06/28/10 03:47 PM Filed in:
Consumers
My
post in response to an
article on Harvard Business
Review
on "Stop
Trying to Delight Your
Customers"
has generated a lot of feedback from readers and
even the authors themselves. Here is a response
from one of the authors. Read
More...
Tags: Customer Service
06/27/10 11:52 AM Filed in:
Marketing
Why
do only 41% of marketers say that they have
a strategy for their social media ? Because
there often is a disconnect between strategy
and implementation. Read
More...
Tags: Strategy development
06/26/10 05:07 PM Filed in:
Social
Media
In
case you wondered about the power of Twitter,
Coke purchased the second ever “promoted tweet“
and saw 85 million impressions the first 24
hours. However before you go OMG think for a
second: does Coke need to raise awareness of it's
brand ? Read
More...
Tags: Old Metrics and new media
06/26/10 11:41 AM Filed in:
Social
Media
A
report from
R2integrated
showed that 65% of survey respondents had not
increased revenue or profited using social
media.
Read
More...
Tags: ROI
06/26/10 06:13 AM Filed in:
Consumers
According
to conventional wisdom, customers are more loyal
to firms that go above and beyond. But research
shows that exceeding their expectations during
service interactions (for example, by offering a
refund, a free product, or a free service such as
expedited shipping) makes customers only
marginally more loyal than simply meeting their
needs. Is this good research or is it telling
marketers the wrong information.
Read
More...
Tags: Customer Service
06/25/10 03:10 PM Filed in:
Social
Media
"Social
media suddenly started defining Starbucks. We
were an easy target. Bloggers were putting holes
in the equity of the brand, and it was affecting
consumer confidence, our people, everything."
That is a quote from Howard Schultz in the
new issue of Harvard Business
Review.
Starbucks turn around offers marketers a
glimpse at how to live with social media and
how it can help you maintain your leadership
position through openness and listening to
your customers. Read
More...
Tags: Fighting back using new
media
06/24/10 02:17 PM Filed in:
Consumers
Apple
is an amazing brand. They keep shitting on people
and their customers ask for more. Today I passed
the Apple store here and the line of people
waiting for the new iPhone was at least a 3-4
hour wait, even for the people who made
reservations ! These are often people who don't
have a life and want their new toys but it also
says about how Americans have become more
self-centered and more about "me" than previous
generations. Read
More...
Tags: Never underestimate
stupidity
06/23/10 01:48 PM Filed in:
Social
Media
A
Digital Brand Expressions 2010 Survey found that
while 78% of the respondents are using social
media, only 41% of them said they have a
strategic plan in place for their social media
usage, leaving close to 60% without a game plan
for their social media activities. Surprised ?
You shouldn't be. Read
More...
Tags: Strategy development
06/22/10 06:27 AM Filed in:
Social
Media
This
week finds yet another social media conference.
This one is on social media and health. More
people will get up and present stats on social
media, more people will get talk about the
importance of social media but nobody is going to
get to the truth and that is that marketing as we
have known it in the past is dead and ready to be
buried. Read
More...
Tags: What is marketing again ?
06/17/10 06:30 AM Filed in:
Branding
At
the center of ANY branding strategy is the
evolution of your strategy as you talk more with
prospects and customers. Mass market branding is
dead and as is most mass marketing branding
programs. Today an essential part of branding is
how you approach social media. Social media is
alive and moves in realtime. Brands cannot afford
the luxury of waiting to respond to consumers
they have to be ready to lead and respond to the
conversation with frequency. Read
More...
Tags: Social Media
06/16/10 11:30 AM Filed in:
Social
Media
Tom
Webster ,Vice President, Strategy and
Marketing Edison Research,
released a great
presentation
on Twitter usage in America. Among the key
findings; Despite near-ubiquitous awareness,
Twitter is currently used by seven percent of the
population, or approximately 17 million
Americans. Before you decide to invest in social
media, and Twitter, you may want to ask yourself
if you can reach the people who are your
customers and prospects on the platform.
Read
More...
Tags: Twitter vs Facebook
06/16/10 09:30 AM Filed in:
Branding
The
headline was not a good one "iPhone 4 Pre-Orders
Expose Private Info... People Charged For Phones
They Didn't Buy... AT&T Suspends Sales." Yet
there there are a lot of people still willing to
purchase a product site unseen and they are
willing to wait a long time to do it. How come
some brands can get away with this while others
pay a huge price for small mistakes ?
Read
More...
Tags: Violation of trust
06/15/10 02:51 PM Filed in:
Consumers
Hey ! Let's have
a marketing conference in Las Vegas so people can
use it as an excuse to party in Vegas and get
some down time. How else would you describe the
Consumer 360 Conference that so far has produced
some amazing insights like "consumers want brands
to be genuine". What is scary, as someone Tweeted
to me, is that these people are in charge of
marketing budgets. Read
More...
Tags: Captain Obvious
06/15/10 12:12 PM Filed in:
Marketing
At a marketing
conference today Kraft's Rosenfeld said that a
Paradigm shift is taking place in that consumers
no longer need brands, brands need consumers. I
personally believe that statement registers high
on the bullshit meter, especially when you look
at the brands that are in strong demand
today. Read
More...
Tags: Branding
06/14/10 01:46 PM Filed in:
Marketing
According to an
article in today's Bloomberg Business
Week a lot of
college grads are deciding not to get MBA's
causing business schools to go into a panic on
where they going to get new students. MBA's
love to quantify things and put them into nice
spreadsheets. Nowhere is this more apparent
than a new report from Syncapse suggesting that each
Facebook follower is worth a
certain amount of money to your brand. MBA's
maybe largely responsible for the financial
crisis but also they are also a big reason why
so many brands and marketers are in
trouble. Read
More...
Tags: MBA's
06/13/10 01:39 PM Filed in:
Demographics
There were two
research reports that caught my eye this week
that convey false assumptions. The first was from
Exact Target called Subscribers, Fans and
Followers. It
suggested that email is the more effective in
communicating with consumers than social
media. The second report from Nielsen
suggested that people are spending less time
on the Internet and more time watching TV.
Sorry I am not buying either of them.
Read
More...
Tags: Market Research
06/12/10 10:45 AM Filed in:
Social
Media
If you have to
ask what the ROI is for a Tweet than you just
don't understand social media and perhaps the
fact that the planets revolve around the
Sun. Read
More...
Tags: ROI of a Tweet
06/10/10 01:03 PM Filed in:
Consumers
So how many
customer service faux pas’ can your company make
before a customer drives off to your
competition?
Think of it as a baseball game – three strikes
and you’re out. According to a
recent online survey,
17% will leave you after a single service mess
up; 40% will leave you after two blunders and 28%
will leave after the third mistake. That adds up
to an overwhelming 85% of your business for poor
customer service. Read
More...
Tags: Customer Service
06/09/10 10:23 AM Filed in:
Marketing
It was only a
matter of time. A email form my friend Daniel
informed me of, what he believed, was a vailed
attempt at transparency. As he says
"I am in the
corner that believes that there wasn’t a ‘serious
IT glitch’ at EZ Grill and that this was all
engineered as a reason to send a $1 coupon to
their database." Indeed this
looks like a fake attempt by EZ Grill to generate
some PR as well as have an excuse to send coupons
to people. Read
More...
Tags: Deception
06/08/10 12:21 PM Filed in:
Marketing
"It's a global
brand that is really loved by a lot of people,"
Ms Sullivan said. "It is their identity on the
web. Whether it's their AIM screen name they've
had for 15 years or their e-mail they can't
imagine changing because that is who they are --
there is a love." Love ? And what planet does
this inexperienced new CMO live on ? The fact is
that people are leaving AOL in droves and the
brand is on life support.
Read
More...
Tags: AOL
06/08/10 07:57 AM Filed in:
Consumers
Mass marketing
is dead and decomposing yet too many zombie
marketers are trying to keep it alive. Mass
marketing has been replaced with marketing to the
individual and the acknowledgement that marketers
have to earn customers trust and business in
everything they do. The reason ? Social media and
a refusal of people to be grouped into
traditional segments. Read
More...
Tags: Segmentation, Social Media
06/05/10 11:17 AM Filed in:
Social
Media
Why would a
customer want to follow a brand on Twitter ?
There are a lot of reasons and it depends on the
type of product you are selling as well as the
need for customer service to support your
brand. Read
More...
Tags: Twitter
06/05/10 06:55 AM Filed in:
Consumers
The latest jobs
report is not good. Most of the 400k + jobs that
were added were for people to take the Census.
The private sector only added 41,000 new jobs.
Most economists now fear that are going to be
headed in another recession because most
consumers are becoming more fearful about their
own economic security. Marketers had best keep
their fingers on the pulse of how consumers are
feeling. Read
More...
Tags: Economy
06/03/10 04:24 PM Filed in:
Leadership
The role of CEO
brings an element of celebrity as well as power,
with all the attendant benefits, temptations, and
dangers. Perhaps the biggest dangers is to get
too far removed from your customers and pay more
attention to your Board than listening to what
consumers are saying about your brand.
Read
More...
Tags: CEO
06/03/10 07:31 AM Filed in:
Advertising
According to
Nielsen: TV advertising and program promotions
reach 85% of adults daily, and viewers typically
see 26 advertising or promotional breaks —
accounting for 73 minutes — each day. But does
that mean that viewers are purchasing these
products ? The answer to that would be "hell no"
!! Read
More...
Tags: TV Ads
06/03/10 07:00 AM Filed in:
Demographics
Consumers are
angry and they have been telling marketers again
and again "I am not a segment!" In this era of
social media monologue has given way to dialogue
and a fundamental shift in culture is
underway. Read
More...
Tags: New consumer
06/03/10 04:09 AM Filed in:
Marketing
Recent research
from Nielsen on top CPG trends for 2010 has
concluded that consumers are seeking value for
the dollar and brand differentiation and that
consumer constraint will become the “new normal”.
If any company thinks that consumers are going to
go back to their old purchase behaviors they have
a lot to learn. My latest
presentation "Business and
brand leadership after a recession" asks "what
should business do to ensure they thrive in an
era of changed consumer
behavior. Read
More...
Tags: Business strategy
