POST DIGITAL

on: influential product reviews

Customer product reviews were described as ‘undeniably influential’ in a recent report released by eMarketer.  Jeffrey Grau, the report’s author notes that “for many purchases, shoppers find the best advice comes not from family and close friends but from strangers who have similar interests or who embody a lifestyle the shopper aspires to achieve.” Overall, it finds that customer reviews are a bigger part of the pre-purchase decision making process, with customers reading more reviews, and spending more time doing so.

on: html5

[via Focus]

 

on: a little privacy

The IAB tells congress that It's privacy bills may harm business and consumers. Mike Zaneis, Vice President of Public Policy, testified before the U.S. Congress to express the advertising industry’s serious reservations about two legislative proposals that jeopardize the Internet and the interactive advertising that has made possible an explosion of new information, communications and entertainment.

With all of the social data being posted in public, can we self regulate before we get to close to people's private matters?  can all this data lead to predictive algorithms engines run amuck?

[via IAB]

on: facebook + amazon

Facebook and Amazon.com partnered Tuesday in what could be one of the social network’s most important integrations yet. Such a partnership could also lay the groundwork for Facebook to get key pieces of data, so it can start to quantitatively value how social recommendations translate into sales. According to both companies they are not getting purchase history on specific individuals.  

 

Now consumers will see products based on their friends’ reviews. This couples two very effective forms of recommendations: friends & online reviews. In fact, those two consistently rank as the top two most valued forms of product advice.

Now if Facebook can build out this partnership with Amazon, It can get key pieces of aggregated data back to study how product sales change in relation to social recommendations or ad campaigns, it can build models to show how financially valuable it is on average when a user “likes” a product or brand.

More coverage:

• Amazon Web Services for Facebook Developers
• Facebook Announces Partnership

on: the path to ten billion tweets

 

ON: Flipping The Funnel

Have you ever stood in a new business pitch and wanted to sneeze "bullshit" when you saw the old marketing funnel pop up?  I think the most confusing explanations of the new marketing paradigm is this one Forrester put out a few years back.

 

 The traditional funnel was built on four consumer behaviors: Awareness - Interest - Desire and Action.  

If you’re like most marketers, you’ve been spending a lot of time and money trying to shovel more and more attention into the top of the funnel. After all, if you can expose your idea or product to enough people, you can afford to buy more attention, to run more ads, to put more people into the top.  This method takes a ton of time and a ton more money.

What's wrong with the funnel?
If your a brand with a little money you have to be much more focused with the way that you spend your media dollars.  All marketing including your CRM programs are created to get people to the purchase your product.  I would argue that there is no linear path to loyalty.  The one constant is continued choice.  

 Loyalty / CRM or relationship marketing in the conversation age is all about getting existing customers (those brand evangelists) to get new customers.  

My friend @jaffejuice says we should Flip the Funnel - and I agree!

Here are some excerpts @jaffejuice's new book Flip the Funnel which is a MUST BUY for any strategist, marketer or creative working in this digitally converged age.

It's out of date. Come on - people aren't predictable, linear, rational or sequential beings. They probably never were. Though the four steps make sense in theory from a sequential or even chronological standpoint, the buying game is very different in reality. In a word-of-mouth and word-of-mouse led world, the process of researching and buying is decidedly non-linear, and it's likely that some steps are skipped altogether in an always correcting, efficient and evolving marketplace.

It's lopsided or out of proportion. The reason why the funnel is wider at one end and narrower at the other is not only because of the number of people that are theoretically present at each step, but arguably because of the amount of money spent or available at each step. If you think about it, shouldn't we be spending more money against qualified prospective buyers, versus shots in the dark at bagging a random stranger? Of course we should. 

It's oversimplified. There's a fine line between simplifying something complex down to a root or core state, and oversimplifying it to a fault. The marketing funnel does not factor in at least three critical components associated with the qualification process; and even more intriguing is that all three are consumer-driven or initiated, starkly contrasting against the incumbent steps which are all marketing-centric or oriented: Research, Trial, and Satisfaction.
 
Research: Search is just the tip of the iceberg - a portal into an aggressive and proactive due-diligence process. Consumers today are vociferous researchers; they will do what they can to make informed decisions that disintermediate marketing misdirection, hyperbole, overpromise and hype. They'll also spend increasing amounts of time talking with peers, colleagues, friends and family members, as well as interacting with newly formed "acquaintances" in the social networking and digital community arenas.

Trial: Try before you buy is a crucial solution to hesitation, inability to commit, or indecision. And just like search was the tip of the research iceberg, so too is couponing or sampling the tip of the trial step. Often times, trial is indirect or inferred; for example, a movie review today is independently and representatively vetted, endorsed and validated by a community of "me's" and "you's." When trial becomes an existential experience, there's no longer danger of seeing a bad movie.

Satisfaction: Interestingly enough (if we're using Wikipedia as the gold standard), this is the only missing component of A.I.D.A. that tends to make it into conversations about the consumer qualification process. Perhaps it's because it slots neatly into an acronym (A.I.D.A.S.), and who doesn't love the convenience of a neat-sounding acronym? Satisfaction is the one clue that the funnel is not quite done yet ...

Human beings have become increasingly unpredictable mammals. Expecting them to go through any kind of process (especially one we created for them) with a degree of standardization and/or certainty is a dangerous assumption to make. With incessant distractions, constantly new propositions and exciting ways of transacting with a company, it's no longer valid to bank on a predictable path to purchase. Instead, witness a more realistic behavior, mixed with accelerated, skipped and even repeated steps or pathways to purchase.

What happens to the chosen few that make it through to the other end of the funnel? They fall to their grisly deaths in the vertical drop of attrition. Put less grandiosely and more pragmatically: The funnel is purely an acquisition phase, and does not continue to retention. Perhaps if there were a bucket underneath, we'd be a little more reassured that there was some kind of safety net built into an incredibly costly (or risky) game of conquesting.

Even if the funnel were "closed" insofar that there was a destination or goal, it would still be incomplete; the end point would still be a dead end. The marketing funnel produces customers - but then does nothing with them. With so much effort extended to produce a priceless transaction, it is almost inconceivable that we all but abandon our intensity thereafter. Perhaps we're locked into a cruel version of Groundhog Day when we immediately are taken back to the beginning, only to have to repeat our entire marketing mating dance with (as history has shown us) barely any new lessons learned and diminishing success rates.

This book takes aim at the heart of the open social model.  Get Flip the Funnel  at Amazon or Barnes & Noble

ON: Mini Postitweets

A simple execution. This is a Mini branded positive news tweet stream.

About Postitweets: "We all know there is plenty of negative news in the world and we think it’s time to start focusing on all the good. Positweets is the destination for all the latest positive news and updates from Twitter. Here, you can see what others are saying and post your own #positweets!"

It's filtering mechanism aggregates fun stats & animated graphs.The site was created by Slash7 in collaboration with Federated Media. FM represents more than 100 of the world’s most respected websites, blogs, and social networking applications. Positweets has enlisted the help of "positributors" including @AlleyInsider, @BoingBoing, @Trendhunter and @venturebeat, who will be sharing positive vibes using the #positweets hashtag.

This execution demonstrates a strategy that positions the Mini brand as a filter. That is not new - but the players behind it are.  Could paying social media influencers to propagate an idea or subject matter be the model that turns the ad industry on its head?

Visit the site at http://positweets.com

ON: Marketing to Gen Y Woman

A great piece of new research on Gen Y woman was released by PopSugar Media (www.popsugar.com).  The two-tier study revealed that Generation Y women are the most influential age group when it comes to defining trends in popular culture. Gen Y women, in turn, are discovering new brands and getting most of their style inspiration and product recommendations from blogs and social media.

WhyYWomen

This report examines the Gen Y women’s sphere of influence of lifestyle trends, how technology and social media help them expand their sphere of influence, and how marketers can target and communicate with this group.

The survey uncovered some critical Dos and Don’ts when Marketing to Gen Y Women:

1. Do realize context matters. Gen Y women aren’t likely to click on your ad, but they are influenced by advertising nonetheless. The context they encounter an ad in largely determines their trust in a brand. Trust in a site translates into trust in an advertiser’s brand, particularly for brands they’re less familiar with. 
2. Do be honest. For this generation, transparency is a form of currency. Gen Y women are increasingly comfortable broadcasting their lives on the Internet. This is also a generation that’s come of age the same time that reality TV, confessional memoirs, and personal blogs have become commonplace. They’ve become accustomed to a heightened level of transparency among their peers; they now expect it from brands. 
3. Do engage in dialogue with your audience or customers. While it is somewhat trite to call online marketing a conversation, marketers ignore that fact at their own risk. Smart marketers monitor the conversation, respond directly to tweets that mention them, and allow their customers to converse with each other. Gen Y women have already redefined authenticity, basing it on the opinions of their online peers. For marketers to connect with Gen Y women, they need to connect with their peers, rather than privileged experts, such as celebrity endorsements or third-party seals of approval. Additionally, Gen Y women respond favorably to being treated like a VIP. Engaging them in dialogue (through Twitter, contests, or competitions) helps them feel a more personal connection to a brand. 
4. Do integrate your media across multiple channels. Gen Y women are multimodal. They move between the Web and their mobile phones with ease, and, unlike Gen Y men (who have all but abandoned TV), they still watch television. Marketers need to be consistent in their communication across multiple platforms, since there are manifold opportunities to connect with consumers. 
5. Don’t get too comfortable. When it comes to their social networking sites, Gen Y have proven themselves to be fickle. They’ve already moved from Friendster to MySpace to Facebook. Smart marketers need to monitor where Gen Y women are moving toward online, and react accordingly when the next network hits.
6. Don’t ignore Twitter. While there has been media coverage lately claiming Gen Y is less devoted to Twitter than their older cohorts, Gen Y women are using it differently than other generations. They understand it is a promotional platform and subscribe to the feeds of brands that provide “exclusive” info—new products, new information, links to coupons, and deals only offered to followers. 
7. Don’t dominate the conversation. While marketing to Gen Y women is a multidirectional dialogue, marketers need to be wary of dominating the conversation. This is a generation that expects to be heard. In focus groups, many of the participants claimed that the quickest way to get them to unsubscribe, unfollow, or unfriend a brand’s communication is to bombard them.  While Gen Y women want to connect with their favorite brands, marketers need to toe the line between relevant info and spam.
8. Don’t underestimate the marketing savvy of Gen Y women. Gen Y women, perhaps more than previous generations, understand the value of their personal information and attention. If marketers expect Gen Y women to share their preferences, ideas, and attention with them, they need to offer quid pro quo to those consumers. While it may take the form of discounts on products or access to exclusive products or deals, it might also take the form of recognition for contributions—using a customer-submitted photo or video in advertising or featuring customer-submitted ideas on an official blog or website.

Click here to download the entire study.

After reading through the entire study, there are a number of critical findings.

1. Gen X woman are watching Gen Y ladies
2. Viewing a banner ad (not clicking-through) can be enough to build brand credibility.
3. It's all about them and how cool, smart and new your product can make them.
4. Personalization is the price of entry.
5. A social strategy is not your 30 sec spot on Facebook or YouTube
6. Be portable to their mobile phones.
7. Context is king.
8. Recognize their contributions to your brand and you expect future purchases.

ON: The Skittles Social Scene is the Brand

Who says your brand needs a big ol' web site?  Evidently Skittles has realized that media everywhere applies to their brand. 

The collapsible application allows you to scurry around the social networking pages and groups that skittles has set up.

 

This seems like a great way to organize your "earned" media.  While this may be the future of the web for brands who are not transactional destinations - the execution has left out an important social component.  Sharing.  too bad that the app does not let you post it, embed it, or share a link to it.

Hurray for skittles! I think that this is a good way to redefine your brand by the conversations that people are having about you.

ON: Conversations

Shhhh... I hear something.  (my RSS feed-reader acting as a glass pressed against a thin wall) It's a Armano's conversation about A Moment of Truth for Digital Agencies.   The candid post spurred an observation about our entire industry.  Agencies still live in the "service" economy.  Visit an agency site, lots and lots of TALK about "conversations agencies".  Seems like an oxymoron when you read their case studies and capabilities and they show desperate :30-second spots, websites, widgets, landing pages and emails.  They may have changed logos, redesigned their web sites, started blogs and re-thought their approaches but they are still servicing clients who don't understand what it takes to deliver a real conversation.  Why is this?

I think there are a five factors driving this.

1. Old definitions of Brands remain. Our clients who sell products or services have forgotten that a Brand is what consumers think and how they feel about their products.  The brand is my perception of the human characteristics consumers have given your product after becoming aware of your relevance. Great brands play on our emotions and facilitate our existing passions.   Brand managers are really product managers.  We the consumer are the "Brand" managers.

2. Control issues. Most companies as well as brand and product managers are over protective of their images and don't want you to own their brands. They want you to buy their products, but they are unwilling to let go and listen to something besides their business school text books.
3. Social relevancy. Do you have something interesting to say? If you want to want to have a conversation you need to know a little something about what's important to me.You should want to be provocative. If you want to sell me something you need to tap in to my desire to have a relevant conversation with me.  Most products miss this one entirely.
4. Fear of standing for one thing and not everything. Most companies fear outside opinions. The point of marketing is to provoke a response. So what if my product says something that people do not agree with?  It's important to have an opinion and to take a stand.  You may actually learn something.  If you stand for fitness, what about your product facilitates that fitness? What "brand" of fitness do you stand for? If you stand for everything you will be a nothing. No one, no product and no brand can be everything to everyone.
5. Bad listening skills. Some marketers and creatives have not stopped to listen.  The research is out there.  The passions are in constant evolution and people are talking in public so that we can measure their interests.  In the conversation economy the quiet listener and inquisitive spectator is the most an important asset.

The vast majority of product companies out there suffer from one or all of the above.  They too are still doing business in the "service" economy.  What they are missing is that consumers have been bombarded with constant one-way yelling for far too long.  That one-way yelling has reached the point of mass cynicism. Breaking through requires insightful connectivity no matter the medium.

There are a few products that have begun to create amazing conversations worth following. Pepsi, Dove, Flip Video, Nike and Showtime offer a great learning opportunity for marketing organizations.

Real conversations require courage.
You have to grow a pair. Decide what your going to say to consumers and be proud and consistent. You have to take a stand and be prepared to lead. Be prepared to be criticized, learn from that criticism while staying true to the core of the idea and never accept failure. Look at the evolution of Showtime.  The minute they decided to create original content that stood for something different - viewers followed and created tribal villages.

Conversations require social relevancy.
Be contemporary and of the moment.  People create movements products can facilitate them.  In America today we are the cusp of a new day.  A rebuild.  What will your product or service bring to that party? Look at Pepsi. (need i say more?)

or Flip Video.  Flip has managed to be socially relevant through the constant innovation and putting their product at places that have social relevance. I look forward to seeing them yield emotional insights from their partnerships with YouTube and Facebook.  Those insights should lead them to a more emotional tapestry of conversations.

Conversations require deep insights and simple observations.
The need for psychological and sociological insight still remains. Listening to what people are saying is just as important as watching what people are doing. This is the key to making sure you are talking to the right people. Take a look at Nike. They decided they were going to be a fitness company instead of a shoe company.  They  have used technology, fitness tribes, and the power of peoples individual fitness needs to continue to innovate year after year.

another example of tapping true insight is Dove's Campaign For Real Beauty.

This one is evergreen as well as the conversation that started the ubiquitous drive for marketers to try and replicate this "lightening in a bottle" viral hit.  What I love about this example is that it not only uses insight, it continues to be socially relevant as well as courageous. Dove continues to strive to do the right thing for woman despite the critics.

Now that we have a few examples of conversations that have created brand movements we should strive to look at what we need to do to be change agents for our clients and agencies. 

Which companies and or agencies have managed to create a real conversation?  Which companies have done it all wrong? And during the downturn who will use conversations to connect people with their products?