Canadian Marketing Blog

The Sony Coup

I need help, help of the serious kind I might add. Now what I am about to share is extremely confidential. In fact it is somewhat embarrassing, but I am going to share it with you anyway because I trust you, and I owe you. So here goes…deep breath – I am a flyer junkie. I can’t believe that I just said it, quite liberating. Yes, I am an FSI fiend. And no, I do not mean the boring stuff like your national newspaper flyers or even your “Canada’s largest circulation newspaper” junk. I am hardcore. Metroland community paper flyers are the only way to go. None of this flyerland.ca stuff for me. That is the equivalent asking a sportsfan to watch a recorded hockey game that they don’t know the outcome to. Enjoyable, but somehow not as fulfilling. Nope it must be a tactile experience in the Alibhai household.

Friday is a most anticipated day, it is when the big stack of goodies arrives, setting the tone for the weekend plans. The relationship I have developed with flyers is so personal and reliant that at one point, and I am not kidding, I even called to complain when we weren’t receiving them. It was a dreadful two weeks because I had no idea how the prices of my drug of choice (electronic items) were faring. That was a long time ago and all is good now. In fact I have even received audit calls to ensure that my flyers are being delivered. I am a happy man, or at least I was until last weekend…

Friday came and the excitement was at its peak level. The North York Mirror had finally arrived, albeit later than usual but who keeps track of these things anyway….I grabbed my Future Shop fix and it’s elder “no commission blue and yellow jacket” brother, Best Buy and set off to my study to lounge and peruse the deals of the week. My usual pattern is to scan Future Shop, top to bottom, then look at Best Buy and find comparable items to price against. The reason is simple. Find a cheaper item in the Best Buy flyer, take it to Future Shop, price match, save 10 percent and haggle as much as you can…No commission Best Buy means no negotiating room, which means no sale to Alibhai…

So here I am, my red and white comrade commanding my full attention. I take in the cover and am mildly amused. I flip the page taking a cursory glance at pages 2 and 3. At this point my amusement turns into irritation. I say to myself, “I can’t believe this, they didn’t do this.” Instead of taking in the items adorning the glossy stock pages that would normally have me salivating, I am forced to turn the page to confirm my sneaking suspicions.

Oh the horror!

That feeling of knowing what was coming next but still hoping that you could be wrong. Then the accompanying pangs of the aftermath. Feeling silly, cheated and disappointed because you knew it all along but couldn’t accept it – kind of like hoping your poker opponent doesn’t have two hearts, because you made a set on the flop that coincidently featured 2 of Cupid's suit. The turn was non factor but fifth street yielded one more Valentine - Your gut tells you something is up but your innate machismo refuses to listen - all of this from pages 4 through 7.

Brilliant and foolish all at once is my take, but you decide. The electronic version is still up for a couple of more days if you must see it.

Sony Canada managed to pay enough MDF/Coop funds to the lucrative, money making, weekly piece that only their only products (save some accessory blu-ray titles and CD’s) dominated the first 7 pages.

Bravia TV’s from series S to Z, Blu-ray players, Vaio laptops, cameras and camcorders, even the lowly $99 car deck had a place to shine. Future Shop redesigned their entire flyer layout for “Sony Days”

Brilliant. Sony had the moxie, coin (we are taking serious dollars) and product to fill up the first seven pages of a national retailer’s flyer – with distribution in the neighborhood of at least 8 million pieces, maybe even closer to 12 million pieces, I see why they did it. Big Box sales account for a very significant amount of product sales. The Sony Store is really just a brand experience, probably even a money loser…

Foolish. I can’t say if Sony moved enough product on line and in store to cover the expense. I don’t even know if that was their objective. Some may try to justify and sell the non-existent brand building merits of this initiative; I wouldn’t buy it, not even for the price match and 10% discount. Flyers don’t build brands (see Dell strategy circa 2003)

Brilliant. What a way to shut out the competition. The folks at Panasonic, Samsung, LG and the like, all who offer a similar array of products, though perhaps not to the same depth as Howard Stringer’s behemoth, must have been peeved. I mean really peeved. The ongoing battles that they have been waging with Best Buy Inc, routinely trying not to be held hostage to committing their full MDF/Coop budgets for a minuscule amount of space has just been taken to a whole new level.

Foolish. Future Shop sold out its suppliers and its customers. Those other peeved electronic manufactures mentioned above do hold some clout. But the real losers are Future Shop's bread and butter, the consumers. A flyer should, as much as possible, act as a non biased comparative shopping tool. If I, for one, were interested in a Sony Style guide I would have picked one up from the aforementioned Sony Store. Even my wife, who hardly looks at the “guy pages” commented right away that Sony must have paid mucho dinero for this. It was almost insulting because you could see right through it. But man I loved Sony for doing it.

Brilliant and foolish all at once, a non-event in the grand scheme of things.

Were I Sony I would have pushed for this execution, what a coup! Were I Future Shop I would have refused, flat out. Although I wonder, who initiated the idea?

Perhaps 2001 Audio and even, heaven forbid, The Brick flyer deserve a second chance in the Alibhai household…

Your Website's Success - Beyond Online

In 3 simple steps to analyzing any online campaign, we ended the search for results with online conversion (sales, registrations or downloads -- whatever your objective), but the consumer's interaction with your brand does not end there.

It’s an alarming stat, if looked at on its own, that over 97% of visitors to your site do not end up buying online (if even 3% did buy, you'd actually be doing much better than the average eCommerce site). One barrier has always been the consumer's unwillingness to complete the transaction online whether it be due to security concerns, needing more information, needing to discuss with a spouse, etc…).

So instead of focusing on how to increase that 3%, put some effort into enabling the other 97% to purchase. One clear way is to breakdown the walls between channels and adopt a multichannel framework. Research has consistently shown that consumers “shop” across channels and the most profitable ones use multiple channels. So as marketers, we should make it easy to shop across channels, and more importantly, as online marketers, we should acknowledge that our hard work leads to much more than just 3% of the traffic.

Here are 4 strategies to spread your website's impact beyond online sales:

1. Unique 1-800 numbers: The easiest and fastest way. Place a unique, trackable 1-800 number at decision making points throughout your site. Then either through your regular call center metrics or by using services like Mongoose Metricshttp://mongoosemetrics.com/, you can track the number of leads and sales from that number.

2. Click-to-Talk or live chat services. Give your users the ability to connect with a customer service person by phone or online chat. Track the number of chat sessions and in-bound calls plus the sales and service requests resulting from them. There are many companies that provide such services, like LivePerson.

3. Call-me-back. Lunch hour represents one of the busiest times of day for traffic, but it's not necessarily the time when people are ready to make big decisions. Give them the ability to leave their number and arrange for someone to call them back at their preferred time. It gives a whole new meaning to telemarketers -- your phone call will actually be welcome in the evening. Track the out-bound calls, and sales and service requests resulting from them.

4. Store Locator. Most sites have one but may not be using it advantageously. Track the number of people who search for and get specific store locations -- there is a high likelihood they will visit. Allow them to book an appointment with an in-store associate -- you will likely get a customer who, having just researched on your site, is ready to make a decision and who may possibly be open to more than one product. Apple does this well with their OneToOne.

Now for those who are already doing the above and want to really explore the possibilities of measuring all offline impacts, Avinash Kaushik’s post does a great job at detailing other ideas and options.

Scotch Tape

I've always admired 3M. They are the people who invented scotch-guard, post-it notes (unless it was really Michelle) and heaven knows how many other incredible inventions. Their history is one of innovation until recently as flagged by a 'brand infiltrator' friend of mine.

A couple years ago a smart photographer and friends had an idea to plaster a colleague's vehicle in 3M post-it notes. (With friends like that who needs enemies but I digress.) The pictures were posted on Flickr and the concept went viral and took off. A year goes by and 3M the maker of post-it notes contacts the aforementioned photographer about using the photos for a national advertising campaign. Social media is all the rage after all.

Seeing how 3M is a multi-billion dollar corporation, it's not unreasonable for the photographer to think 3M could spare some change, do the right thing and pay him for the rights to either license his work or buy it outright.

Instead, it appears that 3M state on the record that they could easily copy the idea. So in their infinite wisdom they decide not to pay the photographer, steal the concept and launch a marketing campaign leveraging it anyway. With me so far? The whole sordid mess is recounted quite accurately here.

What's ironic is that on the corporate 3M website in the "Who We Are" section there is a little mantra about 'Our Values'. Number one on the list is: "Act with uncompromising honesty and integrity in everything we do." I guess the 3M marketing department didn't get the memo about 'Values'.

This really is a shame for a few reasons:

(1) 3M is a respected company but because it appears they decided to be cheap and save a few grand their brand got hurt. I'm sure their PR department/agency is not thrilled about this kind of attention.

(2) As a consumer, my perception of the 3M brand has been changed. They didn't play by the rules and it appears they misappropriated someone else's idea. (I'm being very polite in my choice of words.)

(3) The marketing person at 3M who contacted the photographer now has this incident on their 'online record' and sadly permanently. What do I mean? If you plug that person's name into Google, this incident comes up in the top 10 results. Not good when potential employers or business partners are checking up on you. (One recruiter told me they always do Google, Facebook and MySpace searches on possible candidates.)

I always thought that 3M was an acronym for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing. One could be excused if they thought it stood for Massive Marketing Mistake. Perhaps I'm picking on 3M but I expect more from an organization of their calibre. One thing is for sure, it's going to take a lot more than scotch-tape to fix this marketing snafu.

Taking a 'Dose Of Your Own Medicine'

I often advise our clients that annual customer and employee research is especially important in the business-to-business sector. This summer, my firm finally undertook employee and customer research with a complete review of our brand positioning
http://www.brand-matters.com/Capabilities/index.php. This led to a fine-tuning of our brand strategy, added support for our tagline and a complete re-design of our look and feel – which we are in the midst of completing with a re-launch planned for November.

It was finally time to 'take a dose of your own medicine' and gain input to refresh the brand – check out the
before and after. It has been difficult being the client in this process, and although not too surprising, it was interesting to hear about our out-of-date brand image. Working with a team of identity experts (with whom we often partner), we were able to make traction quickly despite my personal resistance to change as the founder and owner of the firm.

I have learnt a lot through the process and really appreciate the insights which my team put forward, not to mention the time that our clients willingly offered during the research process.

An open question on brand asset values

What happens to brand value when the stock exchange crashes? If we accept that a the value of the brand is reflected in the price of the stock, then is the value of the brand depreciated proportionately with the value of the shares, or is the value of the brand a constant that would, effectively, moderate the depreciation in the price of the stock?

This is a conversation worth having. As a prompt (or by way of instilling a bit of reality) the following is a list of some brands that came to mind,

To make the discussion more interesting I have included some stocks showing the change in stock price between April 2 and September 30. (I chose the stocks arbitrarily and chose the April 2 date for the initial valuation arbitrarily as well).

I look forward with interest to hearing a wide variety of theories about the relationship between brand strength and stock price.

Marketing in a Recession

In a recession, consumers are likely to become frugal and cautious in their expenditures. Past recessions have shown that marketers who have taken the approach of "going through this together" with their customers have been more successful at maintaining share and revenue during a recession than their competition. Not surprisingly, value driven brands tend to do better than brands positioned as premium.

Companies that target the middle income segment of the market are likely to face the greatest challenges in a recessionary economy. Marketers should brace for a challenging year ahead. The pressure for proven returns on marketing expenditures will increase. Marketers are likely to take a shorter term approach to advertising investments.

Arcus recently researched strategies in a slow market and identified seven key drivers of successful marketing plans:

1. Deeper, more frequent customer research.
Consumers tend to postpone purchase decisions, trade down, or buy less in a recession. It is critical to understand how your most profitable customer is redefining value in a recession. It's likely that price elasticity curves will tighten. Consumers will expect more for their dollar and will spend more time searching for value and be less brand-loyal than they usually are. Trust is a critical component of the purchase influencer mix. Trusted brands are more likely to have successful new product and extension launches. But overall interest in new brands and new categories tends to decline in a recession.

2. Maintain marketing spending.
Uncertain consumers need the reassurance of known brands--and more consumers at home watching television can deliver higher than expected audiences at lower cost-per-thousand impressions. Arcus has analyzed the impact of cut backs in marketing investments in a slowdown in 22 industries. It is proven that an increase in advertising in some industries during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can dramatically improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times.

3. Adjust product portfolios.
Optimizing product mix and marketing investment strategy is critical to driving an increase in market share. Consumers tend to trade down to models that stress good value, such as cars with fewer options, when the economy slows down. A new demand forecast model for each item in a product line is required to adjust to new consumer purchase patterns. For example, consumers favour multi-purpose goods over specialized products. A multipurpose cleaner will sell better than one targeted to only the shower stall. Industrial customers prefer to see products and services unbundled and priced separately. Consumers tend to focus more on reliability, durability, safety and performance and less on gimmicks. New product advertising should stress superior price performance because tangible benefits will tend to resonate most strongly with consumers faced with a recessionary economy.

4. Stress market share.
In all but a few technology categories that may enjoy strong growth prospects, companies face a battle for market share and, for some, their viability. Study your existing cost structure to find any room for improvement; even a small price reduction may have an impact on how your customer rates your product offering. Companies with strong existing market positions and highly efficient cost structures can expect to hold or gain market share. It may be possible for other companies with money to invest to also be able to grow through the acquisition of weaker competitors.

5. Support your distributors.
Consider introducing early-buy allowances, extended financing and creating flexible return policies as an incentive for distributors to stock your full product line. This holds particularly true with products new to the market that do not have a proven track record. In an uncertain economy, few distributors will invest working capital in excess inventories without an incentive to do so. Be cautious in considering expansion to lower-priced distribution channels; such an action may endanger your existing relationships and brand image. Do consider re-evaluating your relationship with any of your under-performing distributors and, if possible, watch for the opportunity to hire strong talent that your competition may be letting go.

6. Retain core values.
When layoffs and redundancies cannot be avoided, senior management can work to retain the loyalty of remaining employees through assurances that the company will weather the storm. Demonstrate how the company is working to cut expenses and not quality. Stress their value to the company. Now is the time for the CEO and other senior personnel to be visible to employees and existing customers, as well as working to secure new business. Be aware that sometimes managing the balance sheet can take over from appropriate management of customer relationships. CEOs should counter the temptation to do so. A recession is not the time to abandon your marketing strategy; it is the time to adapt it.

7. Strategic pricing tactics.
Realize that your customers will be investigating for the best deals on both large and small purchases. Your company should consider if there is room to reduce list prices, especially if yours are higher than the competition, but do not try to start a price war or race to the bottom with your competitors. See if there is room for more price promotions or other customer incentives. Consider extending quantity discounts previously reserved for your best customers and look into extending credit to valuable customers who might otherwise pass on your product. Avoid leaning on mail in offers and "chances to win"; when there are only so many dollars in the wallet at checkout, a potential refund later may not be enough.

Crossing the Line – Are You Using Mass Insights to Improve Your Direct Marketing Campaign?

One of the tenets of direct (below the line) marketing is the USP. So, if you are a direct marketer you may be slightly disturbed with the following statement:

…Consumers do not want one characteristic or one USP. Consumers want it all .Why should a consumer have to choose between the longest lasting pain reliever versus the fast acting, or the safest, most gentle, or the cheapest priced? The concept of marketing a USP is not a consumer-centric view.

It comes from ‘Lessons Learned’, downloadable excerpts of John Hallward’s book: Gimme! The Human Nature of Marketing, and, well…it is about above the line advertising…or is it?

Quoting the iconic and USP-absent silhouette iPod ads by Apple, John proposes that emoti-suation, the powerful use of emotional associations to connect a brand with consumers and not the use of a USP, builds brand equity (Aside:according to the Moore & Harvard School of Business, brand equity is a more meaningful metric, long-term, than sales).

Emoti-suation!? Direct marketers take pride in numbers, data and insights coming from n iterations of list, offer and creative …It’s one thing to remove the USP from a TV Ad but can we replace the USP with emotional associations in a direct mail piece without being trite, without crossing the line?

May be it’s time we move from channel agnosticism to marketing agnosticism and make use of the emotional wisdom above the line advertising has built over the last quarter of a century…

Here are a few points direct marketers can play with:

- Emotion is a key element in the decision-making process; example: fear was designed to drive us into action (flee danger)
- Humans evaluate a purchase on emotional pay-offs subconsciously and on rational points consciously
- Humans are sensitive to the IRREGULAR; the human brain will pay less and less attention (desensitized) to the familiar
- Humans cannot cope with too much choice; example: an experiment was set with two shelf units of jam; shelf one had 24 flavours of jam; shelf 2 had 6; consumers were given the choice to pick jam (at same discount) from either shelf; shelf 1 had 60% attraction and 3% purchase; shelf 2 had 40% attraction and 30% purchase
- The more senses engaged in the human brain, the better it files and retrieves information
- Brands that score high on many emotional associations achieve greater commitment in the consumer’s mind

Implications for DM:

- What emotional rewards do we evoke upfront in a direct marketing piece before even moving to the rational portion of the decision, i.e., the call to action?
- If we know that brain (decision) activity filters through an engagement and disengagement mechanism (irregular vs. familiar), can we ignore the importance of testing new formats and creative?
- Can we effectively incorporate archetypes/universal myths in one-to-one communications?
- How well can we link emotional rewards to commodity products?

Case in Point

Linking brand emotional associations to a DM piece is a case-by-case exercise. In terms of engagement, however, direct marketers can make use of the human brain’s preference for the irregular with direct mail’s tactile, visual and yes, even olfactory triggers: unusual shapes and sizes and scented mail. Applications of this principle can also be applied to a multi-drop campaign. As frequency of communication replaces reach (due to better targeting and the need to be relevant), the irregular will play a key role in ensuring your 2nd or 3rd drop will not end up in the recycle box.

The 8 Different Mobile Consumer Segments

Last month I had the opportunity to participate at CTIA in San Francisco and spent a day on the “mobile strategies” tract.

One of the more interesting presentations was from Pankaj Asundi who is the VP Multimedia and Content at Ericsson Inc.

He presented his view on consumer segmentation models for mobile which I thought would be useful for any planner looking to better target the mobile component of their marketing campaign.

Just like any other marketing channel, the more you know about who you are targeting, the more effective your call to action message can be.

There are essentially 8 consumer types:
1. Careerist – The believe that to say ahead of the game you need the best tools. They are 25-39 years old. Their bills are paid for by company. They have limited free time and mobile is key part of day to day life. Knowledge is power… and time is money!

2. Experiencers – They are all about new experiences, possessions, technologies etc… They are early adopters.

3. Pioneer Youth – I want it all from my mobile… and now. Second best is not good enough. Always texting. 15-24 years old

4. Mainstream Youth – They want the latest gadget so that they can belong. They aren’t necessarily technical experts. 15-24

5. Mainstream Materialists – Gadgets and mobile are fashion accessories – anything that will make them look good. 25-29 years old. They live for today and not tomorrow. Use more for show than communication

6. Basic phoners – They use their mobile to call only. Many have mobile phones as emergency backups. They likely don’t know how to text message. 40+ years old.

7. Family phoners – need good reason to adopt new technology. They are happy with what they’ve got and they mostly use their mobile device to stay in touch with family.

8. In touch organizers – my mobile keeps me connected. 30-64 years old. These are parents who juggle busy professional and social lives, organizing their family, friends, and local community. Average tech users - competent but not experts

Want to learn more about how to to entice the mobile consumer more effectively? I’ve posted a related article here that you may find of interest.

The One Dollar Give

I recently attended a CMA conference, for Not-for-Profit organizations, where a term used clearly resonated with me: the One Dollar Give.

Many social networking sites attract an overwhelming young demographic and getting their attention as donors for life is critical. The One Dollar Give may be just the ticket.

Organisations venturing into the online space were encouraged to consider the One Dollar Give because it's attainable, achievable, and doesn't alienate very young donors who have limited funds. It's not always about money though, or the lack of. The One Dollar Give allows a donor to give without too much thought to a variety of causes with immediate results (ie: a dollar today provides a carton of milk for three kids). This led me to think, that in this age of integration and convergence (the buzz-word du jour), it is important to target the right audience through the most appropriate platform.

The "quick and dirty" approach works for teenagers because it requires little commitment and the results are tangible - well, as tangible as the Internet can be. I'm not yet convinced that integrating wholly online for charitable organizations will be the instant panacea many think it will be but at relatively little cost, it's certainly worth a shot.

2009 B-to-B Demand Creation Trends

What a difference a year makes. At this time in 2007, most of us were sitting back and enjoying what was to be the tail end of the post-bubble growth spurt. In 2008, words such as recession, stagflation and depression have swirled wildly, causing b-to-b executives to pull out their swords and come hunting – as they have historically done when times get tough – for marketing dollars to cut. This time, however, many marketers – especially those tasked with demand creation – are defending their turf with metrics and models that starkly display the damage that will be done to the business if their budgets are slashed. While this is exceptionally encouraging, the battle certainly isn’t over. Here are five core demand creation trends for 2009 that should drive every field marketer’s strategic planning.

1. Arm for Resistance
Many b-to-b organizations have embraced the waterfall model – a systematic, five-stage model that establishes a common framework for tracking the health of an organization’s new business pipeline and the contribution of marketing to that pipeline. Those that have taken the steps to build these waterfalls have more than a platform to measure performance; they have a tool that helps them to pinpoint conversion changes at every stage, and root out why they’re occurring. While most prospective organizations continue to shop, the desire of many diminishes to commit to a buying cycle and make a purchase, realities that should be proactively attacked by b-to-b organizations. Historically, when business has turned down, marketers have fiddled around with messages, offers and creative, assuming the issues were external to their organization. While these factors certainly should be evaluated, marketers should also look internally at factors that may be causing a reduction in the ability of the sales force to take quality leads and bring them to opportunity and closure at historical rates.

2. Take a Hard Look at Targeting
No matter what economic conditions exist, b-to-b organizations that spread themselves too thinly across too many target markets are asking for trouble, be it from a marketing or sales perspective. In difficult times, shrinking budgets only exacerbate the issue, meaning this is the ideal time for organizations to re-evaluate their target marketing, and embrace a concept called “relative targeting.” By taking a list of potential targets, then creating and combining two sets of variables – one external, one internal – you can score and rank-order targets against one another in a dispassionate manner. External factors assess the relative viability of a target segment, including overall economic health, whether “forced” buying triggers exist and the overall priority placed on your product/service. Internal factors include your organization’s level of knowledge about the segment, message development and whether your sales force is trained and prepared to sell into the segment. By whittling the world of targeting possibility to the world of targeting probability, you will be able to focus your efforts – and your funds – on targets where you have the best chance to win.

3. Reduce Execution Variance
Some of the greatest marketing waste in b-to-b organizations comes from disparate business units and geographies reinventing the wheel every time they create a demand creation program; not following best practices in program execution; and committing too much spending to pet projects that are not aligned with the organization’s broader campaign strategy. When marketing executives prioritize actively rooting out this waste, they will not only be able to stretch the dollars they receive, but also maintain greater consistency and voice throughout their function and in turn other functions that will use their deliverables.

4. Become an “Eco-Marketer”
In the demand waterfalls of every single b-to-b organization, thousands of leads will fall out every year. Some have never been contacted; many others were disqualified, whether it was for a valid reason or not. What often makes the difference between those organizations that are average demand creators and those that are best in class is a set of plans for flagging these leads, reassigning them to either marketing or inside sales for further nurturing, and developing sets of nurturing strategies to treat these leads properly. As we move forward into 2009, the management of the waterfall must be guided by three key terms in order to squeeze every ounce of value out of the prospects that are in it: Renew, reuse and recycle.

5. Anticipate Changes in Sales
Down economies cause upheaval across organizations, with sales often the most frequently affected. Marketing’s growing partnership with sales over the past several years means these changes will trickle down more than ever before, certainly impacting results within the waterfall. As an example, consider the conversion rates from SAL to SQL, and SQL to close. As the economy softens, sales management often mandates that reps increase the amount of their pipeline from 3X to 4X expected revenue in order to maintain enough business to hit current targets. This may cause eager reps to begin including marketing sourced leads in their pipelines at higher rates, increasing the conversion from SAL to SQL. If reps are using these leads to stock their pipelines but don’t truly believe in their quality, conversion rates from SQL to close are likely to decrease. The net of this is that while marketing may have done nothing differently than they did the year prior, conversion rates changed anyway. As a result, marketing leadership must be aware of major changes in sales strategy as part of strategic planning, discuss the potential impacts on waterfall performance, communicate these impacts proactively and develop strategies to overcome them in the cases where they might drive lower conversion rates.

While no one can predict how far or deep any economic contraction might go, I have already seen a number of skittish b-to-b executives behaving more like the worst is coming. For those in field marketing, this fact is an opportunity as much as it is a challenge, an opportunity to become more disciplined, less wasteful and more vigilant about watching how they measure. Improving their planning and execution will set them up that much better for incremental gains once conditions inevitably turn once again.

From the What to the Why: Understanding Web Analytics on a More Cerebral Level

Most Web analytic tools available today -- both paid (Omniture, Core Metrics etc) and free (Google Analytics) -- provide functionality to let you see what customers are doing on your site. These tools allow you to understand how customers are getting to your site (referral reports), where customers are roaming on your site (next page or previous page flows), and even where you are losing customers (fallout reports).

All of these products are great at telling you "what" the customer is doing on your site. However, it’s up to the marketer to figure out "why" they are doing it. Sometimes it’s easy. Just by looking at fallout (where the customer abandoned their path), you can begin to hypothesize the usability improvements that might be required. Unfortunately, after a few iterations, you may still be left guessing..

To understand the "why", marketers in all areas of business have traditionally employed focus groups as a key way to learn more about consumer behaviour and test new ideas. In my opinion, this has limited value for Web marketers looking to optimize their sites. While it is always interesting to watch consumers perform tasks and answer questions, the results of a focus group can be skewed due to the small audience that is interviewed, and also by the quality and impartiality of the script for the test itself.

In the past year, it seems more and more sites are measuring the "satisfaction" of the Web experience. I’m talking about those invitations to “answer a few questions” that are showing up on top sites. While it might be seen as an intrusion, the acceptance rate is remarkably high. Fact is, these marketers are taking advantage of a tremendous opportunity: They have an engaged online audience that is willing to talk about their site experience, isolate hot spots in need of remedy, and as a result, put the business’s own assumptions to the test.

Online customer satisfaction mechanisms provides the ability to:

1: Measure if your Web experience meets consumer needs.
2: Provide insights into "why" customers might be dropping off.
3: Understand future behaviours. Will the customer come back or recommend the site to other prospective customers? It’s bedrock stuff; the whole raison d’etre for any Web site.

The top online customer satisfaction companies, and their tools, are quite sophisticated. They go well beyond capturing customer verbatim insights. They have the ability to generate satisfaction scores across numerous site characteristics, benchmark against other sites, and pinpoint exactly where the most meaningful ROI opportunities exist for improvements. How? You can do so by asking customers to score their experience, and then cross-tabulating those scores with verbatim comments. It’s a rich vein of voice-of-the-customer intelligence, and in combination with more quantitative data from an Omniture or a Google analytics, can take the guess work out of understanding if your navigation, or content, or site performance, or task-related steps, or (pick one!) are passing muster with your visitors. You would be surprised how many customers are prepared to take the time to respond and provide constructive insights. Needless to say, this information is gold!

Measuring the satisfaction of your website adds perspective, some of the intangible value that your Website offers. Let’s say you’re not an e-commerce site, but you are heavily used by prospects seeking product research information. Customer satisfaction tools can help you understand if you were successful, if you are making a positive impact on brand, and if you are bringing the visitor closer to a purchase decision. Of course, if you are e-commerce enabled, you may also learn whether customers are running into barriers when trying to complete a purchase.

A satisfaction score doesn’t have to be isolated to the Website itself. It is also impacted by the overall satisfaction the customer has with your brand, your call centre or bricks and mortar operations. Learning and differentiating the specific activities offline that are impacting satisfaction will bring valuable information back into the organization. In one case in my own company, we discovered that customers were unclear how to reach us. By doing some research and partnering across channels, we created an online solution with more detail about business hours, key phone numbers and email addresses, these complaints dropped significantly.

I encourage you to investigate the tools on the market, ranging from free (4Q), to commercial (Foresee Results) and find the right fit for you. In my own experience, the “why” has taken on extra importance this year as we strive to improve our site. The information we have gathered from our customers has influenced our agenda, and led to improvements. It can for you too.

Other Reference posts on Web Analytics:
Your Website’s Success—Beyond Online
3 simple steps to analyzing any online campaign

If you are already using satisfaction as a measurement, comment on this post--- how do you use it and what other ways it has helped you?

Red Herring Season

At the time of writing I have just left a meeting with Sandy Weill (of Citibank fame), where he told me we are entering into the deepest recession any of us has seen in many, many years. Of course, he was talking about the US. But let’s say, hypothetically, that Canada does not miss this bullet (in spite of our government’s solid, stay the course plan) and we too enter into a recession. What then?

Unemployment climbs, demand for consumer good drops, the economy shrinks, inventories shrink, profits disappear, and so on. Most importantly, though, none of this is our fault at a micro-economic level. It is all the fault of the economy; a comforting thought to many Canadian business leaders who love nothing more than to find a convenient external source to blame for whatever happens to their business (high taxes, the liberal government tax and spend policies, the free market conservative policies, the dollar, 9/11, SARS, Listeria, and so on).

Don’t blame these poor souls. They are suffering from RHD, Red Herring Disorder, a viral disease native to the Canadian Urban Regions.

RHD starts, as do all worthwhile disease, with flue like symptoms. Subsequently the patient slumps into a lumpish, self-sympathetic pose, often muttering: “But there’s nothing we can do,” over and over again. RHD victims generally cut budgets and cancel activities, mostly to avoid being responsible for anything, but also, in most cases, to reduce their workload in order to spend more time bemoaning their fate. RHD is probably caused by an airborne pathogen as it is easily transmitted from person to person (and, in an odd, metaphysical way, from organization to organization).

As RHD progresses it takes control of the autonomous nervous system, causing the patient to become increasing boring and repetitive. A compulsive need to stifle any external stimuli and repeat the “cut the budget” mantra is the reason this disease is often mistaken for an obsessive-compulsive mood disorder. Practitioners now believe this not to be the case, as RHD is often accompanied by a contradictory psycho-neurotic behavioural symptom: pathological self-preservation syndrome. The precise relationship between RHD and PSPS is not clear, but the fact that they so often occur in parallel has opened an entirely new path of study for experts in these diseases.

RHD is often incurable and, in the worst cases, ultimately results in the sufferer being separated from the organization organism at such time as the economy improves. Unfortunately for the organization organism and the world in general, this occurs far too late to be of any use.

In the US, a vaccination has been tested and shown somewhat successful. At the very first intimation of the virus, test subjects are given massive doses of courage and creativity. Early test show that the resulting hard work, positive outlook and immediate business success appear to be effective in fighting off the disease.

If not caught in time, the disease cannot be effectively treated.

Under no circumstances, should sufferers be exposed to competitors who have taken advantage of the difficult economic climate to rethink their fundamental mission and vision, and develop innovative, effective, and hard-hitting strategies.

The Changing World of Brand Zealots

I'm a self-confessed brand zealot. I've spent my professional career counseling clients on brands, am now a partner in a Brand Consultancy and teach Brand Development at the Executive Masters of Advertising and Design program at the Ontario College of Advertising and Design. Without question brand stewardship is evolving at warp speed as marketers attempt to keep pace with the new digital world.

Many aspects about championing brands will change but one will not. Consumers don't create brands, marketers do. A brand is a promise companies make to consumers. A distinct promise of value. Deliver on the promise and you get rich, Break the promise and you go broke. This will not change. What has changed and will continue to change rapidly is how brands interact with consumers.

Consumers armed with power of the net can impart great influence on brands. Intelligent brands are no longer marketed in a top-down fashion. The marketing monologue has been replaced by a marketing dialogue. It's been said the majority of brand impressions are now initiated by consumers. While some marketers are challenged by the growing consumer influence and brand control, brand leaders are not.

Great marketers have always listened keenly to their customers to best fulfill their needs,wants and desires. The net and the digital world make listening more timely, more accurate and perhaps more honest. Brand champions must encourage a truthful dialogue and be open to all comments, positive and negative. They also must be quick to respond. Two way communication between brands and consumers benefits both the brand and the user. Consumers are willing to talk, and brands must reciprocate. I read recently that "listening and responding to consumer feedback is perhaps the biggest building block to cultivating a brand that resonates in the digital space." With all this being said, that marketers must engage in two-way communication outside of a few instances like Chrysler and Nike, I have yet to find many cases where marketers are truly engaging in a on-going dialogue with their customers.

Please share your cases with me either here or at tony@maximpartnersinc.com

Talent branding and multi-generational employees

With four unique generational segments in the workforce and increasing competition for talent, companies must develop attractive internal brands to attract and retain employees – both Gen Y’s at a junior level and experienced Baby Boomers at a senior level.

Although Baby Boomers and Gen Y’s differ in terms of what work benefits they value most, through our research and consulting practise, we have found that their work enjoyment is ultimately tied to how well an employer engenders the following three feelings in their employees:

1. Employees trust who they work for (employee – management relationship)
2. Have pride in what they do (employee – job/company relationship/ CSR programs)
3. Enjoy the people they work with (employee – co-worker relationship)

Companies that are striving to be a top employer must find ways to engender this trust, pride, and enjoyable work culture in their workplace.

Although the internal brand gets shaped and lived in all day-to-day activities, companies must provide a platform from which it is lived (bring the internal brand to life). The employment experience platform created could include company wide communication guidelines, updated health benefits, and work-life balance initiatives. It is within employment areas such as these where companies can improve employees work life; however the value proposition differs between generational segments.

Bottom line, all employees value the three aspects listed above but companies must develop the platform and foster a culture that addresses unique generational needs – health and well-being for Baby Boomers, and Career Development for Gen Y’s.

I look forward to your comments on this perspective.

Boomers Buying Multiple Resorts

According to The Globe and Mail, the most recent real estate trend is the growth of fractional ownership of waterfront cottages. Of the 55 fractional-ownership properties in Canada, almost 60 percent are actively selling. Ross Perlmutter, Executive Director of the Canadian Resort Development Association, said the demand is going through the roof.

Many baby boomers are buying multiple fractional ownerships along beachfronts, golf courses, wineries and ski resorts across North America.

According to experts in resort properties, traditional cottage resorts, with their 'peaks and valleys' seasonal business model, are becoming a dying breed because they are not really profitable. The past 12 years saw the trend toward convenience and higher-end features. Many resorts are now being upgraded with winterized, more luxurious accommodations.

Boomers have stainless-steel appliances, granite countertops, flat-screen TVs and high-speed Internet in their homes. Now they want them on their vacations too. Such kind of resorts appeal to the modern-day affluent travellers - the empty-nesters and baby boomers with disposable income and good equity in their homes.

Boomers are always looking for options. A lot of the time what they are looking for is to recapture a little bit of their childhood and nostalgia - that includes a historic, rustic resort!

The Problem (?) With Social Bookmarking

Experiencing major success with social bookmarking & sharing sites is definitely not easy. And unfortunately (for marketers), there is no trick, strategy, or tactic that will see your content rise to the top bringing in traffic in the millions.

The ONLY way to ensure your content gets spread, shared, dugg, stumbled, and bookmarked… is to CREATE GREAT CONTENT!! That’s right folks… Great content. Not a boring press release, a new product page, a lame viral, or the equivalent of you standing on your soap box shouting through a megaphone.

Forget the Ps of marketing, it’s all about the Es now. Experience, Engage, Everywhere, Exchange and Evangelism. Burn these into your mind, because nothing else matters. Much like the rest of the social media world, nothing will get shared on Social bookmarking platforms unless its WORTHY of sharing. What does worthy of sharing mean? Unfortunately for marketers it means unbiased, useful, often non-branded content that people are happy and proud to discover and share.

Another thing marketers need to be weary of. You must be engaged in a community in order to post content there and have anyone see it. If any random spammer could just come along and blast whatever they feel like into the filters of these platforms, they wouldn’t be as popular as they are. The content at the top is there for a reason. But more often than not, the content that becomes the most popular does so because of the USERS not the CONTENT. The heavy platform users endorse it... their friends see it, also endorse it, and so on.

So what all this means at the end of the day, is that us marketers have to think more like humans and less like sales people, we must think about human connection and values because in the end it is these traits that will triumph in a web 2.0 world.

Bears, Bulls and Mobile Marketing

Despite widespread uncertainty in the economy in general, it seems to be a bullish time for the mobile sector. Several announcements in recent weeks indicate ongoing optimism about continued growth and increased opportunities for marketers using the mobile channel.

• Leading mobile advertising network AdMob has secured $15.7 million in funding from Sequoia Capital. This is the same Sequoia whose CEO recently gave a presentation on the downturn in the digital space entitled R.I.P Good Times.
• RIM has announced an application store for 3rd party developers to build apps for the Blackberry a la the iPhone app store (which itself has seen over 200 million app downloads so far).
• Mobile web results are showing returns that are outperforming the internet. And there's lots of traffic there too: AdMob serves 5 billion mobile ad impressions, while Yahoo has 20 million unique consumers every month in the U.S.
• 8.9 billion SMS messages were sent by Canadians in the first half of 2008 compared to a total of over 10 billion for all of 2007.

Okay, so there’s your optimism for continued growth. What does all this mean for marketers who are likely to be asked to trim budgets and be placed under increased scrutiny to deliver positive campaign ROI?

The Self-Selected Consumer
As mobile marketing is permission-based pull marketing, all of your interactions are with a self-selected consumer. They’ve taken the first and most important step of actively volunteering to participate with your brand.

Responding to an SMS call to action, downloading a widget, mobile coupon or ticket, clicking through on a mobile display ad or visiting a mobile internet site all require the consumer to ‘opt-in’ to your brand message and experience. What that means is higher brand recall and the opportunity for easier conversion of purchase intent or marketing message acceptance.

Responsiveness & Relevance
One of the great strengths of mobile is the ability to deliver situationally relevant information to consumers at the point of interaction with your media executions. You have to capitalize on the consumer’s self-selection.

Instant gratification via SMS contests is the low-hanging fruit but you can also use SMS tips & trivia or voting interactions, IVR calls or MMS content to create an extended brand experience.

Smartphone platforms such as the Blackberry or iPhone take this one step further with location-based services, Google Maps mash-ups, streamed content and the easy delivery of mobile coupon solutions. And with higher than normal click through rates, mobile advertising conversions to specially designed mobile internet sites offer great content delivery solutions.

Measurement
The ability for marketers to track campaign effectiveness in the mobile channel is robust enough to warrant a lengthy post of its own, but consider the following scenario:

A retailer has a SMS call to action integrated into their media. Different media executions (whether by media type or place) have their own keywords. Consumers entering the keyword are delivered a SMS with a link to a mobile internet site where they can download a mobile coupon. The mobile site also contains brand content, sign up for future brand/product info and a store locator with mapping features which could tell Smartphone users the closest retail location to them. That downloadable coupon is tagged with a unique identifier which will be validated at the point of redemption.

You now know when the consumer interacted with the media and conversion rates to site visits/downloads, which media generated more interactions & interactions by time of day, mobile site page views, types of handsets consumers are using to visit your site, the # of coupon downloads, conversions to purchase and purchase value per consumer.

Best of all, you’ve delivered highly relevant information to a qualified consumer and converted that to a verifiable sales lift.

That’s why I’m bullish on mobile.