that develops and tracks lead generation and more specifically, referral generation. If you want to build your business through referrals, you need a system to develop and track them. That means your system includes a way to track and measure. While “paperwork” is, for me, the least attractive part of sales, (unless the paperwork is a contract) results are erratic and unpredictable without it. Who is giving you referrals? Who are you referring? What are you doing to earn referrals? What is your closing percentage for referrals vs. other lead sources? Are you in the right networks? Are the referrals you are receiving your ideal clients or are they “anybody” or “somebody”?
This fifth “M” of the 5 M’s of Marketing may be the least glamorous of them all, but it can be the difference between a hobby and a business. So, if you want referrals to be a predictable part of your new business generation instead of just a happy surprise, you need a system. And a big part of that system is Measuring your activities and results.
A retired Colonel, United States Marine Corps, and former Managing Director for BNI- Atlanta, Emile Paradis is currently the Managing Partner of RPM Advisors and is a franchise owner of the Referral Institute. He can be reached at www.referralinstituteatlanta.com
Posted in Guest Blog Posts Referral Marketing Social Media Social Media Marketing by .
Online marketing is in many ways objective and measurable, but it is also as much an art as a science. Grasping the subjective and defining intangibles is always difficult and this applies to the concept of Trust in Online Marketing.
If Gasoline powers Cars
If Electricity powers Light Bulbs
Then Trust powers Social Media.
In this blog post, I will provide a definition of Trust and explain why it is important. I will then show you how I construct the audience and strategy variables which will allow us finally to have a detailed discussion about how you can further build Trust into your Social Media and business strategies to become more successful.
I have prepared a brief introductory video for you about this post:
Now, Let us try to define Trust…
- Honesty – you must be truthful
- Consistency – your behaviour must not vary over time
- Integrity – be yourself, your reputation matters
- Straight forward – avoid being Machiavellian or manipulative
- Openness – Do not hide unpalatable facts
- Fairness – treat others as you would have them treat you.
On the internet, you create a track record and a trail. It is almost impossible to undo what you allow to be posted out there. As a result, if you do not interact online with the highest standards, you will eventually be found out. As Churchill once said, “Reputations are built in years and destroyed in moments”
So why is it important?
The purpose of online marketing is to create leads and convert sales. To do this you need to move your leads through the sales funnel and close the deal. In online terms, I like to think of this Conversion Cycle in terms of:
- Find Me
- Know Me
- Like Me
- Trust Me
- Do Business with Me
- Evangelise Me
You will see that Trust is right in the middle of this process. If you do not win the trust of your potential customers, the conversion cycle breaks and the business migrates elsewhere.
So to answer the second part of the question first, Yes, emphatically Trust is important.
Lets Apply the Six Minute Strategist Methodology to start to understand this in a little more detail. I like to create structures to analyse problems, but this time I want to build it up so you can see my train of thought more clearly.
So let’s start by creating a 2×2 Grid.
As a business owner and Entrepreneur, your task is to address two Audiences simultaneously – your internal audience and your external audience.
I would propose that we characterise our Online Strategy in terms of Content and Implemenation.
This invites us to consider what goes in the blank boxes in the middle? I have made some suggestions, but I would invite you to think about it and insert your own.
It is clear to me that one of the bases for success in all of these is Trust. Your internal and external communications need to meet the definition of Trust we have included above and your Content and Implementation strategy must be consistent with these principles as well.
Lets take this to the next level and get to our 6×6 Matrix. Firstly lets look at your Audience in more detail.
Your internal audience includes:
- You
- Your Management Team
- Your Employees
Your external audience includes:
- Your Customers
- Your Suppliers
- Your Competitors
So this gives us Six Variables on the Audience axis.
Your Strategy includes the following variables
- Inform
- Educate
- Entertain
Your Implementation Strategy includes
- Personalise
- Integrate
- Engage
So now our 6×6 Matrix looks like this:
Now we can start to get to the real meat of the argument. If you preferred to use Magic Hexagons, I would recommend you place one of these two in the centre and examine each of the other variables in turn. This will stimulate you to look at further offshoots and variable clusters as you go and I would encourage you to use the following discussion as a brainstorming template rather than a definitive answer. In the interest of brevity, I will keep my comments short.
I am going to put the Content and Implementation Variables i.e. Strategy at the heart of the following discussion…but equally you can discuss these variables in terms of the Audience instead.
Personalise
- You – be yourself and find your own style; use a good photograph of your face for your online “Avatar”, make some (limited) but personal information available to show that you are human
- Management – manage but lead by example
- Staff – get to know them and make clear what you expect of them
- Customers – build rapport – people do business with people
- Suppliers – help them to realise that your success is their success
- Competitors – compete, know your enemy but also realise that you are in the same market and sink and swim together
Integrate
- You – make sure you have your personal online presence integrated to ensure consistency, honesty and openness
- Management – be accessible and have open lines of communication, private email, IM, personal mobile numbers
- Staff – ensure that your online marketing strategies involve all your staff – if you can get one blog post from one employee a year think about the impact that can make and their sense of ownership
- Customers – ensure that you have multiple points of contact with your customers throughout your organisation
- Suppliers – bring them into your online marketing and customer communication strategy. You want them to believe that you are one of their most important customers
- Competitors – use Social Media monitoring tools e.g. Google Alerts, to keep track of what they are doing, how and when they are doing it and measure the impact if you can. You can learn so much from them and repurpose their strategies for your own means.
Engage
- You – be online, write content, contribute to the conversation
- Management – ensure that your whole team buys into the online marketing strategy, get them behind you all the way
- Staff – get them involved, particularly in helping answer customer questions
- Customers – make sure your website is consistent with the Conversion Cycle principles, include contact details and calls to action on every page, engage with them, obtain email addresses to build your list
- Suppliers – work with them to involve their marketing strategies in yours,
- Competitors – sign up for their mailing lists (on a personal basis) and see what they send you
Inform
- You – make sure that you keep yourself up to date with everything going on in your industry, listen to podcasts, read blogs, follow influential people on Twitter
- Management – draw on their experience and ensure that they are contributing to the thought leadership position you want you and your company to assume
- Staff – keep your staff informed of all significant developments in your company; have an internal blog, a newsletter, emails and intranets
- Customers – provide timely and helpful information in more than one format (see content creation), make sure that your website contains information for them and not simply material and information about you and your company – ask yourself why do they come?
- Suppliers – ensure that your suppliers know how you are doing and share your triumphs, there will come a time when you need an order fulfilling quickly or you have a short term problem that will be more easily solved with their support
- Competitors – gather intelligence about your competitors – make sure that you take and hold the postion of industry authority and thought leader and do not surrender this to any of your competitors – you want to be the “Go To” person in your industry that potential customers can find and come to trust.
Educate
- You – learn everything you can; there is a mass of information available through the internet and in books. If you are going to be a Trust agent, you must become a recognised authority in your subject area.
- Management – encourage your management team to follow your example. Share your links and material with them. Spend time with them explaining the importance of building this authority
- Staff – Continuous learning should be a habit and you should definitely encourage your staff to embrace this. You can provide time and opportunities through your internal website to do this. Make it part of your assessment and reward structure.
- Customers – Educating your customers is about sharing your expertise with them to help them make an informed buying decision. If they come to you to learn and you provide them with the information they need, who do you think they are going to turn to when they are ready to buy?
- Suppliers – share your eductation and information with your suppliers. By working with them, perhaps some short videos shot at their factory showing how their excellent product/materials are produced will be informative for your potential customers.
- Competitors – Educate yourself about them. Time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted. If they are doing some smart things in their online marketing strategy that you can adapt and adopt, do so.
Entertain
- You – Don’t be dull. You must be yourself, but you should teach yourself communication skills whether standing in front of an audience, a microphone or a video camera.
- Management – there is nothing worse than faceless management. You must encourage your management team to be open and accessible to your staff and your customers. Again I am not suggesting they put on a show, but simply be personable and genuine.
- Staff – While work is a serious business, you will get much more productivity from a happy team than a bored one. Find ways to provide opportunities to relax such as a well organise canteen or gym.
- Customers – Finding opportunities to socialise with your customers is a critical part of marketing. It is worth spending time finding out what their interests are and trying to include these in your customer entertainment programme. I recognise that in difficult times, such market spend has to be kept under control
- Suppliers – there is no reason why you should not find time for your suppliers although, hopefully, they will also find opportunities to entertain you. If nothing else, go and have lunch or dinner with them.
- Competitors – Study the enemy and their practices – are they doing original things online and offline. You may find your customers relating stories to you of their activities. Listen and learn.
To learn more about John Colley, the Six Minute Strategist, you can visit his website at http://jbdcolley.com. If you would like to contact him, email him at jbdcolley[at]aol.com. Also, John has recently published a free iBook in iTunes entitled: “How to Think Like a Six Minute Strategist…in Six Minutes”. The book is his gift to you for taking time to read this post. You can find it at http://jbdcolley.com/6MSiBook
Posted in Guest Blog Posts Social Media Marketing by .
Training for the Social Media Super Bowl
With the playoffs over and Super Bowl Sunday drawing near, many fans are looking forward not only to watching two great teams square off, but to the entertainment value of this year’s commercials. What better time to reflect on last year’s Super Bowl advertising winners and losers and to speculate on what advertisers will bring to the playing field?
MVPs and Benchwarmers
The 2011 Super Bowl had its share of memorable spots, both good and bad. The clear MVP was Volkswagen’s “The Force” campaign. The 60-second spot went viral before kickoff and Volkswagen capitalized on the momentum by sharing the spot with a link on their Twitter account during game time. This standout commercial won by striking the right balance between funny, cute, and memorable.
Contrasting “The Force” was social site Groupon’s disastrous strategy of mocking public service announcements. This campaign could be the biggest offensive fumble in Super Bowl ad history. One segment featured Timothy Hutton making light of the demise of the Tibetan culture and the destruction of their environment. Other spots made fun of saving whales and the destruction of Brazil’s rainforest. Groupon’s ads should have been benched for this personal foul. Let’s hope Groupon learned its lesson and steps up its game for 2012.
Super Social
During the Packers-Steelers face off many brands combined social media campaigns with their Super Bowl ads in an effort to leverage the best of both traditional and new media. Perennial Super Bowl favorites like Budweiser, Pepsi, and Doritos were joined by Mercedes, Audi, and Sketchers with social media tie-ins. Most of these brands turned to Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube in an effort to not only increase customer engagement but also retain it, once the big game was over.
Budweiser used Facebook to allow their fans to choose which ad would be shown during the game. Doritos teamed up with Pepsi and took things a step further by allowing fans to vote on ads created by fellow fans. The winner was rewarded with the air time. Mercedes gave away two cars during its Twitter-fueled race while Audi focused on generating – and measuring – buzz with its branded Twitter hashtag. Sketchers relied on a popular celebrity, Kim Kardashian, to move people to its Facebook page.
Tradition Meets Trendy
With 111 million viewers, Super Bowl XLV was the most-watched television show in American history. This was the second year in a row that Super Bowl viewership has set this record. The average cost of a 30-second spot for Super Bowl XLV was close to $3 million, a cost advertisers were willing to bear to access millions of viewers. Fifty percent of those viewers tuned in solely to watch the commercials, so the hefty price was well worth it. With the ever-increasing costs of Super Bowl advertising, many marketers are using social media tie-ins to maximize their return on investment. Coordinating social media campaigns with traditional television media gives advertisers a way to gain additional exposure for their brand, increase and engage their fan base, and ensure that there is life before and after the NFL champions are determined.
How Will Super Bowl XLVI Ads Entertain and Engage Us?
The past couple of Super Bowls haven’t produced as many memorable ads as previous years, leading to speculation on what advertisers will do with their 30 to 60 seconds this year. This year brings some new advertisers to the game who will hopefully raise the bar by doing something fresh and unexpected. While some advertisers like Volkswagon and Lexus have put out teasers to give viewers a sneak peek of their 2012 ad, others have kept their ad campaign on the hush. Regardless, viewers will tune in by the millions to see which commercials capture their attention and are worthy of Monday morning conversation. We can fully expect that Twitter will be a buzz and the most successful commercials will go viral on YouTube within minutes. The question is – which ad campaign will walk away with a “W”, and more importantly, which team? – the New England Patriots or the New York Giants?
This guest post was written by Kaitlyn Nakagoshi of the University of San Francisco’s higher education program, which offers a social media certification program online through their internet marketing courses. One of only 28 Jesuit Catholic colleges in the country and the oldest university in San Francisco, USF offers undergraduate, graduate, and professional students the knowledge and skills needed to succeed as people and professionals, and the values and sensitivity necessary to be men and women for others. For more information on the online program please visit http://www.usanfranonline.com.
Posted in Guest Blog Posts Uncategorized by .
Wow! The big game is only a week away. It’s hard to believe. It should be quite the game. Both the New England Patriots and New York Giants are great teams. It will be very exciting.
This coming week will be quite intense for both teams. Just like they’ve done for months, they will be planning and practicing hours on end on how to mount a solid offense to counteract the other’s defense, and the same on the defensive side. They both want to be capable of reacting to any possible situation that presents itself and achieve the ultimate goal of becoming the champions of Super Bowl XLVI .
You may be asking yourself what this has to do with Social Media and what we’re doing? Like the Super Bowl, we practice and prepare hours on end for what we’re doing. We should be focusing on both mounting a sufficient offense to attract new business and a defensive strategy to fend off any competitors. We also need to make sure that we have our “special teams” in place to capitalize and properly execute on any potential surprises that might arise. Also, as they will be doing in the game, we need to make adjustments on a quarterly basis so that we can become more productive and prosperous. We also need to enjoy a halftime where we can take some time away from the game and enjoy ourselves.
Unlike the Super Bowl, the final outcome for our business or personal “Super Bowl” won’t be known until the end of the year when we reflect on our annual performance. Did we have the correct strategies in place to grow our businesses? Did we assess our performance on a quarterly basis and have new strategies and tactics in place to remain competitive? Did we keep score throughout the game and measure the right things?
As we enjoy the break before the big game, I can’t think of a better time to get our own game plans in shape to ensure that the points we’ve scored throughout the year have been maximized. We also want to surrender very few points, if any, to the competition.
Enjoy the game!
Posted in Social Media Uncategorized by .
Alot has been written about the decline of “legacy” national brands and the rise of “new age” and/or store brands. The combination of both retailer and manufacturer consolidation combined with shareholder pressure to have successive quarterly earnings growth has done a lot to commoditize the consumer product businesses both in consumer package goods and consumer durables. In addition, some national brands simply stopped innovating and relied on their current brands thinking they would never decline. A simple list can illustrate what I mean:
|
“Legacy” National Brands |
New Age and/or Store Brands |
| Duncan Hines baking mixes | Apple’s iphone, ipad etc. |
| Spray N’ Wash soil/stain remover | President’s Choice |
| Crisco shortening/oils | Sam’s Choice |
| Heinz | Behr & Valspar paints & coatings |
| Black & Decker | Ryobi Power Tools |
| Hostess desserts/Wonder dread | Swiffer |
| Sunbeam | Dyson |
| Kodak | Canon |
| Stanley | Kobalt/Rigid |
| Chrysler | Lexus |
| Whirlpool/Maytag | LG |
| Philips/Magnavox | Samsung |
One of the distinguishing characteristics of national brands vs. new age/store brands is they tend to be owned by Fortune 500 companies and/or private equity groups. These companies tend to be mature, large in scale and in product categories that are either declining in volume and/or highly competitive. Whereas the new age and/or store brands tend to be owned either by smaller and/or new companies that didn’t exist 50 years ago and have either redefined a product category’s value proposition either by lower price or new feature/benefit innovations resulting in a higher price.
Store brands compete mainly on price; but they are not the cheap “private label” alternatives they used to be and quality can and usually matches/exceeds national brands. They now account for ¼ of ALL volume in grocery/drug and big box retailers. Moreover, 80% of consumers now believe store brands quality is equal to/exceed national brands. This trend continues to threaten the “legacy” national brands in terms of their long term viability.
While national brands tend to look in their rear view mirror and store brands are trying to mimic what national brands have already done; “New Age” brands are thinking outside the box. They continue to look for consumer “need gaps” and are willing to invest in the future to build a completely new brand. While this sounds costly and risky what makes them different 1) is a laser-like focus on new feature/benefit product innovations; 2) they create new brands virally via the new digital marketing medium of either direct response and/or e-commerce. Since digital marketing tends to be more cost effective than the traditional media programs of TV/print their payback is less. Moreover, consumers are now using the internet to gather information on solutions to problems or perceived problems. This develops an opportunity for a whole new consumer “experience” which builds new age brand equity in a completely new way by focusing less on mass marketing and segmentation and more on developing one-on-one relationships with consumers/customers. Finally, new age brands aren’t afraid of cannibalizing their own business to launch an even better, innovative product (i.e. continuous iphone innovations). They truly seem to have a continuous flow of new products and thus their business franchise continues to grow.
The lesson here? Don’t be afraid to think outside the box to build up your brand. Your brand is like any physical asset you have like plants and machinery. Always focus on new product/feature innovations and you will always have a continuous flow of new products. In this way, your brand won’t degrade over time and the need for store brands can be minimized.
Rick Steinbrenner is a Global Consumer Brand & Product Marketer serving both B2C and B2B consumer product organizations. He can be reached at: www.globalbrandguy.com
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