Customer Experience

Channel Surfing for Influencers: Social Media

In my third of four posts about which channels work best to reach and engage influencers, I take a look at the new kid on the block: social media.

Marketers are sometimes torn between doing what has worked most effectively in the past and testing out new technologies and channels that have the potential to be real game-changers in the future.

The bright shiny object of the last few years is, of course, social media, a channel that’s still not completely understood but that has, in theory, the potential to radically change the way we market.

Why? Well, to start with, based on our research, influencers are spending 7 hours per week in the US and 9 in Canada on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and blogs. That’s already impressive but when you add to that the finding that influencers are connected, on average, to 108 (US) and 137 (Canada) people in their own social media network, that’s something that gets the attention of marketers – as it should.

While social media shares ease of use with the email channel, it’s this community or network that may hold the key to the channel’s true potential. These individuals have chosen to be connected based on an affinity for a particular community, and are actively engaged with others in it and outside that community too.

Bill McCloskey at ClickZ offers some fascinating examples about the potential power of social media, including this one:

“…look at Marvel Comics, which is one of the top performing ‘advertisers’ in the Twitter space. As of right now, Marvel has around 44,000 followers [63,000+ as I write this post]. But over the last few weeks, it sent out 151 Twitter offers. But more than that: 246 ‘influencers’ have directly rebroadcast that message to their followers. Add it all up and Marvel has exposed its offer to over 66 million eyeballs over the past few weeks!”

Those are some impressive numbers and just a hint of the potential opportunities social media offers marketers. However we do need to distinguish the difference between influencers: some will talk; others will pass along information (as per above) and of utmost value are those that truly influence others – by eliciting action. So whether on social media sites or via email or on the phone, you must understand what you are trying to achieve and ensure that you have designed appropriately.

One more thing bares repeating from my last two posts: even if some channels are better than others to reach particular consumers in particular ways, the fact is these channels work best for marketers when they work together.

For instance, email messages that offer a social-sharing option (like Twitter and Facebook) generate a 30% higher click-through rate than emails without it, according to a new study by email marketing company Get Response. And if the email includes three or more social-sharing options, that click-through rate jumps to 55%.

The bottom line? Social media offers a unique and advantageous opportunity to find, reach, engage and have a continuous dialogue with individuals – both within their social media communities and in their network at large. Just needs to be done right!

In the fourth and final part of this series, I’ll blog about the true answer to the question – which channel is most effective at finding, reaching, engaging and motivating influencers?

Gillian MacPherson

Group Think is the Result of Groupthink

Group think is the nemesis of qualitative research. The more senior you go in any organization, the more dismissive of focus groups managers become because of "group think." And, indeed, watching focus groups, as I have done innumerable times, it could appear that group think is impacting the dynamic.

Of course, one manager's group think is another manager's consensus. I mention this as an aside, but it is true that when 6 people in a group like the concept, this is a sign of a great concept. When six people in a group dislike the concept, it's clearly group think. Of course, if you hate the concept, then this works the other way around. Which leads to:

Bernstein's First Law of Group Think: The intensity of group think in any focus group is indirectly proportionate to the degree that the group reflects the observers innate bias.

But, I digress.

Group think is the inevitable result of recruiting homogenous groups of people. Why are we surprised that people who are in the same targeted age group, same target education level and use the same products with the same frequency, share the same opinions about the brand, product, category, and so on. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if there is no group think, then the recruiters have done a lousy job. And, perhaps even more controversially, the reason why professional respondents (i.e. those who attend many focus groups and don't absolutely fit the criteria) are generally more interesting than actual respondents (those who do fit the criteria and have little or no experience withfocus groups) -- they are, in fact, not the same as everybody else in the room and are therefor are more likely to have different opinions!

Think of it like this:

In her brilliant (must read for all marketers) book, The Art of Choosing, Sheena Iyengar points out three aspects of personhood that help clarify this issue:
1. People are more alike than they think
2. What people believe about themselves (or what people would want other people to believe about them) does not vary much from person to person
3. Each person is convinced that he or she is unique

So, if this applies to all people, imagine how much these lack of differences are magnified in a homogenous group. Group think is not group think in the sense of people following a leader in spite of their own personal opinions. Group think is simply group agreement.

So what?

Couple of things.
1. The next time a client complains of group think, stick your finger in your ears and hum loudly
2. Don't recruit homogenous groups to focus groups. Try recruiting different people, try mixing the cohorts -- mix frequent users with terminal rejecters; mix 35 to 49 with 18 to 29; mix males with females; mix high income with low income. In any case you are better off doing two groups of mixed A and B than one group of A and one group of B
3. Read "The Art of Choosing" and get back to me .

And, for your added enjoyment, check out our new web site.

Laurence Bernstein

Channel Surfing for Influencers: Email

Part 2 of a 4 part series

Which channel is most effective at finding, reaching, engaging and motivating influencers to spread the word about your product? In this second of four posts, I take a look at email.

In part 1, I blogged about some of the reasons marketers still consider direct mail an effective way to reach influencers, but the truth is that was only part of the story. Because while DM still has a role to play in engaging influencers to spread the word about your brand, email is also a powerful channel and one that’s becoming more so all the time.

There are, of course, the obvious reasons email is so effective: it’s easy for consumers to forward – a sort of digital word of mouth – and, especially these days, it’s easily accessible whether you’re on your BlackBerry, iPhone, Mac or PC, at home, at work or on the run.

An email campaign may also be cheaper and less labour-intensive to launch: although these days consumers report opening up less of the vast amount of emails received so perhaps cheaper is an illusion. But we do know that recent technology has made targeting, tracking and offer redemption much easier than in the past.

Perhaps where email marketing can be most successful at reaching consumers and convincing influencers is in its interactivity. You can include a url link to your website or blog or Facebook page in which the consumer can immediately connect. And of course you can design an email to offer a level of animation to engage the senses.

Plus, based on a study we just conducted, people have very specific reasons why they like to be marketed via email, including:

• Speed: It’s in your inbox – or in your trash – in a flash
• Convenience: You can read it at work, at home, or anywhere in between
• Environmental: Unless you want to print it out to save or share, trees and our environment get a break

That said, the truth is DM and email can live with each other because they both have an important role to play, as ClickSquared’s Dan Smith explains:

Not all customers respond to communications in the same way… In certain industries – charities come to mind – direct mail remains the primary method for new donor acquisition. Email is used primarily to solicit renewals from existing donors – and in the absence of a response, is often followed by yet another direct mail piece.

The circle of life – marketing style.

In part 3 of this series, I’ll focus on the new kid on the block – social media.

Thoughts?

Gillian MacPhersen

It's All About the Experience

You’re driving in your car, sunroof open, enjoying the beautiful summer breeze. You see a billboard — a beautiful beach, a lady in a stunning bathing suit, and a name, Daniel’s Swimwear. You need a new bathing suit and this one looks like it’s just your style. You eagerly head downtown and find the location. The front window doesn’t look much like that billboard, but not deterred, you go inside. The blaring rap assaults your ears; you can barely walk through the aisles, crammed as they are with merchandise. A teen or even maybe a tween approaches you. Chewing gum, holding up a barely there bikini, she says, “Isn’t this sick.” At that point you’re getting a pounding headache and starting to feel, well, sick. How could you have been so naive, how could you get fooled again?

What you see is not always what you get.

If this has happened to you, you recall only too well the sting of feeling lied to and deceived. Nothing — I mean nothing — turns off a customer more than an inconsistent experience. It’s high time you conducted a touch point audit on your business, and I recommend bringing a pair of fresh eyes along for the ride. The challenge is that when we are in our business day in and day out, we stop seeing like our customers, particularly a first time customer that has their radar high tuned to spot a fraud. Pre-Internet, when mass marketing was all the rage, it didn’t matter so much. Lose a customer, no big deal. There’s plenty more where that one came from, and who can they tell anyway? Today, they can facebook or tweet their friends and those friends will tell other friends and so on and so on. I think you get the picture — news, the good, the bad and the ugly travels really, really fast.

So back to the audit. The term touch point refers to everything that “touches” your customer. To simplify, consider these three categories. Communications and Media – everything from your advertising to invoicing; Environment or Space – your location, offices, store etc.; and People – the ones that deliver the goods.

First, establish your positioning. Sit down and decide what message you want to convey. Then document it. Next, pull together samples in the three key categories and run them through your “positioning” filter. Are they on target or wandering off in a different direction? Prioritize and identify your biggest “touch point" offenders and plan to change them ASAP. You should set a three-month goal to get all of your offenders in line.

From there, conduct your “touch point” audit annually to make sure your brand and all its touch points are still in line. Your customers will thank you; most likely by providing you with a larger share of wallet!

Shelley McQuade

Channel Surfing for Influencers, Part 1: Direct Mail

Which channel is most effective at finding, reaching, engaging and motivating influencers to spread the word about your product? In the next four posts, I’ll take a look at the pros and cons of the most widespread channels, beginning with direct mail – hope you’ll join me and share your thoughts.

When VCRs achieved mass-market success in the late 1970s and early 1980s, many pundits predicted the demise of the movie theatre. Who would want to drive to a cinema and sit with a bunch of strangers to watch a new movie when you could now do it in your own living room or bedroom? A lot of people, it turned out. VCRs, then DVD players and other home movie systems, didn’t kill off old school movie-going. They simply created a new channel for Hollywood to market its product. Both have lived together quite successfully ever since.

The same, it turns out, has happened with direct mail. Pioneered on a mass scale in the 1950s by Lester Wunderman and others, this way of reaching consumers and businesses caught on with marketers because, unlike traditional print, billboard and broadcast advertising, direct mail’s effectiveness could be tested, measured and improved on in subsequent campaigns. Despite the advent of email marketing in the 1990s and social marketing today, marketers still consider direct mail a viable and effective way to engage consumers in general and influencers in particular.

Why? Well, for starters, there continues to be a segment of the population that likes to receive things in the mail. While I’m selective about what I like and don’t like to find in my mailbox – I’m not big on grocery flyers, for instance – I do like when I get useful information about products or services that I can hold right in my hands.

I’m not alone and marketers know it. After all, with 90% of word-of-mouth happening face-to-face (Keller Fay Study, 2010), marketers understand the usefulness of offering influencers something tangible they can carry in their purse or pocket and pass along to the friends and family members they’re influencing – like a brochure, a catalogue, even a business card with a name, email address or url printed on it.

And direct mail is also still the king of easy and accurate personalization, in spite of digital marketing’s advances. Plus it continues to beat traditional media in its ability to target industries, regions, niche markets and other highly specific local audiences.

Finally, as effective as marketing via email, Facebook or mobile may be, none has (yet) managed to beam a sample or gift into consumers’ homes without using direct mail to get it there. The tactile surprise and delight factor that direct mail offers highly engaged consumers cannot be underestimated. You know they’ll open it immediately and pay particular attention to the contents from a brand they know and trust.

In part 2 of this series, I’ll focus on direct mail’s spry marketing cousin: email. It’s fast and inexpensive, but is it influencing influencers? Tune in next time when we discuss...

Gillian MacPhersen

The Quest for Community

There is a lot of discussion among marketers about the importance of community in today's networked world. The "quest for community", as Robert Nisbet, American sociologist and Vice-Chancellor at the University of California puts it, is "a nostalgia for a compassable and integral living unit". It has to do with changes in the way we interact and communicate.

The critical question is not whether community is important but how the definition of community has evolved and whether our lives have become more jangled and fragmented which has led to a desire for new connections with strangers. A lot has been written about the trend. But the trend isn’t just restricted to online communities.

The success of Starbucks has been built on the desire of consumers for a "third place”- away from work and home. Ray Oldenburg talked about it in “The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community”.

The success of Credit Unions is also built on this concept. In a recent interview, Ms. Christine Zalzal, AVP, Sales and Marketing, FirstOntario Credit Union, said that the grassroots strategy of a Credit Union is about being part of the community and staying for the long run in those communities.

What does this mean for marketers? They should look at the "quest for community" as an integral part of their marketing plans – at a strategic level. Different age groups and consumer segments have very different definitions of community. Often, “community” is quickly translated into a tactic- a presence on Facebook, Twitter and Myspace in a marketing plan. It is really more about understanding what defines a sense of community for your most profitable consumers and leveraging this insight for a deeper connection with them. The question to ask is what is the "third place" for your brand?

A tapestry segmentation system can help. It combines the “who” of lifestyle demography with the “where” of local neighborhood geography to create a model of various lifestyle classifications or segments of actual neighborhoods with addresses—distinct behavioral market segments. Adding the layer of a deeper understanding of the context of their "quest for community" can open up new opportunities to create a more meaningful dialogue with your brand with or without the constraint of geography.

Merril Mascarenhas

Consumers Are Ready But Is Your Brand Ready?

You have decided to build an online brand community and are now ready to get started. Before you begin developing a communication strategy and pulling the appropriate resources together, you will have to take a step back and evaluate what your company is ready for. In doing so, you will essentially save yourself some of the unnecessary headaches and aggravation that you would encounter if you were to skip the step altogether.

What is “social media”, “web 2.0”, “new media” and what is the ROI?

These are the questions that many in your organization may and will be asking. To present a comprehensive community development strategy to a team who may not be as well versed in the space will ultimately result in roadblocks, dilution of strategy and resistance that could quickly put a halt to any “knock ‘em out of the park” solutions that you may be able to put in front of them.

If they don’t get it, they won’t buy it.

Remember that the social web is growing rapidly and may be intimidating to some. The advertising industry is realizing a major shift and marketers are being forced to not only give up control to consumers but also to their subordinates who may be better versed in the channel and may be considered a threat to their own job security.

As a result, you may choose to follow these steps:

1. Conduct an organizational readiness test. Begin by assessing your current organizational culture. You can use this simple Readiness Quiz to help you identify existing gaps that may pose a challenge to your efforts while allowing you the ability to set realistic expectations to how quickly your vision can be realized.
2. Identify key stakeholders and understand their fears and concerns. To advance your mandate forward you will need the support and approval from various stakeholders across different departments. Due to the nature of the social web, legal, marketing, customer service and other groups will want to ensure their interests are being addressed. To neglect any one of them could result in costly delays and unnecessary friction.
3. Create an internal communication plan. You will need to define a champion who can lead this initiative and can see it to fruition. That person will be required to educate the various teams not only on the benefits of developing an online brand community but also on how it will impact their roles, department and the company at large.

   This will need to be a collaborative effort and will take time. Some will jump on board immediately while others will take time to come around. Patience, perseverance and consistent messaging will be the key ingredients to realizing success in this stage.

4. Identify and recruit champions. Similar to dealing with consumers, you will find your early adopters, influencers, mavens as well as your detractors when dealing with co-workers. Recognize who the engaged ones are and assign them a contributing role. Encourage those who are motivated to help as they will recognize the career growth opportunities and will serve as a much needed support in your efforts towards converting the cynics.
5. Define Rules of Engagement. This stage will require multiple departments at the table. Any action, role, responsibility as it relates to how employees, partners and associates engage online should be clearly defined. When someone posts a negative comment about the brand, how does the company respond, who is responsible for reaching out and where will the communication be made?

   Answering these types of questions will provide a feeling of comfort to parties throughout the organization and creates clear lines of responsibilities which will ultimately calm any concerns about job security should any issues arise.

6. Crawl, walk, run. Once you have been able to build a team with the appropriate top level support you may begin testing the waters. To jump into the social web with both feet right out of the gate may not be the best move while moving too slowly may result in a competitive disadvantage depending on the industry and category that your company plays in.

   Depending on your organization’s comfort level at this stage you will have to gauge how aggressive you should be at first before building momentum and handing control over to the consumers at large. Don’t forget to set the expectation that it takes time to build trust with your consumers although the payoff in the end will provide better business results if done properly.

7. Measure, learn and build momentum. At this point you will need to demonstrate quick wins while staying on track towards achieving the greater vision. Make sure to clearly define the key performance indicators and track them throughout the process. Such metrics could include engagement levels, net promoter score, brand sentiment, sales and even volume of brand chatter in social circles.

   These should be customized based on your objectives and should serve to provide a snapshot of how your communications are performing. Take what is working and build upon it while recognizing where the gaps lie so that you may work on filling them in.

   As you can see from above, the development of an online brand community involves much more than strictly creating a strategy to connect with consumers online. There are many moving parts with several different perspectives and interests that need to be addressed in order to move things forward. It truly needs to become a team effort to be done well!.

   Jeff Pontes

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Creating a Motivated Workforce – Chapter 14

For those of us that have been in the Contact Centre industry for any length of time, we all remember the infamous book Contact Centres for Dummies. Well, it’s back! The book has been re-written, republished and is back in the market with a facelift.

My blog today speaks to increasing performance via motivating your front-line workforce. Chapter 14 of Contact Centre for Dummies is dedicated to anecdotal and actual proof statements relating to this very topic. Hence, my title – Chapter 14.

Chapter 14 focuses on three key areas that ultimately drive success in Contact Centres: recognizing the importance of employee motivation; finding out about agents’ needs; and motivating and rewarding your agents.

Unmotivated agents are less productive and have a higher turnover ratio. Meaning, unmotivated staff cost you money (negative ROI) being there and cost you money to replace them when they leave. There are many different formulas used to calculate “true cost of attrition”. One widely accepted conservative ratio is 3-1. Meaning, it costs 3X more to replace staff versus developing, upgrading skills and motivating your existing staff. If that is true, why do many organizations allow the attrition ratio to be so high? One theory involves not seeing what is deemed as “soft costs” to the organization. Hence, we sometimes fall into that trap of, “If I pay $100 to upgrade the skills of a particular agent, I have to get that cost approved”. Fact is, to replace that agent it will cost you at least $300.

The challenge is not only learning what motivates staff, but also how to accomplish that motivation. In my experience, often most difficult for leaders is actually taking action on the how on a consistent, daily basis. Somehow, things get in the way. Not to mention, some front-line leaders take for granted that “their staff are happier when left alone”. That is myth 101!

Do leaders do enough? When was the last time you or your leadership team conducted a verbal or written (public or anonymous) survey of your agents, asking them basic questions such as: what motivates you? what would make you leave? what one thing would you change here? how do you feel about our culture? While I am certain everyone could come up a variety of this type of question, don’t forget that if you are going to take the time to ask, be sure not only to communicate WHY you are asking, but also to TAKE ACTION as a result of the findings. Surveys create expectations and failing to deliver on expectations can create credibility issues, negating any value derived from surveying your team in the first place.

Another lesson I have learned regarding successfully motivating agents regards the collection of metrics and linking metrics to performance. Far too often, I see contact centres compiling an enormous amount of metrics measured at the rep level. Measuring is critical to success but I have found that basing performance on a multitude of metrics at the agent level more often than not confuses agents. That in turn can de-motivate staff, as well as drive productivity down. My theory on metrics is this: measure the input metrics (in the background) in detail, but give accountability at the agent level on a very limited number of output metrics (visual for agents). Show agents “how-to” achieve the targets set on the output metrics, as all targets should be 100% controllable by the agent.

My final tip: reward, reward, reward. Not all rewards cost money. Encouraging Post-it notes, emails, personal calls, coffee, etc. are all little to no cost but go a long way in motivating agents and making them feel more connected to senior leaders in the organization.

In conclusion, I do not believe creating an engaged work-force is complicated. However, it does take a concentrated effort from many levels of the organization, on a consistent basis. The net returns are high in value and very rewarding for the staff and the organization.

By Amar Sidhu, Director - National Contact Centres, Trader Corporation and Chair of CMA’s Contact Centre Council

Where Have all the Brands Gone?

…To the wolves.

In our world of cheaper and further-reaching technology, consumers are being given greater and greater amounts of power. Our world has evolved to the point where the relationship is no longer advertiser – consumer; instead it is more like consumer – consumer. This is the notion of brand democratization, and it is here, folks. What surprises me most about this though, is that most companies are ignorant of this phenomena, or are choosing to ignore it. In either of these instances, the company is bound to fail totally and completely.

How do you think Toyota’s problems became so exasperated? Many auto companies and other companies in general have had similar blunders (Ford and Maple Leaf come to mind). However, what was the difference with these two and Toyota?

Ford’s problem was in the early ‘90s, before the advent of the Internet as we know it today. Maple Leaf’s problems, on the other hand, happened recently. They tackled their problems head-on in a relatively quick fashion by having a finely tuned public relations campaign, but also by monitoring the social media world and using these platforms to interact with their customers. Maple Leaf understood that, by allowing and fostering open and honest communication between brand and consumer, the consumer becomes part of the brand and subsequently, becomes brand ambassador. For many companies, this is a foreign notion – customers controlling their brand. However, this is exactly what is happening with Toyota.

Frustrated consumers, who have been brushed aside by their car manufacturer, are turning instead to blogs, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to voice their concerns. It is with this that Toyota’s brand has ceased being theirs in the sense that it has become democratized; every person who is online and who interacts with others becomes brand ambassador. Can companies really afford to ignore this? Probably not, so take note.

By Philip Lewis, a student at St. Lawrence College in Kingston ON.

Scent Marketing

Does scent play an impeccable role in the success of a brand?
How would anybody relate to their favorite bakery if they couldn’t smell fresh cinnamon buns drifting through the air? Human’s posses five senses (six if you’re born in a town full of radioactive pollution), these senses include: sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. Are marketers aware of the power their brand can have by utilizing one of these senses to stimulate a response from their product?

I’m a 3rd year student studying Integrated Marketing Communications in Kingston, Ontario. Located in the main hallway of my school is a very popular Pizza store. Many students flock to this location on a daily basis to devour their daily intake of grease (a great substance known among students to fight the dreaded hangover). Just a couple of months ago the Pizza store began baking garlic bread sticks; within days there was not enough supply to reach the demand. Why did these breadsticks become such a hit so quickly—and without any advertising? In a hundred foot radius the air was embraced with such a thick smell of garlic the temptation was impossible to resist.

There is a famous slogan in the advertising world by Toucan Sam, “Just follow your nose”. It is amazing how many times people are drawn to products because of the smell. Some may not be aware of this; their drive toward a product could be completely buried in the subconscious.

A person might choose one car over another because of the way it smells on the inside—perhaps, as a child; they remember what their parent’s brand new car smelled like. So how can a business use scent in order to reach company objectives? First, it depends on what product you are selling. Second, it is important to decide on what medium to use, and no, television and radio cannot permit smell. Lets take a look at the folks who sell hot dogs on the streets. Usually, they will cook onions on a side burner to draw consumers to their stand by the smell of onions. Every fast food chain has a different smell inside their stores. I bet if you were blind folded you could instantly smell the difference between a Subway and A&W. We must all remember that the power of scent can make, or break an establishment.

If you walked into a restaurant and the place smelled like a farm; my guess is that you'd probably leave, never return, and tell all your peers about the experience.

I can guarantee that readers of this blog have been attracted to somebody by their scent. In the world of marketing, we must be conscience about what our brand, location and products smell like.

By Eli Nicholson, a student at St. Lawrence College in Kingston, ON.

Our Own Worst Enemies

My wife recently had an interesting customer experience that, although she categorized as positive, I am sure the service provider would categorize as negative. My wife was trying to redeem points from a loyalty program toward an airfare. Her first stop was online where her options would have required eight times the number of points she had anticipated. Dissuaded by what she saw, she called the loyalty contact centre. By talking to an agent she was able to obtain an upgraded ticket at one-fifth the number of points as was required by the sel-serve option presented on the internet.

My wife was delighted with the service and results that she received from the contact centre, but as a contact centre guy myself, I was haunted by the unnecessary call that was driven into the contact centre. At the core of the issue for me was the inability for two customer-touching channels to harmonize their servicing strategy. The internet, a channel used to improve customer experiences and reduce costly calls to the contact centre, had in fact driven an additional call into the contact centre.

This experience is not unique to loyalty programs or an online contact centre strategy. We see this type of unintended end result frequently caused by organizations with multiple customer touch points. When you consider all the potential ways in which you touch a customer (inbound calls, outbound calls, marketing solicitations, statements and invoices, applications, letters and so on), its easy to understand how difficult it becomes to maintain consistency within a customer touch point communication strategy.

I have seen organizations where customers question that company’s price competitiveness not because of the outside competitive market, but rather because different channels are offering different rates for the same product suite. I have seen organizations where statement inserts have not been communicated to the contact centre and thus resulted in frustrating customer experiences and lower than anticipated take-up rates. All of theses types of issues, and many more similar ones, drive both customer dissatisfaction and increased cost.

The overriding issue seems to be that the larger an organization grows, the more touch points and channels it has to communicate with customers. As the number of customer touch points grow, the control over the consistency and sharing of information internally seems to weaken.

What is missing is a customer contact guru: an individual or a team who does not own a specific customer contact channel, but rather is empowered to ensure that all information sent or accessible to a customer is appropriately disseminated within the corporate organization. A group that is tasked for identifying and eliminating conflicting information between channels. Effectively, a group that makes sure that the right hand knows what the left hand is doing. Until such time that we recognize that all of our touch points with our customers need to be zealously guarded, we will continue to be our own worst enemies.

Richard Litvack, Vice President, Operations, Citi Cards Canada Inc.
& member of CMA’s Contact Centre Council

Early Adopters and the Mass Market

A well-established principle of marketing says that a small group of early adopters can spur mass-market acceptance of a new product. But how do early adopters react when its brand is accepted by the mass market? And do mass markets react the same way that early adopters do to the same brand? Marketers assume that dominating the first market (early adopters) will also help them dominate the second market (mass market).

Wharton marketing professors David Reibstein and John Zhang have explored the topic and say that a company could experience a backlash as early adopters move on to other new products. An example is Porsche, a successful brand for sports car enthusiasts. The brand saw a decline in sports car sales after it entered the SUV mass market. The backlash was significant.

In fact, as The New York Times points out, teenagers would rather text their friends a message rather than post it on Twitter. Instead, Twitter has been embraced by an older demographic. Twitter’s success has shattered a widely held belief that young people lead the way to popularizing innovations. The brand has proved that an offering can take off in a different demographic than you expect and become very popular. Twitter is defying the traditional model.

So why do marketers assume that success with early adopters will lead to quick adoption by the mass market? The "early adopter" concept is flawed because they aren’t always a good indicator of the growth potential of a brand nor do they have an extended Customer Lifetime Value. Most early adopters move on to the next big thing and may not be loyal to brands.

What is more important is to identify your most profitable potential customers. These profitable customers will eventually be the core of your growth strategy and profitability. The important indicator is the rate of adoption - the relative speed with which the most profitable consumers adopt an innovation. Success depends on an organization's ability to build and maintain loyal and valued customer relationships. Therefore, it is essential to build refined strategies for customers based on their value to the organization. The best marketing strategies pursue long-term relationships with profitable customers.

Two questions for you: (1) Who is your most profitable customer? (2) What is their lifetime value to your organization?

Please email me for our "View from the Top" series on best practices in customer satisfaction strategies.

Who Won the Superbowl?

Okay, I admit it. While you're reading this during the week at some point after the SuperBowl aired and know who won, I'm sitting here writing this blog entry on SuperBowl Sunday instead of watching the big game. And while I'll be interested to hear who won (Go Saints?), I, like you, will go online tomorrow to find out who advertised and which spot was the funniest or most outlandish. And then I'll go on with my day and probably never think about those spots ever again.

However, the Superbowl is the most watched televised event of the year with some 100 Million people expected to watch. According to a recently televised report, a 30 second spot on American TV during the Superbowl will go for between $2.5 and $2.8 Million. That's about $80,000 a second!

But the larger question being asked these days, especially by a lot of young people I know, is whether that money could be better spent. Especially with everything that's going on in the world right now.

Now after years of producing some of the most memorable Superbowl ads in history, PEPSI is asking the same question and has decided not to run an ad. Instead, they're going online with "The Pepsi Refresh Project". http://www.refresheverything.com/

According to their "refresh everything" site, they're looking for people, businesses, and non-profits with ideas that will have a positive impact. "Look around your community and think about how you want to change it." Submit your ideas and vote on your favourites. Those chosen will be awarded up to $250,000 in grants in categories ranging from Health, Arts & Culture, and Food & Shelter to the Planet, Neighbourhoods and Education.

And the so-called Pepsi Generation is eating it up. This is just one example of what's going on right now. We saw the impact the internet and social media had and is having post-Haiti. This is more of the same great trend. The NetGeneration is getting involved and looking for something more fulfilling than a gratuitous 30-second spot where the money spent to buy the media could eradicate so many issues affecting Haiti, Cambodia and the Congo to name a few -- and those affecting us right here at home. Pepsi is on to something and other brands ignore the trend at their peril.

The iPad has arrived. Now what?!

Today, as I was riding in on the subway, reading the New York Times on my new iTouch, I stumbled upon an article about Apple's launch today (Wednesday Jan. 27) of its tablet product, or iPad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_zI21XEo0Q

Being an Apple fan from way back I couldn't help but feel a sense of real excitement. It got me reflecting on how much the Apple brand has meant to me over the years. And I'm not alone. The excitement that's building up in the media and among the Apple Faithful is almost palpable and very real.

I bought my first Mac (Mac Classic II) back in 1993ish. I was working at an agency and wanted a way to be able to work on those weekends when I was going back home to Kingston to visit the folks. The idea of a portable computer was exciting. Imagine, being free to take your computer anywhere. It was only 14 or 15 lbs. Oh, you PC people chained to your desks. How quaint.

Then when the first Apple notebooks came out, I was fortunate to be working on the Apple account and helped develop a launch campaign for them. (Best. Account. Ever.) The objective, as outlined in the brief, was to get the public over the mental hump of being able to work anywhere. Imagine sitting in a park or in a coffee shop clicking away on your laptop computer. Why, you could even work from home!

Then of course, the iPod changed everything. The recording industry, advertising, interaction (or lack thereof) between people in public places...everything. The iPhone then revolutionized how we think of what a phone is and what it can do. People could earn money and express their creative by developing Apps. We were now all working for Apple.

Walk into any mall where an Apple store exists and you'd think they were giving stuff away for free in there.

And now the anticipation for the iPad is reaching a fever pitch. People can taste it. The article in the NYT suggests that it's going to do for newspaper publishing what the iPod did for music. They're counting on it because we all know where the newspaper industry is headed. But will our collective love for all things Apple mean that we'll be willing to pay for things like the Star or the NYTs online through the Slate, when so much of the same information can be found on free sites elsewhere.

That's just one fascinating question we as marketers should be watching and reading about -- probably on our iPads.

Bryan Tenenhouse

Time to Talk Community

Communities can take on many shapes and can be formed for numerous different reasons. Some may share a common interest in bird watching while others may congregate to discuss computer programming techniques or even dating tips. Although, when discussing communities in the context of brands, trying to understand the motivations that drive consumer involvement becomes slightly more complicated.

What do you mean by “Community”?

What’s the difference? We should begin by defining both an online community and a brand community as follows:

online community: is a group of people that primarily interact via communication media such as email, internet social network service or instant messages rather than face to face, for social, professional, educational or other purposes. (Wikipedia: online community )

brand community: A brand community is a community formed on the basis of attachment to a product or marque. Recent developments in marketing and in research in consumer behavior result in stressing the connection between brand, individual identity and culture. (Wikipedia: brand community)

According to the definitions above, an online community is focused on how people form and nurture relationships online while a brand community is all about why people/consumers choose to affiliate themselves with a particular brand. This distinction is very commonly overlooked and may be a key reason why many brands who attempt to build a strong following are unsuccessful in doing so.

Consumers are not inherently associated to any one brand. They build an affinity to them when they feel a connection; a certain passion for something that the brand values embody or represent. To simply build the infrastructure to allow consumers the ability to congregate and communicate with each other without understanding what they may be passionate about would result in an environment that lacks cohesion.

The 50th Anniversary Party

Use the example of a 50th anniversary party. John and Sally have been married for 50 years and have a large network of friends of family. They’ve decided to have a large catered event with live entertainment and are thinking about who to invite. Since it is such an exceptional milestone, they thought it would be nice to have an open event where anyone could attend.

In theory it sounded like the event would be a gallant affair yet how would they spread the message to let people know about the occasion? The message would be sent to family and friends as well as to strangers looking for an enjoyable night out. To some the concept of free food sounded appealing while others were looking forward to a night of dancing or even the prospect of meeting an eligible bachelor that they could click with.

Now the question is would people attend because of the couple who were celebrating their milestone or for the freebies that had nothing to do with them at all? If the couple were to host subsequent parties in the future, would people continue to attend and possibly bring their friends along with them? They might, although what would be the common thread that would connect everyone together? What similar interests would people share who were attending these events?

The same could be said for the creation of online communities. To create a series of tools (“freebies”) enabling consumers to congregate online without providing the common thread upon which they may have a unique experience would be similar to inviting people to the party as mentioned above. When developing communities online it’s important for brands to identify the theme or values that will not only connect those who participate but to also bring them closer to the brand.

CCM Takes a Shot at Online Communities

Take CCM Hockey for example. In speaking with Ross McCracken, Senior Brand Manager he mentioned that hockey fans are a very passionate group and that they have a natural tendency to organize themselves and form groups online. CCM recognized this and has been leveraging the web to form meaningful relationships with their consumers since the late nineties when they would respond directly to consumer enquiries via e-mail. Their level of responsiveness and shared passion for the sport allowed them the ability to establish the foundation of an online brand community which has continued to grow and evolve ever since.

Although ROI is not currently being tied back to their online community initiatives, the organization recognizes the power that the social web brings not only to their marketing communications but also in their focused product development efforts. “Key influencers are a big part of our success,” says McCracken, “we look to them to provide valuable input into our new product innovations while helping to create excitement for them when they become market ready. Our communities have enabled us to build a stronger relationship with our consumers while simultaneously positioning our brand as a category leader”.

CCM has done a great job of listening, communicating and connecting passionate hockey fans with the brand, although Ross states, “we still need to do a better job at linking all of our approaches together. The web is constantly changing and we’re continuously looking for ways to keep up with the times so that we can remain relevant to our consumers and be perceived as a trusted partner who understands their needs.”

The organization has embraced the medium and has developed a corporate culture where virtually everyone in the office is involved in social media at some level, not necessarily all working on the brand, albeit, the first step truly is about understanding the channel before being able to realize its full potential.

Is Your Company Ready?

Organizational cultural readiness is a critical success factor for any company seeking to leverage the power of the social web and this is where I will begin my next topic...

By Jeff Pontes, Director – Digital Strategy, FUSE Marketing Group